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JT Swift
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 10 Oct 2009
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Location: Austin Texas
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 Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 12:11 pm Post subject: Sand Storm Rules? |
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Howdy!
Has West End every published any rules for Sand Storms? I wanted to hit my characters with one this Sunday.
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Raven Redstar
Rear Admiral
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 2648
Location: Salem, OR
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| Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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I've been checking through my collection. I haven't found any rules for sandstorms.
However, WOTC did rules for Tatooine sandstorms:
| Quote: | Sandstorms
The natives of Tatooine harbor deep respect for the desert world's sandstorms. When the winds begin to blow, everyone with common sense seeks shelter. The howling winds and blowing sand reduce all listen, search and spot checks by -8. Ranged attacks with energy weapons suffer a -4 penalty. Missile weapons cannot be used at all. Starships and air vehicles attempting to fly through sandstorms suffer a -4 penalty on all Pilot skill checks.
Additionally, the blowing sand stings, inflicting 1d4 points of vitality damage every round to anyone caught out in the open. Even worse, the sand and dust make breathing difficult, especially for those with no protection. (See Suffocating & Drowning)
A character wearing a scarf of similar mouth covering does not begin to suffocate until a number of rounds equal to 10 times his constitution have passed. A character wearing a breath filter (such as those worn by the Sand People) can last twice as long. Characters wearing actual breath masks are immune to the suffocation effect.
When a sandstorm has finally passed, everything in its wake is burined under 4d10 centimeters of dust and sand. |
Not much help at first glance, but some ideas of what they were thinking.
The windy sand does the same damage as a dagger. With WEG's soak system, I would think something along the lines of an average human with a knife (3D) would be appropriate. They soak the damage every round until they find shelter. Although if your characters are wearing appropriate heavy clothing, perhaps that would give them a bonus to their soak.
Next, you could use increasingly difficult stamina checks to make sure the player isn't overcome by breathing dust. If they've got some sort of covering, make it a number of minutes equal to their strength or stamina whichever is higher. I would apply 5x their stamina for someone using a filter like the Tuskens. If they use an actual breath mask, they are immune.
Unless the players are looking for something specific in the desert itself, I wouldn't worry about things becoming buried. Just keep in mind that on average something can be buried by up to 40cm of sand & dust after a sandstorm.
Hope this helps, sorry about the speculation. |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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Wrote this up real quickly after reading the above posts.
Sand storms are hazardous not only to exposed skins, but to water supplies, breathing, vision and ranged combat.
When someone is caught in a sand storm, their movement immediately is reduced to 3m/round max. NO all out is even possible.
Those with exposed skin (not wearing full body armor) take 3d base damage from the biting sand on their skin. Having unprotected eyes upps this to 3d+2.
Vision penalties add 4d to all ranged combats, as well as perception checks. Blasters, other ray weapons have their range reduced by 30%, firearms and missile weapons by 40% and bows/arrows/thrown weapons by 75%.
Damage is also reduced by 1d/2d/3d for the above. Grenade explosive values are also halved.
Moving through a sand storm on speeders incurs a +20 movement penalty if NOT fully enclosed, then its only +15.
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Fallon Kell
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Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 1846
Location: Tacoma, WA
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| Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | Wrote this up real quickly after reading the above posts.
Sand storms are hazardous not only to exposed skins, but to water supplies, breathing, vision and ranged combat.
When someone is caught in a sand storm, their movement immediately is reduced to 3m/round max. NO all out is even possible.
Those with exposed skin (not wearing full body armor) take 3d base damage from the biting sand on their skin. Having unprotected eyes upps this to 3d+2.
Vision penalties add 4d to all ranged combats, as well as perception checks. Blasters, other ray weapons have their range reduced by 30%, firearms and missile weapons by 40% and bows/arrows/thrown weapons by 75%.
Damage is also reduced by 1d/2d/3d for the above. Grenade explosive values are also halved.
Moving through a sand storm on speeders incurs a +20 movement penalty if NOT fully enclosed, then its only +15. |
I'm curious why blasters would have different range modifiers from firearms/missile weapons, and why firearms and missile weapons would do so much less damage. Especially missile weapons. Arguably, the sand represents added fragmentation to any explosive and a corresponding small increase in damage.
