OK, so this kinda came up in last nights game...

Shields... what exactly can they do?

We know there are Particle Shields, that protect against physical things, like micrometeorites (Like Star Trek Deflectors).

And we know there are Ray Shields, that protect against Energy blasts (Lasers and the like).

What we have seen on screen:

The Exhaust Port was Ray Sheilded, but that didnt prevent a Proton Torpedo penetrating it.

The DS2 was Shielded, and apparerently, that was enough to turn ALL SHIPS AWAY. However, it allowed the DS2 to Fire THROUGH it.

SOMETHING kept enough Atmosphere around the Falcon in ESB (IF that was because it was inside a worm, or they were inside a shield, I dont know).

We see the Naboo Starfighter has a shield in TPM, its ship conformed. Rather than a bubble.

We see some kind of shield keeping the atmosphere IN, on docking bays on ships and the Death Stars.

Droidekas have shileds that deflect energy weapons.

Gungans have Shield Generators that deflect energy weapons, but Droids can pass through them. Either because they are slow moving, or because they are not organic.

So.... how do you all see shields and what they CAN and CANNOT do?

Are they bubbles (Like Trek). or conform to ship shape?

Can PEOPLE pass thought them? Or anything organic for that matter?

Can you land while you have shields up? If they are a bubble, do they penetrate the 'floor/ground' or would the ship 'sit on' the shields (if they are a bubble?)

If (and this was last nights issue), people are standing ON TOP of a YT-1300, and the shields are raised... what happens?

If its a bubble, and the ship flys off with people 'inside the bubble' do they.. roll around inside said bubble, until they die?

If its a bubble, does it keep the atmosphere inside? Like docking bay shields?

Or are there more than what I have described here for things like Docking Bays?

How do i describe these things to my players?

Thoughts?

Shields are a McGuffin. They do what you need them to do and work how you need them to.

Shields are a McGuffin. They do what you need them to do and work how you need them to.

Yeahh.. IM behind that.. my players would pitch a fit due to "inconsistencies"

How do i describe these things to my players?

Seriously? I'd ask a player who asked that why he's wasting everyone's time. There's no reason you should have to account for every technical detail in the universe, and in the extremely unlikely event it's actually important to the story, the players should work with you to quickly resolve it and move on. Just use an example from what you've seen in the media and be done with it.

Organic matter can go through some types of shields, in TCW Rex shoots a droideka by carefully entering the bubble.

If (and this was last nights issue), people are standing ON TOP of a YT-1300, and the shields are raised... what happens?

Nothing. Why should anything happen? In TCW there are several instances of people entering a (presumably shielded) ship from the outside, making contact with the surface, etc.

Yeahh.. IM behind that.. my players would pitch a fit due to "inconsistencies"

Now I'm PO'd on your behalf. It seems extremely shallow and discourteous to expect you to have to answer those kinds of questions. There is no way that kind of information is important, neither in the moment, nor to catalogue for a future event.

SOMETHING kept enough Atmosphere around the Falcon in ESB (IF that was because it was inside a worm, or they were inside a shield, I dont know).

No, that was writers needing to avoid having to put their characters in space suits. The face masks were the token "this environment is hostile" sop to the audience.

@Whafrog.

Ref: Inconsistencies.

One of my players made a similar point post game.... regarding range bands.

That If I had described 'half the length of the ship' as Medium range he is now automatically thinking "Well, if a YT1300 is 24 metres long, than Medium range is 17 metres"

And If I then later describe something as being in Medium range, but a different distance, that "inconsistency" would "annoy the group".

I have made it very very clear to said player (who has been conditioned over 20 years of other games systems), that he needs to "let this adherence to the mechanical" go... he says the others will feel the same (not too sure on this, but 2 of the other 3 are computer programmers who deal with "numbers and limits" not "abstract").

As soon as said player (who is VERY mechanical minded) gets an idea in his head, its VERY hard to shift.

Basically, if i make a ruling or description in one session, and than rule or describe something different later.. he would pick up on it... often if it disagrees with something he has read in the EU (Which I can deal with), but if i change something I describe later, he would call me on it, and claim it it "not fair to change out conceptions of something you have laid out previously"

Shields are a McGuffin. They do what you need them to do and work how you need them to.

