Space Travel and Combat

HOW TO GET FROM ONE SYSTEM TO ANOTHER

Starships have two major drive systems: hyperdrives and sublight drives.

SUBLIGHT DRIVES

Sublight drives are used whenever a ship blasts off from a planet’s surface to make a safe jump to hyperspace and for trips between planets or moons within a system.

All starship combat takes place in realspace at sublight speeds. Ships also use their sublight drives for atmospheric flight.

Sublight Benchmarks. While starships move at relatively slow speeds in orbit, they can achieve incredible velocities in open space. Here are some very rough guidelines for sublight travel times.

• Five minutes to fly from orbit to a safe hyperspace jump point.

• Half an hour to fly from a planet to one of its moons.

• Two to six hours to fly from one planet to the nearest planet in the system. (Two hours for relatively close terrestrial worlds; the upper limit is for flying between distant gas giants.)

• Anywhere from 10 to 48 hours to fly from a star to the outer limits of the system, depending upon distance and the presence of any hazards such as asteroid belts or gas clouds. (It takes about 15 hours to reach the outer limits of a “representative” system composed of a single yellow star

and less than a dozen significant planetary bodies.)

HYPERDRIVES

"It's how most advanced races get around the galaxy when they're not using a Stargate."―Dr. Daniel Jackson

Hyperspace (also known as subspace) is an alternate dimension used by several races for faster than light travel accessible by means of a hyperdrive.

Overview

Entry into hyperspace is achieved when a vessel opens a stable hyperspace window. This allows a vessel to enter subspace and achieve faster-than-light velocities relative to real space whilst traveling at sublight speeds within its own layer of subspace. In this state, they can fly from one point to another in a relatively straight line. Hyperspace gives off high levels of radiation, but this is only a problem for the hulls of Wraith vessels, which are organic and unshielded. Wraith vessels, must plan their hyperspace journeys in jumps, to allow their vessels to regenerate damage from hyper-travel.

Ships in hyperspace are undetectable to all but the most sensitive sensors, such as the long range sensors of Atlantis and Asgard sensors. However, most ships can detect the formation of a hyperspace exit window moments before it becomes visible to the naked eye and a ship emerges. The Asgard core installed on the Odyssey also gives off a signal which can be tracked in hyperspace when it is active. (SG1: "Small Victories", "Unending")

Asgard vessels can use neither their shields nor weapons in hyperspace, and this seems to hold true for vessels of other races as well. No reason has been given for this, but it's likely related to the difference in physical laws, or simply that maintaining hyperspace velocities require an enormous amount of power. This facet of hyperspace travel renders ships momentarily vulnerable to attack upon exiting hyperspace, assuming their aggressors know when and where the ship will exit. The subspace field which allows the vessel to enter hyperspace presumably keeps it from being torn apart, but vessels are still much more fragile in hyperspace than when combat ready, as demonstrated by Replicator-controlled vessels on several occasions. Ancient City-ships are an exception, as their shields can - and must - operate unaffected whilst in hyperspace. (SG1: "Small Victories", "New Order, Part 1", SGA: "Adrift")

While at its core all hyperdrive technology follows the same basic techniques, hyperdrive technology of each race has a unique subspace frequency. A subspace interference broadcasted at these frequencies destabilizes the hyperspace window of the specific hyperdrive technology, causing any vessels to be torn apart upon entering hyperspace; other hyperdrives would remain unaffected due to the differences in frequency. An Ancient scientist named Janus created the Attero device to take advantage of this weakness. (SGA: "First Contact") Unfortunately this device causes random Stargates to explode in addition to stopping Wraith ships from entering Hyperspace.

Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Radek Zelenka attempted to theorize what would happen if a craft like a fighter left a hyperspace bubble / Hyperfield while in flight, McKay expected that the craft would be destroyed while Zelenka proposed that it would be able to maneouvre inside the hyperspace bubble. Lt. Colonel John Sheppard chose not to test out either of these theories when presented with an in-flight chance to sabotage a Wraith Hive ship. (SGA: "No Man's Land")

Using a ZPM, Stellar Explosion, or some other influx of energy can improve the Hypervelocity of a hyperspace jump. Engines can be pushed beyond spec to lessen the length of time of a journey and increase the distance a starship can travel. The risk is that you will burn out the Hyperdrive and leave youself stranded.

Hyperdrives are not bothered by realspace objects like planets and gas giants. However, Black Holes, Supernovas, and other strong gravitational forces do affect hyperdrives and hyperspace.

Hyperdrive windows can be increased in size, to accomodate more ships or objects being towed, it just requires more energy than normal.

If the Hyperdrive can’t maintain the Hyperfield around the ship, the ship will eject from hyperspace. Realspace velocity will be retained.

Two kinds of hyperdrive: Interstellar, for cruising a galaxy; Intergalactic for cruising between galaxies.

In game terms, fighters and starships equipped with hypdrives will show a die value indicating the class of hyperdrive, its efficiency, and dice that can be allocated to other systems during combat.

When preparing the jump to hyperspace, the pilot or navigator, (on larger ships), will make a computer or Tech skill roll to lock in a destination and where the hyper-window is to appear at. Moderate difficulty, unless under combat or other conditions. If the destination is difficult to reach, adjust the difficulty appropriately.

Once the hyperdrive is engaged, any energy allocated from the hyperdrive to other systems instantly returns to the hyperdrive. Those boosted systems revert to their normal non-boosted values.

To determine travel time or how long the trip will take, roll the hyperdrive dice vs. the navigation difficulty. Higher the success over the difficulty, the sooner there. Further below the difficulty, longer the trip.

The chart below will help with determining difficulties for hyperspace navigation

Hyperspace Navigation Difficulties

	Short Time	Medium Time	Long Time
Short Distance	Moderate	Easy	Very Easy
Medium Distance	Very Difficult	Difficult	Moderate
Long Distance	Heroic	Very Difficult	Very Difficult

Boosting the Hyperdrive

Hyperdrives can be boosted beyond spec by channeling more energy into it or by increasing its efficency. To accomplish this, you must use the power allocation rules, or make an engineering, engineering: hyperdrive, starship repair, or starship repair: hyperdrive skill roll on the following chart:

Difficulty	Effect
Moderate (11-15)	+1D
Difficult (16-20)	+2D
Very Difficult (21-30)	+3D
Heroic (31+)	+4D

ARRIVING INSYSTEM

When a ship arrives in-system, it relies on two key systems: sensors and communications.

