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DagobahDave
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Joined: Sun 12 Sep 2021, 18:58

Re: I don't like the Regular Maintenance roll

Sun 12 Sep 2021, 21:26

If I'm interpreting the rule correctly, it's possible to fail both the Heavy Machinery and Comtech rolls and suffer 2 minor component damage results each week. I think that's fairly gritty and fits the setting lore, but it's a problem for free-trader campaigns where space travel needs to be common and routine. (Actually it's way too harsh, based on some testing. The Nostromo would need lots of luck to make it from Thedus to Earth without suffering some kind of disast--uh wait a second, that's kinda what happened in the movie.)

It might be better to consider both rolls to be a single "Regular Maintenance check" and to only suffer 1 component damage per week if either the Heavy Machinery or Comtech roll fails (never 2 damage per week).

And if an already-damaged system is rolled up again on the minor component damage table (a situation that the rule doesn't address), let the dice result stand (taking no new damage this week) instead of rolling again, so there's a chance that there are no additional malfunctions even from a failed maintenance check. In those cases, it might be appropriate to increase the repair difficulty for a many-times-damaged system.

To further soften the rule, any result that would require immediate attention or would end/divert the journey should have a chance of taking effect only at the conclusion of the journey. In a campaign with lots of space travel, I would go with maybe a 1 out of 6 chance that a "catastrophic" sort of result actually kicks in right away.

I don't see using this rule at all in a cinematic -- any malfunctions in transit would probably be scripted rather than random.

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