Yeahh.. IM behind that.. my players would pitch a fit due to "inconsistencies"

Shields are able to be re-programmed to assume a variety of shapes and fulfill a number of roles as the individual scenario warrants. The given situation and myriad of indeterminate variables makes it impossible to lay out a finite range of specifications at this time. Move along citizen, nothing to see here.....

Basically, if i make a ruling or description in one session, and than rule or describe something different later.. he would pick up on it... often if it disagrees with something he has read in the EU (Which I can deal with), but if i change something I describe later, he would call me on it, and claim it it "not fair to change out conceptions of something you have laid out previously"

Being a software developer myself, I know the type: classic "can't see the forest for the trees", with no sense of perspective. I know guys who, if they had their way, would spend hours making a single function run as fast as possible, with no sense of the impact on the application overall.

But it's just too bad for this player, there's no reason you have to adapt for them. If anything, just reiterate that you're not responsible for every little detail that might come up. That's a Herculean task and it's rude of them to assume you would have answers on such trivialities. The amount of effort you put into the detail is going to have a direct correlation with its frequency and its importance to the game. As for ranges vs meters, there's not much you can do but reiterate that it's abstract, and if you say it's Medium range, then *#$* $&^$# that's where it is You don't have to answer how many meters away it is.

Basically, hold your ground. Clearly they must be having fun because you are continually having new sessions, so I wouldn't sweat their banalities. Besides, you can always turn it back on them: "If this detail is so important to you, why don't you propose some rules and we'll have a look and see how balanced it is? Meanwhile, I'll carry on developing the story."

That If I had described 'half the length of the ship' as Medium range he is now automatically thinking "Well, if a YT1300 is 24 metres long, than Medium range is 17 metres"

Soooo.....

Though lets see if we can get some answers to keep ol Sheldon from whining...

Are they bubbles (Like Trek). or conform to ship shape?

Most conform to avoid collision issues, but bubbles are easier to produce so cheaper shield gens (or miniaturized ones) may be bubbles.

Can PEOPLE pass thought them? Or anything organic for that matter?

Anything going slow enough with enough force can "push through" unless the shield was specifically designed to prevent it. The force needed is proportional to mass and volume and velocity, so a person can brute force in fairly easily, but a tank can't. Shield are not totally impenetrable, enough force/energy/power and anything can get through, that's why Star Wars doesn't have weapons that slow down at the last second, it's cheaper and easier to just hit hard enough. (see Siege of Lothal)

Additionally shields are not a single "solid" energy barrier. That's the most visible part, but the shield's ability to disrupt energy and matter extends out slightly (think about how heat radiates out and dissipates as you get further away from the source) So glancing shots may actually deflect off a distance from the shielded object. (See ANH) This effect also radiates inward a little, so shoving your blaster through the shield and firing won't always work.

Can you land while you have shields up? If they are a bubble, do they penetrate the 'floor/ground' or would the ship 'sit on' the shields (if they are a bubble?)

Yes, you land and the gear/skids sit on the ground. That's one of the reasons why most shields aren't designed to keep out everything (see above). Additionally the shields are tuned to allow this. (Also why Destroyer droids can still walk/stand with the shield up).

Preemptive answer: Yes hitting those weakpoints can allow you to get through (it's called a setback coming up blank), but the shield still works normally re: energy/mass/ect required to penetrate when it comes to your typical weapons fire (so calling shots on the landing gear won't do much unless your weapon of choice is able to replicate a planet surface... so like a Sil 8 asteroid might work... of course if you're lobbing sil 8 asteroids at your target there's other more pressing issues to address).

If (and this was last nights issue), people are standing ON TOP of a YT-1300, and the shields are raised... what happens?

They feel a tingling around their ankles.

If its a bubble, and the ship flys off with people 'inside the bubble' do they.. roll around inside said bubble, until they die?

No. They fall out. Unless the shield was built otherwise. Or if they have magnetic boots....

If its a bubble, does it keep the atmosphere inside? Like docking bay shields?

Or are there more than what I have described here for things like Docking Bays?

Docking bays use "magnetic field projectors" (those white light borders on the bay opening) to retain atmo. These are separate systems from defensive shielding, but are still occasionally referred to as "shields" in passing.

How do i describe these things to my players?

Don't until it actually becomes an issue that needs to be explained.

Has he watched Star Wars at all? WTH does he think it is, Planetes? Star Wars has never been hard sci-fi, not even close.