Sensors. Starships have a wide array of sensors to detect other ships, planets and any potential hazards; the sensor operator uses his sensors skill. When operating the sensors, the sensor operator will roll their sensor skill plus any gain dice the sensor has. The total from that roll is used to detect a particular craft, scan a planet for life forms, or any other data that is desired.

Sensors difficulty numbers are based on the range to the target, and modified by any objects or situations which affect the sensors’ readings. For example, it’s much easier to detect a ship in open space than to find a ship hiding in an asteroid belt. (See the sensors description

in Chapter Two, “Attributes and Skills” for complete information.)

Starship sensors have two modes: passive and active. Both sensor modes have three attributes,

Range, Gain, and Resistance. Range measures in Space Units how far the sensor can sense. Gain is the strength of the sensor, and the Die rating is added to the operator’s roll. Resistance is added to a sensor operator’s roll to resist an opponent’s countermeasures attempts.

Here’s a typical sensors listing:

Sensors: Passive:     Range: 10     Gain: 3D     Resistance: 1D Active:     Range: 40     Gain: 4D     Resistance: 2D

Sensors in passive mode are merely receiving information about the immediate vicinity of the ship. Sensors in Active mode are sending out pulses in all directions at once to gather information about the environment.

Sensor Countermeasures. Ships may use a number of “countermeasures” to make themselves harder to detect.

• Since sensors are essentially “line of sight,” any ship can “hide” behind a planet or any other sufficiently large body. By placing the planet between itself and the scanning ship, the target vessel can remain undetected. (Of course, the sensors may be able to detect a ship’s energy emissions if they are too large.)

• Any ship that sets its sensors to passive mode is less likely to be detected than a ship using sensors in active mode.

• Any ship can also run silent — the ship powers down all of its major systems, including engines, weapons and shields. The ship is adrift in space, with its life support systems running

on power generators only. Ships can seldom run silent for longer than five minutes before life support systems must be shut down for lack of power. A ship running silent has a much higher chance of remaining undetected at long distances.

• Any ship can use its sensors to jam, flooding an area with “static.” While the static will almost certainly be detected by any nearby vessels — they’ll know that a ship is causing the jamming — they’ll have a tough time determining if the jamming is being caused by a fighter, transport or Ha’tak Mothership!

Starships may also have devices specifically designed to hide from or confuse other ship’s sensors. Such devices are normally listed with the ship’s sensor statistics.

• Sensor decoys are small pods or shuttles which duplicate the “sensor image” of the launching ship. When a decoy is used, an enemy sensor operator now detects two identical ships where before there was only one.

• A Cloaking Device to  conceal it. When activated, the cloak will add a certain number of dice to the difficulty to detect the ship.

Subspace Transceivers: Most ships are equipped with a subspace transceiver for real-time communication. Most vessels have a short-range unit — for example, an F-302’s subspace

transceiver has a maximum range of 25 light years. With sufficient power, subspace transceivers may boost signals to a range of 100 light years or more. These devices are also used to send out distress signals if a ship is damaged in open space.

Comms: Most Starships have speed-of-light comms for ship-to-ship and ship-to-planet communications.

Intercomms are onboard systems used for communications between different sections of a starship.

Communication Frequencies. It’s very difficult to find a communication signal without knowing its frequency — there are literally billions of different frequencies for comms and subspace communications. Military ships generally scramble their communications as well.

STARSHIP MOVEMENT

Starship movement works just like vehicle movement. Every ship has a Space score: it’s how many “Space units” it moves at cruising speed.

A slow ship might have a Space of two or three, while an average transport would have a Space of about five or six. Starfighters — like Wraith Darts and F-302 Interceptors — have Space movements as high as 11 and 12.

Moving is an action, just like firing a weapon or dodging. A ship can move during a round.

When a ship moves, you describe the terrain and then pick a difficulty level and a difficulty number: Very Easy (1-5), Easy (6-10), Moderate (11-15), Difficulty (16-20), Very Difficult (21-30) or Heroic (31+).

The player decides how fast they want to pilot the ship and then rolls the ship’s piloting skill (either capital ship piloting or starfighter piloting.) If the ship has a “maneuverability” code, add it to the pilot’s skill roll.

If the roll is equal to or greater than the difficulty number, the ship moves through space with no problems; if the roll is lower, the ship has a “movement failure.”

MOVEMENT SPEEDS

The pilot can pick one of four speeds.

• Cautious Movement. This is a very slow movement: the ship goes up to half its Space. Round up. (A ship with a Space of nine would move up to five units.)

In Very Easy, Easy, and Moderate space, cautious movement is a “free action” and the pilot doesn’t have to roll his space transports (or other skill).

In Difficult, Very Difficult and Heroic space, roll the character’s piloting skill, but reduce the difficulty one level. (Very Difficult space is Difficult to cross; Moderate space is Easy to cross.)

• Cruising Movement. “Cruising movement” is the normal movement speed for a starship: it moves at its Space speed.

Moving at cruising speed counts as an action, but the pilot can automatically make the move for Very Easy, Easy and Moderate space.

The pilot must roll his piloting skill for Difficult, Very Difficult and Heroic terrains.

• High Speed. High speed movement is pushing a starship for added speed: the ship moves at twice its Space speed.

The pilot must roll for Very Easy, Easy or Moderate space. When moving at high speed, the difficulty for Difficult, Very Difficult and Heroic space increases one level: Difficult space becomes Very Difficult to fly through, Very Difficult space becomes Heroic, Heroic space

becomes Heroic +10.

• All-Out. A ship going at all-out speed moves at four times its Space. Characters piloting a ship at “all-out” speed may not do anything else in the round, including starship dodges or firing the ship’s weapons.

