Starship Design System

A collection of rules allowing for fast and generic spaceship design and play.

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Advanced Screens

Advanced screens employ a type of “smart” or reactive armor designed to intercept and deflect physical projectiles. This makes them effective against weapons that normally ignore or punch through less advanced screens.

Symbols:

Against Batteries

Advanced screens work as normal defensive screens against beam batteries and advanced batteries.

Against Submuntions

Advanced screens affect submunitions as if they were beams, taking fewer hits depending on screen level.

Submunitions damage against advanced screens:

Results Screen Level 1 Screen Level 2
Every 1, 2, 3, or 4 rolled No effect No effect
Every 5 rolled One damage point One damage point
Every 6 rolled Two damage points One damage point

Against Torpedoes

Advanced screens do not affect the hit rate of torpedoes, but they do reduce the damage inflicted by successful hits.

Torpedo damage against advanced screens:

Result Screen Level 1 Screen Level 2
1 rolled No effect No effect
2 rolled One damage point No effect
3 rolled Two damage points One damage point
4 rolled Three damage points Two damage points
5 rolled Four damage points Three damage points
6 rolled Five damage points Four damage points

Against Railguns

Advanced screens reduce the chance of taking double damage from a railgun hit.

Railgun damage against advanced screens:

Screen Level 1 1-4 Rolled 5-6 Rolled
Screen Level 2 1-5 Rolled 6 Rolled
Class 1 One point Two points
Class 2 Two points Four points
Class 3 Three points Six points
Class 4 Four points Eight points

Relative Tech Level

Advanced screens are meant to represent a major technological development in defense against conventional (and advanced) weapons; namely the explosive damage from torpedoes and missiles, and the kinetic penetrating damage of railguns, which normally “punch through” standard defensive screening technology.

There is no “super advanced” weapons technology represented in these rules that can in turn defeat advanced screens. If technology in the chosen background reaches such a point, it is suggested to readjust the relative technology available. For instance, militaries with advanced screens are downgraded to standard screens; ships that would have standard screens now don’t mount any at all (the tech is ubiquitous but also obsolete); and explosives and kinetics that used to be stopped only by advanced screens are now standard batteries.

The rules are meant to represent the ever-evolving nature of research and development in warfare by facilitating an ever-shifting window of aging, current, and advanced technology.

See Red Queen Theory - Wikipedia

Ship Design Navigation Table
Basic Design Faster Than Light DriveFighter GroupMain BatteryNormal Space DrivePoint Defense SystemScreen Generator
Advanced Design Drone SystemNeedle SystemSubmunitionsTorpedo System
Experimental Design Advanced BatteryAdvanced DriveAdvanced Fire ControlAdvanced FTLMegabatteryRailgun System