There are several facts:

• The front end of a Romulan Warbird has been unchanged since Y48, except for the 4 ph-1s were added to it.
• The rest is the same: R-torp, armor, 2 bridge, 6 batteries, 6 CHull
• The R-torp is a very specialized piece of equipment.
• In Y48 Romulan ships were expected to operate for long periods at a time between bases (sublight is slow, afterall)
• We know from TOS that women serve on board Romulan warships (Spock seduced the Romulan commander).

• If the R-torp is damaged, there is a chance to repair. Roll a d6 at the end of the turn. On a 6, the repair is successful. On each successive turn the torpedo stays damaged, add a cumulative +1 to complete the repair.
• Restriction: If a ship has a Legdendary R-Torp Engineer, ship's CDR or EDR cannot be used to repair a damaged R-torp. (There have been too many minor modifications made over the decades for anyone else to step in and fix it in 5 minutes.)
• When firing as a bolt, the R-torp gains a +1 to hit.
• When firing as a seeking plasma, the range is increased by 3.
• One of the 6 batteries can hold 2 points of power.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 03:37 pm: Edit

Hmm. Ya know, I'm not sure but I think I like it!

Is the first chance for repair on the next turn? Beginning or end of..?

What about adding hold time after the Torp is damaged. Instead of 8 impulses make it 10?

By Jeff Tonglet (Blackbeard) on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 04:34 pm: Edit

Let's try this:

• The Legendary R-Torp Engineer can only appear on ships that are at least 80 years old.
• If the R-torp is damaged, there is a chance to repair. Roll a d6 at the end of the turn, starting with the turn it was damaged. On a 6, the repair is successful. On each successive turn the torpedo stays damaged, add a cumulative +1 to complete the repair.
• Restriction: If a ship has a Legdendary R-Torp Engineer, ship's CDR or EDR cannot be used to repair a damaged R-torp. (There have been too many minor modifications made over the decades for anyone else to step in and fix it in 5 minutes.)
• If the torpedo is destroyed while ready to fire, the hold time is increased from 8 impulses to 12.
• When firing as a bolt, the R-torp gains a +1 to hit.
• When firing as a seeking plasma, the range is increased by 3.
• One of the 6 batteries can hold 2 points of power.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 04:49 pm: Edit

I see this as the Next April Fools legendary officer.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 08:41 pm: Edit

Jeff T. Ya, clean.

By Richard K. Glover (Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 09:50 am: Edit

Erm... shouldn't you reduce the effective hexes travelled when determining warhead strength if fired as a seeking weapon?


Also, need to put something in there that indicates that the PPT is given the same range adjustment when fired.

F°
Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.

By Dave Morse (Dcm) on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 12:04 pm: Edit

I like it too. It adds nice flavor to the game.

Hm, commissioned Y48 for the first fed/rom war, Ships out at .999 C, arrives in federation space lookin for trouble about Y185...boy are they in for a suprise

By Dave Morse (Dcm) on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 12:12 pm: Edit

Don't romulans have 250 year lifespans like Vulcans? Or am I getting them confused with Elves? If so this "generations of R torp Engies" is not needed. Just have a single old crusty guy/gal.

By Jonathan McDermott (Caraig) on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 04:54 pm: Edit

"Back in MY day, we had to load the plasma for this here R-Torp by HAND! None of this MHD conduit nonsense! If you couldn't shovel in the plasma manually, you had no business being in the torp room! You whippersnappers have it so easy these days...."

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 09:21 pm: Edit

One of the coolest things about it is it's GPD value.

By Jonathan McDermott (Caraig) on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 11:02 pm: Edit

Moments after the Centurion finished berating the torpedo engineer, he rounded a corner and found the Subcommander standing there, glaring at him. "What in the name of the Praetor do you think you're doing?" The subcommander didn't raise his voice; the Subcommadner never raised his voice.

"His discipline was lacking, Subcommander, and his insubordination--"

"That engineer has been working on this ship's torpedo since before you were born. And his mother set foot aboard this ship when we had not even imagined tactical warp was possible. He is training his daughter to take over for him. His family's care for this Warbird's main weapon is legendary and is the only thing keeping us on the main fleet lists. They are allowed their idiosyncrasies, since they have given far more than I shall to the Empire -- and far more than you ever shall, either. You are confined to quaters and demoted two grades...."

Yeah... I could see it. =) That could be rather cool, actually. Makes for some nice meeble, even if not for the Legendary Officer (and Family) thing.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 11:23 pm: Edit

Like any self-respecting warship would house the crew's family.

That's just be silly.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 12:03 am: Edit

heh.

By Robert Snook (Verdick) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 10:16 am: Edit

If the 15-year old daughter could take care of the R-torp better than the captain could, maybe they might...

By Daniel G. Knipfer (Dgknipfer) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 11:52 am: Edit

Warbirds are very small ships with very small crews. Where are you going to keep children at? It's not like these things come with a huge forward saucer section that can separate during combat operations.

We won't even go into the problems of in-breading on a 150 year sublight mission.

Besides, early year war birds have type S torps. They don't get upgraded to R torps until well after Y120.

By Robert Cole (Zathras) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 11:56 am: Edit

er... Daniel? Beg to differ, but looking at the Module Y1 SSD book, every version of the WB (SWB, WWB, YWB, WB) has the R torp.

42

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 12:05 pm: Edit

And Daniel. They are sublight tactically, but there is the (relatively new) concept of Non-Tactical Warp. The Romulans could travel at warp speeds, but had to drop to sublight for combat.

By John Kasper (Jvontr) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 02:17 pm: Edit

>>> We won't even go into the problems of in-breading on a 150 year sublight mission.

Obviously, adult children would be sent off to other ships to help maintain genetic diversity.

Pity the captain that gets one crew mad at him. The whole clan would probably be out to get him.

By Ken Humpherys (Pmthecat) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:24 pm: Edit

With about 150 people on board (WB's have 15 crew units) and room to hold over 50 more (example: 10 extra boarding parties), raising a few children on-board would be quite possible.

It also may be desirable to have the people who man and repair the main weapon on the ship be totally loyal by raising them away from any subversives in the controled enviroment of a starship.

By Robert Cole (Zathras) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:29 pm: Edit

Am I the only one who finds this odd?

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By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:46 pm: Edit

yup. You are the odd one here.

By Xander F (Dderidex) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 05:58 pm: Edit

Well, it IS a fun idea.

Should do something more with the range, though. That +1 to bolt feels about right, but....well....that's just SCARY.

(Sorry, bad trauma...I used to fight a Gorn with very generous die rolls. He simply ALWAYS bolted EVERY plasma. Bolted plasma is quite a nasty direct fire weapon)

By Robert Snook (Verdick) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 07:17 pm: Edit

It's not that it doesn't sound odd to me, Robert, it's just that I think the idea is neat, even if it doesn't get accepted.

By John Kasper (Jvontr) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 11:40 pm: Edit

It's odd as all h*ll, but it's also cool and sounds like the sort of detail RPG games are made of.

By Ken Humpherys (Pmthecat) on Thursday, January 23, 2003 - 01:10 pm: Edit

While it is odd, it is not that radical an idea.

C.J. Cherryh has written alot of books with the multi-generational ship crew as a core element. These books are often set in the pre-FTL/Early FTL periods which can be applied to the early romulans quite well.

I find this to be quite a good Idea. It really give great fodder for GPD. And it doesn't give any abilities not already available. I would suggest that this officer is not cumulative with any other legendary officer.