My players were whining about not being challenged enough.
So, I added 10% to every enemy ship's crew rating, hauled out the Navis Primer warp rules, included the various acquisition test penalties that Into the Storm added, and made up some modified upkeep and misfortune rules that...honestly, I really like!
HERE THEY ARE, COPIED RIGHT OFF THE FACEBOOK GROUP I POSTED THEM INTO SO THAT MY PLAYERS COULD READ THEM.
[paragraphs about acquisition penalties and drawing unwanted attention deleted]
Another way that [profit factor] can be reduced in the short term is by Upkeep - the oft read and yet almost never used rule that I will now include. Upkeep's rules for when they are applied are super vague, and so I will now MODIFY THEM TO BE MORE CLEAR! WOO!
Upkeep happens when you dock in a "friendly" port. It covers the buying new macro-cannon shells, restoring victuals, and giving your machine spirits a tune up. It DOES NOT cover re-crewing and giving your crew a moral boost (those are covered by their own rules.) You roll an Upkeep roll as a dirt simple PF check (with modifiers for the scale of the population and quality of the station. It is the inverse of the bonuses in the Acquisition chart. For example, Footfall is a poor quality port - lawless, cut throat, not well provisioned. However, it is vast, with a population well over 10,000. So, the total modifier to your Upkeep is +20, -10 by poor quality, +30 by the vast quantifier. Further modifiers WILL be incurred by tech level...it is hard to get macrocannons from feudal worlds. But not IMPOSSIBLE because you DO have manufactorums...)
So, what happens if you fail an Upkeep test?
You got three choices.
1) Disable ONE item or component. Pick either a SINGLE component or ONE ITEM PER CHARACTER. This component is rendered inoperable due to lack of materials/supplies/machine spirits...or the items are unable to be used due to lack of ammo, fuel cells, or maintenance.
(Example: After a four month voyage, the Hephaestus stops in orbit around Zaynth, the War World. Due to the various penalties, the Upkeep test fails. The group elects to render their starboard lance batteries unavailable due to being unable to get replacement lance cells. Alternatively, each PC can give up one item until the next upkeep test. The items or lance battery isn't lost...it just can't be used.)
2) No Restocking. In this case, you have resources for the guns...but not the crew. Your stores DO NOT REPLENISH! (You can replenish your stores at uninhabited, but life sustaining worlds, if you are willing to hunt the local wildlife while also netting ice asteroids with gun-cutters.) As a note, running out of stores does NOT instantly cause death - rather, it slowly chips away at morale and causes pellagra and scurvy.
3) Overstretch Profit Factor. Your PF? It is reduced by -5 until you raise it. If six months of REAL TIME (not warp time) passes without you raising it, it PERMANENTLY DROPS BY 5 as trade partners get fed up with the strains your endeavors put on their markets, your funds deplete, and other bad things happen.
There is something else that can drop your Profit Factor - Misfortunes. At the start of every Endeavor, I will roll to see if a Misfortune happens. Don't worry...it won't happen every time.
Do worry: When it happens, it will sink your profit factor. No chance of fixing it - the Koronus Expanse is vast, and by the time you hear your Cold Trade transports have been smashed by Orks, the corpses are buried and the profits lost. Fortunately, the MOST you can lose this way is 2 PF (the book has a 1d5 misfortune, but I'm ejecting that due to the lack of recompense), and you can recoup the losses by completing endeavors in a timely fashion.
The road to glory will be paved with trials. I hope these rules will keep that road...interesting.
