1E Range Concept

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

[Darklighter79]

[CRMcNeill]

[Raven Redstar]

I think that's an admirable approach.
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RR
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[Whill]

[Darklighter79]

I should say "suits me better as GM" by removing some problematic issues and streamlining gameplay.

I also not limit my self to SWd6 but try to be open for all interesting solutions from other d6 products, including the newest Zorro d6.
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Don’t Let the Rules Get in the Way of a Good Story.

[CRMcNeill]

After some consideration, I think I've settled on the second option described in this post. My main reasoning is that, in the interests of simplicity, this method most closely parallels the existing Difficulty rating system, by linking each Range Band directly to a step in the Difficulty Chart:

Point Blank = Very Easy / +5
Short = Easy / +10
Medium = Moderate / +15
Long = Difficult / +20
Distant = Very Difficult / +30
Extreme = Heroic / +40

So, if a ship was trying to move away from a stationary point (planet, space station, etc), they would simply roll their Speed Code dice against the Difficulty for that Range Band; if they beat the Difficulty, they pass into the next Range Band and re-roll the next round. If a ship is fast enough, it can pass through multiple Range Bands at once, but must beat the combined Difficulty for both Range Bands on the same roll.

EXAMPLE: If an A-Wing pilot wants to go from Medium to Point Blank in a single round, the pilot would have to roll 25 or higher (Easy/10 + Moderate/15).

Obviously, as the Difficulty increases, the less likely it becomes that a ship can roll high enough to beat the Range Band Difficulty in one round, so on a failed roll, the ship receives a bonus +1D for every 3 points of the rolled result (rounded down), which is then applied to the Speed Code roll the following round.

EXAMPLE: A YT-1300 wants to move from Short to Medium Range, with a Difficulty of Easy/10. The pilot rolls his Speed Code of 2D and gets a 5. This isn't enough to beat the Difficulty, but because he rolled a 5, he gets an additional +1D added to his Speed Code for the next round's roll.

In the next round, the pilot rolls 3D (2D Base Speed Code + 1D) and gets an 8. This still isn't enough to cross into Medium Range, but because he rolled an 8, he gets a +2D bonus to apply to his Speed Code in the next round.

The mechanics change slightly for a Chase, where the winner must beat the opponent's Speed Code plus the Difficulty for that Range Band.

EXAMPLE: A TIE Interceptor is attempting to escape a pursuing X-Wing. It is currently at Short Range. Both craft roll their Speed Codes (5D+2 for the Interceptor, 4D for the X-Wing) and get a 20 and a 13 respectively. The Interceptor won out by 7 points, but needed a 23 (10 more than the X-Wing's total) to cross into the next Range Band. However, because the Interceptor won by 7 points, it receives a +2D Speed Code bonus for the following round.

In the next round, the Interceptor rolls its modified Speed Code (5D+2 + 2D) against the X-Wing's 4D, and gets a 33 against the X-Wing's 16, easily beating the threshold of 26. The Interceptor is now at Medium Range, and the chase continues in the next round, with the Interceptor now needing to beat the X-Wing by 15 or more to move from Medium to Long Range.

I'm writing this mostly off the cuff, and it's late, so if you spot any errors, feel free to point them out.
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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

The next step is looking at how weapons work across the various Range Bands. As mentioned above, I'm looking at four different, overlapping sets of Range Bands based on the environment in which the combat is taking place: Personal, Ground, Aerial and Space. There's also going to be some crossover between the Range Band Sets to better represent combat; Starfighters in a space battle, for example, will roll their Speed Codes in the Space bracket, but their weapons and sensors will operate in the Aerial Bracket (in order to maintain the greater relative range of capital ship sensors and weapons). The overlap of the ranges would look like so:


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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Darklighter79]

[CRMcNeill]

Different vehicles will get Speed Code modifiers based on the environments/conditions in which they are designed to operate (see Mini Six, page 8, under Vehicle Movement):

Primitive Craft / Muscle Powered: +0D
Motorized Ground / Water Craft: +2D
Aircraft: +5D
Space Craft: +10D*

Your three examples fit three of the four conditions, with the AT-ST as effectively a Primitive Craft / Muscle Powered, the Z-74 as a Motorized Ground Craft, and the X-Wing as an Aircraft (technically a Multi-Mode, but Ground Vehicles and characters on foot are highly unlikely to interact with Space Craft).

