Date: Sat, 29 Jul 1995 19:08:00 GMT From: "Brendan O'Donovan" Subject: DCII design & adventure ideas Months ago I posted an adventure seed, 'Dark Century', based around the theft of a prototype spaceship from the RCES. At the time I decided not to post my original design for the Century, as it was one of my earlier, poorer, ship designs. Here is the 'sequel' design, which is more in keeping with the 'Hunt for Red October' style adventure I imagined. Dark Century II-Class Mercenary Destroyer General Data Displacement:900 tons Length :43.5m Price :800MCr Config :Disc AF Hull Armour :76 Volume :12600m^3 Target size :_S_ Tech Level :TL12 with TL13 relic fusion & sandman computers Mass(L/E) :13442/14027 Engineering Data Power Plant :Maneuver Plant = 1800MW Fusion, 1 month duration (100MW/hit) Ship's Systems = 600MW Fusion, 3 months duration (100MW/hit) Jump perf. :2 (2520m^3 fuel) G-Rating :4 (450MW/G), Contra-Grav lifters (90MW) G-Turns :40 (85 using jump fuel), 56.25m^3 fuel each Maint :521 Electronics Computer :1xTL12 Mod Fb, 1xTL12 Mod SM Fb, 1xTL12 Mod SM Commo :2x1000AU Maser(inf ,1.2MW ea), 300,000km radio (10 hexes, 10MW) Avionics :TL8+ Avionics Sensors :180,000km Passive EMS folding array (6 hexes, 0.25MW), 3x 120,000km Passive EMS (4 hexes, 0.15MW each), 2x 480,000km Active EMS (16 hexes, 20MW each), 180,000km Ladar (6 hexes, 2.5MW) ECM/ECCM :480,000km ActEMS jammer (16 hexes, 40MW) EM Masking (12.6MW) Decoy Dispenser (600 each vs Active and passive, 300 vs Ladar) Controls :Bridge with 17xBridge W/S, 14 other W/S. Armament Offensive:TL-12 1890MJ Particle Accelerator (Locs 1-20, Arcs:1; 52.5MW; 3 crew), 6 x TL12 600MJ Laser Barbette (Loc 11/12 - Arcs:All ; 12.96MW ea ; 1 Crew ea.) Defensive:6x Sandcaster Turret (Loc 11/12 - Arcs:All ; TL12; 1D10x5 reduc/hit; 30 cann ea. ; 1MW ea. ; 1crew ea.), TL12 Meson Screen (PV 250; 25MW; 1 crew) MFD :3xTL-12 Beam MFD (5 Diff mods;No msl.;10 hexes;6.2 MW ea;1 crew ea.) Short Medium Long Extreme. 1890MJ Particle Accel. 10:217 20:217 40:108 80:54 400 MJ Laser Barbette 10:1/15-50 20:1/15-50 40:1/13-40 80:1/6-6 Accommodations Life Spprt. :Extended (1.566MW - excludes fuel tankage), Gravitic Compensators (3G, 39.15MW) Crew :70, Engineering 13, Electronics 2, Maneuver 2, Gunnery 14, Maintenance 3, Flight Crew 11, Ships Troops 14, Command 10, Stewards 1. Crew Accom :20 Bunks (triple occupancy), 5 Small Staterooms (double occupancy, 0.0005MW ea), Large Stateroom (0.001 MW) PassengerAc :None Other :Sick bay (0.8MW) Cargo :188.4kl (1 large cargo hatch) Subcraft :4 x RCES attack speeder (in docking rings) 1 x Assault Lander (in docking rings) AirLocks :10 Notes : Fuel purification machinery (7.5MW) 24hrs to refine 5058kl. Fuel scoops fitted. Internal Explosion 1-2 1-4 PA, 5-20 Elec 3 1-13 Elec, 14-18 Qtrs. , 19-20 PA 4-8 1-5 Qtrs. , 6-18 Hold , 19-20 PA 9 1-2 Qtrs. , 3-4 PA, 5-20 Hold 10-11 1-4 & 5-8 & 9-12 LB, 13 & 14 & 15 SC, 16-17 PA, 18-20 Eng. 12-16 1-2 PA, 3-20 Hold 17-19 1-2 PA, 3-20 Eng. 20 1-2 PA, 3-8 Hold, 9-20 Eng. Surface Hits 1 1 Decoy, 2 AL, 3-20 Ant 2 1 AL, 2-20 Ant 3-4 1-20 Ant 5 1-8 Ant, 9-20 EMMR 6 1-2 AL 7-20 - Damage: AEMS 4h, (180k)PEMS Ant 1H, MesonScrn. 4H, AEMSJamm 4h, Decoy 4h, EMM 2H, EMMR 12h, MFD 4h, Sickbay 1H, LSR 1H, SSR 2h, LS 22H, ELS 11H, AG 2H, JD 15H, PP 24H, MD 2H, CG 2H, FPP 10H, LB 3H, SC 1H, PA 17H Until the development of black globes, there are only a limited number of ways to make a craft stealthy, small size, passive sensors, EMM & decoys. The DCII uses all of these approaches, to produce a light destroyer which has a sensor signature little larger than a subsidised merchant. The design is _extremely_ tight, as fitting the desired offensive power into a sufficiently small hull required several compromises to be made. The biggest compromise is in crew accommodations, while the officers are not made to suffer too badly, the crew have poor quarters, with triple occupancy in bunks. The power plant is divided into two reactors, one which provides power for all the ship's subsystems, which is kept on line constantly, and another specifically for the maneuver drive, which is taken off line during jump and for extended station keeping. The life support is limited to the occupied volume of the ship, meaning vacc suits must be worn when servicing empty fuel tanks. The subcraft are kept in docking rings, allowing no access for maintenance while in space. As they are intended only for use in planetary situations, repairs as necessary would be performed on the ground, or at a stretch in an EVA in orbit. Two of the ship's three computers are sandman viral systems, leaving only one uninfected. This allows the crew requirement to be kept lower than it would otherwise be. Although when the design was first proposed there were concerns as to how the two viruses would interact, in the few examples which were built the computers actually performed marginally better as a pair, appearing to benefit from the 'company', as each computer gave the other new ideas as to how to optimise themselves. As well as being a significant naval force, the ship also carries two squads of