Details on Photon Torpedoes

[Stan]

I'm working on my home-brew Star Trek game and I'm wondering how photo torpedoes work. Specifically:

(1) When a photon torpedo is aimed and shot at an opponent, does it always go in a straight light, or is it 'smart' and will curve and adapt trajectories like a smart missile?

(2) When a photo torpedo is shot at your ship, assuming the original aim was good, would you potentially have enough reaction time to try and evade the torpedo?

Thanks in advance for any feedback :-)

[ThrorII]

Up until ST VI, photon torpedoes seemed to be linear in motion.

There didn't seem to be a chance to evade them either.

If I recall, in TOS, phasers didn't work at warp, and PTs had to be used. That implies that PTs are warp capable, and have a short range (for warp, anyway).

[starcruiser]

Multiple episodes of TOS had phasers fired at warp speeds (Journey to Babel appears to be a good example). It's never made clear in TOS how either system actually works - since they were more interested in telling stories rather than wasting time explaining things.

It's not even clear if a photon torpedo is an actual physical object, or just a ball of energy. Since they used "proximity phasers" in Balance of Terror and then used the same effect for photorps, that muddies the water even more.

[finarvyn]

Starcruiser makes a great point. I had always assumed that photon torpedoes were just balls of energy (Same thing with the Romulan plasma torpedo.) It wasn't until the movies where I saw a box for a photon torpedo that it occurred to me that it was a physical object, and I'm not sure I like that version.

[ThrorII]

Jan 3, 2021 10:01:43 GMT -5 finarvyn said:

Starcruiser makes a great point. I had always assumed that photon torpedoes were just balls of energy (Same thing with the Romulan plasma torpedo.) It wasn't until the movies where I saw a box for a photon torpedo that it occurred to me that it was a physical object, and I'm not sure I like that version.

Yeah, in TOS, they seemed like 'balls of energy', not physical objects. But, they never defined them either way in TOS. And yeah, for the longest time, there seemed to be no clear distinction between phasers and photon torpedoes.

[c57d]

I have always seen PT's as pure los hyper warp accelerated pulses of concentrated high energy.
And the Klingon D7 warp nacelle mounted pulse weapons seem to me to be much the same basic principle (so no need to co-opt the boom main sensor in a certain film!!).
To me, phaser beams are weaker but more accurate due to longer time on the target, while PT's are more concentrated and so dealing greater damage but with more chance of missing.
EDIT: Classic Traveller rules had Pulse and Beam lasers. Beam had greater accuracy but Pulse did more damage. My rationale for those rules shaped my ST rationale above.

[ThrorII]

I just watched TOS "Arena" last night. I've been watching TOS in Netflix order (release order I think). I think this episode is the first naming of "Photon Torpedos" when Kirk orders Sulu to use them against the Gorn Ship above Cetus III, after phasers are ineffective against Gorn shields.

[Stan]

Interesting! In my home-brew Star Trek game, I'm giving photon torpedoes 'armor piercing' to reflect this sort of situation. :-)

[Falconer]

In S&S, you have a set number of photon torpedoes, and their usage does not contribute to energy loss. Not sure if this is any help!