Increase the difficulty one level for Very Easy, Easy and Moderate space. Increase the difficulty two levels for Difficult, Very Difficult or Heroic space.

Acceleration and Deceleration. Starships may increase or decrease their speed one level per round.

Partial Moves. Starships can move anywhere between half their “move speed” and the full move speed.

Long-Distance Movement. All-out movement takes its toll on starships: a starship continuously going all-out must make a hull code roll every 10 minutes. The first hull code difficulty is Very Easy; increase the difficulty one level for each additional roll. If the ship fails the roll by 1-10 points, it’s suffering strain (experiences severe power fluctuations and so forth) and must “rest” for twice as long as it moved all-out. If the roll fails by 11 or more points, the ship has suffered a

mechanical failure and requires a Moderate repair roll and at least one hour of work.

High speed movement also requires hull code rolls: roll once every hour. The first roll is at Very Easy difficulty and increases one difficulty level for each additional roll.

STARSHIP “TERRAIN DIFFICULTIES”

Very Easy 1-5. Flying a starship in clear space with no navigational hazards.

Easy 6-10. Flying a starship in the vicinity of other starships, such as orbiting a space station. Flying around minor obstacles in space, such as a small, dispersed asteroid belt.

Moderate 11-15. Flying a starship in crowded space — a busy spacedock staging area. Flying in an area littered with a moderate amount of debris.

Difficult 16-20. Starfighter combat with many ships in the immediate area. Flying through an area clogged with debris or asteroids.

Very Difficult 21-30. Flying a starship in an area of space densely packed with other ships or debris.

Heroic 31+. Flying through Heroic terrain is almost impossible.

Maneuvers. The difficulty number covers basic starship maneuvers: straight-line flight, a couple of turns and other simple movements. If the pilot wants to make a more difficult maneuver—a series of spins that bring several enemy fighters into the ship’s gun sights, for example — add modifiers as needed:

+1-5    Maneuver is fairly easy.

+6-10 Maneuver is somewhat difficult and requires a certain amount of skill.

+11-15 Maneuver is very difficult and requires a very talented (or lucky) pilot.

+16+   Maneuver appears to be almost impossible. Only the very best pilots can pull off a    maneuver of this difficulty.

STARSHIP MOVEMENT FAILURES

A starship that fails a movement roll may slow down, go spinning out of control or suffer a collision. (Of course, collisions are fairly rare in space.)

Find the number of points by which the movement roll failed:

1-3. Slight slip. The ships “slips,” nearly spinning out of control. While the ship completes the movement, the pilot suffers a penalty of −1D to all actions for the rest of the round (in addition to normal multiple action penalties).

4-6. Slip. The ship “bobbles,” nearly spinning out of control. It only completes half of its Space move. The pilot suffers a penalty of −3D to all actions for the rest of the round, and −1D to all actions for the next round (in addition to normal multiple action penalties).

7-10. Spin. The ship completes one-quarter of its Space move and then goes spinning out of control. The pilot cannot control the ship for the rest of the round and the next round.

11-15. Minor collision. If there’s anything to hit, the ship has a minor collision (subtract −3D from normal collision damage; see “Collisions”). Otherwise, the ship goes spinning wildly out of control. The pilot cannot control the ship for the rest of the round and the next round.

16-20. Collision. If there’s anything to hit, the ship has a collision, suffering normal damage. Otherwise, the ship goes spinning wildly out of control. The pilot cannot control the ship for the rest of the round and the next round.

21+. Major collision. If there’s anything to hit, the ship smashes into an obstacle at such a poor angle as to increase collision damage by +4D. (See “Collisions.”) Otherwise, the ship goes spinning out of control. The pilot cannot control the ship for the rest of the round and the

next round.

Collisions. The amount of collision damage depends on how fast the starship was moving. (Don’t forget to take into account scale differences where pertinent.)

Speed	Collision Damage
Cautious	2D
Cruise	4D
High Speed	6D
All-Out	10D

Roll the collision damage and compare it to the starship’s hull code roll. “Starship Damage” explains what happens.

If the ship runs into another ship, the damage may vary based on the angle of the collision. (Most collisions will be “T-bone” crashes, but a very few qualify as “head-on,” “rear-ender” or “sideswipe” crashes.)

Head-on crash +3D

Rear-ender/sideswipe −3D

T-bone 0D

You may want to adjust collision damage to reflect what the starship runs into. If a ship hits something that’s very light — for example, a primitive ship with a weak hull — you may want to reduce collision damage by −1D, −2D or more.

STARSHIP COMBAT

Starship combat works just like regular combat and is fought in five second rounds.

To attack a starship:

• Determine the difficulty number to hit the target (based on the starship weapon’s range, which is listed in Space units).

• The attacker rolls his attack skill: starship gunnery for starfighter-scale weapons or capital ship gunnery for capital-scale weapons; they’re both Mechanical skills.

• If the roll is equal to or higher than the difficulty number, the attack hits. Roll damage. (See “Starship Damage.”)

REACTION SKILLS

Starships may make “starship dodges” to avoid enemy fire, just as vehicles can perform “vehicle dodges.” This is a “reaction skill.”

The pilot making the starship dodge rolls his piloting skill (capital ship piloting, space transports or starfighter piloting, depending upon the ship) and adds his ship’s maneuverability. This is the new difficulty number to hit the ship.

Full Reaction. A pilot can make a “full reaction,” but it can be the only action in the entire round.

The character rolls his piloting skill and the ship’s maneuverability code and adds it to the difficulties of all attacks made against the ship that round.

SHIELDS

Starship shields are electronic energy dampers which help absorb some of the damage from enemy attacks.

Shields are normally activated only in combat, and must cover specific fire arcs to be effective in combat.

Using shields is a “reaction skill.” Each starship has a certain number of dice in shields. When a pilot uses shields, the shield dice must be split up among the four fire arcs: front, back, left and right.

