***VERY ROUGH DRAFT***

(D21.48) ESCAPE PODS: All ships have escape pods to rescue most of the crew in case of a catastrophic event. They contain low energy stasis chambers for the crew to be in suspended animation, pending rescue by a (hopefully) friendly ship. Crew contained therein require no food, water, or even air as they are in a medical stasis containment field.
(D21.481) Escape pods are virtually indistinguishable from automatic (M5.1) small mines and obey the same rules. They have a detection radius (M5.12) of 6 hexes. They cannot distinguish between friendly or hostile units, per (M5.14). They are deployed by (D21.5) and use (M2.6) SECRET PLACEMENT. They can be swept (M8.0) and can be destroyed by ESGs for 4 points of damage each.
(D21.482) After a pre-programmed period of time, the pod will emit a subspace signal for pickup. The delay is so that the pods aren't easy pickings for enemy units.
(D21.483) Each Escape Pod can rescue one crew unit.
(D21.484) A ship has Escape Pods equal to half of the normal complement of crew units on board.
(D21.485) Escape Pods are an abstract system and are not represented by boxes on SSDs. They are part of the ship's superstructure, and as such, cannot be directly damaged.
(D21.486) All Escape Pods can be (and are assumed to be) filled with crew units under SD/CD (D21.21) and ID/CD (D21.22).
(D21.487) Due to the surprise nature of MD/CD (D21.23), roll one die for Size class 4 units, two for Size Class 3 units, three for Size Class 2 units, and five for Size Class 1 units. The total equals the number of crew units who safely entered the Escape Pods.
(D21.488) RECOVERY: A hospital ship can "sweep" the Escape Pods like a minesweeper can. This involves achieving a lock on and using the transporters to beam the stranded crew aboard.
The rescued crew unit cannot perform any function for the rest of the scenario while it recovers from being in stasis. Legendary Ship's Doctors (G22.6) can cure (G22.61) a crew unit and return it to duty aboard the hospital ship (or other rescuing unit).

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 08:43 am: Edit

Why would an escape pod have 4 damage points?

I'd think more like one!

And these will make the site of destroyed ships THE place to park your ships if fighting the Lyrans. All those free ESG shields!

Do these only deploy when a crew unit climbs in?

How do you handle BPs and legendary officers?

By Terry "Full Stop" O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 11:18 am: Edit

I don't see much point in this proposal. Catastrophic damage and saving crews is already not used much, except in campaigns where crew experience is used. As I see it, this just adds complexity to a set of rules that are already underused. And MCG's criticisms seem to have merit also.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 01:32 pm: Edit

@Michael - because it is technically a small mine. Neither the Hydrans nor the Kzintis would sacrifice their own crew members just to get free shields against ESGs...I'm just sayin'. Yes, they only jettison when filled. BPs are a half crew unit, so two would fit...they would be without their gear, of course. LOs integrate with any EP of their choice.

I'll make modifications based on your input.