I’ve been playing 1e and have recently decided to shift over to 2e.
The changes to remove Challenge Dice read well, and I will need to run a bit to see if the new way keeps the same feel that made non-combat evens dramatic.
Many of my questions have been answered by searching this forum. But there are several that I haven’t found. So here they are.
Ship’s Weapons Rating. On pg 226 the ships Weapons Rating determines bonus damage. There is even a chart. But how you determine Weapons Rating isn’t identified anywhere, nor is it listed in Spaceframes, Mission Profiles or Talents. The term and chart just appears at the beginning of Chapter 5.6, is mentioned couple times and then fades away. So…How do we determine what a ship’s Weapons Rating is? and where is this in the book?
Torpedoes
Romulan Plasma Torpedoes. Since that greatest of Star Trek episodes “The Balance of Terror” the Romulan Plasma Torpedo has been on of the most feared weapons out there. In BoT the torpedo was able to overtake the Enterprise at full emergency Warp in a 2+ minute chase. It is a active seeking weapon.
Photon Torpedoes. There are too many times to count where we saw Photons actively tracking evasive targets.
So why is there nothing about torpedo tracking abilities? No traits etc. Or even a mention for the narrative side.
And why nothing to take into account a torpedo’s ability to persist in tracking a target over multiple rounds?
Weapons rating refers to the Weapons system score. Paragraph in the spaceship creation section says: “A starship’s systems are determined by its class, and then modified by mission profile, service record, and refits”.
Although torpedoes that last more than one turn are not part of the default rules (it is assumed the combat is at a close enough range the torpedo either hits instantly or is neutralized by a point defense system), there is nothing stopping you from using some Threat to convert a torpedo miss into a consequence, or even better, an extended consequence, requiring some daring maneuvers each turn to avoid it. I would change the scene’s focus at that point from a combat to a chase, but you can also combine both to really up the stakes.
I feel like in most shows, torpedoes are fired like rockets: They travel a relatively straight path and then explode when they hit the target. Sometimes they can also do plot-convenient things like tracking, but that’s kind of rare.
In-game, I would handle torpedo tracking by the characters doing a Create Trait task. This could then reduce the difficulty of a torpedo attack, make torpedoes hit a cloaked vessel, or track a target over multiple rounds.
Hello all, just realized I never answered back on this thread. Seeing the replies I feel a bit inconsiderate so I thought I’d apologize right of the bat. I had also ask on that newfangled Discord and gotten a few answers there.
First, about Weapons Rating. That was just plain old too tired and not seeing the forest for the trees. I just wasn’t registering the word “rating” and being the overly literal “must reverse engineer the examples” to make sure I am doing it correctly type of person I am, I had latched onto the example:
The U.S.S. Defiant was designed to be a warship; its Weapons system rating of 13 gives each of its weapon systems a +4 bonus to damage. (page 226).
In the core rule book the only USS Defiant is a Constitution class (page 198) that has a Weapons of 7.
13 is not 7, so I was trying to figure out where the 13 came from. Turns out that THE Defiant in the example was a Defiant class which was to be in the core but didn’t make it past final edit. So….That was the Weapons Rating odyssey.
As to Torpedoes, this was not intended to be a 1e/2e question. Rather an STA question. While there are some special instances where we see a photon torpedo track in on it’s target, most are direct fire that can and do miss. Much like the pre-60’s naval torpedo in the real world that had no active guidance, but would just continue on the pre-programmed course.
The Romulan Plasma torpedo is the one I am really sticking on. In Balance of Terror the Enterprise goes full reverse evasive and the Torp tracks the ship for over two minutes till is looses containment just before impact. From the show, script and comments from a Star Trek con in the early 90’s, the Romulan Plasma Torpedo was extra deadly because of not just it’s power, but it’s relentless tracking. If it was a simple torpedo with a “normal” straight run then a simply turn would have ensured safety in a two minute plus chase. I was curious why Star Trek Adventures (any edition) didn’t have anything about guided weapons, as in weapons that will follow the target multiple turns before overtaking and hitting the target.
Question about Star Ship Creation. So the space frames have base stats for their departments. Then you pick a Mission Profile. The core book doesn’t make it clear for me if I am supposed to discard the baseline department stats from the space frame and replace it with the stats gained from the mission profile or am I to add the two stat blocks together. Can someone please clarify?
You first pick the space frames that have modifiers for the departments (p. 195 of the 2e Core Rulebook [2eCRB]). Then you pick the mission profile that determines the base ratings for the departments (p. 212 2eCRB).
Simply speaking: Just add the two stat blocks together (cf. p. 195 2eCRB).
Yes, the setup is a bit odd. First, get modifiers, then, get the base to add modifiers to. But that’s rules as written.
But actually, that’s how it’s always been, since the first Core Rules came out!
I think the design-choice behind it is to have the full set of departments being the “base” value and the small changes the “modifiers”. Yet, since the spaceframe comes before the mission profile (and with it, the department structure and the ship’s crew, essentially) we have this odd situation to first have some small modifiers that only later a base value is added to.
But, yes, in essence: Rules say we shall add them together so that is what we shall do and be happy.
Oh wow. Thank you everyone! This is very helpful. I’ve found 99percent of the Core book to be to the point and laser concise. Was very surprised this part of it was a little confusing. Thank you again!
