Author Topic: (Answered) IO - Radical Heat Sink failure questions  (Read 701 times)

pavelb

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(Answered) IO - Radical Heat Sink failure questions
« on: 03 August 2024, 14:40:05 »
IO:AE p83

The rules around Radical Heat Sink failure are ambiguous in a couple of ways.

First, there's a line saying "(Astute players will notice that this failure chance is the same as that of the MASC system)."
This doesn't seem to match up with the Radical Heat Sink Failure Table. MASC auto-fails on the 5th activation (TW:p137), but the RHS table has an extra row to avoid failure on 10 on the 4th turn of usage, which MASC seems to skip over.
Is the table correct, or is the line about the failure chance being the same as the MASC system correct?

Additionally, the table states that the failure avoidance check goes down to a minimum roll of 2, and has the wording "Consecutive turns only".
This could be interpreted in two ways:
  • The "minimum roll of 2" is either a typo which should say 3, or it's referring to the fact that rolling a 2 will always trigger an RHS failure. The first time RHS is activated, roll and fail on 2.
  • You only need to roll on the RHS Failure Table when the RHS system has been used for multiple consecutive turns. The first time it's activated the system succeeds automatically (or succeeds on a roll of 2+). The RHS system fails on a 2 the second time it's activated in a row, with the Number of Turns Used referring to how many turns in a row before the current one it was used.
Which of these interpretations is correct?
« Last Edit: 22 September 2024, 16:04:41 by Xotl »

Xotl

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Re: IO - Radical Heat Sink failure questions
« Reply #1 on: 22 September 2024, 16:04:15 »
Delete the "astute players" note: a classic case of more words helping less.

The Consecutive Turns Only note is attached to the number of turns used part, not the failure roll part.  It's simply reminding you that the threshold for failure only increases if you use the system in consecutive turns, and that a 2 is always a failure no matter how many turns the system has sat unused.
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