DITL Battles: Rules (Second Edition)

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Index

1. The turn

2. Conn Phase

3. Tac Phase

4. Shields

5. Damage

6. Critical Hits

7. Damage Control

8. Weapons

9. Special Tech

10. Scenarios

11. Multi-Ship Battles

12. FAQ

Note: These will be filled in and links provided over the course of the next couple of weeks. Thread locked until the rules are fully posted to enhance clarity.

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Section 1 - The Turn

The turn is divided into two phases:
1)Conn phase
2)Tac phase

1) The Conn phase is the phase in which all movement is done. Things like rotating your ship, choosing which direction to move in and how fast you want to move and ramming enemy ships all take place in this phase.
There are also some actions which, while not necessarily related to movement, must take place or be declared in the Conn phase. Examples of these actions are choosing where to send damage control teams, or activating cloaking devices.

2) The Tac(tical) phase is the point at which the ships involved unleash their firepower at each other. In this phase, the players choose their targets, and decide what weapons they want to fire at their enemy.
In addition, the results of damage control efforts are reported at the end of the tactical phase.

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Section 2 - Conn Phase

The Conn phase is the point at which players decide what movements they would like their ships to perform.

Moving
To perform a successful action, players must score a result of 7 or more on 2D6+3, taking modifiers into account. The success of their actions depend on just how well they score.
A result of 7-9 will get a basic result. 10-11 will get a pretty good result. A 12 gets a "perfect" result.

Example: Deepcrush decides to use his Conn Phase to take evasive action, fearing that he will take heavy damage in the Tac Phase. A score of 7 will give his opponent a -1 To Hit penalty. A 10 gives a -2 penalty, and a 12 gives a -3 penalty.

Modifiers
Several factors can modify the results of a movement roll. Usualy, these mostly depend on battle damage, actions taken previously, or special abilities of the ship in question.
The one factor that is always in play is that the ship with the higher Combat Maneoverability rating will get a +2 bonus to all Conn rolls.

Orders
Orders generaly come in three different forms:

1) Movement orders. Moving the ship to a different position, turning around, etc.
You can specify up to two movements your ship will perform in one Conn phase, but it is quite likely that the second action may not be fulfilled.
Example: Deepcrush wants to move his Excelsior above Rochey's Miranda. But because his ventral shields are down, he also wants to invert his ship, to bring his dorsal shields into play. A roll of 7-9 will result in his ship moving above the Miranda, but not inverting. A result of 10-11 will allow the ship to move above the Miranda, but only roll partway (for example, the ship ends up rolling 90^o to port). A roll of 12 means the ship nimbly glides above the Miranda, and gracefully inverts itself with no trouble.
If players attempt actions that are contradictory to each other, then the player with the highest roll result pulls his action off.
Example: Deep attempts to maneouver his ship out of the firing arc of Rochey's torpedoes, but Rochey attempts to keep Deep's ship within his torps' firing arcs. Deep rolls a 9, and Rochey rolls an 11, meaning that Deep's ship stays within the torps' firing arcs.

2) Evasive Action. When taking evasive action, the ship itself does not go anywhere in particular, but instead spins and twists in an attempt to throw the enemy's aim off. No other movement action may be taken when performing evasive action.
Example: Deepcrush decides to use his Conn Phase to take evasive action, fearing that he will take heavy damage in the Tac Phase. A score of 7 will give his opponent a -1 To Hit penalty. A 10 gives a -2 penalty, and a 12 gives a -3 penalty.

3) Ramming Speed! When the order to ram is given, the ship accelerates at full speed towards its target, and attempts to slam into it. Due to the fact that the ship accelerates at full speed, it is unable to turn while performing a ramming action. This means that the ramming ship must be facing its target before attempting to ram. To ram, the ship must perform a "To Hit" roll, just as if it were firing a weapon, taking modifiers into account.
The damage dealt during the ramming action depends on just how both ships collided.
If the two ships colide head-on, the mass of both ships is added, and dealt to both ships as TJ of damage.
If the ramming ship hits the sides, dorsal of ventral surfaces of the target, the damage dealt to both ships is the ramming ship's mass, plus half of the target ship's mass.
If the ramming ship hits the aft of the target ship, the damage dealt to both ships is the mass of the ramming ship.
If the target ship is stationary, then the damage dealt to both ships is the ramming ship's mass plus half of the target ship's mass, regardless of where the ramming ship actualy impacted.
Due to the fact that everyone on the ship will have been bracing in anticipation for the ramming, the ramming ship is unable to fire any weapons during the Tac phase.