The difficulty to deploy shields depends upon how many fire arcs are being covered:

• One fire arc: Easy

• Two fire arcs: Moderate

• Three fire arcs: Difficult

• Four fire arcs: Very Difficult

If the ship takes any hits from that side in combat, the ship gets to add those shield dice to its hull code to resist damage.

Cold Plasma Field. This Exotic type of shield can provide strong protection against Lasers and Missiles.

Gravitic Shield. This Exotic type of shield can use massive gravity generators to rip apart missiles and deflect energy beams. An advanced user can use the shields to perform other tactics as well.

ARMOR

Many Starships, especially ones designed for war, will have some layers of armor mounted onto the Hull. Like Shields, you add the Armor’s die value to Hull rolls vs. Damage taken. Different than Shields, Armor is always on, and rarely can be bypassed.

Ablative Armor. Ablative Armor is a passive armor that is designed to be absorb the kinetic and explosive energy from a weapon or interstellar object. It is designed to be destroyed in the process, but also does a good job at protecting whatever it is mounted on. Ablative armor is simple to manufacture, repair, and rebuild because of the materials and simple design, as it is usually just a slab of a basic material such as titanium, or ceramic. As it takes damage, the less Armor remains.

Photo Reactive Armor. Photo Reactive Armor uses light to nullify the kinetic energy of whatever hits it.

Reactive Armor. Reactive Armor, with more specialized forms such as "explosive reactive armor" or "non-energetic reactive armor," is a type of armor that is designed to react when a weapon hits hit. The armor usually contains sensors that indicate when they are hit, and when that occurs the armor detonates small charges that are underneath the plating. The explosive charges also react with other non explosive materials that push the plate up, and this force combined with the explosives literally blows the top armor plate into the incoming missile or warhead. This not only helps to nullify the kinetic energy of the incoming weapon, but also occasionally turns the projectile into plasma, which is much more easily dispersed.

STEALTH SYSTEMS

Cloaking Device. Cloaking Devices hide a vessel by using the shield generators to bend EM and Light around a ship so that it appears to be invisible to eyes and sensors.

Sensor Bafflers. Sensor Bafflers hide a vessel’s sensor signature by reducing or obscuring emissions or EM profiles.

Sensor Mask. Sensor Masks are electromagnetic/holographic transmitters mounted to the hull to blend the ship with surrounding space background. They only affect the visual and sensor spectrum, and usually paired with sensor bafflers.

Shading Field. A Shading Field creates waves of EM energy that adds to targeting difficulty, jams sensors, blinds missiles and other self-directed devices.

STARSHIP WEAPONS

Most starships have at least one weapon system; some capital ships have dozens of weapon emplacements. Starship weapons work just like normal character and vehicle weapons. They use the rules for fire control, ammo, fire rate, blast radius and scale from the chapter on “Combat and Injuries.” They also use the rules for ranges, crew and fire arcs from “Movement and Chases.”

All starships provide full cover.

Fire-linked: Some weapons are fire-linked: several weapons are linked together to fire as one group. The game statistics are for the weapons when fire-linked.

(For example, an Deathglider has two fire-linked staff cannons. When the cannons are fired, both staff cannons go off and hits do 4D damage.)

Fire-linked weapons can be rigged to fire separately, but subtract damage, using the rules on combined fire.

(Let’s use the Deathglider example. The two fire-linked staff cannons do 4D damage. The pilot decides to fire each cannon separately. Using the “combined actions” rule, four characters working together get a bonus of +1D. That means subtract −1D from each cannon’s damage: the cannons individually do 3D damage.)

Ranges: Most starship weapons have “Range” and “Atmosphere Range” listings. “Range” is used for space combat and represents ranges in Space units. The “Atmosphere Range” listing is used whenever a ship is flying in an atmosphere (see “Ships in an Atmosphere” later in this chapter) or whenever a ship fires into an atmosphere from orbit.

Asgard Plasma Beam. Asgard Plasma beam weapons are a highly-effective ship-based weapon system developed by the Asgard just prior to their extinction in 2007 and gifted to the Tau'ri as part of their legacy. They are among the most advanced ship-based weapons known to exist. Unlike most ship-based energy weapon systems, which are designed to fire individual pulses of energy, the Asgard plasma beam is a narrow, high-intensity beam of superheated plasma. These beams are capable of overloading and penetrating even the most advanced shields and burning through the hulls and internal structures of an enemy vessel with comparative ease, causing heavy damage; if the beam hits a critical area the target can be destroyed in only two to three shots.

Atomic Compression Bombs. Atomic compression bombs are powerful nuclear weapons used by the Tau’ri. They are enhanced nuclear weapons.

Drone Weapons.  Drone weapons, known more colloquially as drones, are projectile weapons that serve as the primary weapon system of the Ancients. Drones are capable of penetrating the shields of Goa'uld Ha'tak class ships as well as the Ancient-upgraded shields of Anubis' capital ship. A single drone can destroy most fighters and cause severe damage to smaller capital ships, while hundreds or thousands can obliterate dozens of vessels with little effort.

Ion Cannons. Ion cannons are designed to interfere with a ship’s electrical and computer systems but do not cause physical damage. Shields cannot protect a ship from ion cannon damage. The Asgard use Ion Cannons.

If the damage roll is lower than the ship’s hull code roll, it takes no damage. If the damage roll is equal to or higher than the hull code roll, find the results below.

Ion cannon damage roll ≥ hull code roll by:	Effect:
0-3	One System Down
4-8	Two Systems Down
9-12	Three Systems Down
13-15	Four Systems Down
16+	Ship Totally Disabled

For each system knocked down, roll 2D6 on the system chart below to see which systems are out:

Roll	System
2	Power Systems & Damage Control
3-5	Flight Control
6	Sensor Systems
7-8	Weapons & Targeting Systems
9	Shields or other Defensive Systems
10-11	Navigation & FTL
12	Life Support

These systems will remain down for 1D hours after being hit. Unless the starship’s Engineer has a trick or two…?

