A civilian ship has enough power to run all of its systems simultaneously, and has enough carrying capacity to channel up to an additional 1D to any system, rerouted from any other system. Military ships have an additional 3D of power that can be rerouted. This power is in raw form and has no benefit to computer systems, like the navigational or targeting computers.  It is able to boost communications range or active sensor scans. If power is directed to these systems and the operator fails his roll [see table 1] then the systems takes damage, roll a number of dice equal to the dice of power transferred; as these systems are not designed to handle the extra power.

In addition, power is commonly routed from an inactive system to an active one, and from non firing weapons to firing weapons.

For example, the 'Far Orbit' is in an exchange with another escort frigate.  Captain Vedij orders extra power routed to  the main weapons and shields.  Power Control takes this power from the ships 2 tractor beams with 4D of power each - 11D additional power to be divided among the 12 main turbo lasers and shields [ 4D from each tractor beam, and 3D from the power core 4+4+3=11D].  Power Control allocates the 11D in any way they choose. But, all of the same components, in the same fire arc must get allocated the same amount of additional power. I.e.; if +2 pips are allocated to 1 turbo laser than +2 pips must be added to all turbo lasers.

Any extra power that cannot be evenly distributed is allocated to another system, or the waste power buffer.

The power controller might route power from the left arc shields or weapons, but that would mean that the left arc would be with little or no defenses to fend off surprises from that side of the ship.  Star fighters with shields do this occasionally, switching shield power to a particular side of the ship that the pilot expects to come under heavy fire.

Please note that ships moving  "all-out" (at he highest rate of speed) cannot fire or maneuver (shields lose 1 pip per round).  This is chalked up to routing all available power to the engines.

Civilian ships are light freighters and other such ships. Most capital scale ships and most fighters are considered 'military' ships.

Note: If the power level is increased to more than 1.5 times the original value the system has a 2 in 6 chance of overloading and damaging the system. At 1.75 times the power level the chance increases to 4 in 6 chance of failure. And anything over 1.75 times the power will give a 5 in 6 chance of failure. A role on a D6 should be done every 3 rounds to check for power failure.
 

Transferring power is a demanding task, and carries some built in difficulties.  Use the following as benchmark difficulty numbers:    Condition: Base Difficulty: Simple power rerouting  (single system to single recipient) Moderate Rerouting multiple systems to a  single recipient Difficult Rerouting multiple systems to   multiple recipients Very Difficult

Power switching takes time, however.  When the power operator rolls as indicated right, compare the result to the table below.    Operator's Roll: Time Taken: 1-5 2D rounds 6-10 1D rounds 11-15 2 rounds 16-20 1 round 21+ 1 second

© 1998-1999 Tevors Contacts: Star Wars RPG