Speed
The speed of a ship is determined, obviously, by its speed rating. Ship speed is deduced by the ship's 'Speed' ranking (using DITL stats), X 100, in kilometres.
Example: An Akira with a speed ranking of 1,203 would be able to move 120, 300 Km per turn.

Warp Speed
During a movement phase, a ship is capable of using its warp drive to make a micro-jump across the battlefield. If the action is successfuly carried out, the ship can move any number of KMs in the direction the ship was facing. However, the ship may not take any other movement action in that turn, and may not fire weapons during that Tac phase.
A ship requires at least one functioning nacelle to make a warp jump.

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Section 3 - Tac Phase

The Tac phase is where ships target and fire at each other with their weapons.

To successfuly hit, a player must roll an 8 on 2D6+3, including modifiers.

Targetting
You will only be able to target parts of the enemy ship that you have a line of sight to. Neither phasers or torpedoes will "curve" to hit part of the ship you cannot see.
How specificaly you aim will decide just how easy it is to hit the target.
For targetting a specific section, a -1 To Hit modifier is placed on the firing ship. For targetting a specific part of a section, such as a torpedo tube, a -2 modifier is placed on the firing ship. For important areas, such as the Bridge and Warp Core, a -3 modifier is placed on the firing ship, due to the difficulty in hitting such areas.
Further modifiers are given based on range. All ships suffer an addition -1 penalty for every "weapon range and accuracy" *100 meters. So a Galaxy class ship fireing phasers at a target 230,000m distant would get a -2 modifier.

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Section 4 - Shields

Shields
The shield value given on DITL, in TJ, is how much damage the ship's shields can take.
Shields are devided into six sections: fore, aft, port, starboard, dorsal and ventral. The strenght of each of these sections is 1/X of the Total Shield Strength, where X is the number of remaining sections.

Example: Deep's initial Total Shield Strenght at the start of a turn is 150,000TJ, and he has all six shield sections working. This means each section has 1/6 of the TSS: 25,000TJ strength. By the end of the turn, 50,000 TJ has been knocked off of his TSS, and two of his shield sections are down.
For the next turn, he has a TSS of 100,000 with four remaining sections. This means the strength of each section is 1/4 of the TSS.

If a shield section is reduced to 0TJ strenght in one turn, the shield emmitters in that section overload and burn out, and can not be repaired. This means that this section is permanently shieldless for the rest of the battle. If the section is not reduced to 0TJ, then it will regenerate normaly to full strength.

Shields and damage
Shields will block the majority of an enemy ship's fire, provided it has the strength to stand up to it. But some damage can still bleed through the shields, depending on how strong the weapon is, and cause critical hits.
If the weapons' strenght is 10% or more of the shield section's strength, it will cause a critical hit on a roll of 12 on 2D6. This is usualy not too serious, and represents the "exploding consoles" we see on the show.
If the weapon's strength is 50% or more of the shield section's strength, it will cause a critical hit on a roll of 11 or 12 on 2D6. This causes slightly more serious problems in the section affected (for example, crew manning a torpedo tube being killed, forcing it to miss the next turn while it's being recrewed).

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Section 5 - Damage

Hull strength and damage
The hull strength of a ship decides how much damage each section of a ship can take before being destroyed.
The strength of a hull section is sqrt(mass*(1+hull armor))*100+90,000, in TJ. The resulting number dictates how much damage the section can take before it's destroyed, but it doesn't just go from perfect to destroyed.

at 0-24% destroyed: crits can affect surface systems (stuff you can see on the outside of the ship)
at 25%-49% destroyed: surface systems are disabled or destroyed. Crits affect systems inside on the side facing the attack. Hull breachs have occured. Sick bay will be busy
50% to 75% destoryed: Internal systems facing the attack desabled/destroyed. Major hull breaches, some people sucked out before force fields seal things up. Unless engineering staff is present on the next turn the EPS system here will fail shutting down everything in that section and possibly cutting power to forward sections.
76-99% destroyed. Everything in section disabled or destroyed, hull ripped open, heavy casualties, unless crew is present EPS conduits to other sections fail next turn possibly cutting off their power. The section is just barely hanging on.
100% destroyed. Embers and space junk.

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Section 6 - Critical Hits


Critical Hits
A critical hit is damage dealt to a specific part of the ship, such as a disruptor array. This damage can be either temporary or permanent, and can cause serious problems to any affected ship.
When a ship recieves a crit, the Game Moderator will decide just what was damaged, and how severely. Obviously, this depends on just how damaged the section was when it was hit, and whereabouts the hit was. GMs will be expected to utilise common sense when dealing with this.