The only answer I can give about shields is "I can't really say for sure" because we're dealing with 30+ years of fiction in the hands of hundreds of different sci-fi writers, who often use words because they sound 'science-y' and not because they actually make sense. That, and plot armor. "It's just a [game], I should really just relax."

I won't get into the other stuff about dealing with the players, other than that sounds like a perfect opportunity to read the rules and explain that making different ballpark guesstimates on range is within the spirit of the game. I'm surprised you haven't had complaints about silhouettes yet.

This game is nota dungeons crawl, that's what Imperial Assault is for. It's also not a tactical space combat simulator, that's X-Wing/Armada.

Your players seem to have missed that this game is a story telling device, it's about developing characters and their lives. It's supposed to be epic, but also Cinematic. And movies very often forgo consistency and physics to make for a better story. A good movie often moves quickly too. That's the key to this game, many rules are loose to allow the story to keep moving.

The best example I have heard of this is the old "I search the room"

In some systems a failure could lead to taking twenty, just to make sure. In this system though a single roll should easily cover searching the entire building, and the story moves on.

I hope you have luck getting through the 20xD20 barrier in your players heads

Also in the clone wars, if you tossed grenades to roll slowly enough they could pass through droid shields.. so they seemed to deflect More kinetic energy as much as ray shielding.

You roll the dice, THEN you figure out what happened. All their fancy "I aim at this weak point" or "the arc of my grenade at 12.4 meters places the blast radius..." explanations are what you use to describe a roll, not what you say before you make one.

Let them go absolutely nuts with tech detail and all the EU flavor they want. After they roll.

"But you said it was 17 meters before!" can be handled by saying "that was on another planet where the local gravity was .96 standard but the higher atmospheric pressure had adversely degraded the seals on your blaster gas canister. Since all of this is relative and there is no way to quantify everything, you abstractly can't shoot as far today. Because reasons."

You roll the dice, THEN you figure out what happened. All their fancy "I aim at this weak point" or "the arc of my grenade at 12.4 meters places the blast radius..." explanations are what you use to describe a roll, not what you say before you make one.

Let them go absolutely nuts with tech detail and all the EU flavor they want. After they roll.

"But you said it was 17 meters before!" can be handled by saying "that was on another planet where the local gravity was .96 standard but the higher atmospheric pressure had adversely degraded the seals on your blaster gas canister. Since all of this is relative and there is no way to quantify everything, you abstractly can't shoot as far today. Because reasons."

This. This. This. The system is designed for the roll to happen IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR TURN.

Covered already, but I had always assumed there were many and varied types of shields. Some conformed. Some didn't (bubbles). I can think of three types of shields. Some were named in movies, some not: Ray Shields, Particle Shields, and Atmospheric Shields for Energy, Matter, and Gas.

Ray Shields: Stops energy - lasers, blasters, etc.

Particle Shields: Stops fast-moving matter - speeding ships, asteroids, slugthrowers, etc. Slow moving objects can pass through. The battle droids on Naboo could walk through them. A grenade could be rolled slowly through a droideka's shields.

Atmospheric Shields: Keeps in (or out) atmosphere/gases. Doesn't hinder matter. Doesn't keep out atmosphere/gases that are locked up inside ships, space suits, etc. We see these primarily covering space launch ports. They are simpler then opening up a large airlock each time you want to launch a ship.

Most of the time combat shields will include both Ray and Particle shielding. So, no advantage using a slugthrower versus a blaster. Of course there is that one time where Engineer Bob decided to save some money by only covering the exhaust ports on the Death Star with Ray Shielding. Then there was that incident which led to an Imperial investigation. Poor Bob. Poor Bob's extended family.

Covered already, but I had always assumed there were many and varied types of shields. Some conformed. Some didn't (bubbles). I can think of three types of shields. Some were named in movies, some not: Ray Shields, Particle Shields, and Atmospheric Shields for Energy, Matter, and Gas.

Ray Shields: Stops energy - lasers, blasters, etc.

Particle Shields: Stops fast-moving matter - speeding ships, asteroids, slugthrowers, etc. Slow moving objects can pass through. The battle droids on Naboo could walk through them. A grenade could be rolled slowly through a droideka's shields.

