The new 3.4 version of Intercept is here and in this post I’ll try to briefly go through the changes. Aside the rulebook itself I have updated the ship design system (Ship.xls and Data.xls), the DataCard.pdf and of course all the ready made design, they are all available on the downloads page.
Initiative
- Initiative is determined as follows (in order of priority):
- 1 Untracked ships have higher Initiative (ignore 2-5 if Untracked)
- 2 Higher steps of turns have higher Initiative
- 3 Aft centerline advantage have higher Initiative
- 4 Ship tactics win ties with Pilot (optional)
- 5 Higher crew station win ties (Bridge > Full > Limited)
- 6 Break ties with player A wins on odd, B on even turns, note on DataCard.
Being on a ship’s Aft centerline while it is not in your Aft centerline breaks Initiative ties from steps of turn. This allows for more dogfighting opportunities for high turn ships and skilled Pilots, just the way we like it. As ships cannot attack targets in Aft centerline and those ships defend at -3 DM and thwy will also lose their Track at the end of a turn this is where you want to be.
Ship & Fleet tactics
This section has been moved to the optional rules as it rarely shows up in the small skirmishes typical for Intercept.
Sensors
The Sensor task is now used to determine what Signal that is required for a Tracked result, nothing else. Planet LOS rules has been considerably simplified and clarified.
Ramming, docking, aerobrakes etc
This section has been rewritten to be more consistent and realistic. Take special note in how hard docking has become; you should make a VGood result to ensure docking but thankfully co-vector ships that drifted will get a whopping +6, +2 for both drifting and another +4 for co-vector.
Relative velocity
Another line of 0 delta has been added that reduce PEN & DAM by -6 and give a +4 DM, a great boon for docking ships.
Missile design
Missile design has been moved to the design system section and nuke missiles has been added to the optional rules.
Missiles need no longer be within launcher arc except during impact, they must still be within launcher range at the end of each turn though.
Underpower
Power requirements were always a bit nebulous in Intercept and has now been clarified and automated. The Ship.xls has fields for any Underpower DM, one for Thrust and another for Drift. There are of course places to fill these in on the DataCard.
Attack arcs
Attack arcs for missiles, ramming and co-vector ships has been clarified and moved to the general combat section as it is relevant for more than missiles.
Armor penetration
You no longer roll for armor penetration, instead you just compare PEN vs ARM and get Full penetration, Partial penetration or No penetration, one less die roll to bother with.
Damage
Damage is rolled as usual, but a 1 is a Cascading Damage and a 6 is a Stun with immediate and harsh stun effects. A Destroyed result is no longer rerolled as Hull damage but instead it simply adds damage to the Hull; Severe damage for destroyed Surface location and Critical for the other locations, one less die roll there too.
Scale
Small scale has been removed as I will never make useable planet LOS rules for planets covering half the map and combat involving nearby asteroids can be handled just as well with normal scale. The Large scale rules have been updated to cover the other changes from above.
Intercept notes
I moved my notes out of the design system and into the last page of the rulebook, just before the two pages of reiterated tables at the back.
Vector movement 