Re: IRe: More ideas on B5 (spoiler alert!) Walkabout & Ship of Tears

>>On 22 Aug 96 at 11:10, ngilsena@indigo.ie wrote:
>>
>>> Just in case..There is a spoiler for Walkabout in this message..
Also now spoiler for Ship of Tears
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>>> *>>> Considering that we now know that the shadows can be stopped 
>>> (briefly) by telepaths, I was wondering how do we incorporate 
>>> telepaths into FT for B5?
SNIP

>>You could have them under the same section as crew hits. Or you could 
>>do them as a system, both work. I think you need to consider them as 
>>a pre-movement pahse atatck, because one of the effects is the ships 
>>stop. In fact, they don't even seem to keep going under inertia..
>
>A successfull disabling Telepathic attack reduces speed of Shadow to 0?
Cool.

	I think it would be better to say that "successful telepath
attack
forces the Shadow to decellerate as fast as possible to Speed =0"

>>> One question to ponder is  would the use of telepaths completely
unbalance
>>>  a B5 battle involving the shadows?
>>Frankly? yes. All this does is tip the balance the same degree over to

>>the other side. Before, a Shadow ship was virtually unbeatable. Now, 
>>once you lock a telepath onto them, they're BREW fodder.
>>

	I'd suggest a simple die-roll (based on the telepath's
Psi-rating)
each turn to maintain the effect.  Lyta said something like "it nearly
got
away from me 3 times", making me thing that the effect is of
unpredictable
duration.  We also now have some idea of the effects of different
Psi-ratings:  Ivanova (P=0 or 1) doesn't seem to worry them at all; 
Lyta
(P=5) can hold 1 Shadow ship long enough to kill it, but that outcome
wasn't
certain.  Bester (P=10 or 12, I forget) made a Shadow cruiser turn tail
and
flee, abandoning its fighters and more to the point, a high value cargo
(the
modified telepaths).  

Hmm, all this "messing with a sentient ship's head" stuff makes me think
for
some reason about a battle in Iain M. Banks' "Excession"...

	We've also seen 3 Narn Cruisers hit a Shad'Vasku :-) cruiser and
mission-kill it;  this time, the G'Tok seemed to do most of the smacking
of
the 2nd Shadow in Walkabout, admittedly at much closer range.  The
inference
is that Shad'Vasku also have bioship temporary shielding just like More
Thrust, and that the effect of the telepathic attack is to paralyse them
completely, except perhaps for the ability to return to hyperspace.  

Rob

Rob Paul
NERC Institute of Virology 
Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR	  Tel. (01865) 512361
rkp@mail.nerc-oxford.ac.uk
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