Random Events

Defined

An Event is defined as an incident that could conceivably result in the ship's destruction, if not successfully completed. Generally, these Events are not defined any further than this, though they can be. Events are described as one of five levels of complexity:

• Simple
• Routine
• Challenging
• Difficult
• Extreme

Levels

To see if the ship and its crew passes an Event, a Test roll is made. A successfull roll results in the success of both the mission and the survival of the ship (and its crew), with no further rolls necessary. If the first roll fails, another is made. A success in this roll indicates that although the mission was failed to be accomplished, the ship survived, albeit there is a chance of damage to the ship and casualties to the crew [see below]. A failure of the second roll results in the complete destruction of the ship (unless the scenario allows for an alternate result).

A Simple Event virtually guarantees a successful outcome. On a Ship skill below 50 has a chance of failing this Event, as the Test roll requires the ship to pass a roll against a doubled Ship skill.

Ex: The Ship skill is 62, which means a failure can only happen when a result of greater than 124 (62 x 2 = 124) on a 100 percentile roll occurs.

A Routine Event is nearly as easy as a Simple one, though there does exist a sizeable potential for failure. The percentile is rolled versus the unmodified Ship skill.

Ex: The Ship skill of 62 is higher than the percentile roll of 54, indicating a success. If the roll had been 63 or higher, the mission would have been a failure.

A Challenging Event requires a 25% reduction in the Ship skill, before the roll is made. If the percentile roll is higher than the modified Ship skill, the mission is a failure.

Ex: The Ship skill of 62 is modified as 46 (62 - 15.5 (averaged up to 16) = 46). A roll of 46 or less is required for success.

A Difficult Event requires a 50% reduction in the Ship skill, before the roll is made. If the percentile roll is higher than the modified Ship skill, the mission is a failure.

Ex: The Ship skill of 62 is modified as 31 (62 - 31 = 31). A roll of 31 or less is required for success.

A Extreme Event requires a 75% reduction in the Ship skill, before the roll is made. If the percentile roll is higher than the modified Ship skill, the mission is a failure.

Ex: The Ship skill of 62 is modified as 15 (62 - 46.5 (averaged up to 47) = 15). A roll of 15 or less is required for success.

Note: instead of rolling a d100 die for the Test percentile roll, instead roll two d10s, with the first representing the 'tens' digit and the second as the 'ones' digit. If both rolls are the same (ex: 6 and 6), then roll a third one and subtract that from the percentile. If the third roll also equals the original 'twin' rolls, roll and subtract again (and again and again, as long as each roll is the same as the original two). The effect is to lower the percentile roll in opposition to the Ship skill.

Event Determination

Every month, each commissioned ship has a 1 in 12 chance of engaging in an Event of some level. Instead of rolling for each ship every month to see if the ship had an Event, divide the number of active ships by twelve to determine the number of Monthly Events and then follow these steps:

1. Roll percentile dice four times. Each roll represents the number of Events at each level, starting with Simple ones, with each following percentile roll a factor of the remaining Events. Extreme events receive the final remainder.
   Ex: For the month of March, 80 Monthly Events are determined to occur. The four percentile rolls are 35, 16, 86 and 19, representing the Simple, Routine, Challenging and Difficult Events. Respectively (and in order), those result in 28 Simple, 8 Routine, 38 Challenging and 1 Difficult Events, leaving 5 Extreme Events.
2. The Simple Events can be ignored, since -in the majority of the cases- none of the Events will threaten the ship. However, they may be assigne to an individual ship, if preferred, using the below methods.
3. Routine, Challenging, Difficult and Extreme Events are assigned to individual ships, to have them played out via Test rolls. Determine the percentage for each primary class (ex: Constitution class) within the totality of all commissioned ships (including those engaged in refits or other similar yard periods) and apply the resulting number to randomized ships within that class as experiencing that level of Event. One ship can experience more than one Event per month. Note: Round out to the nearest whole number for the number of Events assigned to each ship class.
   Ex: The Constitution class of twelve ships makes up 7% of the active fleet and 38 Challenging Events have been determined to occur for the month of March. That means the Constitution class will have 3 Challenging Events (38 x 7% = 2.66, rounded up to 3) assigned to its ships.

[Note: a rule can/should be developed that assigns greater risk to certain ships, possibly to the newest line classes or classes assigned to particularly dangerous missions. For example, the USS Enterprise saw about 22 Challenging and harder Events every year during its third 5-year mission of exploration.]

Mission Failures

When an initial Test roll is not passed, the mission is deemed a failure. Whether or not the actual scenario goals were met or not, the Event resulted in an incident that may be regarded as catastrophic (ex: USS da Vinci's tragic loss of half the crew at Galvan VI still allowed for a successful recovery of the USS Orion and the Wildfire device, but in the spirit of these Events, it would have been seen as a mission failure). In the case of a failure, a second roll is made to determine if the ship itself survived the incident, with or without crew casualties.

The following rules show how to handle damage and casualty estimates based on failed rolls.

[further rules to be written will develop this].

Skill Points Awarded

As a ship's crew and captain's experiences increase, so do their respective skill levels, and -as a result- does the Ship skill. The addition of a point every two years of commissioned service has already been discussed, but the experience gained with Events is handled here.

A ship experiencing Simple Events is assumed to be gaining experience in line with the points awarded every two years. However, experience with higher levels of Events (Routine and higher) provide the opportunity for quicker points accumulation. These rules operate along hte basis that more is learned from a failure than from a success. While skill points can be gained from successes, in every case of failure, at least one point is earned.

Simple Events which are tracked individually and result in a mission failure earn one skill point, randomly assigned to either the captain or the crew.

Routine Events only garner points in circumstances where the mission failed, which is not a common event for Starfleet vessels at this level of Event. In the case of a mission failure, whether or not actual damage or casualties was incurred, one skill point is gained for both the captain and the crew.

Challenging Events earn one point for both skills, if the Event was successful (but as long as the ship survived). A mission failure results in one point for the captain, but two for the crew.

Difficult Events earn one skill point for a success for both skills and two points for both in the event of a failure.

Extreme Events earn two points for both skills, if the Event was successful. A mission failure also results in two points for both skills, but a third point is applied randonly to one of the two.

Ex: The ship survives a catastrophic Event, even though the mission failed. Randomly, the captain receives three skill points from the experience, while the crew receives two.