Talk:Parsec Rules Clarifications/@comment-5051964-20120521220914/@comment-1538006-20120523082329

I can see how that's unclear. The important effect of damage to a ship is that it reduces the ship's Attribute dice-pools. This loss of dice represents damage to the related system(s). When targeting a part of a ship, you note what system(s) are on a given side of the ship, and that tells you what Attribute will be damaged. So, for example, if you target the starboard section of a ship, and it has a maneuvering drive mounted there, and you deal damage, you reduce the ship's Mobility (and Appeal), which means that when using the maneuvering drive to change orientation, say, your opponent has fewer dice.

Where systems are mounted is up to the players designing the ship and the Director running the game - that part is left open. Ideally, what I want to happen is that the players sit down and draw their spaceship, or imagine it to be like a well-known one from a movie or TV series or something, and then go from there following common sense. Variations will change how space combat plays out, and clearly different ship designs will offer different strengths and vulnerabilities.

This does allow some absurd optoins - having every system located on the same side of the ship, for instance. In that case, though this isn't spelled out in the rules, you would choose the Attribute you are damaging, because as far as the system works, that's the key.