Warp Core Failure
One of the most common causes of ship destruction is down to the warp core malfunctioning violently. If the enemy targets and successfuly damages the Warp Core, roll once on the Warp Core Failure table below.

Result Effect
2-6 Fizzle. The engineering crew are forced to vent some anti-matter out of the ship to prevent the core overloading, but there is no serious problem.
7-8 Sizzle. The engineering crew manages to contain the damage, but a member of the engineering crew is vapourised by a power surge. +1 to all further rolls on this table.
9-10 Serious Problem. The core begins to go out of control. The crew manage to get it under control, but one randomly chosen section of the hip suffers from a Power Failure crit until repaired.
11 Bang. The core is out of control and cannot be stopped. Roll a D6. On a result of 3+, the core is safely ejected. If it isn't, the section that the Warp Core was in is completely destroyed.
12 Boom. The core is out of control and cannot be stopped. Roll a D6. On a result of 3+, the core is safely ejected. If it isn't, the section that the Warp Core was in is completely destroyed and any sections bordering it suffer 100,000 TJ of damage.

If the core is ejected, the ship begins to run on reserve power. The ship has enough power to continue for three turns before running out of power.

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Section 7 - Damage Control

When a ship suffers a critical hit, damage control teams rush to the damaged sections and attempt to repair it.

A ship only has so many damage control teams available. This means that players can only attempt to repair 1 crit per turn. The choice of crit they intend to repair must be declared in the Conn phase. To successfully repair a critical hit, players must roll a 6 on one D6, with modifiers depending on how long the crit has been present.
On the first turn the crit is in effect, it may not be repaire.
On the second turn, roll as normal.
On the third turn, add +1 to the roll.
On the fourth turn, add +2 to the roll.
Etc.

Fires
An often overlooked but deadly danger to a starship is fire. With many volitile and flammable substances on board starships, the risk of a fire spreading is quite high.
For every turn a fire is active, roll a D6.

1 - The fire reaches a major source of ignition begins to spread rapidly through the ship, crewmen scrambling to avoid the blaze. Deal an additional fire crit to one randomly chosen neighbouring section.
2 - The fire spreads into an important part of the section, causing crewmen to evacuate the area. Deal 1 critical hit to a randomly chosen system in that section (Note, this critical may not be an additional Fire crit).
3 - The fire continues to burn, the heat weakening the hull and structural supports. Deal 10,000TJ damage to that section.
4 - Crewmen rush in to tackle the blazing inferno with extinguishers, successfuly preventing it from causing more harm. The fire has no effect for this turn.
5 - Crewmen rush in to tackle the blazing inferno with extinguishers, successfuly preventing it from causing more harm. The fire has no effect for this turn.
6 - Crewmen rush in with specialised fire-fighting equipment, successfuly extinguishing the fire. The fire now counts as being repaired.

If you wish to deploy Damage Control to tackle the fire as your repair action, add a +2 modifier when rolling on the above table.

Venting a Section:
To successfully vent a section of air, you must score an 8 on 2D6+3.
If successful, roll a further D6.
1 Some vital machinery, broken loose by battle damage, is torn free and sucked out into the void. One system in that section may not be used until it is repaired.
2 The crew is disorganised and disorientated by the sudden evacuation. It will take 3 turns until any systems in that section can be used.
3 - 5 The crew reacts as trained, and calmly evacs the area as the fire is extinguished. It will take 2 turns until any system in that section may be used again.
6 - The crew reacts with impecable organisation and skill. It will take 1 turn until any system in that section may be used again.

There is no limit on the amount of sections you may vent per turn.

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Section 8 - Weapons

Energy Weapons

Phasers
Phasers have a range of 300,000 KM, and deal their wattage multiplied by 3 in TJ for damage.
Due to their accurate nature, phasers gain a +2 To Hit modifier.

Pulse Phasers
Pulse Phasers have a range of 200,000 KM, and deal 80,000 TJ in damage.

Phaser Lance
A Phaser Lance has a range of 300,000 KM, and deals 120,000 TJ per hit.
Due to their cumbersome nature, phaser lances suffer a -2 To Hit penalty.

Disruptors
Disruptors have a range of 250,000 KM, and deal their wattage multiplied by 3.5 in TJ for damage.

