House Rules: KnightHawks

Since KnightHawks concerns space and spaceships, most of these rules will not be necessary until later in the campaign (if ever). However, please note that I've lowered the entry requirements for spaceship skills (see below). For now, don't worry about this stuff, unless you want to get a sneak peek down the possibilities in the road ahead. 1) CHANGE -> Reduced requirements for spacer skills: Pilot level may not rise higher than your technician level. Pilot level may not rise higher than twice your computer level. Astrogation level may not rise higher than your computer level. Engineering level may not rise higher than your robotics level (most repairs are remote). Engineering level may not rise higher than twice your technician level. Gunnery level may not rise higher than corresponding weapon level. Gunnery level may not rise higher that twice your computer level. 2) CHANGE -> Reduced XP costs for spacer skills: Each new level of a skill costs a number of XP equal to the new level times the first level cost. In other words, progression of XP costs will be linear, like the skills in AlphaDawn. Pilot: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 Astrogation: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48 Engineering: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48 Gunnery: 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36 3) CHANGE -> All skills have an associated ability: This rule will be handled automatically by the character sheet macros. The intent is to give a significant incentive for abilities other than Strength and Dexterity. Much like the +1/2 DEX bonus for weapon skills, all other skills will gain a +1/2 bonus from a related ability score as shown below. To offset this increase, a -25% penalty will be attached at the same time. This corresponds to the average ability score. Pilot: evasion: Inuition -> NOTE: this will also work against all non-beam weapons (see #6 below) increase accuracy of forward firing weapons: Intuition -> yes, this will make cannon-type weapons even more effective increase maneuver rating: Intuition Astrogation: plot interstellar jumps: Logic risk jumping: Logic -> WARNING: misjumps will not lead to another system (see #4 below) find location: Logic -> NOTE: also used for aiming subspace radios (see AlphaDawn house rules) chart new routes: Logic -> WARNING: most new-route destinations are instant death (see clarifications below) Engineering: ship design: Logic -> the rules for new ship designs aren't very detailed, if it comes up, I will build rules damage control: Logic stress analysis: Intuition ("it won't take any more Cap'n"!) Gunnery: improve accuracy: Intuition (at these distances, it's more important to outguess your opponent) selective targeting: Intuition -> same 4) CHANGE -> Misjumps will NOT take you to another star-system: Instead, you'll find yourself in deep space... if you're lucky. Even then, you'll have to plot a new route just to get to a known location. 5) CHANGE -> Newtonion spaceship movement: My apologies to any purists out there, my suspension of disbelief has limits... Thrust (ADF) is applied to change a ship's vector -> and only in the direction the ship is facing. Since 1 ADF is sufficient to move the ship 1 hex in 1 turn, that means that the ending speed is twice that. So, if you thrust with 3 ADF, move three hexes this turn, but your speed starting next turn is six! MR is used to change a ship's facing -> BOTH before and after applying thrust (and moving). In other words, you can thrust one direction, and end facing another -> very important for forward firing weapons. Yes, anything higher than MR 3 seems pointless -> until you get damaged... plus it has other uses like for asteroids! Corollary: ships moving beside planets may choose to gain a direction change (by skimming the surface/atmosphere). Corollary: mines and seeker missiles will retain the same velocity as the ship that dropped them (until activated). Corollary: seeker missiles have thrust instead of movement (and infinite MR), but otherwise follow logic as described. 6) CHANGE -> Evasion: Evasion gives a defensive bonus against all rocket weapons (or any other non-beam attack) that would arrive that turn. Also since it's Newtonian movement, instead of spending all MR, assign a random amount of thrust in a random direction, and assign a new random facing. 7) CHANGE -> Rocket Batteries and Torpedos: Why would you ever want rocket batteries instead of lasers? Short range, limited ammo, only one may shoot per turn, really? So, instead of only one shot per turn, each rocket battery array may fire any number of rocket salvos at a single target. In other words, each rocket battery array provides the structure and targeting needs for upto four salvos -> and these can all be fired simultaneously. If it matters, military ships have one rocket battery array per four salvos listed (round up), but would usually have enough gunners to fire it all. Torpedos have the same problem, so use the same rules

