Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Fleet Captain: what the hell is wrong with this crate?


I'm going to try to get back on track with this spaceship game. If you recall from earlier posts, one of the key ways ship classes in Fleet Captain differ from one another is how they suck.

Ship Design Flaws (roll d20 for each class of vessel)
  1. Tends to Explode - Every turn of live comba the ship has a 1 in 20 chance of exploding for no apparent reason.
  2. Fast Decompressor - The first hit to do Hull Damage also causes one point of Crew Casualties as redshirts are sucked out into space.
  3. Torpedo Jams - Any roll of a ‘1’ on a torpedo attack disables torpedoes for the rest of the game.
  4. Rustbucket - 1 in 6 chance of a critical with every hull hit.
  5. Simply Mediocre - All die rolls at -1.  A ‘0’ move is a normal Drift.
  6. No Safety Rails - All Crew Casualties are doubled.
  7. Poor Fire Control - 1 in 6 chance of targeting ship adjacent to foe, whether adjacent vessel is friend or enemy.
  8. Unstable AI - On any turn this vessels does a Full Drift (neither moves nor fires) there is a 1 in 6 chance the main computer gets bored and murders sufficient crew to cause one Crew Casualty.
  9. Psychosis-inducingly Bad Decor - If the Captain is eliminated from play the crew mutinies; ship takes no action but Full Drift for rest of game unless Boarded and Captured by a friendly vessel.
  10. Weapons Blind Spot - No fire possible along one hexline (see chart).
  11. Shield Flaw - Shields one die smaller along one hexline (see chart).
  12. Engine Imbalance - All vessels in this class tend to pull either to the left or right (determine randomly).  All non-turning Forward movements must drift in that direction.
  13. Dubious Aerodynamics - Automatically take d4 hull damage whenever passing through an atmosphere.
  14. Convenient Airlock Access - Boarding attempts are +1 against you.
  15. Excellent Broadcast Antennae - All mines, seeker missiles, drones, etc., are +1 to attack you.
  16. Faulty Astrogation Sensors - Rolls are -1 to avoid asteroids, black holes, etc.
  17. Puny Retrorockets - 4+ on d6 that any Drift move marker must be treated as a Forward Move at smallest die engines.
  18. Insufficient Lateral Bracing - Any maneuver involving more than one hexside’s worth of turns does d4 hull damage.
  19. Flame Protardent Materials - Fires roll 2 dice each turn.
  20. Roll again twice.

5 comments:

  1. I just want to note that I love the term "Flame Protardent Materials".

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  2. You MUST compile all of these when you finish (I'm sure you already plan to). I love the whole aesthetic of the ragged fleet and being the commander and not a micro-manager. Kudos, and do continue. :) Be sure to tell me where to buy it when you're done.

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  3. I'm amused rolling a 1 doesn't result in a simply mediocre ship.

    In our Wooden Ships and Iron Men campaign (which Fleet Captain reminds me of greatly) these were the critical hit charts we used (a critical hit was a 6 on a d6):

    Hull Critical Hits
    1 Steering Damage. Turning ability is permanently reduced by 1.
    2 Gunnery Sargeant killed. Broadside affected permanently at -1 HT. See gun hit rules for affected broadside.
    3 Magazine hit, ship explodes
    4 Waterline damage. One crew section must be permanently assigned to keep the ship afloat. Remove one full crew section.
    5 Great Shot. Double crew and gun hits.
    6 FIRE! Ship burns for 3 rounds, -3 HT to all attacks until fire is put out.

    Rigging Critical Hits
    1 A legendary crew is killed. Check for legendary crew in following order: LSE, LHM, LFM.
    2 Fallen rigging obscures a gunnery section in the right broadside. -1 to HT for next 3 turns. 2R damage added.
    3 Fallen rigging obscures a gunnery section in the left broadside. -1 to HT for next 3 turns. 2R damage added.
    4 Crew is demoralized, crew quality drops 1 level.
    5 Great Shot. One additional rigging section destroyed.
    6 Mast falls. One full rigging section destroyed, that rigging section can not be repaired.

    Note a lot of -1 to hits there...something else to consider

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  4. I second the first comment. Perhaps a sub-roll under one of the categories to cover the possibility of 'lost paperwork' resulting in something bad happening bureaucratically?

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  5. I think I stole the phrase "flame protardent" from the Homestar Runner cartoon where the explain the chemical properties of Polymascot Foamulate.

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