Proposal:Plasma Off-venting Warp Explosion Regimen (POWER): By Jeff Wile.

A procedure more usable by GURPS PD than SFB, but it has applications in tactical combat.

Starships vent plasma energy from warp engines for several reasons, some, like in the event of a Warp Core Breach, is an emergency procedure to avoid crippling damage to the ship, or its engines. (in that case, the trick is to vent the plasma in such a way as to avoid ignition of the plasma.)

In other cases such as emergency dropping of the warp engines, (see rule (G12.6) the safe venting of warp engine plasma has no game effect (in and of itself) but is a consequence of the dropping of the engines from the ship in a safe manner.

One question not answered yet, is if the vented plasma has any effect on rule (C7.3) in the case of dropped warp engines. The Rules clearly indicate that (in the case of Federation ships with 2ndary hulls or Tugs with pods) (see Rule G12.38) "It might be noted that the concept of "escaping" or "evading" enemy ships by this manuver is based, In large part, on the reduced sensor signature of a smaller ship, without warp engines (which create strong sensor images)".There appears to be no effect of Vented plasma on sublight evasion.

For purposes of SFB, POWER is intended to allow any starship (of any race) to voluntarily vent a quantity of plasma into a hex, and, in the act of departing that hex using Impulse engines for movement (only, no warp power may be used for movement in this case), ignite an explosion in that hex.

There are serious contraints to this procedure, including:

1. The ship must have been moving(during the prior turn) at maximum speed available (for most ships without combat damage, this would be 31 hexes per turn).
2. during the energy allocation phase, of the following turn, the player must allocate energy for movement to continue maximum speed.
3. the players ship may not fire any weapon energy weapon except drone or drone racks (the emissions of any type of drone drives is not sufficent to ignite the plasma) during the entire turn the ship is in the hex where it vented the plasma.
4. during the Impulse Activity Segment of the 1st impulse of the current turn, player must announce emergency decelleration in accordance with rule (C8.0). it is at this point the plasma begins venting in the hex the ship currently occupies. (Please note, if the ship is moved out of this hex by any means other than its own movement by impulse power, the vented plasma may not be ignitted by any means. such movements could be by tractor beam, displacement by Andromedans, or movemnt by Black Hole (See rule P4.0).
5. On the following turn, energy may be allocated normally, but movement MUST be 1 hex using Impulse power Only. again, the ship may not use its energy weapons but Drones would again be usable. Warp power may be allocated normally, the plasma vented into the hex was that released by the ships emergency deceleration from the prior turn. the player may elect to reinforce shields in anticipation the ship suffers a breakdown result. (See rule #9 below).
6. During the turn the ship exits the hex (using impulse power only) at Impulse Procedure 6A2 (VOLUNTARY MOVEMENT STAGE) of the Sequence of Play) the plasma ignites. effects of the explosion are resolved at Impulse Procedure 6A3 (Damage during Movement Stage).
7. The effects of the Vented plasma explosion are based on the number of warp engine boxes vented into the hex. for each Warp Engine box used, 3 points of damage are scored on every object in the hex. this includes any undestroyed mines, drones, shuttles, ships, monsters, asteroids or bases.

a Fed CA with 30 undestroyed warp boxes could there for inflict 90 points of damage to each object in the hex. A Fed POL with 10 points of warp power, could inflict 30 points of damage.

8. no damage is resolved on any adjacent hex.
9. The exit of the ship from the hex containing the vented plasma is not normal. to build sufficient velocity to avoid the effects of the explosion, the impulse engines are actually exceeding their normal operating parameters. the ship therefore must roll for breakdown as if it had conducted a High Energy Turn (see rule C6.0) and specifically rule (C6.5).
10. If the ship suffers a breakdown, it did not actually exit the hex by a large enough margin so as to avoid the effects of the vented plasma explosion. the ship receives damage from the explosion and is applied to shield #4.

There are number of implications that this system would have for SFB.

first, It could be an alternative method of destroying a monster in a scenario where no other methods exist that could defeat the monster...a very dangerous method.

Second, for a ship without weapons but a (relatively) intact warp drive, it could still inflict damage on an opponent...but given the length of time and the preparations needed to complete the process it would also be quite dangerous and easiliy thwarted by any opponent using nothing more than a tractor beam.

third, using this procedure could result in a "scorched earth" policy that might allow a player to deny anything of value to his opponent. Assumes that a 'Vented Plasma Explosion' in a hex destroys a possible salvage potential in the hex...there would be nothing left to the victor but ashes...

Forth, in a GURPs PD aspect, such a procedure (between SFB scenarios) might be needed to prepare a hex for the placement of a base in say an asteroid field (such as Orion Pirates might use) by clearing ruble and dust from the hex to facilitate handling of a base and its modules.

Fifth, Such an explosion might be enough to attract a monster that might otherwise be unstopable....the planet crusher (SM1.0) or the Sun Snake (SM5.0)...giving a player more time in a monster scenario...

