RE: B5 FT Adaptations (Long)

A few general points first. The grappling and towing are only peripheral
to
the game, and were designed for a specific scenario using the Raiders. I
assume that they won't play a big part so they weren't	too detailed.
Now, to
the specific points:

Craig Mitchell wrote

>This seems liable to abuse in two main ways:
>1)  A whole fleet of thrust 1 ships of mass 2 and one thrust 8 ship of
mass 6
>could tow a single tractored vessel and manouevre as if thrust 8 !!!
>(assuming the towed ship does not outmass the rest of the fleet)
This came up in testing, but after experimenting with weighted averages
etc I
decided that the rule, while it could lead to some strange situations
and
possible abuses, was simple and seems to work OK in most cases. In any
case,
this isn't that bad, in "Confessions and Lamentations" two STarfuries
tow a
huge Markeb transport! If anyone finds it offensive, they can add
complexity
if they wish, it's a matter of personal taste.

>2) A ship could tow its sister ship behind it into combat in reverse
thereby
>gaining the benefit of a large number of rear firing ( to the towing
ship
>anyway ) weapons.
This abuse didn't occur to us at all, you're certainly a latteral
thinker!
This would be clearly a case of abusing the intent of a rule while
adhering to
the letter. I'm not sure I'd like to be the crew of the towed ship with
the
other's drives blasting into my rear! I shall reword it.

>I would propose restricting any course changes by the towing vessel to
a
>maximum of 1 point. This would partially compensate for these. I'm not
sure
>how to go about it for a thrust 2 ship though - maybe 1 point change
every
>2nd turn plotted during the first turn.
Good idea.

>Also what happens if the towed ship powers up it drives? I could
understand
>magnetic grapples breaking but what about mechanical ones, surely they
were
>designed for these sorts of forces!
We assumed that the drives had been disabled, or, in the case of a
friendly
ship, not used. I will have to consider.

Overall, the towing and grappling were just a bit of chrome, and not too
detailed; it's always a designers problem, do you assume good faith and
that
people will understand and adhere to the spirit, or do youassume bad
faith and
codify everything. Thank you for raising these thoughfull points, some
reworking is clearly needed.

Peace and Love
Geoffrey Stewart