Range affecting weapon damage

[Dr. Bidlo]

Perhaps this idea has already been shared, but while running my Imperial Officers' Campaign, I experienced an initial rut of ships getting popped after just one or two rounds of long range fire. My hopes for exciting ship to ship combat were falling short. I felt I would never see the need for tactics or a close range broadside between ships as seen in RotJ or RotS. Then I remembered the slow chase from TLJ... the long range shots from the First Order just bounced off the Resistance ships at long range. That was all I needed. See my damage and range rules below:

Range Damage modifier
Long -2D
Medium -1D
Short -
Point-blank +1D

This house rule has made all the difference in my games. It gives players motivation to get in closer and sometimes even farther away. It also levels the playing field for those unfortunate ships that have shorter ranged weapons, but encouraging closer engagements. And that +1D bonus at point -blank range is the perfect incentive for the cinematic broadside turbolaser raking that can devastate one or both ships participating.

I won't go back. Has anyone else tried anything similar?

[CRMcNeill]

The Accuracy Damage Optional Rule from Rules of Engagement comes at this from the opposite direction. Rather than modifying damage based on range, it generates a bonus to Damage based on how well the shooter rolled to hit. Since accuracy increases as range decreases, the Damage bonus will increase as the range drops.

The optional rule offers two variants: a 1/1 ratio and a 5/1 ratio. I find that the 1/1 is too much and the 5/1 isn’t nearly enough, so I split the difference with a 3/1 ratio, so that for every 3 points by which the Gunnery roll succeeds, the weapon receives +1 to its Damage roll.
_________________
"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

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

[Whill]

[Dr. Bidlo]

I have used the increased damage based on the to hit roll from Rules of Engagement (one of the best of the WEG supplements IMO), but I typically use it only as a hero factor for my players against nameless minions.

However, my concern was too much damage from long range, so that rule not only doesn't help, it actually hurts. Even at long range, it is not that difficult to hit a target. A somewhat lucky shot with a fairly modest to hit roll will cause even more damage, resulting in battles ending at 72 space units apart...

I have one player who hates the reduced damage at long range, but imementung it has resulted in the battles 'feeling' right in the duration, number of volleys, and result in getting the ship's in to medium and short range more often.

I love the Age of Sail theme and this is really more of my attempt to allude to it, even if the technology present in Star Wars, it is still equal parts serial, action, fantasy, and science fiction. Getting ships close also opens to possibility of boarding actions... my players know they should invest a few CPs into combat skills just in case. Those pressed Imperial uniforms might get messy from time to time.

[CRMcNeill]

A lot of it depends on whether you view the ranges in the game as maximum range or effective range. If a shot is petering out by the time it reaches Long Range, then sure, a reduction in damage would be appropriate. However, if Long is just the point at which accuracy decreases below a certain standard, then there is still a good chance the shot will keep going with enough force to cause damage.

Personally, because of how almost no weapon actually has a reduction in Damage at Long Range, I went the Effective Range route, then came up with the Marksman Advanced Skill to allow skilled shooters to hit beyond Long Range. I could potentially see a reduction in damage being applicable here, since loss of energy would be one of the factors a Marksman would need to compensate for.
_________________
"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

[Dr. Bidlo]

[CRMcNeill]

The thing is, though, for the most part, the ranges aren't all that insane, even by modern standards. A lot of modern rifles have effective ranges beyond the maximum listed range of blaster rifles in the SWU. The M16, for example, has a maximum range of 2,700 meters and an effective range of 450 meters. "Lethal" range is 900 meters. If a round stops being considered lethal at double its effective range, then it's pretty evidently carrying a lot of energy even past the point of normal accuracy.

Now, this does require some assumptions on my part, in that Firearms (which ostensibly must obey similar physics to modern projectile weapons) are given the exact same stats as Blaster weapons. I doubt that WEG was really thinking of the implications when they wrote up stats like this, but the fact remains that, if we're going by the evidence of the rules, Blasters and Firearms must have similar firing / ballistic (assuming ballistics are applicable to energy weapons) characteristics.

Granted, there are some outliers, like the Blaster Pistol's 120-meter range. Having shot pistols, it's hard to picture that level of accuracy beyond exceptionally rare deadeye shooters. That's like standing at the goalposts of a football (American) field and hitting the other goalpost at the opposite end. I've fired pistols, and hitting a target that far out would require a serious pistol or a serious shooter. Or more likely both. Stuff like that is why I did my blaster stat re-write where I swapped the ranges on the Blaster Pistol and the Sporting Blaster Pistol, with the idea being that the Sporting has a longer barrel (more galven circuits) that helps maintain the beam's cohesion over longer distances, but at a cost in Damage.
_________________
"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

[garhkal]

[Mamatried]

I like the range modifiers here, a lot!

I have a few thoughts on the matter as well.

If we look at the ranges of a weapon, lets say a DL-44 we see a range listed
of 50-75 meter with 75 meter being max.

I have always seen star wars combat as more or less close quarter combat or at best close ranges as n seldom we see anything than mounted weapins making shots over ranges in 500+ meters.

However I am quite sure that a good enough shooter, aka a player character "hero" would be able to roll well enough or shoot well enough to maybe exptend this, and I can see this extended to extrme ranges.

however if we look at a carbine, 200 meter range roughly and some upto 350 and more meters and the rifles more or less the same we know from several other systems that ranges are listed from clost to long in most cases, and with room for the point blank and the extreme ranges.

I can see that with little differences from weapon to weapon, most categories have a "set" range band from a few meters and uptp a few hundres, but We also know that just becuse a rifle has an effective range, it also have a maximum range.

A M-16 is effective to about 400meters, but the bullet is deadly upto closer to a mile.
just becuse you can not see it does not make the "bullet" any weaker on impact, however distance do matter and eventually will slow doen any projectile.

So I am in the camp that loves the ranges and penalties/bonues made by thread starter here, awesome!
But I am also in the camp of mybe extending the table and maybe even adding other opetions, like what will scopes do, what will a stable shooting platfrom do, like a bipod, how about power on the very few "stealth" blasters, normally a supressed gun is slightly less powerfull

I suggest maybe even skills or specilaizations that pushes the band, like I am specilized in Sniper rifles, I can shoot at long range (as pr the table) but I shoot at the medium penatly etc.

[CRMcNeill]

[Whill]

[Dr. Bidlo]

I don't know if modifying ranges or damage codes is that far off RAW to be considered a new game. The sensor ranges are just plain ridiculous, as most ships can fly right out of their own maximum sensor range in one turn at all-out or practically shoot beyond it. That's where playing loose with the ranges as a GM makes more thematic sense. But then again, isn't increasing the sensors range just a quantifiable manifestation of the very same practice?

I did get a chance to see CRMcNeill's modified rules for blasters and love them. I especially like the repeaters, as the flat higher damage never quite felt right.

[garhkal]