1.3.6: Shielding

Reduced in complexity from 1st edition, shielding is an important part of any ship's defense. Ray shields are projected in a spheroid around the vessel, a few centimeters or meters from the actual hull of the vessel depending on size and geometry. They are placed far enough out so that any laser batteries are fully covered by the shields. Particle Shields are typically placed a few millimeters beneath the surface of the Hull so as passing debris does not overload these power intensive shields (Particle shielding is in fact more power-consumptive than ray shielding, but far more necessary for the safety and structural integrity of a starship. Thus it is turned off only in the rarest of occasions.) This does not prevent some craft from emitting low-powered particle shields to make some sort of navigational deflector, pushing small asteroids and debris out of the path of the starship. Due to the strength and durability of the Doonium combat hull plating and internal shield combination, this is usually considered excessive and only done to preserve ships whose owners wish looking absolutely spotless. This does not include the Rebel Alliance or the Empire.

Sheilds will protect against any attack in an arc that they exist in. This differs from the 1st edition shielding rules.

Advanced Shielding Rules

Lowering Shields

While ray shielding is projected farther out than particle shielding to minimize power needs (there is a curious V-shaped power vs. distance graph for ray shielding, making many engineers and scientists theorize that it does actually interact with matter to some degree), it also establishes a possibility for starfighters to slip beneath the shields of a capital ship. If this is the case, extra power (1D) can be routed to a facing and used to lower the shields to a level just above the ship's hull so that starfighters cannot gain the advantage. This takes a Moderate ''capital ship shields'' roll to lower the shield after the power transfer takes place. There is one interesting side effect to this: By lowering the shields, gun turrets become exposed and vulnerable to counter-battery fire. Whereas counter-battery fire must remove the shields over an arc to damage the guns normally, this makes them vulnerable to starfighters and any enemy capital ships.

Gunners absolutely hate when 'the ceiling drops' and they are left exposed. Any captain who does this can be assured that moral amongst the gunners will plummet. This is usually considered a last-ditch maneuver against starfighters; capital ship hulls can often withstand any beating starfighter lasers can deliver while projectiles would go right through ray shielding anyway. If it comes to losing the ship or a few gun batteries, captains will always choose the ship.

Shutting Down or Reactivating a Shield

On a Moderate capital ship shields roll, the shield operator can shut down or reactivate a shield. This can be used to free up power for other uses, or as a lure to trick the enemy. Once shut down, the shield emitters must reset, a process which takes a full round, before the shield is reactivated.

Shunting Sheild Overloads

When a shield loses a pip, the energy used to sustain it is suddenly an overload on the system until the shields are repaired. At the end of the turn on which a ship lost a shield, a capital ship shields roll is needed. This does not require an action from the Chief Shields Officer. There are shield operators trained to handle this common event on their own.

The difficulty of this roll is 1D per 1D of shields lost that turn, plus an additional 1D. If a ship lost 5 pips of shields, roll 2D+2 to determine the difficulty of shunting the shield overload into the static power buffer. If using the optional power transfer rules, any leftover power in the power pool is added to the number of dice rolled to determine the difficulty of the action. Roll during the record keeping phase.

If the action succeeds, the power is successfully discharged into the static power buffer, which dissipates it into space. If unsuccessful, roll twice the difficulty roll against the ship's hull and count it as an ionization attack. For example, a ship has to dissipate 3D worth of power. The GM gets lucky and rolls a 6 on the wild die, getting a total of 22. The player rolls poorly and only gets a 17 on his capital ship shields roll. 6D of ionization damage is taken by the ship.

Backup Shields

Certain ships have backup shields, allowing for backup shield dice to replace those lost in combat. This means they have modular shield generation systems. While a nightmare for maintenance purposes, with shield matrix distribution lines running all over the ship, it means that shields can be swapped from any part of the ship with the backup shields, allowing them to be effectively restored to their full value. This takes a Moderate capital ship shields roll and an action from the Chief Shields Officer.

A side effect to this is that shields can be repaired while in backup status, allowing for shields to be repaired while not active. Shields being repaired in this state under the Damage Control rules below add +5 to each damage control attempt on them. The number of backup shields on a ship does not change under this system, there are only 3D total backup shields on a Mon Calamari MC80? cruiser.

To Capital Ship Combat?.
To Coordination.
To The Tactics Skill.