marines (7 troopers and 1 officer per squad), and a unit of attack speeders (under the command of the flight officer, along with the assault lander), all of whom are under the command of a marine commander, responsible to the ship's captain. The ship is expensive in comparison to TL14/15 designs, including the Broadsword, but the Century is manufactured at TL12, with fusion plants purchased from the Hivers or salvaged, and actually offers performance which compares very well to higher TL designs. It enjoys popularity both with the RCES, who appreciate its multi-role capability, and mercenary units, who want to invest money in improving the unit without employing a crew for a second Broadsword. Adventure Ideas: (I've already covered starship theft, unfortunately I don't know what digest my original posting appeared in) Mutiny: Even with the operating table in the sick bay converted to a pool table, the accommodations for the crew are awful. It is a major task for the command crew to keep the tension amongst the crew down to a manageable level. After some disappointment, maybe delayed wages because an employer vanished, the crew finally snaps. Players could be involved on either side in the following mess, which could involve the factions fighting for control of the critical areas of the ship. The strains of sandman on board might get involved, or they could just leave those crazy humans to themselves. Murder: The atmosphere on board is very different to the shiny white corridors of TL15 military vessels, at TL12, with a design this tight, excess gloss can't be afforded, so the corridors are poorly lit, with tubes and cables running along low ceilings (think Alien/Aliens). One of the marines is a severe claustrophobe, and the continual closeness of the walls causes a breakdown. He is left with a split personality, most of the time he is completely normal, but occasionally, under stress or in confined spaces, he changes into a violent killer. This is a perfect opportunity to make your players so paranoid that they suspect everyone, even each other. For the ultimate twist, the killer _is_ one of the players, the murders happening at night, while the player was 'asleep'. Tell them this and they will think that they have an alibi, then see how they react as they begin to find evidence pointing to themselves. Do they cover it up? At the very least it should stop the final solution to the adventure from being a simple shoot up, after all, the players wouldn't shoot to kill one of their own, would they? For a more tasteful adventure use a mad technician who sabotages vital ship's systems while in his alternate personality. Incompetent: The high cost of the Century means that it is sometimes purchased as a 'toy' by hot-headed young businessmen with more money than sense, who want a more 'adventurous' lifestyle. When a mercenary unit is formed by this hothead, he puts himself in command, as ship's captain. The results of his incompetency could be funny (eg. stupid missions, like being hired by one TL2 village to destroy the rabbit farm in the neighbouring village, and then being paid in loud, smelly livestock, which make conditions on board even worse), or extremely threatening (hey guys, lets go find out what this 'Black Sphere' is all about). Given time this may well end up in a mutiny. There, some adventure ideas. For the record, I don't worship maths or the mechanics, but equally I like being able to tweak designs at a fairly low level, it helps me get into the atmosphere of the game, which makes it easier to write adventures. I guess you just can't please everyone. I've been thinking about how to produce a simplified design sequence. Maybe 'mini-clippers' would be one way to do it. Hull shells could be designed using the basic rules, then modules could be added to fill the space. Some suggestions for modules would be: thruster units (a self contained power plant, combustion chamber, fuel tank for 50G-turns, fuel tank for the power plant) - worked out for 1G for 100ton, it could be multiplied up for bigger ships/accelerations weapon units (Laser, Missiles, including necessary power plant and fuel, missile storage, maybe an MFD) subcraft units (Including hangar, subcraft, flight crew accom) sensor units (long range PEMS/AEMS, short range PEMS/AEMS, survey sensors) and so on..... The idea would be that each would be as self contained as possible, containing power, fuel, possibly even crew accommodations. Standard hit charts could be worked out for each module, like clipper modules, and then the overall damage chart could be worked out like the clipper. The final result would not actually be a clipper, because the modules would be considered a permanent part of the ship. Although this might help with design, it would make it even messier in play, as hundreds of charts would be needed. Perhaps Scott Nolan could be more specific with what he dislikes about the design sequences, then we can try to work out a way to help. If the whole thing seems too daunting, then the forms in the Players' Forms book might help you organise a design. -- Brendan