ACTA: Movement SAs while 'Adrift'

[R Arceneaux]

Hack and slash has its place in any RPG, absolutely.

But it should never be considered as the primary party of any RPG.

It is well true enough that shooting and hacking is a part of the game as fighting the evil bad guys is a part of the game. Not everything can be hack and slash though.

The hack and slash should be viewed as a very very small part of the overall picture that has balance with stragegy, investigation and a bit of larceny having equal if not slightly more importance.

 

[R Arceneaux]

Ships are fleet tactics, sir...

The focus should always be a one on one and not mass on mass.

True enough though that mass fleet combat would take a long time to carry out but in doing so and in keeping with the old addage "no combat plan survives the first shot fired" the extended cobat would also hold the advantage of allowing those commanding ships to adjust of the Fog of War. The additional time between shots, combat, etc could then be used to adjust to the changing battle going on around a person--read that to mean ya dont get killed as fast.

Someone stated, I dont remember if it was yourself or someone else, that the entire ship movement rules would have to be rewritten.

Absolutely, not true at all.

Adjustments could be based solely on the explaniton of what you are going to do, how you are going to do it and when you are going to do it when you as a PC state your attack or tactic. The GM then determines if an adjustment to fire is needed based on the attack roll the ship capt and the explanation of who what when and how and makes and adjusted per an adjustment table to the attack roll.

All that would be required is a bit of simple math the head of the GM to add and or subtract single digit numbers and a prescribed table of adjustments to hit target(s) based on some kind of random percentile dice in order to determine penalty on roll. HMMMM Something much akin to the way the GM in D & D rolls which spell comes of a random spell wand.

For example: I state I am going to attack ship A by cutting power X distance from the ship to confuse sensors using docking thruster to pivot my ship on its axis using a stated amout of force to turn all wepons either fast or slow based on the power applied and fire in a stated prescribed order then when clearing punch in the main thrusters to escape counter-attack. The who what when where and how would then be used by the GM to add a plus or minus to a random percentage roll of possible errors.


OR in the case of a story line based game as opposed to a D20/skills based game the way the GM wishes to bend the player character input to meed current or a new story line in development.

So rules would not have to be rewritten at all. All that would be required is the slight addition of a chart to determine penalty on roll (if any) applies.

Such a table need not even be in the rule book but rather constructed by the GM himself and made known to the player characters in advance so they can build their characters accordingly--adding or subtracting skills and ability scores to max ones ability to strike the target aka counter possible penalty.

 

[AdrianH]

Hack and slash has its place in any RPG, absolutely.

But it should never be considered as the primary party of any RPG.

There's the problem right there. "A Call To Arms", i.e. ACTA, is not a RPG. It's a wargame. Hack and slash is what it's all about.

ACTA can be used for duels of one ship against another, but not very well. It works better with at least two or three ships on each side. The game is played with small model ships, such as these, on a table typically 6 feet by 4 feet.

There are no player characters; each player controls a whole fleet. There is no GM (although, in a large tournament, there may be a referee to answer questions about rules and ensure that the game is played fairly). There is no story line (except perhaps in campaigns, where the players can make up a story line to fit in with the randomly generated battle scenarios of the campaign).

And there is absolutely no room in the rules for anything as detailed as "attack ship A by cutting power X distance from the ship to confuse sensors using docking thruster to pivot my ship on its axis using a stated amout of force to turn all wepons either fast or slow based on the power applied and fire in a stated prescribed order then when clearing punch in the main thrusters to escape counter-attack".

Don't think D&D, think Warhammer. (Possibly confusing because I know there's a Warhammer role-playing game as well...)