Annatar Giftbringer
Emperor Mongoose
Greetings.
Couldn't sleep last night. Mind started wandering. Among other things, thought of traveller, and spaceship combat.
I may have an idea how to handle large-scale spaceship combat, from missile swarms of dozens of missiles up to barrages of hundreds of particle bays (yeah, infinitely scalable combat rules!)
This idea still needs some (maybe a lot) tweaking, and I haven't really
playtested it thoroughly (I did eventually fall asleep). It has some similarities to the old barrage rules, but unlike them I tried to use the existing space combat rules as much as possible, just like the fantastic large-scale combat from mercenary.
The idea, in short, is to treat a barrage like a single attack, with multipliers.
Declare the attack, like normal. Every weapon in a single barrage needs to be identical, down to the number of guns per turret (since they combine for damage these days).
Roll to hit, applying the usual modifiers (crew gunnery skill, fire control, aid from pilot, laser to-hit bonus...). A single 2D roll is made for the entire barrage, it's still treated as one attack.
If successful, roll for damage. It's still treated as a single attack from a single turret/bay. Subtract armour as usual.
Next, multiply damage with number of turrets in the barrage, and apply to the target.
For missiles, roll once for the entire barrage, same as with regular turrets. This roll is the guidance roll for every missile in the attack.
Point defense:
using sand against a laser attack:
Follow the above steps, but add another step before applying damage. Roll once for point defense as per the standard rules for one sand turret defending against a single laser turret.
Multiply the result with the number if sand turrets. Subtract this number from damage total above. Apply remaining damage to the target.
Missile defense: A swarm of missiles are treated as individual attacks, and not added together like other weapons, right?
Still, look at the swarm as a single attack, declare how many turrets are used to defend, and roll point defends once. Multiply with number of defensive turrets, and subtract this many missiles from the swarm. Are there missiles left? Apply the standard DM for multiple point defense attacks and roll again, and again and again until there are no missiles left or all attacks miss time and time again...
Example:
Imagine two mercenary cruisers. They are parked at medium distance from each other, And are both armed with the following:
3x triple beam laser turrets
2x triple sandcaster turrets
3x triple missile turrets
Their average crew gunnery skill is 2, and both have armour 4.
A fires lasers against B. Skill 2 + 2D + 4 (beam lasers to-hit bonus). A rolls 2, 5. 2+2+5+4 = 13. A hit, with effect 5.
Roll for damage, triple beam means 1D + 2, plus effect (5). A 6 is rolled. 6+2+5 = 13.
Subtract armour: 13-4 = 9
Multiply with number of turrets in the barrage (3) for a total of 27 damage.
But wait! B reacts by firing sand! Skill 2 + 2D (4, 4) = 10, success with effect 2.
Roll for sand, 1D+2 (triple turrets) + effect. A 2 is rolled. 2+2+2 = 6. B fired sand with both turrets for a total damage reduction of 12.
Final damage: 27-12 = 15.
Another situation, B has 12 incoming missiles and defends with all 3 laser turrets. Point defense roll 3, 6 + skill 2 = 11, success! Remove 3 missiles from the swarm.
Roll again for point defense, with -1DM. 3, 4 + skill 2 = 9. Success again, remove an additional 3 missiles.
Once more, but this time the roll is 1, 2. Result 5, not enough...
Sure, between two mercenary cruisers the attacks could be rolled individually, but the same concept works when, say, an Azhanti high lightning fires all its 240 triple beam lasers upon a sister ship. Roll for damage (1D+2), subtract target armour (4) and multiply with 240.
The sister ship defends with sand,
Reducing the incoming damage with 1D+2 x 180.
The system needs some more work, but perhaps something can be made based upon this? I saw an idea about inflicting a critical hit with every 10% hull damage, that's easy to include here. Missile defense might need some more tweaking, not sure yet...
Anyways, that's my idea. Feel free to pick it apart and shoot it down
Couldn't sleep last night. Mind started wandering. Among other things, thought of traveller, and spaceship combat.
I may have an idea how to handle large-scale spaceship combat, from missile swarms of dozens of missiles up to barrages of hundreds of particle bays (yeah, infinitely scalable combat rules!)
This idea still needs some (maybe a lot) tweaking, and I haven't really
playtested it thoroughly (I did eventually fall asleep). It has some similarities to the old barrage rules, but unlike them I tried to use the existing space combat rules as much as possible, just like the fantastic large-scale combat from mercenary.
The idea, in short, is to treat a barrage like a single attack, with multipliers.
Declare the attack, like normal. Every weapon in a single barrage needs to be identical, down to the number of guns per turret (since they combine for damage these days).
Roll to hit, applying the usual modifiers (crew gunnery skill, fire control, aid from pilot, laser to-hit bonus...). A single 2D roll is made for the entire barrage, it's still treated as one attack.
If successful, roll for damage. It's still treated as a single attack from a single turret/bay. Subtract armour as usual.
Next, multiply damage with number of turrets in the barrage, and apply to the target.
For missiles, roll once for the entire barrage, same as with regular turrets. This roll is the guidance roll for every missile in the attack.
Point defense:
using sand against a laser attack:
Follow the above steps, but add another step before applying damage. Roll once for point defense as per the standard rules for one sand turret defending against a single laser turret.
Multiply the result with the number if sand turrets. Subtract this number from damage total above. Apply remaining damage to the target.
Missile defense: A swarm of missiles are treated as individual attacks, and not added together like other weapons, right?
Still, look at the swarm as a single attack, declare how many turrets are used to defend, and roll point defends once. Multiply with number of defensive turrets, and subtract this many missiles from the swarm. Are there missiles left? Apply the standard DM for multiple point defense attacks and roll again, and again and again until there are no missiles left or all attacks miss time and time again...
Example:
Imagine two mercenary cruisers. They are parked at medium distance from each other, And are both armed with the following:
3x triple beam laser turrets
2x triple sandcaster turrets
3x triple missile turrets
Their average crew gunnery skill is 2, and both have armour 4.
A fires lasers against B. Skill 2 + 2D + 4 (beam lasers to-hit bonus). A rolls 2, 5. 2+2+5+4 = 13. A hit, with effect 5.
Roll for damage, triple beam means 1D + 2, plus effect (5). A 6 is rolled. 6+2+5 = 13.
Subtract armour: 13-4 = 9
Multiply with number of turrets in the barrage (3) for a total of 27 damage.
But wait! B reacts by firing sand! Skill 2 + 2D (4, 4) = 10, success with effect 2.
Roll for sand, 1D+2 (triple turrets) + effect. A 2 is rolled. 2+2+2 = 6. B fired sand with both turrets for a total damage reduction of 12.
Final damage: 27-12 = 15.
Another situation, B has 12 incoming missiles and defends with all 3 laser turrets. Point defense roll 3, 6 + skill 2 = 11, success! Remove 3 missiles from the swarm.
Roll again for point defense, with -1DM. 3, 4 + skill 2 = 9. Success again, remove an additional 3 missiles.
Once more, but this time the roll is 1, 2. Result 5, not enough...
Sure, between two mercenary cruisers the attacks could be rolled individually, but the same concept works when, say, an Azhanti high lightning fires all its 240 triple beam lasers upon a sister ship. Roll for damage (1D+2), subtract target armour (4) and multiply with 240.
The sister ship defends with sand,
Reducing the incoming damage with 1D+2 x 180.
The system needs some more work, but perhaps something can be made based upon this? I saw an idea about inflicting a critical hit with every 10% hull damage, that's easy to include here. Missile defense might need some more tweaking, not sure yet...
Anyways, that's my idea. Feel free to pick it apart and shoot it down
