I'm in the process of setting up a mixed episodic/sandbox game using the LUG Star Trek rules (partly because my wife found the DS9 version and
had to have it). There's one thing I've run into, and it really surprised me that there was never an official errata correcting it, because it has spots that are just
broken.
The Phaser Damage Table has a bunch of power settings, and lists the amount of damage done, how much power they use, and some other notes. Here it is, with some of my observations at the end.
| Setting | Damage | Charges | Notes |
|---|
| 1 Light Stun | (2d6+2) | 1 | Stun a Human for 5 minutes |
| 2 Medium Stun | (2d6+4) | 2 | Stun a Human for 15 minutes, or a Klingon for 5 |
| 3 Heavy Stun | (4d6+6) | 3 | Stun a Human for 1 hour, or a Klingon for 15 minutes |
| 4 Light Thermal | 2d6+8 | 5 | Cut a 1m hole in 10cm of wood in 3 minutes |
| 5 Heavy Thermal | 2d6+10 | 8 | Cut a 1m hole in 10cm of steel in 3 minutes |
| 6 Light Disrupt A | 3d6+12 | 12 | Cut a 1m hole in 10cm of steel or rock in 30 seconds |
| 7 Light Disrupt B | 4d6+14 | 15 | Kill a humanoid; cut a 1m hole in a duranium bulkhead in 10 minutes |
| 8 Light Disrupt C | 4d6+16 | 20 | Vaporize a humanoid |
| 9 Light Disrupt D | 5d6+24 | 30 | Vaporize resilient alloys (beam ricochets possible) |
| 10 Heavy Disrupt A | 9d6+30 | 40 | Vaporize any substance (ricochet common) |
| 11 Heavy Disrupt B | 12d6+40 | 50 | Explode 10m³ of rock into rubble |
| 12 Heavy Disrupt C | 12d6+60 | 60 | Explode 50m³ of rock into rubble |
| 13 Heavy Disrupt D | 18d6+80 | 70 | Explode 100m³ of rock into rubble |
| 14 Heavy Disrupt E | 12d6+100 | 80 | Explode 160m³ of rock into rubble |
| 15 Heavy Disrupt F | 12d6+120 | 90 | Explode 400m³ of rock into rubble |
| 16 Heavy Disrupt G | 12d6+160 | 100 | Explode 600m³ of rock into rubble |
To give you an idea, the little hand-held weapons you see in the shows are limited to settings 1-8; the rifle-types can go all the way to 16.
An average Human resists 2 points of damage (reducing the damage done), and has seven 'wound levels' of 2 points each. A Klingon, by comparison, resists 5 damage, and has
nine 'wound levels' of 5 points each.
A weapon on a stun setting (the first three above) will knock someone out for 5 minutes as soon as they get past the first 'wound level'. Each level after the first adds 5 more minutes to the time they're unconscious.
By the chart, the first setting will do 7 damage to a Human on average, which will knock him out for 15 minutes. It'll hurt a Klingon, but not otherwise affect him. Setting 2 will knock out a Human for 20 minutes, and a Klingon for 5. Setting 3 will knock out a Human for half an hour (technically, it drops them straight to "Killed", but stun settings don't kill), and it'll knock out a Klingon for 15 minutes.
Except for that first setting, the numbers on Stun settings work out. I'm thinking of changing the first setting to do (1d6+2). This would be totally ignored by a Klingon (unless you roll good), but an average roll will knock out a Human for 5 minutes.
The real problem comes up when you look further down the chart. There are three things that stick out.
First, the difference between Light Disrupt B ("Kill a humanoid") and Light Disrupt C ("Vaporize a humanoid") is a whopping 2 points of damage. Light Disrupt A is actually strong enough to kill an average Human with an average roll (it'll wound a Klingon), but a two-point gain just doesn't look right to me.
Second, the dice expressions jump around funny around settings 8-13. You get 4 dice, then 5, then 9, then 12.
Last, there's an aberrant die-expression at level 13 -- it says "18d6+80", then drops back to "12d6+100" on the next one. I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be 12 dice, not 18.
I'm going to be going over this table to make adjustments here and there, try to make the dice progression a little smoother, make the power-to-damage numbers balance better, that sort. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
This message was last updated by a moderator, as it was the wrong forum, at 12:40, Mon 30 Mar 2015.