Atmospheric Shields: Keeps in (or out) atmosphere/gases. Doesn't hinder matter. Doesn't keep out atmosphere/gases that are locked up inside ships, space suits, etc. We see these primarily covering space launch ports. They are simpler then opening up a large airlock each time you want to launch a ship.

Most of the time combat shields will include both Ray and Particle shielding. So, no advantage using a slugthrower versus a blaster. Of course there is that one time where Engineer Bob decided to save some money by only covering the exhaust ports on the Death Star with Ray Shielding. Then there was that incident which led to an Imperial investigation. Poor Bob. Poor Bob's extended family.

the particle shields you detail there blocked both slug-throwers, hard thrown grenades and Blasters as well.

Also in the clone wars, if you tossed grenades to roll slowly enough they could pass through droid s moving hields.. so they seemed to deflect More kinetic energy as much as ray shielding.

Yeah the novelization of episode I talks a little about hw the Gungan shields work. They stop small fast objects like blaster fire and really big slow moving objects like tanks but not small slow moving objects like infantry or slowly rolling grenades.

the particle shields you detail there blocked both slug-throwers, hard thrown grenades and Blasters as well.

Most of the time combat shields will include both Ray and Particle shielding.

I have made it very very clear to said player (who has been conditioned over 20 years of other games systems), that he needs to "let this adherence to the mechanical" go... he says the others will feel the same (not too sure on this, but 2 of the other 3 are computer programmers who deal with "numbers and limits" not "abstract").

As soon as said player (who is VERY mechanical minded) gets an idea in his head, its VERY hard to shift.

I'm a computer programmer that finds the abstract nature of the game to be refreshing. I've played D&D for years and have gotten way to used to square grid maps dictating what my mind pictures. The great thing about FFG's system is that everyone can build their own picture in their head for what the scene looks like.

As a crude example: let's say I think 100 feet is "medium range", so when I am told there are stormtroopers at medium range that's what I picture. But maybe the guy next to me thinks 30 feet is medium, so he has his own picture in his mind. In the end it doesn't matter.

Type of shields matter

Ray shield: these takes a lot of power. Usually a beam of energy as in a solid wall of energy (varied in scope some prevent passage of things to scalding death)

Deflector shields: used to deflect or absorb/mitigate energy from bullets to beams. These requier less energy as they surround objects and not as powerful as ray shields.

Take it as you will

SOMETHING kept enough Atmosphere around the Falcon in ESB (IF that was because it was inside a worm, or they were inside a shield, I dont know).

I'm not so sure about that. There's a few indications that, in the Star Wars universe, space isn't *quite* a vacuum like it is in our universe.

1) Ships maneuver in space like planes maneuver in Earth's atmosphere, complete with banking turns.

2) In ESB, while inside the Space Slug, while the crew needed breath masks indicating that they couldn't breathe whatever was out there, but they didn't need pressure suits, indicating that they weren't in any danger of decompression.

3) In one of the Clone Wars episodes (S1E3), Jedi Master Ploo Koon fought droids with his lightsaber *in space* with only the protection of his breath mask, to protect an escape pod full of troops.

4) Mynocks can travel through space. Unless they have reaction mass of some sort, that requires a fluid medium similar to an atmosphere.

There's other examples beyond these three, but it just goes to show that, in Star Wars, pressure suits aren't needed in space, you just need a source of breathable atmosphere. Clearly space in Star Wars is more similar to the old theory of the ether/aether.

One of my players made a similar point post game.... regarding range bands.

That If I had described 'half the length of the ship' as Medium range he is now automatically thinking "Well, if a YT1300 is 24 metres long, than Medium range is 17 metres"

And If I then later describe something as being in Medium range, but a different distance, that "inconsistency" would "annoy the group".

Tell him that the rules explicitly establish that the length of range bands can vary. The beginner rules state that "Medium range can be up to several dozen meters away. Note that the rules don't say that Medium range IS up to several dozen meters away, they say that Medium Range CAN be up to several dozen meters.

Since "several" is defined as "more than two but less than many" be can see that Medium Range CAN be up to at least three dozen meters.

Long Range is established as "more than a few dozen meters away". Since "few" is defined as "not many but more than one" than Long Range CAN be as short as two dozen meters.

