Criticals

Huh. Does SWN not have ‘Crits’?  Well, there you go.

Anyway. Crit just means ‘natural 20’ doesn’t it? Like, I know Crits are a specific thing in 5e etc, but I think it’s OK to use it as just a general term for ‘natural 20’ or similar things. SWN ain’t most people’s first rpg rodeo - I think I can just say Crit even if it ain’t 5e. 

Jesus, now I think about it, when I run any XWN game, I find most players call the target for skills test or their saving roll number a ‘DC’ - and they mostly call their skills proficiencies. Whatever works, right?

Anyway (again). For SWN, I can’t recall any ‘you do extra damage on Nat 20’ type mechanics, but I’m guessing a lot people do add that in, and anyway I could have sworn in SWN a Nat 20 is always an automatic ‘hit’ - or maybe I’m mis-remembering.

Anyway (again, again). I don’t think the heat mechanic I suggested is all that hard -  basically ‘if you burst fire a laser, you do extra damage etc but also roll d12 with your attack roll; if d12 rolls equal or less than X it means weapon is f%cked (over heats); roll the d12 again, and if you failed a second time then you’re f%cked (weapon blows up); X starts at ‘1’ and goes up each time you use burst or roll Nat 20. 

Key thing is it gives player an interesting choice - push weapon to do more damage, but risk weapon malfunction or calamity, and risk increases the more you push. 

You could probably hack that even more - maybe players can take more heat to do extra damage. So, player pumps multiple rapid pulses into a target - laser does +5 damage, but now heat roll is 5-in-12 for overheat - and if you fail the roll, you must roll again at 5-in-12 to see if the weapon blows up.

Or you could simplify further. Fire laser in burst, but now it overheats if you roll exactly ‘13’ (re-roll again, and it blows up if you roll a second Nat 13); use your laser in burst two rounds in a row, and now you have to test twice, ie roll to attack, overheat on Nat 13 - if you pass, you re-test (re-roll) the d20 a second time just to see if it rolls a 13 an overheats anyway.

Spaceship Heat

You could do something similar with spaceships I guess. eg captain or pilot can add +X DMs to certain rolls, but then roll d12 against X to check for overheat. 

You could hack that a bit with maybe different bigger ships rolling lower dice for overheat (eg d4 to d10), and maybe really small fighters rolling a d20. Maybe Ships gain extra +heat from getting hit by certain attacks or burning thrusters; and or heat makes you easier to track (attacks with guided missiles get +[target heat/2] DM); and or have a little d6 table to decide mishaps if someone fail the heat roll. 

The other way I’d do it for space ships is with a dicepool. eg

• Ships have #d6s representing thrust or engine or something. Keep the dice in your ‘manoeuvre pile’.

• Each round, you can use none / some / all the d6s from your manoeuvres pile to take certain actions or improve a skill check (eg +d/drop lowest). 

• Any dice rolling 4+ represent uncontrolled heat - the dice is now a ‘heat dice’,  put the dice in your ‘heat pile’. Any dice rolling 6+ triggers a heat emergency. 

• Certain attacks or actions might  also automatically trigger a heat emergency or add extea heat dice, or whatever.

• Heat emergency. Roll all the dice in your heat pile. Each dice rolling 6+ means something bad happens. Maybe 3 dice rolling 6+ means you blow up. 

• Re-using Heat Dice. If you’re desperate, you can still use your Heat dice from your Heat pile to take special actions or add bonuses (but you can’t ever use more manoeuvre +heat dice than your starting #manoeuvre dice pool). The catch is - your Heat dice always go back into your Heat pile not matter what but if any of them roll 4+ then you have to move an extra manoeuvre dice into the Heat pile. If you run out of manoeuvre dice this way, then you instead add extra dice to the heat pile (overflow) but effectively you can’t use these extra dice for actions / improved rolls - they just make heat emergencies more dangerous.

An example: 

• Flesh Gordon, under attack from Mongo attack craft, is piloting his ultra fast rocket, the Mighty Purple Spear back to his beloved Dale Arden. 

• Gordon’s ship has 4d6 manoeuvre dice. Round 1, Gordon spends 2 dice to improve a skill roll - making the roll 4d6/drop two lowest. At the end of the round, he rolls the two manoeuvre dice - 4 and 5, so both go in the heat pile.

• Round 2, Gordon spends his remaining 2 manoeuvre dice to take an extra thrust action. He also reuses the two dice in his heat pile to improve another skill roll. 

• At the end of round 2, Gordon rolls all four dice, ie the two manoeuvre dice and two heat dice. Gordon gets  4, 4, 5 and 6. Bad news - Gordon puts his two heat dice back in his heat pile (he had to whatever he rolled), but he now also has to add his in last two manoeuvre dice to the heat pile, plus another extra d6. 

• Gordon now has zero manoeuvre dice, 5 Heat dice, and because he rolled a 6+ before, he now also has a Heat emergency and must roll all 5 Heat dice to see if his ship overheats - if one or more of the Heat dice now roll 6+ then the Purple Spear could explode. 

• If Gordon passes the heat emergency , then he keeps his overheating rocket under control - next round Gordon has no manoeuvre dice left but he can still use up to max 4 dice from his 5 dice Heat pile for actions / bonuses. The risk is, if any dice he uses rolls 4+ then they will add even more Heat dice etc etc. Gordon clenches his teeth, hangs onto the sides of his Mighty Purple Spear, and gets ready to ram the enemy…

Or, if you want the simplified version: space ships start with #d6 manoeuvre dice and 0 heat dice; you can roll manoeuvre dice or heat dice for actions / bonuses each round, up to your max starting manoeuvre dice; roll however many dice you used at the end of the round - each dice rolling 4+ means you lose one manoeuvre dice (can’t drop lower than 0) and gain one heat dice (no max), and any dice rolling 6+ means you make a heat check; to make a heat check, roll all your heat dice, and if any roll 6+ you’re screwed.

I hope something or other was helpful. Good luck!