Sandcasters and masking screens and one shot PDS

Cheap freighter and small ship defenses. Or for those on a budget.

One shot PDS:
Same effect as a conventional PDS. No idea what the symbol should be.
As the name indicates, when the one shot PDS is fired, it is used up.
(Perhaps DPDS for Disposable PDS).
Mass: 0.5
Cost: 1

Sandcaster:
A sandcaster is a defensive weapon used to accelerate cannisters of
particulate matter (sand) out into space where the cannister explodes
and the sand fills a 3" radius. Any direct fire weapon forced to draw
LoS through a sand caster area of effect is reduced in effectiveness
as if it had fired from 1 RB further out. The sand either deflects the
particle stream or disperses it, and does the same types of things
with lasers or other energy beams or energy torpedos. It also acts to
interfere with the targetting of SMs by reducing their die roll versus
the target by 1. Multiple sandcaster areas that overlap are additive,
though the limit of effectiveness is two RB or a two point modifier on
SM dice. I have no idea what the symbol should be (suggestion: maybe a
small circle or hexagon (so you can show arcs around it) with an
upward facing triangular sand spray...). The range of cast sand is 9".
The sand lasts 1 turn, then it has dispersed too much to be effective.
Generally, it has no effect on ships that fly through it, but fighters
might want to avoid it. For a fighter squadron that flies through a
sand pattern, roll a d6, on a 6 one fighter is destroyed/disabled.
Mass:
3-arc	2
6-arc 3
Cost:
3-arc 4
6-arc 6

Masking Screen:
A masking screen is a defence employable by non-manouvring ships. A
masking screen puts out a screen of particles (in the source system,
it was water vapour, but it could be sand). It is a one shot weapon.
It puts out a cloud around the launching ship (3" in diameter, so it
can shelter other ships) which interferes with incoming weapons. It
adds 2 RB to any direct fire weapons targetted on ships inside the
thick cloud. It reduces any SML die rolls by 3. It can only be used by
non-manoevring ships by virtue of its method of employment. It is
triggered after orders are written, but before movement is executed
(after missile launch). The Masking screen cloud (use cotton batten if
you want - works for smokescreens in infantry games!) is placed around
the target ship. When the drift is applied (in vector), the cloud
drifts. If the ship then manoevres outside the cloud by manouvres
plotted, it is no longer protected - the cloud does not move with it.
The cloud now moves with the same velocity and vector for the next two
turns after the first (for a total life of three turns) and protects
any ship inside of it. Then the cloud has dissipated enough to be
ineffective. In cinematic movement, the cloud can be considered to be
moving in the direction of the launching ship when it fired the cloud
at a movement rate equal to its speed that round. For a fighter
squadron that flies through a masking screen, roll a d6, on a 6 one
fighter is destroyed (mostly just disabled by the mass of sand
particulates). The symbol should be a square box filled with fuzz
(speckles) and either a track of smaller boxes below or one of these
larger boxes for each masking screen.
Mass:
Some % of hull mass
Cost:
Some cost per mass

(I'm not sure what some fair values would be).

These represent cheap defensive options for small ships and
freighters - heck, even some larger ships might wish to so equip
themselves.

Both of these masking type systems should bugger up fire control and
search sensors (not sure how to represent that - depends on your
sensor rules). At the least, any ship firing from inside one suffers
the same penalties as one firing into one. So it is a good defence,
but sucks your offense away.

Are there rules for decoys in FT or FB?

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008