Usage of Defence Value in the Techno-Mages Fact Book

[Thomas Weinbrenner]

Is it possible that the author of the Techno-Mages Fact Book doesn't know the difference between the Defence Value in the Babylon 5 RPG and the Armor Class used in D&D?

A lot of Defence Spells as well as some Pinnace Spells and Enhancements who create shields and armour raise the DV of the affected creature/ship. But in the B5 RPG armour never gives a bonus to the DV, it only grants Damage Resistance.

So a lot of spells need Errata.

 

[LoneStranger]

It could be possible (I admit I haven't gotten the book or been able to read through it that much) that the Defense Value raises can be attributed to something like ECM or the perceptions of the firing ship get shifted a little to one side or the other.

I think the people writing the Techno-Mage book had access to the rules used in creating the B5 setting.

 

[Greg Smith]

That's a good question. The armour spells describe a '+1 natural armour bonus to DV that does not stack with other armour'. It does sound as though this should be DR.

The flexible shield spells do describe a damage reducing effect.

Elemental resistance provides DR.

The personal shields again increase DV. The personal shields, sound like the shields in Dune, ie making it more difficult to hit an opponent. So I would go with DV.

Note: the EM shield SQ for ships described in the Minbari book, does say that it distrupts targeting systems, adding to DV. So I think the personal, vehicular and starship shields are correct in using DV.

 

[Agent One]

Well, as the author of the Techno-Mage Fact Book, I can assure you that I do know the difference between armour in D&D and in the B5RPG. And the bonus of shields to DV is correct. There are also spells that increase DR, and when used in combination with other mage defences, they can make a mage very tough to injure...but not indestructible.

 

[nitflegal]

Well, as the author of the Techno-Mage Fact Book, I can assure you that I do know the difference between armour in D&D and in the B5RPG. And the bonus of shields to DV is correct. There are also spells that increase DR, and when used in combination with other mage defences, they can make a mage very tough to injure...but not indestructible.

I was thinking of answering for ya', but I figured that you'd get to the thread eventually!

Matt

 

[Thomas Weinbrenner]

Well, as the author of the Techno-Mage Fact Book, I can assure you that I do know the difference between armour in D&D and in the B5RPG. And the bonus of shields to DV is correct.

Well, I'm not really convinced about how those shields should work. But if you say so...

But what about the Armor spells and especially the Improved Armour pinnace enhancement? Should this really be DV? Look at all those great Battleships with their lots of armour - they have (as it should be) a high DR but a low DV. So why does it increase your DV (and does nothing to your DR) if your pinnace gets improved armour?

There are also spells that increase DR, and when used in combination with other mage defences, they can make a mage very tough to injure...but not indestructible.

I know that there are spells to increase DR, but that was not my problem. My problem was that the spell descriptions seem to contradict their rule implementation.

You know, when I read all those techno-mage spells it seemed to me that you had a list of spell effects and just created appropriate spells for them. This left me with a lot of spells who just raised Skill X by 5 points and similar things. If found these spells to be quite unsatisfying. And at least in the case of the elemental schools named by the D&D damage types it seemed very silly.
Almost every time I have seen an elementalism system in roleplaying games (including D&D!), novels, movies etc. they used a division in the categories energy(Fire), gas (Air), fluid (Water), and either solid (Earth) or solid/anorganic (Metal) and solid/organic (Wood).
Even if this system was created by aliens it should have been along similar lines. Doing it according to a specific RPG rule system seems to me to be bad game design.
One should create something and then find a way to translate it in RPG rules, not the other way round.