Re: Ion Cannons

Star Wars Ion Cannons definitely behave more like EMP missiles
(widespread
random damage) than needle beams.  One source of additional information
on
the beams is the X-wing/Tie Fighter games (Lucas approved).  The ion
cannons
in these games were affected by shields, but were able to toast shields
rather quickly, then proceeded to damage systems, eventually disabling
the
target.  They were shorter ranged than normal laser cannons.  Based on
these
effects and on the movies, I'd write ion cannons up as a variant of the
standard beam weapons.	Ion cannons are available in the same battery
sizes
as standard cannons and roll the same dice, but each range band is only
8".
 Ion cannons are affected by screens exactly as normal beam batteries. 
When
ion cannons hit a target, they do no actual damage, but rather
accululate a
separate total of "ion hits" at each multiple of "ion hits", the target
makes
a threshold check starting at 6+ and getting one worse with each
multiple.
 Screens are especially susceptible and roll threshold checks at one
less
than normal.  The multiple used for the threshold check could be static
(say
4 or so) or a function of ship size (say 1/2 size of largest damage row,
rounded up).  The "ion hits" are cumulative for the duration of a given
turn,
allowing several ships to overwhelm a target, but are reset to zero at
the
end of each turn.  I'd allow ion cannon induced threshold checks to go
lower
than the normal 4+.  Some fighters in the Star Wars universe could be
equipped with ion cannons (say attack fighters) allowing them to make a
one
die each ion attack instead of a normal attack.  Using this system, the
giant
ion cannon on Hoth might be represented as a huge 12d or 18d ion pulse,
rapidly producing huge numbers of threshold checks and quickly
incapacitating
the target.

Another approach (more in line with the games than the Hoth sequence)
would
be to say that functioning screens actually completely prevent ion
damage to
a ships systems.  However, screens hit by ion cannons may be overloaded.
 They take full (unreduces by screen level) beam damage from ion cannons
and
make separate threshold checks every three "ion hits" until they are
eliminated.  Once the screens are eliminated, further ion hits damage
the
ship exactly as above.

Just my 3 cents (inflation strikes again).

Later

Brian