Spending CP on the hull roll.

[garhkal]

In this thread from way back when, http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=849
i mention that in our sparks group some gms allow the pcs to spend CP to increase the hull roll when taking damage.

Who here thinks that is right? Who here does the same??
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[CRMcNeill]

I'm on the fence on this one. If droid PCs are allowed to spend Force Points and Character Points, then the jump from one inanimate object to another is not too much of a stretch. However, it does seem at the outer limits for what a CP can be used for. It could go either way depending on the GM's preference.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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[Bren]

We don't allow CPs for hull rolls.

According to the rules page "Character Points may be spent during the game to imporate a character's skill or attribute rolls." RAE page 83. Note that the ship's hull is not a character attribute (unless the ship is actually a character, but let's not go there). So as I read the rules adding points to hull rolls is not allowed. But here is where it starts to get less clear cut. I would also read this as saying the a character cannot add to weapon damage e.g. a blaster, however on page 84 the list of actions to which CPs can be added includes adding up to two character points "to increase the damage of an attack. (This often counts as an evil action.)" So adding to damage is allowed and we do allow that. Which is fine, the villain can add +2D damage but the hero can add +5D to soak so everything works out fairly. But once you are not longer at character scale, things get a bit wonky. Can a character add 1-2 CPs to increase damage from a spaceship laser cannon. The rules seem to specifically allow that. But if that is the case, then as a balance it would seem reasonable to allow characters such as the shield operator, the engineer, the pilot, or the owner to add CPs to the damage resistance (which in this case is the ship's hull).

What is the downside? Two things immediately occur.
1) Since according to the rules, the defender can add +5CP to resist damage and +2CP to cause damage (which may be an evil act) then the ships of characters with CPs may become impossible to damage by normal attacks and PC ships are likely to be totally immune to any normal scale attacks. This seems very uninteresting.
2) Allowing 1 CP to affect spaceship damage or resistance ignores scale. That +1D bonus at starfighter scale is in affect a +6D bonus.

Solution, we don't allow CPs to add to attack or defense above scale.

Unresolved problem - how to allow characters who are not piloting (e.g. passengers) to use their own CPs or FPs to survive damage or destruction of their vessel?

Optional solution: let the characters spend CPs to add to hull, but only to reduce damage to the characters inside the ship, not to the ship itself. Result - ship may be destroyed but the characters just have time to eject or make it to an escape pod.

Thoughts?

[Esoomian]

Wasn't the ability to spend character points on hull and the like something from First Edition?
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[Grimace]

They didn't have Character Points in 1st edition. They were "skill points" and only used to increase skills.

[Ankhanu]

I'd say that's a downright silly idea
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[Guardian_A]

Its never come up in our gaming sessions, but I'd have to say no. While a ship's crew may affect its ability to do a lot of things, I cant immagine any way a member of that crew could add to its ability to take damage.

If, for some strange reason, a ship had CPs of their own, I wouldnt see the harm in it. With that said, I have no intention of EVER letting a player have a ship as a character.

I've had several times where a ship was destroyed when a PC was on board. Most of those were situations where the players characters simply went EV or got to an escape pod in time. I can however think of three times where things either didnt work out so well for the character or was a little trickier to deal with.
1. The ship was destroyed with the minimum roll to do so, I declared the ship still intact enough that the players had time to use the escape pods.
2. The second time was part of a scenareo where a capical ship was being destroyed around them. (The player wanted to start a new character, so I talked to him before hand about killing the character "in-game") At the end of the scenareo, his character managed to keep the ships power up just long enough for the other characters to escape. When it was all said and done, everyone agreed that the character had died a hero.
3. This was a lot harder to deal with. I had three fighter pilots in a dogfight with some pirate uglies, one of the uglies got a lucky shot in at one of the characters and shot her Y-Wing out from under her. The planet they were near was uninhabitable, and the other two friendly fighters could only sustain one pilot for the rest of their trip. I ended up fudging things by allowing one of the other pilots to bring her into the already cramped cockpit of his X-Wing, but the trade off was that the life support system burned itself out in the process of getting to a habitable system.

[CRMcNeill]

A thought...

In many ways, ships like the Millennium Falcon are characters in their own right, without which, the Star Wars films would not be what they were. Should special ships (like those belonging to characters) have their own version of CPs that allow the ship to do things and survive things that other, more common ships might not?

I know the Serenity RPG has rules for making a ship have unique traits and the like...
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Guardian_A]

[Fallon Kell]

[CRMcNeill]

My thoughts exactly.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Esoomian]

[Fallon Kell]

[ZzaphodD]

[Bren]