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Bren
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| Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Fallon Kell wrote: | | I'm curious why ... firearms and missile weapons would do so much less damage. Especially missile weapons. |
The sand would provide an ablative effect that would decrease the damage of laser-type weapons. The sand might also cause a similar effect on blasters or may trigger a premature plasma discharge (depending on how the darn things actually work). The sand increases the atmospheric resistance for kinetic energy weapons which should decrease both range and damage. Though if the wind is essentially unidirectional and constant in velocity then firing with the wind should provide some benefit when compared to firing against the wind. |
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Raven Redstar
Rear Admiral
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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Location: Salem, OR
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| Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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| For the ranged penalties, 4D is a little extreme. Maybe closer to 2D? I did neglect to mention those in my quick conversion. |
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Fallon Kell
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| Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 8:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | Fallon Kell wrote: | | I'm curious why ... firearms and missile weapons would do so much less damage. Especially missile weapons. |
The sand would provide an ablative effect that would decrease the damage of laser-type weapons. The sand might also cause a similar effect on blasters or may trigger a premature plasma discharge (depending on how the darn things actually work). The sand increases the atmospheric resistance for kinetic energy weapons which should decrease both range and damage. Though if the wind is essentially unidirectional and constant in velocity then firing with the wind should provide some benefit when compared to firing against the wind. |
I agree for the most part, it's just that for kinetic energy weapons, I'd make it -1/-2/-1D. It's not that much more resistance, especially considering the rarity of a slugthrower doing much more than about 4D damage.
And most missile weapons are not kinetic energy weapons. They tend to be explosive, and the speed at which an explosive is going when it detonates has very little effect on it's power.
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Naaman
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 1:50 am Post subject: |
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For what it's worth, the sand in Iraq is so fine that it does not cause any damage during a sand storm (it's more like dust, really). If we assume that Tatooine is the Star Wars equivalent of Iraq-like conditions, the sand storm would only really decrease visibility, and maybe after hours of exposure, you'd have trouble breathing.
Not sure about more serious sand storms where the sand is more like what you'd find on a beach... Seems like it'd take tremendous winds to kick up sand that heavy... in which case, it'd hurt, but I tend to doubt it has potential to cause injury due simply to "exposed skin." Exposed eyeballs, absolutely. Open mouth? For sure.
How would thermal scanners interact with these rules? |
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Raven Redstar
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 2:09 am Post subject: |
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| One of the deleted scenes from Return of the Jedi has the sandstorm on Tatooine stripping some of the flesh off of Luke's cybernetic hand. So it seems that the sand on Tatooine is a little more than just dust. |
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Naaman
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 10:05 am Post subject: |
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| Eeewww... what about his natural hand, or his face? |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Fallon Kell wrote: |
I'm curious why blasters would have different range modifiers from firearms/missile weapons, and why firearms and missile weapons would do so much less damage. Especially missile weapons. Arguably, the sand represents added fragmentation to any explosive and a corresponding small increase in damage. |
The sand is having an affect on the shooters control as well as the weapons upkeep. Ergo all decreasing the effective ranges they can shoot. Though blasters (with no proper holed barrels) will have that much less of a decrease compared to missile weapons and firearms..
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Raven Redstar
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| Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:31 am Post subject: |
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| Naaman wrote: | | Eeewww... what about his natural hand, or his face? |
He had those covered. |
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Fallon Kell
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Location: Tacoma, WA
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| Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:59 am Post subject: |
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| Naaman wrote: | For what it's worth, the sand in Iraq is so fine that it does not cause any damage during a sand storm (it's more like dust, really). If we assume that Tatooine is the Star Wars equivalent of Iraq-like conditions, the sand storm would only really decrease visibility, and maybe after hours of exposure, you'd have trouble breathing.
Not sure about more serious sand storms where the sand is more like what you'd find on a beach... Seems like it'd take tremendous winds to kick up sand that heavy... in which case, it'd hurt, but I tend to doubt it has potential to cause injury due simply to "exposed skin." Exposed eyeballs, absolutely. Open mouth? For sure.
How would thermal scanners interact with these rules? |
Jabba used to execute people in sandstorms. They called it The Teeth of Tatooine
| garhkal wrote: | | Fallon Kell wrote: |
I'm curious why blasters would have different range modifiers from firearms/missile weapons, and why firearms and missile weapons would do so much less damage. Especially missile weapons. Arguably, the sand represents added fragmentation to any explosive and a corresponding small increase in damage. |
The sand is having an affect on the shooters control as well as the weapons upkeep. Ergo all decreasing the effective ranges they can shoot. Though blasters (with no proper holed barrels) will have that much less of a decrease compared to missile weapons and firearms.. |
Blaster barrels do have a bore. Does this change anything?
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JT Swift
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Yasriia
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Joined: 15 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:19 am Post subject: |
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Secrets of Tatooine contains some rules in d20 for the heat/thirst/finding water and for sandstorms/gravelstorms/sandwhirls (page 8-9).
Since I don't have the time right now to copy them, you have to look for yourself. Sorry |
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