Large Bore Projectile Cannons. A projectile cannon is a weapon that fires conventional payloads either by Electromagnetic Rail System or simple chemical reactions. They are dependent on firing solutions and at times, gravity. Most projectiles do not have guidance. Payloads are usually solid projectiles, non-explosive.

Missiles, Bombs, Naquadah Bomba and Plasma Bombs. Missiles, bombs, Naquadah Bombs and plasma bombs are physical weapons which deliver awesome firepower. However, they’re difficult to target. Their difficulty numbers are modified by how fast the target is moving:

Increase to Difficulty	Space	Move
+5	3	100-150
+10	4	151-200
+15	5	201-250
+20	6+	251+

Percussion Repeater Cannons. A Percussion Cannon is a weapon that fires explosive projectiles. Similar to the Large Bore Projectile Cannon, except shorter range, smaller payloads, and the payload is usually explosive. Projectiles do not have guidance.

Plasma or Pulse Cannon. A pulse cannon is a weapon designed to rapidly fire concentrated bursts of plasma, generally used to take out groups of fast-moving targets. They are generally not used by military forces due to their destructive nature. Plasma continues to produce damage for several rounds after the initial hit, until it cools off. Ori use a very large pulse cannon on their motherships. Lantean Pulse weapons are similar as well.

Point Defense Laser. Point Defense Lasers are low power laser cannons that are designed to take out missiles, bombs, mines, and plasma bombs. Capital ships usually are equipped with these.

Staff Cannons. The staff cannon is a larger and more powerful version of the staff weapon and death glider cannon technology, delivering a powerful blast of charged plasma at its target. Primary weapon of Goa’uld starships.

Tractor Beams. Military-grade tractor beams are used to capture starships so they may be boarded and searched. (Many starships have small tractor beam generators for moving cargo around, but they have no combat applications.)

When a tractor beam attempts to “hit” a target ship it’s resolved as a normal attack: if the attack roll is higher than the difficulty number, the tractor beam hits the target ship.

Roll the tractor beam’s “damage” against the ship’s hull code. If the target ship’s hull code roll is higher, the ship breaks free. If the tractor beam damage roll is equal to or higher than the hull code roll, the target ship is captured.

A captured ship which doesn’t resist a tractor can automatically be reeled in towards the attacker, moving five Space units each round.

If the target ship resists, roll the tractor beam’s damage against the target ship’s hull code. If the target ship’s hull code roll is higher, it breaks free of the tractor beam. If the tractor beam rolls equal to or higher than the target ship, the target ship is reeled in and its drives may be damaged. Find the results on the chart below.

Tractor beam damage roll ≥ damage roll by:	Space units reeled in:	Target ship’s damage:
0-3	No Change	No Damage
4-8	1	-1 Move
9-12	2	-2 Moves
13-15	3	-3 Moves
16+	4	-4 Moves

Exotic Weapons

Exotic Weapons are those weapons created by alien, experimental, or ancient technology. These weapons are rare, unusual, and very expensive. They can also be unbalancing to gameplay. Use at your own risk.

Maser Cannon and MegaMaser. A maser is a type of energy weapon, similar to but distinct from a laser. Masers use kinetic energy as well as laser energy to damage a target. MegaMasers are large, capital scale weapons, usually mounted on capital ships or stations or ground emplacements.

AP Cannon. Anti-proton cannons are energy based weapons which fire at just under the speed of light, the anti-protons that hit the mass and destroy it on impact. An anti-proton cannon is not effective past 4 space units

Mass Drivers. They inflict damage by hurling huge projectiles at high velocities, which impart kinetic energy and force to the target upon impact. Damage is thus a result of the mass of the projectile and its velocity. They also have the benefit of bypassing shields entirely, to slam into a targeted ship's hull and weapons emplacements. The projectile is usually asteroids or other large rocky or heavy masses found.

Particle Impeder Launcher. The Particle Impeder Launcher is a type of Point Defense Weapon used to intercept incoming attacks. The system hurls an expanding particle cluster combined with fragmented matter chunks into the expected path of enemy fire. The Hostile Weapon payloads then hit and burn out trying to get through the fog of particulate matter, softening the blows severely, leaving the little remnants to be absorbed by the ship itself. The Particle Impeder is effect against solid and energy weapons.

Point Singularity Projectors. A point singularity projector fires mini-black holes at its target, these weapons inflict heavy damage and can destroy a ship very quickly. Ignores Shields.

Volley Laser. Volley Lasers are small lasers that all fire at once at one target. Once they fire a volley it generally takes a round or two to recharge for another volley. Rate of Fire is slow, but damage can be severe.

EMP Cannon. EMP Cannons send out powerful EMP waves that knock out electronics and destroy circuits. EMP waves are stopped by Shields. Use the Ion Weapon damage chart above

AG Mass Packets. Anti-gravity Mass Packets are packets of energized matter that adhere to the targeted ship and weigh it down. This causes the maneuverability and speed of the targeted ship to suffer, slowing it down and making it more of a target. Until the ship can’t move or maneuver anymore.

Lightning Array. A Lightning Array fires out massive bolts of electrical energy that will overload or burn out systems on starships or vehicles. Stopped by Shields, until the shields are breached. Use Ion Cannon damage rules after shields breached.

Chromatic Pulse Driver. Chromatic Pulse Drivers gain more destructive power the longer the weapon is allowed to build up a charge. Shields are useless against this weapon, since the frequency of the pulse can be changed to bypass the shield's frequency. To change the Pulse Frequency, a sensor operator must roll a Moderate skill check. Countermeasure can be used to foil efforts to find your shield frequency. Also, a shield operator can make a Moderate skill check to change the shield’s frequency.

Magma Gun. Magma guns fire out intense streams of superheated plasma. This plasma is even more intense than a Plasma or Pulse Cannon.

Hyper Graviton Blaster. Hyper Graviton Blasters send out waves of graviton particles that slow a ship down or knock it around. Ignores shields and only hull and armor can resist the damage this causes. Once a ship is hit, checks against damage indicate if the target is moved around or just damaged.

