FASA Games, Inc.

I don't wish to pry, but I'd be totally up for an update ...

Sorry Just found out 4th edition was alive and well. Please any update on this would be great.

*WHEW* Sorry about the radio silence there. Real-life things happen, and I now understand how hard it is to get updates out to an audience in the middle of that stress.

So, UPDATE! I'm editing all my design notes together today and you all get a taste of what's to come.

I came up with a concept that ties all the weird optional rules from earlier editions together, like pushing speed/maneuverability, splitting fire, etc, etc.

Called "Officer Maneuvers" this mechanic allows the Captain of a ship to order his or her Officers to do special actions a certain # of times per Ship Combat turn - depending on the number of Successes scored on the Captain's Ship Initiative(5) test. You also get a free Officer Maneuver whenever an enemy Captain fails to score 2 or more Successes with their chosen Ship Maneuver against you (in previous editions a successful Maneuver against you meant you could not act against that ship with your Maneuver later in the turn - skipping turns wasn't fun). Officer Maneuvers can be used to modify your Ship Maneuver, and some can be used as a reaction to your opponent's Ship Maneuver.

Each Officer Maneuver can be performed by a given Officer position (meaning that character rolls the test), but the Captain and 1st Mate can fill in for any missing/wounded Officer. This fits nicely alongside the basic Ship Maneuvers (Assault, Ramming, Boarding, Breaking-Off, and a new one - Parley), gives a sense of back-and-forth "dogfighting" during the Ship Combat turn, and most importantly this gets characters other than the Captain making tests and involved in the action.

I will have more details once I edit all my notes and run them by Josh Harrison. Thanks for the interest everyone!

Ah, yes I had a note about that somewhere - thank you for the reminder! This is another one of those numbers that needs to re-scale with the Speed stat. Thank the Passions for Anydice.com.

While you're "editing together the Crew attribute description", perhaps you should also decide what to do in case of a Captain who doesn't have the minimum skill rank listed, because let's face it, for sure one day, one of the PC will try to do it.

Should it be absolutely impossible to maneuver the ship at all in those conditions (not allowed to roll at all) ? Or should some heavy penalty be applied ?
Worded like it is, it seems to be the first option right now. Personnaly, I'm leaning towards the second option, as the basic principles to maneuvering a drakkar or a gallion are about the same, so I don't see forbiding the player to even try as fair. But of course, maneuvering a gallion is much harder, so I would give a big penalty if the PC doesn't have the skill rank required.