The following notes are clarifications (and specific interpretations) of the rules. Spelling these out here will make it easier later and reduce the odds of lost time in discussions. 1) CLARIFICATION -> All skills will have a related difficulty modifier based on the situation or goal: This rule will be handled automatically by the character sheet macros. Much like most Computer and Robotics checks are -10% per computer or robot level, all skills will have -10% per difficulty level. Example: For pilots and engineers, the difficulty is equal to the certification level of the hull size of the ship (KH p24). Example: For gunners, the difficulty is equal to the certification level of the minimum hull size of the weapon (KH p18 and p24) Example: For astrogators, the difficulties are already written into the system, but special circumstances may dictate additional modifiers. When applying a modifier, the intent is to give some more color to the game, making more difficult tasks less likely to succeed. 2) CLARIFICATION -> Energy sensors versus ion engines: The rules regarding energy sensor seem to be self-contradictory. Ion engines block radar when set to produce a radar window (p16). Ion engines are also completely invisible to energy sensors (p16). If you have energy sensors, you may force a target under a radar window to reveal their ship? (p17) Something doesn't make sense! My interpretation is that energy sensors will reveal a ship actively using atomic (or chemical) engines that is under a radar window. On the other hand, I'll add that using weapons (or defenses) from within a radar window will also reveal your ship (for that turn). In addition, I'll add that enemy ships may locate you visually, which would be an 1-turn "find location" task for the astrogator (modified by the range from their ship to yours). 3) CLARIFICATION -> The rules don't specify how long it takes to chart a new route, so I'm adding detail... The short story: it takes a long time mostly because of trial and error due to unknown hazards and physical obstacles. Furthermore, void space is not linear compared to space, so you can only guess at the exact distance and direction. Depending on where in the system you jump from, it can make a big difference in your destination. This is why the astrogator must plot the jump each time (even for known jumps) -> they have to plan the exact location and vector. Arriving "close" to the destination doesn't matter much when the measurement is in light years... Jumping to a known system is safer, because a populated system will have surveyed all (most) of the local hazards. Wise explorers send probes first, then wait for a return signal, refining after each try. Since robots aren't smart enough to aim a subspace radio, each attempt means years of waiting on the speed of light. Many destinations / routes have already been tried a hundred different ways without ever getting a return signal. In summary, charting a "possible" new route on the first try will only be successful if you roll less than 1/10 what you needed. 4) CLARIFICATION -> How fast is a spaceship? According to the original thrust rules... "d=a/2*t^2" means that 1 ADF is roughly equivalent to 5.67 g of acceleration (for 1 hex in 1 turn). However, the same estimation drops off with more data (4.25g for 3 hexes in 2 turns, 3.77g for 6 hexes in 3 turns, 2.85g for 16290 hexes in 180 turns). THIS IS WHY your ending speed is instead increased by twice the amount you spent as thrust each turn. (see "Newtonian movement" above) By this math, it changes to 5.67g for 4 hexes in 2 turns, 5.67g for 9 hexes in 3 turns, 5.67g for 16 hexes in 4 turns, and so on... YAY! According to modern science, 25g is a good estimate for the maximum prolonged acceleration that a human can survive. So, I'm assuming futuristic medicine and technology (inertia screens?) allow 5 ADF maneuvers without killing the crew. Furthermore, long periods of heavy acceleration would suggest that the crew must take rest periods to avoid injuries. I'm also assuming most ships will almost always travel at a more comfortable pace... With a constant 1 g of acceleration, it would take ~85 hours (4.25 twenty-hour frontier-standard days) to reach 1% the speed of light. This fits with the explanation on KnightHawks p3 that it takes several days to reach jump speeds (but you can get there faster). For example, if the crew can withstand constant 5.67g acceleration, it would only take 15 hours at 1 ADF to reach void speed. 5) CLARIFICATION -> Void speed: According to AlphaDawn rules, ships travel one light-year per 20-hour day (AlphaDawn p 49) including transit to the surface. This conflicts with the explanation that a trip through the void takes 3-15 seconds (KnightHawks p3). This also conflicts with the description that entering the void requires 1% of the speed of light (KnightHawks p3). Since the KnightHawks source material is more detailed, I'm scrapping the AD rules for the KH explanation. However, KH physics also conflicts with the description of the proton battery, the electron battery, and the disruptor cannon. First, since exiting from the void requires independent deceleration (KH p3), this implies that entering the void requires independent acceleration. Even so, to make it all fit, in addition to speed, a ship must be far enough from gravity wells -> at 1% light-speed, that shouldn't be a problem. I'm keeping this sorta vague, but it is based on your own ship's inherent gravity compared to other sources (larger ships can jump closer) In addition, you can't "void" through a gravity well, instead it'll pop you out at the same minimum jump distance. This means you can't pop out in the inner system or use the void as an inter-planetary weapon delivery system. This also means larger space junk is a deadly hazard for any ship of smaller mass (which would pop out moving 1% light-speed).

