Starships, Speed & Game Balance

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Starships, Speed & Game Balance

 

Well' date=' go take a look at the Halcyon class & the [i']In Amber Clad[/i] then let me know your thoughts. The material is up, I just need some serious board member activity. I can work in the dark, but doing a portrait is a lot easier with good lighting, you pickin' up what I'm layin' down?

 

 

what format are those files in? My computer doesn't like them!

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Starships, Speed & Game Balance

 

They're in HDv3 format -- in this case, .hdc (hero designer character). I know there's some sort of export format, but I don't know what it is (to get it to post as a character sheet correctly).

[austenandrews]

Re: Starships, Speed & Game Balance

 

I once had a rule that large vehicles could only be damaged/destroyed by AE attacks. Worked pretty well.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Starships, Speed & Game Balance

 

Well, this gets back to something that I was talking about a long time ago, and maybe it chains onto what was being said by mikesama earlier, which is simply this: My human pistol simply cannot, under any circumstances, do BODY damage to a CAPITAL SHIP. It just can't. It's a pistol.

 

The problem that I have with the vehicle system is that I either have to make all the numbers silly large or create new rules. Reading through the TE ship designs, Jason & I shook our heads, trying to figure out how two starships duking it out would even hurt each other.

 

We were at a loss. This is the problem. Personally, as I've said before, the ship designs just lose me in the translation. I've always wanted more stream-lined vehicle rules, that allow for "Vehicle Class" weapons & armor. I've been tempted to simply say "Vehicle Class, +1" as a custom advantage, but that seems to cause more trouble than it's worth.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Starships, Speed & Game Balance

 

Well, the Real Weapon limitation is supposed to keep anti-personnel weapons from smashing tanks, so there's that...

 

Another way I've done it without nerfing the weapons or making the vehicles into juggernauts is to use varying degrees of Damage Reduction. This is also pretty good for advancing technology too. Wooden ships stood up pretty well to solid shot, but shell blasted them apart. You could make solid shot cannons into pea-shooters, or you could make wooden ships so tough they'd survive a tac-nuke (and then you'd have to advance a tac-nuke's damage into the planet killer class), or you could just say that wooden ships get 50% Damage Reduction against solid shot and none against shell.

 

Between Damage Reduction, Real Weapon, and a good GM, it's not too hard to run a good vehicle battle.