Torch Dives and Small Craft

 So Rob, what are we doing to nerf the players today?

Dang -coming up with ways to nerf players gets tiresome. Instead let us look at an old post 

In it I posited changing the fuel use in 2d6 Games, earmarking 10-60% of ship mass for your maneuver drives and 1-6% of ship mass for your Jump drives. To be more clear 10% fuel will allow thrusting at 1G for one week, 20% will allow thrusting at 2Gs for a week or 1G for two weeks. Work out the rest yourselves.

Now I also say that jump space (or hyper, pick your flavor) draws matter in it. This creates a huge and incredibly convenient Oberth effect. As your propellant is drawn into the nether-verse, it speeds up and to balance the books, your ship speeds up. The exhaust then conveniently vanishes. The M-drive is thus related to the Jump Drive. So far with none of its side effects. Use it in orbit, who cares if your exhaust misjumps?

That part is bugging me. What if the M-drive requires a Jump Grid or other J-Drive fittings? You have a 100 ton lower limit to M-Drives. I'd amend this to 90 tons so there's a reason to keep building shuttles and larger small craft.

Let's make up a rule for fuel use for the small craft and their torch drives. My beloved '77 2d6 rule set posited using 10 Kg. of propellant per turn for all small crafts, all accelerations. I say 10 Kg. *M*G*T, where M is the mass of the ship in tons, T is turns of acceleration,  and G's is the acceleration (if you're new to this).

Fighters are nerfed. Some people will hail me for this, viewing fighters as the comic bookish force multiplying dodge. 

If you want a fighter, then a bird that displaces 10 tons and pulls 6 Gs for 6 turns is a third propellant (10*10*6*6=3600 Kg.) and can flit about for bout 90 minutes full thrust. Then it needs a refill. 

I'll be fair and increase the discount for unstreamlined/dispersed hulls to 25% (this is the only time having 25% off your hull is a good thing.) They may have to use small craft to make deliveries and it has become harder. 

I'd also use unrefined fuel for the torch drive with no ill effects. After all you're heating it and shooting out your back. Not buying it like fuel in a reactor. 



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