Re: Kinetic Shields

You're quite right, interceptors aren't costed
in the original work. There's quite a good,
professionally done netbook which I was confusing
in my mind:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/6990/b5.html

Before I saw this book, I did my own calculations
based on what I thought interceptors should cost
and my numbers were similar to the ones given in
this book. This book is not of course official
and does NOT have Jon's blessing. As you say, they
were trying to mimic combat in the B5 universe,
not provide more systems for full thrust (mores
the pity).

That said, I think you still make too much of the
new disadvantage screen skippers would have. Since
you couldn't do the mechanic like beams anyway
(it doesn't make any sense to say that a pulse
torpedo doesn't hit on a 4), surely you could 
adjust the mechanic for these weapons in some
fair manner so as to be balanced. I'm not a game
designer, so I can't tell you exactly what that
mechanic should be. Frankly I don't care. I would
like to have such a system, and would like to see
it in FBIII. I'm perfectly willing for it to 
fairly costed and massed.

Given the presence of some kind of shield in many
Science fiction genres, and given FT tends to be
used as a combat system in lots of those genres,
I think that a shield that blocks matter as well
as energy would be a worthwhile addition to the
system, even if it turns out to be a genre weapon
like wave guns. I'll leave it to other more capable
folks to decide how it should work and what it should
cost. I just want to use it.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 
a year!  http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/