Therefore using the letter of the text of beginner game and standard definitions of "several" and "few" we can clearly see that anything at between two dozen and three dozen meters is at either Medium or Long Range, as the GM sees fit. [if he wants to use Blacks Law dictionary for more precise definitions of 'Few" and "several" you have a (literal) Rules Lawyer on your hands. You might think about suggesting he play another game instead.]

Regarding the original questions, and conspicuously ignoring the correlation to any player/GM issues:

Ray/deflector shielding: This is fairly energy efficient, typically reasonably conforming shielding common on just about any combat starship aside from TIEs. On some ships, it's more bubbled and on others it's almost a second skin...this can be attributed to the specifics of the shield projectors and how they can adapt to hull shape. Not necessarily better or worse at deflection, just different. These shields stop energy but not matter (so lasers, not missiles...but if the missile exploded *near* you, your shields would absorb the blast energy (though any shrapnel would fly right through)).

Particle shielding: Naturally, this protects against matter. It's important to note here the power demands. Most every ship has very basic particle shields to prevent tiny meteors from causing a hull breach, or to shrug off the effects of small particulates...but the shields necessary to shrug off weaponized matter (torpedoes, missiles, etc) require much more energy, typically only seen in larger freighters and capital ships. While in theory they could prevent a ship from coming through, usually their power is of a level that any sort of collision would simply overload them, and the collision would still have disastrous effects for both ships. This is the type of shielding we see protecting the Death Star in RotJ (powered by a huge ground based generator and projected by a multiple-stories-tall dish type orbital projector) as well as protecting Echo Base in ESB (though this was of a "shutter shield" variety. The shutter style was a function of the projector that allowed the shield to be deployed as movable "panes" of invisible shielding, allowing the rebels to create slot openings for transports to evacuate, and closing the gap again before the Star Destroyers could identify the gaps to exploit them. This shield was powered by the massive generator that also powered the ion cannon (which was capable of ionizing ships as big as a star destroyer), and as such, it projected shields so powerful that the imperial fleet knew better than to waste their efforts trying to bring it down from orbit, and instead opted to land a ground force on the planet outside the edge of the shields and march overland to knock out the power to the shield, enabling orbital bombardment and a general assault. There's also some suggestion that speed plays a role in particle shielding as well, and that a shield can be adjusted to allow slower matter to pass while blocking/destroying larger matter, but this isn't always consistently demonstrated.

Finally, there's magnetic shielding/fielding which allows various craft to create an invisible, fully permeable barrier between atmosphere and vacuum, but allow personnel and ships to pass through freely. These shields/fields are reasonably efficient, considering it's considered feasible to maintain them all the time instead of having physical doors sealing off docking bays on most larger ships and stations. It's also vaguely suggested that they use a system that employs the same principles as an airlock, with two fields (considering that in ANH we can hear someone say, "Opening the magnetic field." and yet all of the atmosphere doesn't vent from the bay, killing everyone inside).

Here is a Slightly Related Question.

Example first from the shows and movies.

A Capital ship is attacked (or the death star) and they are like,

"The Shields are to powerful to punch through. Even Turbo lasers can't penetrate! We Need to get those shields down. "

So they Deliberately attack the Shield Generator with Proton torpedoes. (Or fire them down the Exhaust shaft)

So where are these "Shields" that are so powerful that one can't penetrate them.

And how, Why is the Shield generator So much Weaker that it can just be popped but the rest of the ship can't be damaged?

The Current system of "Shields" acting as set back dice to attack rolls doesn't represent this very well.

The other part that isn't represented very well are that shields tended to be ablative... and with enough fire power or hits you could Over load the shields causing them to collapse.

I have Thought of Representing Shields as a Sort of Soak/Wound that Renews itself by X amount of soak each round.

Say a Ship had 20 Shield Soak with a regen Rate of 10 per round.

In one round the Enemy did 15 Points of Damage from attacks Bringing the Shields down to 5, But the ship regenerates 10 points of shield, bringing it back up to 15,

The Next round the Group hits twice for a total of 24 points of damage.. The Shields Take 15 of it Collapsing the Shields, 9 poits of damage gets through to the ship, is reduced by the ships armor and then the rest actually causes Hull trauma to the ship.

The Pilot, or other ship crew, Needs to spend an Action and a Mechanics check, to restore the shields at some difficulty based on damage done to the ship. or what not.

"R2! See what you can do about reinforcing those shields!"

