STARSHIP AGING

This file presents some rules on the effects of wear-and-tear on starships.
As you will see, starships which are either very new or very old are prone to
system failures.  Very old ships, being out in space for so long, are
slightly "tougher" on the outside (as the crew has been constantly reinforcing
the hull due to combat) but are typically more brittle on the inside.
Older starships are also slightly slower in terms of warp speed than when
they first came off the assembly line.

CATEGORY:	    NEW		YOUNG	    AVERAGE	OLD	    VENERABLE
# Battles:	    0 (Maiden)	0-2	    3-5		6-9	    10+
System Failures:    1		0	    0		0	    1
Armor:		    0		0	    0		1	    3
Natural Effects:    +1		0	    0		-1	    -2
Warp Mult:	    x1.1	x1.1	    x1		x1	    x0.9
Opt Allow Mult:	    x1		x1	    x1	        x1.1	    x1.25
Btty Capacity:	    +0		+0	    +0		+0.5	    +1
Leg Officers:	    0		0	    1		2	    3
Bizarre Effects:    0		0	    0		1	    2
BPV Adjustment:	    x0.9	x1	    x1		x1.25	    x1.5

CATEGORY:
This is simply a general classification of how old the ship is.  NEW means
the ship is on its maiden voyage, or possibly a prototype.

# BATTLES:
This is the number of battles where the ship took internals.  Battles where
only shield damage was involved do not count.  For example, a ship who has
been in 8 battles and has taken internals is considered "OLD".
If a ship takes ExcDam hits in a battle and yet survives, it will automatically
move to the next category.

SYSTEM FAILURES:
The ship has a chance of a system failures.  Roll 1d6 each day or when the ship
enters combat:
1. The ship suffers a Critical Hit.
2. The ship acts as if it has a Poor Crew for 1d6 turns.
3. Roll a system using the DAC, one grouping of boxes of that system are
   considered Inactive (they may be reactived using the Inactive rules).
4.-6. No system failure.

ARMOR:
This is additional Armor with a 360 degree arc, to represent the ship being
slightly "tougher" as it gets older.

NATURAL EFFECTS:
This is how much you adjust damage due to natural effects each turn.
Starships (and their crews) need time to get used to Nebulae and other such
phenomenon.

WARP MULTIPLIER:
If using my "Going into Warp" rules, this is what you multiply the final
Maximum Speed by.  Fuel consumption is not increased.

OPT ALLOWANCE MULTIPLIER:
This multiplies the ship's total Opt Allowance.  Older ships have a tendency
of having more "junk/spare equipment" laying around for NWO's and such.

BATTERY CAPACITY:
The crew would presumably try to increase battery capacity with time.
Each battery's capacity is increased by the given number.
The battery does not require any additional amount to repair.

LEGENDARY OFFICERS:
This is the number of times you roll for Legendary Officers in a scenario,
unless the scenario or campaign suggests otherwise (sometimes a NEW ship
might have a Legendary Helmsman to test it out, for example).

BIZARRE EFFECTS:
These represent "personality" or other strange behavior a ship may pick
up with time.
When the ship reaches OLD stage, roll 2d6 on the table below.
Roll again when the ship reaches VENERABLE stage; the bizarre effect it
received before at OLD stage is still kept.

 2. Ship is Self-Aware (Intelligent):  When the ship's fleet is faced with
    a superior force (in terms of BPV), there is a 1 in 6 chance per turn
    the ship takes over as if it was a Super-Intelligent Computer.  This
    control lasts for 1 turn.

 3. Alien Presence: Unknown to the crew, an non-corporeal entity resides
    on the ship.  If the ship takes internals, there is a 1 in 6 chance
    per impulse that it takes internals that the Alien Presence displaces
    the entire ship 1d6 x 1d6 x 1d6 (three d6's multiplied together) hexes
    in a random direction.  The Alien Presence is destroyed on the first
    Probe hit after the ship has no remaining undamaged probes.

 4. Massive Jury-Rigging: The crew, in an attempt to make future repairs
    on the ship easier to do, have included a massive network of backups
    and jury-rigging.  Each internal on the SSD with a repair cost of 2
    of greater has its repair cost reduced by 1 (so IMPULSE which costs 3
    in my rules becomes 2).  This makes the systems easier to repair, but
    they are also harder to modify using my CONST rules (as they as lower
    repair cost and thus are more limited in what they can turn into).

 5. Tech fluctuation: Roll a random system using the DAC.  One grouping
    of that system has technology fluctuations.  When used, there is a
    1 in 6 chance it will be +1d6-3 tech levels difference in effect.
    Tech levels below 0X are considered 0X.  Thus, a 1X Photon would fire 
    as a 0X to 4X Photon instead if it fluctuated.

 6. Reduced Energy Cost: Roll a random system using the DAC.  The system 
    requires only one-half the normal amount of energy to operate and hold.

 7. Massive Storage: The ship can store twice the normal amount of cargo,
    but there is a 1 in 6 chance for each cargo unit that the cargo has
    been "lost in the mess" and cannot be found again for 1d6 weeks.

 8. Anticipation: Similar to Self-Aware above, the ships seems to anticipate
    actions by the crew.  The Turn Mode is improved is one, and the player
    of the ship does NOT have to declare weapons fire, he may fire in response
    to another ship firing.

 9. Creepy Maze: The ship's corridors make strange sounds and is a general
    maze to walk around.  The ship also seems to resent newcomers, so enemy
    Boarding Parties have a 1 in 6 chance per impulse of being lost within
    the ship.  Lost Boarding Parties cannot attack but can be attacked by
    the defending ship's Boarding Parties.  This effect lasts for 1 impulse.

10. Ammunition from Nowhere: All systems on the ship that use ammunition
    (Probes, Drones, etc.) have a 1 in 6 chance of not actually using any
    ammunition at all when used.  It is impossible to tell where the extra
    ammunition came from.

11. Bizarre Alien Technology: The crew recently discovered within the bowels
    of the ship a piece of alien technology which must have been captured in
    the last battle (even though the crew doesn't remember doing it...).
    Make a list of the systems the enemy had in the last battle that your
    ship does not possess.  Choose one randomly, and your ship has one box
    of that system on its SSD. 

12. Self-repair: All internal systems on the ship receive 1/10 (one-tenth) of
    a repair point per turn if they are damaged.

BPV ADJUSTMENT:

Multiply the ship's BPV by this number for a rough estimate of the ship's new
effective BPV.  Of course, ships may become very powerful with certain
combinations of Bizarre Effects and ship systems, but this is only an estimate.


That's all folks.  Not exactly a complete set of rules, but I hope you enjoyed
the concept at least.

Don