Phased Polaron Weapons
PP weapons have a range of 300,000 KM, and deal their wattage multiplied by 3 in TJ for damage.
They gain a +1 modifier to all Crit rolls.

Torpedoes

Torpedoes can be fired in any one of three spreads.
Tight: -4 To Hit, but all torps impact on the same section, dealing crippling damage.
Standard: -1 To Hit, torps spread out and hit either the section targetted, or surrounding sections.
Wide: +1 To Hit, but the torps spread out and hit random parts of the ship.

Photon Torpedoes
Photorps deal 80,000 TJ damage per hit.

Quantum Torpedoes
Qtorps deal 120,000 TJ damage per hit.

Torpedo Tube Types
The type of torpedo tube dictates how many torps per round each ship can fire.

Torpedo Tube - 2nd Class: 1 torp
Standard Torpedo Tube: 2 torps
Burst Fire, Type 1 and 2: 3 torps
Burst Fire, Type 3 and 4: 4 torps
Pulse Fire: Can fire either 3 torps per turn, or 5 torps every second turn

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Section 9 - Special Tech

Cloaking Devices
Cloaking devices allow a ship to be rendered invisible to sensors and visual observation.
If a player intends to use a cloaking device, they must declare it in their Conn Phase. They may take no other movement actions in that turn, and may take no actions in their Tac Phase. If successfull, the cloak comes into effect at the beginning of the following turn. This effectively gives the enemy ship a "free shot" at the cloaking vessel during the Tac phase of that turn.
While cloaked, a vessel may not fire weapons, and its location will be hidden to its enemies, but not to allies.
To cloak, a ship must roll a 7+ on 2D6+3, with modifiers for damage.

Perfect Cloak
An advanced type of cloaking device that allows the user to use its weapons while shielded.
A vessel with the Perfect Cloak may fire weapons in the Tac phase while cloaked, as they normaly would. However, this also gives away their position to an observant enemy. If the cloaked vessel fires, enemy vessels may target it in the following Tac phase, with a -2 To Hit penalty.

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Section 10 - Scenarios

Deathmatch

No teams. The only objective is simple: destroy all enemies. Victory is determined by which ship is in the best condition by the end of the fight.

Team Deathmatch

Similar to the above, but the ships are divided into teams of two or more ships. Victory is determined by which team is in the best condition by the end of the fight.

Convoy

One side is given control of 5 lightly armed freighters they are to defend for a certain amount of turns, at which point they will depart the area. The other side's objective is to destroy as many of these freighters as possible. Victory is determined by how many transports survive, but the condition of the attacking ship may well turn it into a pyhric victory.

Blockade Run

One side is attempting to reach a certain point in the playing field. The other side is attempting to prevent them reaching this point. Victory is determined by whether or not the ship is able to reach that point.

Assassination

One ship is carrying a VIP on board its bridge. The enemy's objective is to destroy the bridge of that ship, and kill the VIP. Victory is determined by whether or not the VIP survives.

Station Defence

One side must fend off an attack on a station, while the other side attempts to destroy it. Victory is determined by the state of the station at the end of the battle.

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Section 11 - Multi-Ship Battles

Due to the presence of multiple ships, expressing their relative positions can be quite complicated in text. As such, the simplest way to express relative positions is with the aid of a simple diagram, easily drawn up in MSPaint, or a similar system.
However, another difficulty crops up when trying to factor in the Z-axis. But this is something that is also simple enough to overcome. Simply taking one point on the Z-axis and taking it as the standard position, we can simply add in numbers to show the positions of various ships on the Z-axis, relative to this standard level.
This example diagram of three ships fighting each other demonstrates this easily enough:



As you can see, relative positions and facings can be simply indicated with this simple diagram. The "+" and "-" symbols next to the numbers reffer to how far they are above or below the "standard" level on the Z-axis.

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Section 12 - FAQ

What's all this 2D6 stuff mean?

D6 is a common abbreviation for "six sided dice". 2D6 simply refers to rolling two dice. Various numbers, like +2 or -1 refer to modifiers.

What's a modifier?

Something that affects a dice roll. For example, 2D6+3 means "roll two dice and add three to the result", giving a possible score of anything between 5 and 15.

What's a GM?

Game Moderator.

Can I mod a game?

Sure. Feel free to jump in and mod whatever you want.

Why are there so few questions in this FAQ?

Because I can't think of any more.

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This thread is now open to all for discussion.

Discuss!

[stitch626]

This is a very nice workup of the rules. I especially like the scenarios.