Active vs. Passive Shields

[Bren]

The recent conversation on the command thread made me recall something that's been in the back of my head for a long time.

I would like to include an ability for an active shield operator to precisely angle the shields (make a starship shield operation roll) to avoid more damage than a passively set shield will do.

Here is why.

(A) On a freighter it gives a group of PCs one more important station or action to take and gives the noncombat oriented PCs a useful space skill to develop.
(B) It gives a ship, especially a PC or important NPC ship, one chance (besides a good piloting roll as a dodge) to stay alive after being hit rather than being turned into sparklies.
(3) It seems in keeping with what we see in a lot of sci-fi where ships take an initial hit or two, even a very powerful hit, but the ship survives and the shield operator or engineer says something like "the shields are down" or "we can't take another hit like that."

One caveat, because of (A) I would like this system to be beneficial only, not to have much of a downside. That way, much like it is better to have a character with 3D gunnery fire the guns than not to fire the guns, I'd like it to be only beneficial (or at least not harmful) if a character with 3D shields tries to angle the shields. If you want to make life harder for the PCs then you can add some risk to balance the advantage.

Option (1): would treat an active shield roll as being like a parry. If the shield operation roll is greater than the to hit roll of the incoming shot, the operator has precisely angled the shields and the ship takes no damage to the hull, but may take some damage to the shields - not quite sure how this should work.

Option (2): same as above, but compare the shield operation roll to the incoming damage. If the shield operation roll is greater than the damage, the operator precisely angled the shields and the target ship takes no damage. As above, may need a mechanism to damage the shields. Possibly each blow that is deflected temporarily reduces the shield strength by -1 PIP.

Option (3): same as either (1) or (2) above, but rather than deflecting all the damage, precisely angling the shields causes the damage to be reduced 1 step, e.g. from heavy damage to light damage or light damage to reduction of shield strength.

Option (4): as (3) above but every 5 points by which the operator exceeds the difficulty reduces the incoming damage by 1 level. So 1-5 over reduce one level, 6-10 over reduce two levels, etc.

It seems like, just like with a melee parry where the parrying item can be broken, there should be some risk of blowing the shield when deflecting a powerful shot, e.g. capital scale turbolaser vs. starfighter scale vessel. But I am not sure how this will work.

Thoughts? Comments?

[garhkal]

I dislike it. First off, shields have a set rating, if they (actively) flat out allowed you to ignore the damage (your first option) they are making them a lot more potent.

Secondly, if they tried to do so and failed, imo it would make it WORSE (as you have taken all the shield energy and placed it in the wrong spot...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bren]

[Fallon Kell]

I like the idea of the shields having a basic "on" setting and protecting the ship evenly in all arcs. Then a shields roll would be able to shunt 1D from one arc to another, reinforcing where the shields were needed most with energy that would be otherwise unused.
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

[Bren]

[Kemper Boyd]

Personally, I've always been fond of the idea that shields allow ships to completely avoid damage at some points. Since I use the Star ORE rules for my own campaign, I don't have any D6 houserules for that, but the basic principle would be like this.

Shield have both a general pool of damage they can absorb and a specific treshold for damage that they can absorb in one turn. For example, a single corvette firing at a Star Destroyer can eventually bring the shields down but not for a long time. However, three fighter squadrons firing a barrage of proton torpedos at the same Star Destroyer can for a brief while bring down the shields by overloading them in one arc, allowing a follow-up barrage to hit the ship itself.

[atgxtg]

I'm not fond of this variant either. What I forsee is that a snug fighter or g\freighter would be able to "bounce" Death Star weaponry with a good enough roll. Add in hot shot pilots and Force Points, and big ships become even less effective.

What I think would be better would be if a good shield roll upped the shield pips a little. Probably not more than double (and that on a really good roll).

[garhkal]

And how would a good shield roll up the shields output power??
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[atgxtg]

[ZzaphodD]

[Bren]

[ZzaphodD]

[Fallon Kell]