on ion engines, generally energy sensor can detect atomic engines because they are detecting emission from the pile, a lot of the energy of an atomic drive is emitted as waste heat, gamma ray, and neutrino which is emitted in spherical manner from the engine, only around 10% of the energy is in particle use to propel a ship. in the case of an ion drive, you can be running on battery power, and the only emission is particles being shot out the rear, so unless you are directly behind an ion ship running on battery you cannot detect an ion drive. The exception is that ion rocket requires a source of power, and parabatteries can only provide limited time for drive operation, so generally all ion driven rocket will have a nuclear reactor to recharge the battery and if that running then the ship can be targeted. I actually writing an article on this for star frontierman or Frontier explorer see below: Ion Engines of the Frontier While Atomic Engines are the stars of travel on the frontier, Ion engines are the overlooked work horse. The atomic fuel pellet expended on a single jump represent a major expense for most cargo ship at cost of 10,000 Credit per engine , while the same trip would use 1017 units of fuel per engine at a cost of 1017 credits. Add to this the cost of over haul and the initial purchase costs, Ion rockets not only make sense for in system ships but can be a cheap alternative to standard Atomic drive. Side note how did we compute the cost of fuel load. An Ion engine use 1 fuel unit per ADF, An ADF is basically 1 G of acceleration over a 10 minute period ( Star Hawk combat turn.) To accelerate to 1% speed of light would take 508.5 ADF and additional 508.5 ADF to decelerate. Generally over look in the Knight Hawk construction rules, is ship power. While Atomic drives can be tapped as a power source, Ion engines will need to draw on an external source of power in order to operate. Generally all space craft are equipped with a bank of parabatteries to provide backup power. Standard ion engine will require at least 1000 SEU of power to make a change of 1 ADF. See chart to see energy cost per engine type: Power requirement per Engine type Class SEU A 1,000 / ADF B 2,000 /ADF C 3,000 / ADF Generally a power generator will also be required to recharge the parabattery banks and provide ship power. Typical these generators require a power source, while solar arrays can be used by system ships. 5 square meters of solar panel is needed for each SEU/HR the generator can produce. Solar panels cost 10 Credits per 5 square meters, and are destroy on any weapon hit. (Optional you can rule the amount of square meter destroyed is equal to damage the weapon inflicts) Atomic piles can also power these generators, a typical portal self-contain fission breeder pile is 3 meter diameter by 15 meters long and can provide 200 SEU /sec and has a life span of 30 years. Cost of one of these piles is 1 million credits. The reactor also requires a 4 function computer program. Typically only 1 such reactor is needed for most ion drive starships but if the craft is heavily armed, a second reactor is needed to run any energy weapons the ship processes. A typical laser battery requires 20 SEU per shot, and electron or proton particle beams 100 SEU. Spinal weapons and laser cannon will consume 1000 SEU per shot. Typically these units will have their own banks of parabatteries to draw power from, but are quickly depleted without a secondary reactor to recharge them. As a rule of thumb, we can assume that all Star Frontier ships will have per install Parabatteries to handle ships function. In the case of Atomic Drives these batteries will be recharged whenever the drives are in use. Standard installed Parabatteries per ship size Ship size Parabatteries 1 to 4 - 5 to 20 type 4 5 to 14 - 25 to 40 type 4 15 to 20 – 45 to 100 type 4 Generally this is enough to provide 24 hours of power to life support and ship equipment, use of weapons will quickly drains these batteries if atomic engines are off or if no portal pile is available.

I saw a similar article a few issues back in either SFman or FE. It didn't get into the problem of power usage, but that's a good point. Regardless, I'm going to use the rules that I wrote above. To explain my reasoning, I'm assuming instead of "energy detection" energy sensors more likely operate by detecting the flare of the engine(s). Running an atomic generator inside your ship isn't mentioned as an detection key in the original rules, so I'm not going to add it. The ion windows will still work to hide you during a fight, but if your allies lose the fight, you're probably going to be in trouble. As a better usage, if you have energy sensors yourself, the range is longer than radar, so you can detect other (atomic) ships and avoid them long before they see you.