House Rule idea for Marine Hit & Run

[wedge_hammersteel]

During our gaming session tonight, we discussed a house rule for Marine Hit & Run Raids and I would like to know what you think. We don't usually use our marines to their fullest.

The rule is intended to add a little spice to regular play and I dont think it negatively impacts play.

Here it is:

If a player targets a specific box for a hit & run raid then you play and roll exactly as the rules indicate. However, if the player agrees to a random ship system to attack with marines then the player gets a -1 on the die roll with a roll of 1 always being a 1. You would roll a die 6 and a die 10 on the DAC to randomly select the ship system. Only the upper systems is used.

This house rule would have you agree to a random ship system with only a single instance to roll failure/lost rather than 2 instances.

[Mike]

I would think that would be skewing the rules too much. They must have had a reason why there is a 33% chance of the "failure/lost" result.

Would highly trained Marines be transported onto an enemy ship just for the chance to hit some random system? What is the point?

[Kang]

Personally I would not trust my corporeal substance to a transporter that worked with such inaccuracy

[Hod K'el]

The thinking was that if I hit enough non vital sections, then when I fire into the ship, I should hit something vital, therefore, I do not care if my marines transport and attack a bridge or warp engine since I want them to hit something...anything...and do damage. After all, it is a hit and run raid!

[wedge_hammersteel]

Thats my thinking.

The marine party should be able to beam onto a ship, destroy something nearby quickly and beam back to their ship with less chance of being lost then if they were specifically targeting a certain system. Thus the reduced chance to lose a marine party when a player agrees to target a random system.

Any internal damage to a ship by any means is beneficial to the attacking ship.

[junior]

Eh...

I think that I'd rather take the slightly greater risk of failure over the greatly improved risk of shooting up the bowling alley or crew quarters (i.e. Hull boxes) instead of the Photons...

Besides, a Hit and Run Raid to me has always indicated that your guys are transporting in, firing a few shots and throwing a couple of grenades over by critical objects, and transporting back out again. A lost marine unit represents the defenders managing to land a couple of phaser shots into the transporter beams either on the way in or the way out. It's not as if the raiding team is crossing half the ship to reach the target of the raid or spending five minutes placing satchel charges all over the photon tubes (the turns just don't last long enough for that to be happening, for one thing...; and for another thing, spending that much time in the attacked department would virtually guarantee that the defending marines would wipe out the solitary raiding team).

So even from a fluff standpoint I'd have a hard time justifying this.

[Wolverin61]

The thinking was that if I hit enough non vital sections, then when I fire into the ship, I should hit something vital, therefore, I do not care if my marines transport and attack a bridge or warp engine since I want them to hit something...anything...and do damage. After all, it is a hit and run raid!

Must be a Klingon thing. Imho, the purpose of a hit-and-run raid is to target something specific, e.g. cloaking device, bridge, etc.

[Kang]

You want random damage, use weapons fire, direct or seeking.

You want specific damage, use a hit-and-run raid. That's what they're for!

[Dal Downing]

I am going to say no why would you get a free pass on a "non essential" box. The Hit and Run Rules do not make a destinction between difficulties in hitting a Cargo Box or hitting a Bridge Box.

The rules already assume that there are Posted Security Forces in areas to react to Boarding Actions plus whatever Anti Boarding Systems there maybe in place like Pattern Scramblers or Automated Defences.

Besides if I am the Commander of a Space Ship I will have to answer the Board of Inquiry as to why I killed 2 Squads of Marines attacking the enemies Gym Equipment.