[Afterburners] -[Civilian FTL Drives] - [Grav Spindle Drive] - [Main Drive/Maneuver Splitting] - [Shröedinger’s Hammer Overdrive]
'Afterburners' are one-shot thruster units that can be used to temporarily increase a ship's thrust rating.
The use of Afterburners is specified during Phase 1) WRITE ORDERS, each Afterburner used adds ONE point of thrust to the current thrust rating of the ship. The amount of thrust rating available for manoeuvres is based upon the TOTAL thrust available that turn (i.e. normal drives may apply up to half their total thrust, including that from Afterburners, for manoeuvring, while advanced drives can apply ALL of it). Once each Afterburner is used, its icon is crossed off.
If the total thrust applied exceed 15 on any turn, then every Crew Factor on the ship must roll a threshold check at the current level, each crew factor that fails has been incapacitated by the excessive acceleration, and is crossed off. If all Crew Factors are crossed off, the ship becomes a drifting hulk. All Afterburners on a ship are treated as a single system when resolving threshold checks, if it fails, all the Afterburners are disabled.
Each two Afterburners requires 1% of the ship's MASS, rounded up. They cost 1 point per MASS. Afterburners may only be installed on a ship whose MASS is 30 or less.
ICON (examples):
[Charles] I have a number of questions and suggestions:
- Why the maximum MASS restriction? physically, there is no reason, I can see, why such a system could not be installed on larger ships, and the increase in MASS and cost is already factored in.
- If the ship has an advanced drive, then the cost of the Afterburners should be increased to 3 per 2 MASS.
- Extend the 'crew fatalities' rule, maybe give the threshold check a -1 penalty for every 5 additional points of thrust over 15.
- If the Afterburner system fails a threshold check, halve the number of usable Afterburners available (c.f. Main Drive thresholds).
Civilian FTL Drives are not made to the exacting standards of military FTL drives, the exact differences will vary from genre to genre, but in general, they will have longer cycle times between jumps, shorter jump ranges, and may well be less accurate. They may well have 'safety governors' that prevent them from being used dangerously.
In the 'Tuffleyverse' genre (see Fleet Book 1, page 44), a Civilian FTL Drive will probably be unable to jump more than once every 24 hours, and in general usage will be used less often than that. It will probably not be able of jumping more than 4 or 5 light years in a single jump. When it exits an FTL jump, its positional error will be 1D6×2 or 1D6×3, with an option that if the die rolls 6 (before multiplication), then it is re–rolled, and the positional error distance is the dice roll ×12 or ×18.
It takes longer for a Civilian FTL Drive to prep for a jump, the normal time required is 10 turns, during which the ship cannot apply any thrust factors or fire weapons. This time can be shortened by a successful Damage Control roll, which reduces the time required by 1D6 turns, however, if this is done, the ship must roll for an FTL mishap, as if it had attempted to jump too close to another body (see Full Thrust page 24), but with a -1 to the D6 roll (ignore this modifier if the die rolled 1 or 2). A Civilian FTL Drive will NOT perform a jump if the ship’s sensors detect any other object capable of causing a jump mishap within a distance of 24mu.
None of the following systems will function if installed upon a ship fitted with a Civilian FTL Drive: Wave Gun, Cloaking Device, any Stealth Technology, or Spacial Discontinuity Cannon. The Civilian FTL Drive should only be used for campaign play (where its disadvantages, i.e. slow movement, are likely to be relevant), it should NOT be used in tournament play or one–off games, except as appropriate for the scenario (i.e. on a Civilian Hull).
A Civilian FTL Drive requires 10% of the ship's total MASS and costs 1 point per MASS.
ICON: 
The Shrödinger’s Hammer Overdrive is a modified FTL drive that can be used to create a macroscopic uncertainty in the ships actual position, such that the ship will momentarily appear to be in two different positions at once!
The activation of a SHO is written in the orders for a turn. That turn the the ship plots 2 different movements. Both of which can be anything within the normal manoeuvre capabilities of the ship. Until the ship performs an action (i.e. fires weapons, launches fighters, performs an active scan, etc.) it IS in both places at the same time.
When it fires, the probable location collapses into the single actual location of the player's choice at that time . While the ship is in this 'dual state', it can be fired upon in either location as if it were in both places at the same time. After probability has collapsed, it is only in the one location. This effect can be sustained for multiple turns, until the ship acts on an external object (as defined above).
If the ship receives damage while in this 'dual state', roll 2D6 during Phase 10) TURN END of the turn on which it sustained damage. A roll of 2 or 12 means ship vanishes in a probabilistic anomaly, as if it never existed. If the ship's FTL drive (i.e. the SHO) is damaged while in the 'dual state', the ship is destroyed.
A Shrödinger’s Hammer Overdrive can also function as a normal FTL drive.
A Shrödinger’s Hammer Overdrive is installed instead of a normal FTL drive. It requires 12.5% (1/8) of the ship's total MASS and costs 2 points per MASS.
ICON: 
[Charles] Some questions;
Also, this strikes me as being a VERY dangerous device to use.
- Is there a limit to how often the SHO can be used to enter the 'dual state'? (the description implies once per turn).
- Is their a minimum amount of time between using the SHO to enter the 'dual state' and using it as an FTL drive, and vice versa?
- Can a ship engage FTL drive while in the 'dual state'? - or does something very bad happen if it tries?
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