FT Sensor Rules -- Request for Comments [LONG]

Hey folks,

If people have time, I'd like some feedback on the follow sensors ideas.
The main goal of the following rules is to put sensors into FT games
without
having to redesign the ships in any of the Fleet Books to add the MT
systems.  The basis for doing this is merely to use Firecons as the
basis for 'standard' sensors, and try to keep it as simple as possible,
while
leaving room for MT systems to be added to 'special purpose' ships that
aren't in the Fleet Books.  (i.e. banzai transponders, enhanced sensors,
dedicated ECM suites, stealth, etc, can be retrofitted into these rules 
relatively easily.)

I want to run a FT scenario at GZG-ECC using blind rules, and this is
what I
came up with it.  It's a first draft, I've only thought these through, I
haven't had a chance to playtest them.	Please be gentle.  (8-)

In particular though, if anybody else has done something similar, I'd
like
to hear about it.  I took a quick look through the list archives, but,
didn't find anything that didn't use MT systems or, they didn't quite
have the feel I wanted (for example, limited scans by ship class.)

Thanks!
JGH

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-
Ships are placed on board as sensor bogies.  To determine more about a
ship, 
or to fire upon it, you must either get a passive or an active lock on
that ship.

BASICS
Every ship has enough sensor equipment on board to have one 'free' lock.

Every additional lock requires a firecon dedicated to maintaining the
lock. 
This firecon is not available for fire control.  A ship can dedicate 
additional firecons to either a) increase sensor ranges by 12" or b)
increase 
its own sensor rolls by 1 or c) decrease opposing sensor rules against
itself 
by one.  (To reflect ECM)  These additional firecons are also
unavailable for 
weapons fire.  No more than a bonus or penalty of 2 can be applied to
any roll.

No ship may be fired upon unless it has either been actively or
passively 
locked.

Locks only last for the turn they are made, though, class information,
once 
revealed, is always available.

Sensor rolls are made right after initiative is rolled.  Team who won 
initiative has the option of going first or last.   Do sensor rolls on a
ship 
by ship basis (like the fire step.)

PASSIVE LOCKS
A passive lock has a range of 54".    Roll a d6 – a 1,2 means no lock,
a 3,4 
means a target lock, a 5,6 means you get mass information about the
target, 
and a 6+ means you get class information about the target.  Once any
ship
succeeds with a passive lock, that information is shared amongst all
ships on 
that side.

Any fire directed at a ship with a passive lock takes a penalty of 1.  
(It is 
assumed that ships are "handing off" targeting information to the rest
of the 
fleet.)

ACTIVE LOCKS
An active lock has a range of 36".  A ship that is hit with an active
lock 
gets a painted chit, while a ship using active systems gets an active
chit.  A 
ship using active systems is immediately revealed on the map, with class

information, and all enemy ships automatically have a passive lock on
that 
ship.  Roll a d6 – a 1 means no lock, a 2,3 means a passive lock, a
4,5,6+ 
means a active lock, and class information about the painted ship is
revealed.

Any fire directed at a painted ship is done at no penalty.

If the ship that is active is destroyed during the course of a fire
segment 
(or suffers a threshold hit so that no more firecons are available to
maintain 
the lock), the active lock becomes a passive lock for the rest of that
fire 
segment.

INFORMATION
Class information is the base configuration of a ship.	Exact damage 
specifications are NOT revealed.  (See below for clarifications.)

Free information:  position, velocity (NOT orientation, if playing
Vector), 
ECM level (number of firecons dedicated to suppressing sensor locks),
and two 
damage indications – screens up/down, streaming atmosphere (first
penetrating 
hit), venting plasma (engine damage), firecons active.

FIGHTERS
Fighters provide an automatic passive lock against any enemy target
within 6".

-- 
Jerry Han - jhan@warpfish.com - http://www.warpfish.com/jhan - TBFTGOGGI
"The snow is coming down, on our New England town, and it's been falling
all day long; what else is new? What can I do? But sing this Valley
Winter Song, I wrote for you" -- Fountains of Wayne,"Valley Winter Song"