Here is a Slightly Related Question.

Example first from the shows and movies.

A Capital ship is attacked (or the death star) and they are like,

"The Shields are to powerful to punch through. Even Turbo lasers can't penetrate! We Need to get those shields down. "

So they Deliberately attack the Shield Generator with Proton torpedoes. (Or fire them down the Exhaust shaft)

So where are these "Shields" that are so powerful that one can't penetrate them.

And how, Why is the Shield generator So much Weaker that it can just be popped but the rest of the ship can't be damaged?

The Current system of "Shields" acting as set back dice to attack rolls doesn't represent this very well.

The other part that isn't represented very well are that shields tended to be ablative... and with enough fire power or hits you could Over load the shields causing them to collapse.

I have Thought of Representing Shields as a Sort of Soak/Wound that Renews itself by X amount of soak each round.

Say a Ship had 20 Shield Soak with a regen Rate of 10 per round.

In one round the Enemy did 15 Points of Damage from attacks Bringing the Shields down to 5, But the ship regenerates 10 points of shield, bringing it back up to 15,

The Next round the Group hits twice for a total of 24 points of damage.. The Shields Take 15 of it Collapsing the Shields, 9 poits of damage gets through to the ship, is reduced by the ships armor and then the rest actually causes Hull trauma to the ship.

The Pilot, or other ship crew, Needs to spend an Action and a Mechanics check, to restore the shields at some difficulty based on damage done to the ship. or what not.

"R2! See what you can do about reinforcing those shields!"

I actually really like this idea and would love to see how it plays out with some testing.

Here is a Slightly Related Question.

Example first from the shows and movies.

A Capital ship is attacked (or the death star) and they are like,

"The Shields are to powerful to punch through. Even Turbo lasers can't penetrate! We Need to get those shields down. "

So they Deliberately attack the Shield Generator with Proton torpedoes. (Or fire them down the Exhaust shaft)

So where are these "Shields" that are so powerful that one can't penetrate them.

And how, Why is the Shield generator So much Weaker that it can just be popped but the rest of the ship can't be damaged?

The Current system of "Shields" acting as set back dice to attack rolls doesn't represent this very well.

The other part that isn't represented very well are that shields tended to be ablative... and with enough fire power or hits you could Over load the shields causing them to collapse.

I have Thought of Representing Shields as a Sort of Soak/Wound that Renews itself by X amount of soak each round.

Say a Ship had 20 Shield Soak with a regen Rate of 10 per round.

In one round the Enemy did 15 Points of Damage from attacks Bringing the Shields down to 5, But the ship regenerates 10 points of shield, bringing it back up to 15,

The Next round the Group hits twice for a total of 24 points of damage.. The Shields Take 15 of it Collapsing the Shields, 9 poits of damage gets through to the ship, is reduced by the ships armor and then the rest actually causes Hull trauma to the ship.

The Pilot, or other ship crew, Needs to spend an Action and a Mechanics check, to restore the shields at some difficulty based on damage done to the ship. or what not.

"R2! See what you can do about reinforcing those shields!"

I actually really like this idea and would love to see how it plays out with some testing.

As would I, I am just trying to decide what 1 Defense equates to.... 10 Soak? 15? 20? And what defines collapsing the shields...if you have 10 soak of shield and 10 soak are delivered.. are the shields collapsed? if 11 points are delivers??

Just trying t work this our.. Most Freighters only have 1 defense in 1 or two positions.. Yet the Falcon, in Empire strikes back, took several hits from Turbo lasers, Or so it seemed. And turbo lasers do 9, 10 and 11 base damage..

Perhaps they shifted the shields all to the rear, This would give the falcon 2 defense to the rear.. which if i went with 10 soak per defense, would give the falcon 20 soak to the rear at that point.

Then I must decide what the regeneration rate is.

Can the shields full recharge each Round, as long as they haven't been collapsed?

I am thinking, yes they can fully recharge each round, but then I need to define a Collapse.

I am thinking here that damage has o be dealt exceeding the full value by at least 1 point. Or, the Enemy has to Do damage exceeding the shield value And then use advantages to declare a temporary shield collapse. This 'temporary' collapse lasts until some one uses a maneuver to make a mechanics check to restore the shields.

What would the Mechanics check difficulty be? still thinking on that one.

But going to bed.