There are many reasons not to use this tactic, not least of which would be the inability of the ship to use its weapons....but if the POWER is the only effective means to victory it might be worth trying...

Comments?

By David Beeson (Monster) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 10:53 am: Edit

holy crap.

By David Slatter (Davidas) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 12:01 pm: Edit

Am I right in thinking that you can say which side of a planet you are on when you are in the same hex as a less-than-one-hex planet?

In which case if the base is on the other side ( or one side's bases are destroyed), it's toast, bigtime.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 01:25 pm: Edit

Yeah. This is WAY powerful, Jeff.

Area-effects always are.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 01:33 pm: Edit

THis is straight out of ST:TNG Insurrection.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 01:50 pm: Edit

Sounds like it. I'm afraid this one smacks very heavily of franchise material.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 02:06 pm: Edit

I was looking for a way to use the power in the warp engines as an analogy to the fuel air explosives now in use in the real world.

There is something in the warp energy that powers the Photon torpedos(at least to the extent that only warp energy could)...and the term plasma has high energy physics connotations that somehow seemed appropriate inspite of the ST:TNG franchise material.

To me, it would seem to have GURPs PD application as in a tactical sense rather than any real military applications...it would be like trying to equip infantry squads with nitroglycerin and be disappointed when the troops on the ground can't use it effectively. Like Nitro, the Vented plasma (or whatever it is) is too unstable for battlefield applications...although if one is desperate enough it could be of some use...

Oh well! too bad this didn't work out...back to the drawing board...I may yet come up with something that would be workable.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 02:22 pm: Edit

Jeff, I'm unclear on the physics of this. The restriction on the venting ship firing any weapons other than drones seems to suggest this plasma cloud is so unstable that any little energy release is likely to cause a detonation. So why doesn't enemy weapons fire at the venting ship have a chance of causing a detonation while the venting ship is still in the hex?

On the other hand, the very particularized method required to initiate the detonation suggests that it's not actually that easy to do. Note, for example, the requirement from step 4 of the procedure that if the venting ship is moved out of the hex by tractor beam, a black hole, etc. then the plasma can not be detonated "by any means". Then why can't the venting ship use its weapons?

One possible modification would be to allow the venting ship to use its weapons in the plasma hex, but with some chance of either detonating the cloud or dispersing it so that no subsequent detonation is possible. Enemy fire at the venting ship (while still in the plasma hex)should likewise have a chance of detonating or dispersing the plasma cloud. I think you need to either modify the procedure or come up with a much better technobabble justification for what is going on.

One final comment on technobabble. The acronym seems very contrived. I disagree with the notion that acronyms should spell out actual words. Many such acronyms end up sounding, well, goofy. And SFB has plenty of examples of acronyms that aren't words at all; SWAC, MRS, UIM, DERFACS among them. My own personal opinion is that it would be better to come up with a more straight-forward description and just take whatever acronym this gives you, rather than hunt to find some, well, goofy collection of words to spell out "POWER".

I apologize if I sound too critical. It's important that new SFB concepts continue to be explored. But this particular one needs more work.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 02:47 pm: Edit

Alan Trevor:
#1 The venting of the plasma is in very high concertartions and it is INSIDE the shields of the ship...outside weapons fire would have to penetrate the shields to ignite the plasma.
#2 weaponsfire from the ship must pass through the (for lack of a better word) 'cloud' of vented plasma that is contained within the shileds of the ship...I view the plasma similar to hydrogen in gas state, you need to have Hydrogen at 38% of volume and in the presence of oxygen at 7% for the gas' to ignite (or if you prefer the word 'combustion').

Although I am not chemist or knowledgeble of high energy physics, I suspect that the volume of plasma must be in some defined level of concentration to be dangerous.

#3 I have no problem with your suggestion to give the venting ship the ability to use weapons but at chance of spoiling the process, or setting it off prematurely...

#4 you are correct, the title was very contrived...I started off with VPWE...and thought that would imply a carrier or fighter connotation (the V being symbolic of aviation or fighters or even pods (the 'P' in the acronym) which are not relevant to this proposal.) I tried other combinations but finally settled on POWER as atleast it implied some semblence of the scope of the explosion. In future I will try to be more sensitive to the need to avoid speeling out words.

#5 No problem, my ego won't be bruised by your comments...and I do appreciate your critique, I find it of more use that say Chris Fant's criptic mment.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 02:50 pm: Edit

That's what I do, follow you around and be criptic.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 04:20 pm: Edit

As criptic as CFant may be, he's right. This screams ST:TNG Insurrection to me. A bad Franchise movie at that.

(The three ways I felt during that movie)

By George M. Ebersole (George) on Friday, November 07, 2003 - 01:35 am: Edit

This is my Gorn-Gizmo Plasma Tail Whip proposal from last year: Though somewhat different in effect.

10:30 PM, it's raining, gotta head on out.