Tri-Optic Pulsar. This weapon can bypass shields and do significant harm to targets, due to the artificial pulsar it generates. This EM energy and radiation can cause harm to passengers as well.

Hyperplasma Cutter. The Hyperplasma Cutter is designed to cut ships into smaller pieces, plain and simple. An extremely strong stream of Hyperplasma is used to cut through most ship hulls.

STARSHIP COMBAT OPTIONS

Ship Location Targeting

Ships attempting to disable another vessel occasionally have to use full-power energy weapons against a target (if they don‘t have ion cannons, for example). This is quite dangerous, since these weapons might accidentally destroy the prize. To avoid this, gunners may choose to “call” a shot – target a particular location on a ship. This is harder than just hammering away at the enemy ship. Also a higher-scale weapon cannot target a location on a lower scale target – for example, a capital scale ship can target a capital ship’s engines, but not a starfighter’s engines. In the same way, a starfighter can target another starfighter’s engines or a capital ship’s bridge, but not a vehicle’s wheels or weapons.

Targeting a primary section of a ship (conning tower of a Daedaleus-class ship, the engines, the landing bay, the main body) adds +2D to the difficulty to hit. Targeting a subsection of a ship (a gun battery, a particular engine, the shield generators, the command section.) adds +4D to the difficulty to hit. Targeting a specific location of a ship (a specific gun, the bridge, a maneuvering thruster, an engines thermal exhaust port) adds +8D to the difficulty to hit.

Location	Modifier
Primary Section	+2D
Subsection	+4D
Specific Location	+8D

Damage should be worked out normally. The specific results should be determined by the gamemaster using the normal starship damage results guidelines.

In general, a lightly damaged location loses −1D or −1 Move, a heavily damaged location loses −2D or −2 Move, a severely damaged location is disabled and unable to perform its function, and a destroyed result indicates that a section has suffered catastrophic damage (this may mean that the engines have overloaded, or that a gun explodes, setting off a chain reaction of explosions). Targeting locations doesn’t guarantee that a ship will be simply disabled, but it does increase the odds of capturing a ship with minimal damage.

Damage	Penalty
Light Damage	−1D or −1 Move
Heavy Damage	−2D or −2 Move
Severe Damage	System disabled
Destroyed	Catastrophic damage; threatens ship

Power Control

Spacecraft are mostly designed so that power can be allocated manually if necessary. In starfighters, pilots or their crew can adjust power, while on larger ships, the engineer or other crew can change power systems from the engineering board in the cockpit or in the engineering area. Capital ships have larger teams working on similar, if not more complex, boards.

The skill required to move power around is the requisite repair skill for the craft. Use the chart below for difficulties.

Condition	Base Difficulty
Simple Routing, a single system to a single system	Moderate (11-15)
Rerouting multiple systems to a single system	Difficult (16-20)
Rerouting multiple systems to multiple systems	Very Difficult (21-30)

Die value is moved from one system to another, and the drained system will recharge that energy back in number of rounds equal to the number of dice allocated. Exceptions would be the Engines, Comms, Life Support and Sensors they stay at the reduced or turned off state until power is put back.

Note: If power is taken from Life Support that includes the gravity too…!

To recharge shields quickly, take power from weapon damage dice and reallocate to shields. Shields can be super charged to 2x above normal. Supercharge loses effect -1D per round starting the following round.

Putting energy into or taking away from the engines, use the chart below to convert from or to units. Engines can only be improved by 2x above cruising speed rating.

Power cannot be channeled from the Hyperdrive, since it only uses power to enter and exit hyperspace and to maintain hypervelocity.

Example 1:

The Smoking Blaster's shields are rated at 1D, Jerick chooses to move power from his laser turret, damage of 4D. They can put a maximum of 1D into shields from weapons, giving shields a boost of 1D so they are now at 2D total defense. Weapons are now 3D damage on the laser turret. In one round Weapons will be back to full strength.

Example 2:

Red asks his engineer Zach to give more power to his engines so he can try to outrun the chasing Ha’Tak Mothership. Zach doesn't think they will need their Comms, Life support, Weapons, so he takes power from those systems and sends it to the sublight drives. Rolling his space transport repair roll, he allocates 1D for Comms, 1D for Life Support, weapons do 4D damage a piece, so that is 8D total from them. However, the sublight engines can only take 2x its cruising speed, so with a space of 2, it becomes 4 at cruising velocity. So Zach only takes 1D from the comms, and leaves the rest alone. Red then snaps the speed up to High Speed and then All Out Speed. His ship, the Smoking Blaster, is now hauling along at 16 space!!!! The crew is pushed back into their seats and the ship boosts out of the Ha’tak's staff cannon range.

Other systems will give the following dice:

Comms=1D

Life support=1D

Space=See chart below

Sensors=Use the Gain die

Dice	Space
+1	1
1D	2
1D+1	3
2D	4
2D+1	4
2D+2	5
3D	6
3D+2	7
4D	8
4D+2	9
5D	10
5D+2	11
6D	12

Complications

When rolling the appropriate repair skill while allocating power, and there is a 1 on the wild die or misses the difficulty, either the GM can choose a complication or the ship immediately takes damage, see the chart below:

Missed Roll by:	Damage Taken
0-3	None
4-8	Lightly Damaged (Roll on Power Systems)
9-12	Heavily Damaged (Roll on Power Systems)
13-15	Severely Damaged (Roll on Power Systems)
16+	Destroyed (Roll on Power Systems)

STARSHIP DAMAGE

Starships suffer damage in combat just like vehicles. Roll the attack or collision damage and compare it to the starship's hull code roll. If the damage roll is lower than the hull code roll, the ship takes no damage. If the damage roll is equal to or higher than the hull code roll, find the result on the "Starship Damage Chart."

Damage Roll > Hull Code Roll by:	Effect
0-3	Shields Breached
4-8	Lightly Damaged
9-12	Heavily Damaged
13-15	Severely Damaged
16+	Destroyed

Shields breached. A shields breached result means that the ship loses -1D from its shields total. This loss lasts until the shields recharge. If the ship has no dice remaining in shields (or had no shields to begin with), the ship suffers Hull scoring and from the bumps, the pilot gets a +5 to their piloting difficulty.

