Combining Sensors and Communications Rules

[CRMcNeill]

[Raven Redstar]

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

So, life has kept me very busy lately, but I keep coming back around to this, as having a unified system for CommScanECM has a bearing on various stat projects I have on the back burner.

Something that came up recently here is that comm systems need usable ranges. It does no good to know how many light-years a subspace comm can reach if you don't know how many light-years converts to on a sector map.

The closest the EU has ever come to setting a standard for hyperdrive speeds is in Dark Force Rising, where a Victory I is cited as being able to cruise at 127 light-years per hour. I have no idea if this has ever been officially confirmed (and I highly doubt it), but it is as good a starting place as any. The above speed works out to just over 2 light-years per minute.

So for the sake of more easily overlaying communications onto a sector map, I'm going to create a new measurement of distance: the hyperminute, which is the linear distance covered by a x1 hyperdrive ship in one minute. This distance will not have a conversion to kilometers rating, and will remain deliberately vague insofar as an absolute distance value.

The hyperminute will be used as the base distance unit for all FTL comms as this project progresses.

For conversion purposes only, one hyperminute will be equal to 2 light-years. In other words, if you have a subspace comm with a range of 150 light-years, it will convert to 75 hyperminutes.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Naaman]

Just a suggestion, but, why not make the conversion 1 for 1 or 1 to 10 or 10 to 1? Since the 127LY thing is somewhat obscure and dubiously official (and lets not even get into "megalights"), perhaps just go with a more straigjt forward conversion?

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

Under the official rules for Sensors, there is something of a double obstacle. Pretty much every ship has 4 Sensor modes, each with its own range and increasing dice value. However, under the skill Sensors, each Sensor Mode also has its own Difficulty rating, with the highest Difficulties (Passive) being paired with the Sensor Mode that consistently has the lowest Dice value. So not only does Passive usually have about a 1D rating, it also has to clear much higher Difficulties than the other Sensor modes.

I could see this system working as part of the Instant Adventures rules, where ships had a simple sensor rating in the 1D-3D range, but it seems like overkill for 2R&E.

For the purposes of this system, I'm going to throw out the Difficulty Chart listed under the Sensors skill and have a single Difficulty level for Detect and Identify, which will then be modified by conditions and the target ship's sensor signature modifier (i.e. a larger, more powerful ship will have a more obvious sensor signature, and thus be easier to detect and identify, expressed in game terms as a negative modifier to the Difficulty to Detect and Identify)
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

[Zarn]

Also, the vagueness of the hyperminute underscores the nonlinear nature of space. A lightyear is distance, and not a straight line - it would undulate through spacetime as it traveled near various distortions; in fact, that's exactly what gravitational lensing is.

[Naaman]

[Dredwulf60]

[tcschenks]

The Introductory game, one of the last that WEG published, combined the two. I do that for my 2nd edition game as well. Com-Scan.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

I don't know if this helps, but in my 1E games, the rare times that I need a sensors roll, I use the Astrogation skill.

I figure measuring routes among the stars is all about working with sensors and sensor data, which is why I didn't make up a new "Sensors" skill.

[garhkal]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]