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Gravity Well Projectors
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Director of Engineering


Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16320
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 12:48 pm    Post subject: Gravity Well Projectors Reply with quote

So, as part of my Rebellion Ship Conversions project, I've been working on the CC-7700 Interdiction Frigate, which mounts a single gravity well projector. This got me thinking about how gravity wells are used in the game.

Based on the original Interdictor stats posted in the ImpSB, Gravity Well Projectors seem almost like a precision targeted weapon, in that they have fire control, range and a specific effect if the targeted ship is struck (i.e. if you are hit, you can't jump into hyperspace). I would guess that the operator of the gravity well projector would have to successfully target a ship every round to keep steering the gravity well onto the target to keep it locked in place.

However, when Timothy Zahn used the Interdictor in his Thrawn trilogy, Gravity Well Projectors became much more cumbersome. The rules written up for using Gravity Well Projectors in Wanted by Cracken were much more detailed, but also presented a much more complicated method of using Gravity Well Projectors that was more in line with what was presented in the Zahn novels than what is seen in the RPG stats.

My question is, which rules do you use, and why?
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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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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14212
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.

PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For most of the games i run, its by the base book as thrawn was a tactical genius and so saw the flaws in how they were normally used and created applications based on that use to benefit him.. normally that sort of genius is not aroud to see those correlations.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Director of Engineering


Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16320
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 3:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
For most of the games i run, its by the base book as thrawn was a tactical genius and so saw the flaws in how they were normally used and created applications based on that use to benefit him.. normally that sort of genius is not aroud to see those correlations.

This is different. It's not about Thrawn and the ingenious ways he used gravity well projectors; it's about the technical limitations of the gravity well projectors themselves. In the Thrawn novels, gravity well projectors would take several rounds to charge their projectors, allowing a targeted ship several rounds to make an escape attempt. They were also very difficult to steer and target. The RAW for gravity well projection doesn't match that.

Normally, I'd be inclined to just go with the RAW, but then WEG came out with detailed rules for using Gravity Wells (see Wanted by Cracken, pages 18-20) that blew that all out of the water.
_________________
"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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wildfire
Lieutenant Commander
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Joined: 19 Feb 2006
Posts: 234
Location: Scotland

PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 4:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just reread the rules in Wanted by Cracken to refresh my memories, it's been years since I've had it come up in a game.

I prefer the rules in Wanted by Cracken, as they match what is in the novels better than the RAW, it is a more complicated set of rules but not that complicated.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16320
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2024 1:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, w/r/t this topic, I ended up writing my own rules for Gravity Well Projectors, in an attempt to simplify the more detailed rules found in Wanted By Cracken.

At the time, there was only one size of Gravity Well Projector, but subsequently, Fractalsponge came up with a much larger version mounted on his version of the Dominator-Class Star Destroyer, as I mentioned here. While I would like to eventually do a stat for the Dominator, the stats for the Gravity Well Projector (as written, at least) don't really lend themselves to upsizing, and I've been at a loss as to how to change it.

It occurred to me tonight that the simplest solution would be to give Gravity Well Projectors a "Damage" rating where the value rolled is applied to the Astrogation Difficulty of the targeted ship, then using my Quick Blast Radius rules to calculate loss of effectiveness based on how badly the Gunnery roll failed by. This would allow for larger Gravity Well Projectors to inflict more "Damage" over a wider area.

Thoughts?
_________________
"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
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