FT Roleplaying (long)

Greetings all!

One of the reasons I first looked at FT, was because I was looking for
something to use for ship-to-ship combat in a sci-fi roleplaying game.
(Does
anyone remember Star Hero from Hero Games? Probably not. Very good
ideas,
poor execution, non-existent marketing.) While I quickly fell in love
with
FT, I felt it didn't work well as a role-playing addition -- not
surprising,
since it wasn't designed as such. 

In FT, everything is based on the ships' characteristics; 2 ships with
the
same thrust fly the same, regardless whether one is piloted by Han Solo
and
the other by Mr. Magoo. This is fine for fleet miniatures; taking the
skills
of individual crews into account would be far too complicated. You
simply
assume that the differences between crews are minor enough to be
overlooked
in the name of simplicity. 

But in role-playing, the story is centered on the characters, and the
relative skills of those characters do make a difference. Han Solo
should be
able to out-fly Mr. Magoo even if they have comparable ships. (I know
this
could be argued from a technology perspective, but I'm looking at it
from a
story-telling perspective.) 

That said, here are some ideas I’ve been toying with. The basic idea is
that
each crewman (helm, targeting, so forth) has a skill roll related to
his/her
job, and these skill rolls can affect the ship’s performance. Yes this
adds a
couple extra dice rolls, but normally in roleplaying games you’re only
worried about 1 or 2 ships; any beyond that can be handled per the
normal
rules. 

To keep things generic, we’ll say that skill rolls are made by rolling
below
a certain number on 3d6. Rolling below that number equals success;
rolling
above it equals failure. Rolling 5 below that number is an outstanding
success; rolling 5 above it is outstanding failure. Make sense so far?
Here
goes....

COMMAND: 
Each ship captain makes a skill roll to determine firing order, with
best
success going first. Alternately, you could have only the opposing fleet
commanders roll; the winner chooses which ship to fire first, and firing
then
alternates normally.

GUNNERS: (1 gunner per FireCon?) 

Success adds 1 to roll(s) to hit. (Alternately, for weapons affected by
screens you could ignore 1 level of screens.) Outstanding success adds
2;
failure subtracts 1; outstanding failure subtracts 2. 

HELMSMAN: may attempt any _one_ of the following maneuvers each turn. 

Maneuvering: each 2 below required roll allows the pilot to adjust his
ships
location by 1” after movement. 

Hard Turn: outstanding success allows the pilot to use 1 more thrust
than
normal for turning (ie -- a ship with 4 thrust could turn 3 points and
accelerate or brake 1). Less than outstanding success has no effect. 

Evasive action: Any result gives a -1 to the gunners on the _evading_
ship.
Success gives a -1 to all enemy gunners firing on ship; outstanding
success
gives a -2. Failure gives +0; outstanding failure gives +1 and ship is
out of
control! (Ship may use no thrust next turn and drifts at current
velocity;
roll 1d6 to determine direction, 1-2: 1 point to port, 3-4: straight
ahead,
5-6: 1 point to starboard. Ship’s gunners at -3. Helm must make
successful
piloting roll next turn to regain control.)

CHIEF ENGINEER: 
Success or failure adds/subtracts from DCP repair rolls.

SCAN OFFICER:
Success or failure adds/subtracts from scan rolls.

There are probably more possibilities, but this post is long enough
already.
Comments?

Scott Field

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
-
“Our new M1 Abrams main battle tank can be, as it was designed to be,
the
most lethal and efficient killing machine known to man. Or it can have
all
the combat potentail of a large rock of the same size and weight --
depending
on the capabilities of the soldiers who operate and maintain it."
		 -- Some Forgotten Army Colonel