Damage Charts

Roll 2D6 on the following chart to see which system and subsystem is damaged.

Roll	System
2	Power Systems & Damage Control
3-4	Flight Control
5-6	Sensor Systems
7-8	Weapons & Targeting Systems
9	Shields or other Defensive Systems
10-11	Navigation & FTL
12	Life Support

Once determining which system is damaged, roll 2D6 on the appropriate subsystem chart to see which subsystem is hit. If the subsystem is already hit, roll the subsystem chart again to get another result.

Power Systems & Damage Control

Roll	System	Lightly Damaged
2-4	Primary Generator	Flow Coupler (negative or positive) fused causing minor power fluctuations. Better replace it.
5	Secondary Generator	Power circuit blowout, nearby Vac suit locker catches fire briefly. Will they still work?
6-8	Power Distribution	Surge Arrestor electrical fire, power fluctuations affect multiple systems. Re-roll twice.
9-10	Sublight Drives	Flux Inhibitor hit, -2 base speed until repaired.
11-12	Damage Reporting	Log-recorder obliterated. Now who knows what's wrong? Not you!

Roll	System	Heavily Damaged
2-4	Primary Generator	Burn-out Creepage, roll on Heavily Damage table every week until full overhaul.
5-6	Secondary Generator	Cryogenic Power Cells holed, deadly cryo-gas leakage and backup power fails.
7-9	Power Distribution	Energy Array smashed, you have to operate it manually until fixed. (+1 to the difficulty level)
10	Sublight Drives	Reactant Agitator Injector dies. Now your ship uses more fuel. +25% consumables cost.
11-12	Damage Reporting	Secondary explosions, reroll twice on this table.

Roll	System	Severely Damaged
2-3	Primary Generator	Burn-out Creepage, roll on Severely Damaged table every week until full overhaul.
4-5	Secondary Generator	Crystal Oscillator explodes, ship's main power goes offline. Emergency power lasts 1D hours.
6-8	Power Distribution	Energy Array detonates, power allocation cannot be changed until replaced.
9-10	Sublight Drives	Power lines damaged, drives are intermittent (Roll 1D per round, 1-3 off, 4-6 on.)
11-12	Damage Reporting	DDX Pulse Modulator damaged, random ship's systems lose power intermittently.

Flight Control

Roll	System	Lightly Damaged
2-4	Spaceflight Systems	Sublight drive Inverse Coupling severed. Speed can only be changed by 1 until replaced.
5-9	Maneuvering Thrusters	-1D to Maneuver Dice
10-12	Landing/Atmo Flight Systems	Doppler Compensator fried. Better switch to manual for your next landing. -2D Maneuverability

Roll	System	Heavily Damaged
2-4	Spaceflight Systems	Controls jammed, ship pulls hard to one side, increases piloting difficulty by 2 levels.
5-9	Maneuvering Thrusters	-2D to Maneuver Dice
10-12	Landing/Atmo Flight Systems	Graviton Gauge blown, atmo flight difficulty +1 level as ship bucks and heaves.

Roll	System	Heavily Damaged
2-4	Spaceflight Systems	Gyro Control Module explodes, ship flies into a tight spin. Tricky piloting can regain control…
5-9	Maneuvering Thrusters	-3D to Maneuver Dice
10-12	Landing/Atmo Flight Systems	Gravity Pressors (one of 4 axes) damaged. Ship flies at an awkward angle in atmo.

Sensor Systems

Roll	System	Lightly Damaged
2-3	Communications	Intercom unit damaged, causing intermittent operation and loud static.
4-5	Active Sensors	Rectenna damaged, making sensors harder to read. +3D to all Sensors difficulties until repaired.
6-7	Passive Sensors	Rectenna damaged, making sensors harder to read. +3D to all Sensors difficulties until repaired.
8-9	Gain	-1D to Gain, (1-3 Active, 4-6 Passive)
10	Range	-25% from range (1-3 Active, 4-6 Passive)
11-12	Resistance	-1D to Resistance (1-3 Active, 4-6 Passive)

Roll	System	Heavily Damaged
2-3	Communications	Long range comms are out
4-5	Active Sensors	Sensor Coprocessor blown, active sensors out until replaced
6-7	Passive Sensors	Passive sensor pallet hit, passive sensors out until replaced
8-9	Gain	-2D to Gain, (1-3 Active, 4-6 Passive)
10	Range	-50% from range (1-3 Active, 4-6 Passive)
11-12	Resistance	-2D to Resistance (1-3 Active, 4-6 Passive)

Roll	System	Severely Damaged
2-3	Communications	Short range comms are out
4-5	Active Sensors	Sensor main board explodes and needs replaced. Sensors out
6-7	Passive Sensors	Sensor main board explodes and needs replaced. Sensors out
8-9	Gain	-3D to Gain, (1-3 Active, 4-6 Passive)
10	Range	-75% from range (1-3 Active, 4-6 Passive)
11-12	Resistance	-3D to Resistance (1-3 Active, 4-6 Passive)

Weapons and Targeting Systems

Roll	System	Lightly Damaged
2-6	Weapon Emplacement	One on-board weapon emplacement was rendered inoperative by a major power surge or system failure; it's lightly damaged. Randomly determine which weapon is affected
6-8	Fire Control	-1D to Fire Control
9-10	Damage	-1D to Weapon’s Damage Dice
11-12	Range	Long Range out, only can hit short or medium ranges

Roll	System	Heavily Damaged
2-6	Weapon Emplacement	Weapons Capacitor drilled. All power to one weapon emplacement is lost until replaced.
6-8	Fire Control	-2D to Fire Control
9-10	Damage	-2D to Weapon’s Damage Dice
11-12	Range	Medium Range out, only can hit short or long ranges

