I started a campaign (I’m calling it a season). We’re a Luna Class star ship (USS Phobos) exploring the Beta Quadrant. The captain is a Klingon, first officer an Andorian, Chief Engineer a Ferengi just out of the academy, Vulcan science officer and a Trill Chief of Security.
I Photoshopped Talents into cards so players remember to use them. I made Extended Work tracks that are side projects for the Chief Engineer and Science Officer that result in new plot twists when completed.
I’m coming up on a significant space based episode and I have no clue what to do with Ship’s Power. How does it work within the mechanics of the game? Can anyone explain it to me? Thanks?
From what I have gathered from the rules, ship combat is really the part you need to be really concerned with ship power. Firing ship energy weapons costs power (and can boost damage by spending more power unless using independent phaser supply), and an engineer (or ops) character can spend actions to regain power.
The only other times where power might be an issue is if you are encountering a nebula or other phenomenon that reduces ship power. Otherwise, like stress, ship power is refreshed between scenes. So most scenes where a ship goes to warp, even though it costs power to do so, it is usually negligible since you go to a new scene anyway.
For an example, using an Akira class ship with a power of 10: One character decides to Modulate the shields, boosting the ship’s resistance. They succeed at the task (page 223 core book) and it costs them 1 power. The next character decides to fire phasers and boost the power with an extra point. They deal an extra challenge die of damage and the shot costs them 2 energy. The ship now has 7 Power. The enemy ships deal damage, so the engineer decides to deal with regenerating the shields instead of dealing with power, which costs another point of power leaving them at 6 power. Next time they attack, the character in charge of the shot decides to boost the energy by 2 (maximum amount allowed, costing 3 power), dropping the ship power down to 3.
If the ship power goes to 0, they can’t really do anything more than basic functions. They can’t fire phasers, they can’t regenerate or modulate the shields, use transporters or go to warp.
I dont think thats quite right; my interpretation was each “round” (i.e. all players, NPCs etc have 1 action) the power is reset to maximum, unless enemy action (or other factors) reduce the amount of power available?
I also was not aware that Stress resets between scenes
No, @SSiron is right, it’s between scenes, not between rounds (unless I’m missing a rule—always possible). Page 216: “At the start of each scene, the ship generates its full capacity of Power, and any Power which remained unused at the end of the previous scene is lost.” No references to that happening between rounds—the only way I know of to replenish power during combat is via the Power Management Task on page 224.
Regarding stress between scenes, see page 175: “A character’s Stress returns to its maximum value after a brief rest, which will normally happen between scenes.”
I was mainly using that example specifically for the power usage aspect and not giving much more to anything else, however, you are right about each character only getting one action.
It is much like character combat in that respect. They can move to another location on the ship as a minor action, and do one task. In my above example, the characters most likely would have spend more than 2 momentum in order to retain the initiative more than once.
Yeah, the idea is that this is the power reserve - after it’s exhausted, the engineer is running around rerouting power conduits to keep the shields up. It gives the engineering crew something to do other than repairs…
Ships power is provided by the engines. The engine rating is a combined stat score from the ship class and its mission loadout. Say, the ship generates 14 power. For the combat scene, the ship has 14 points of energy - to spend on everything. Beam weapons need power to recharge, for example; but torpedoes do not require energy. Your Chief Engineer and your Operations Officer both can influence the available power. Check out their skills/abilities, values and talents for specifics for your ship. I do not have rules with me, but my Chief Engineer can boost power available by say one or two points, which can regenerate or “save” energy used through good systems management. The Ops Boss can do many similar things. You gain no additional energy during the scene, it is only lost or regenerated through abilities. It makes laing the CE or the Ops Boss very interesting. Combat requires a great deal of interaction and cooperation between characters.
You are somewhat incorrect here. Power is equal to the Engines score. Mission Profile has no bearing on the Engine score or Power score, however, some ship talents may affect the final score and the ease of generating power. The only way a ship would have 14 power, would be if they had an engine score of 9 with the Secondary Reactors ship talent.