Roll	System	Severely Damaged
2-6	Weapon Emplacement	One on-board weapon emplacement was hit and destroyed; the gunners take damage. (See "passenger damage.") Randomly determine which weapon is hit.
6-8	Fire Control	Targeting computer offline, needs repaired or replaced, no Fire Control until fixed, one emplacement.
9-10	Damage	Power to weapon severed, coupling needs repaired, weapon out until repaired.
11-12	Range	Short Range out, only can hit medium or long ranges

Defensive Systems

Roll	System	Lightly Damaged
2-6	Shields	Field Limiters blown out, shields flicker randomly until fixed. 50% chance of working each hit.
7-8	Armor	Armor -1 pip, no armor? Reroll
9-12	Hull	Landing Struts hit, may buckle on landing causing structural damage

Roll	System	Heavily Damaged
2-6	Shields	Shield Projector burned out, one shield arc is down, permanently. 1D4 for which arc: 1 fwd, 2 port, 3 stbd, 4 aft
7-8	Armor	Armor -1D, no armor? Reroll
9-12	Hull	Bulkhead collapse, (roll twice on System Damage table)

Roll	System	Severely Damaged
2-6	Shields	Shield Capacitor power linkages snapped, all shields down until replaced.
7-8	Armor	Useless, but repairable, no armor? Reroll
9-12	Hull	Serious hull breach, ship leaking atmosphere. All air is gone in 1D minutes. (If Capital Ship, add 3D to roll)

Navigation & FTL

Roll	System	Lightly Damaged
2-3	FTL-Main Systems	Power Coupling (negative or positive) damaged, Hyperdrive inoperative until fixed.
4-5	FTL-Secondary Sys	Realspace Compensator breaks, after next reversion, sublight engines/Landing /Atmo Flight systems fail.
6-7	Plot Information	Starship reverts to correct system, but random location in the system.
10-11	Hyperspace Window	Window is too small, starship takes 2D damage vs. Hull roll, skipping Armor or Shields.
12	Nav Computer	Paralight System and NavComp interface down, need to reboot both systems.

Roll	System	Heavily Damaged
2-3	FTL-Main Systems	Hyperdrive Regulator damaged, Hyperdrive will not engage until replaced.
4-5	FTL-Secondary Sys	Paralight System activates Hyperdrive randomly.
6-7	Plot Information	Ship comes out on top of a star, damage ensues….
10-11	Hyperspace Window	Window is much larger than usual and will pull in nearby ships with you.
12	Nav Computer	Navigation Computer fried, nav buffer data lost and all plotting times doubled until fixed.

Roll	System	Severely Damaged
2-3	FTL-Main Systems	Transpacitor damaged, drive cuts out midway
4-5	FTL-Secondary Sys	Stasis Field Generator damaged, time passes differently in the ship when making jumps.
6-7	Plot Information	Ship comes out 2 ly short of system, won't calculate position until rebooted.
10-11	Hyperspace Window	No Window opens. Waveguides are damaged.
12	Nav Computer	Navigation Computer core meltdown, time to dust off the slide rule and take very meticulous sensor readings. Hope you are good at maths.

Life Support

Roll	System	Lightly Damaged
2-4	Inertial Dampeners	Gyro Stabilizers knocked out of alignment, causing random artificial gravity fluctuations. Whoa!
5-7	Air	Climate controls gone haywire, ship gets randomly very hot or very cold until fixed.
8-9	Consumables	Consumables half depleted.
10-12	Crew/Passengers	Power Coupling (negative or positive) ignites, starting large plasma fire. Hull -1/rd until out.

Roll	System	Heavily Damaged
2-4	Inertial Dampeners	Artificial Gravity generator cuts out. Now I'm free, I'm free-falling… or Gyro Stabilizers damaged, artificial gravity changes 90 degrees.
5-7	Air	Oxyscrubbers fried, consumables need replacement sooner. (75% consumed)
8-9	Consumables	Climate control on Food storage out, all that's left are fruity oaty bars that have the consistency of flavored cardboard.
10-12	Crew/Passengers	Bathroom explodes, sewage flies everywhere. Beware at your next planetfall.

Roll	System	Severely Damaged
2-4	Inertial Dampeners	Inertial Dampers out, can't go to hyper, unless chunky salsa
5-7	Air	Air Processors out, 24 hours of air left until repaired
8-9	Consumables	Ionization Reactor destroyed, consumables replacement cost doubled.
10-12	Crew/Passengers	Ion-flux stabilizer blown, power circuits randomly overload doing 3D damage to those nearby.

Destroyed Result

A destroyed result can either be a subsystem is destroyed or you can roll on the following chart, depending on how sadistic you are.

Roll	Result
1	Ship begins to disintegrate, in 1D rounds it will simply fall apart. Luckily you have time to bail.
2	All ship's systems go completely and permanently dead. You're floating junk, dead in space.
3	Massive damage and multiple explosions. Passengers each take 4D damage. Roll again…
4	A large portion of the hull rips off, exposing passengers to open space. Ship dies.
5	An explosion inside the Hyperdrive causes the motivator to actuate. The ship, and you, vanish.
6	You witness the biggest, brightest explosion you've ever seen, right up close. Good night

Passenger Damage

Passengers may be injured when a ship suffers damage or crashes. Use your judgment to decide whether a character takes damage.

Determine character damage based on how badly the ship is damaged. (Damage is character-scale.)

Vehicle is:	Passenger suffers:
Lightly Damaged	1D
Heavily Damaged	3D
Severely Damaged	6D
Destroyed	12D

SHIPS IN AN ATMOSPHERE

The “Atmosphere” listing is how fast the ship moves in an atmosphere. The first number is its Move, while the second number is its all-out speed in kilometers per hour. A ship without an “Atmosphere” listing cannot enter planetary atmospheres.

Starships in an atmosphere use the vehicle movement and combat rules, although they still use the “Starship Damage” rules.

If you need to determine a ship’s atmosphere speeds, use the chart below:

Space	Move (Atmosphere)	KPH (All-out Speed)
1	210	600
2	225	650
3	260	750
4	280	800
5	295	850
6	330	950
7	350	1000
8	365	1050
9	400	1150
10	415	1200
11	435	1250
12	450	1300