So, based on their 1E stats, the AT-ST has a Speed Code of 3D, the Z-74 has a Speed Code of 4D and the X-Wing has a Speed Code of 4D, but when one applies the modifiers, the effective Speed Codes become 3D for the AT-ST, 6D for the Z-74 and 9D for the X-Wing.

*For the purposes of the overall system I'm envisioning, I decided to give Space Craft +8D in order to allow for a certain degree of overlap as far as range is concerned. However, Mini Six gives them a +10D modifier, so I included that for accuracy. Note that, on the chart I posted above, the different Range Band sets are offset upwards for every D of Speed Code modifier.
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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Darklighter79]

[CRMcNeill]

Yes, but it will also need to be selectively applied based on the circumstances. Hypothetically, it could also be applied in reverse, so that, while the X-Wing has a 9D Speed Code vs. a group of characters on foot, it also suffers a -5D Maneuverability penalty due to having to get down among the sort of tight-quarters terrain that can occur in, say, a forest/jungle, or a city or similar environment.

So yes, if a character was trying to engage in a foot race against an X-Wing across a salt flat, then the X-Wing would absolutely be rolling 9D against whatever the character could manage. But this won't always be the case, and it will be up to the GM to decide how to apply it (although I will do my best to try to hammer out some guidelines).
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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

Something I've long been wanting to factor in is how, the larger a weapon gets, the easier it becomes to get "under the gun", as in, move to a location where the weapon can't effectively target you because you're too close. I've been mulling this problem over off-and-on for a while now, and I think I have a solution that overlaps with what I've posted here.

Basically, because the overlapping Range Groups allow smaller, shorter-ranged craft to get inside of / below Point Blank range, what I'm considering doing is treating close proximity to the larger weapon as Concealment, with each step on the Range Band chart counting as 25% Concealment / Protection, with the larger-range weapons being penalized as described in the 2R&E rulebook:

PB-1 = 25% Cover = -1D
PB-2 = 50% Cover = -2D
PB-3 = 75% Cover = -4D
PB-4 = 100% Cover = Can't target.

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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

I've been mulling over which range modifier method works best and, in combination with what I proposed here w/r/t using Static Defense, I'm thinking that the best way to represent weapon ranges is by relative Difficulty within the different Range Bands, like so:

Hold-Out Blaster Pistol: Very Easy / Difficult / Impossible / Impossible
Blaster Pistol: Very Easy / Moderate / Very Difficult / Impossible
Heavy Blaster Pistol: Very Easy / Moderate / Heroic
Sporting Blaster Pistol: Very Easy / Moderate / Difficult / Heroic
Blaster Rifle: Easy / Easy / Moderate / Very Difficult
Sporting Blaster Rifle: Easy / Easy / Moderate / Difficult
Blaster Carbine: Easy (Very Easy*) / Easy / Moderate / Heroic (Spectacular*)
Light Repeating Blaster: Easy / Easy / Moderate / Very Difficult
Medium Repeating Blaster: Moderate / Easy / Moderate / Difficult
Sporting Blaster Rifle: Easy / Easy / Moderate / Difficult

*with Stock retracted.

Note: If you're seeing words you don't recognize, they're from here, where I proposed an expanded Difficulty level list.

The immediate problem I ran into when writing this up is that it gets pretty crowded just using the generic Difficulty Level names, and using numerical values allows for a bit more granularity as to what weapons are most effective at what range.

This will be somewhat similar to what Naaman came up with here, but rather than putting the modifier in the stats, I intend to skip the step and put the modified numbers in. So, instead of a (+0 / +0 / +10 / -) for a Blaster Pistol, the Range would be more like "5 (VE) / 10 (E) / 25 (VD) / -). There would also be a notation as to what sort of environment the weapon is optimized for use in (ground, aerial, space, etc).

In game use, this would combine with the Static Defense optional rule linked above, where the target adds their Static Defense value (if any) to the Base Difficulty for that weapon at that range, then the shooter rolls their Gunnery dice against that Difficulty to determine the result.

Since I've already effectively re-written the stats on most of the weapons from personal blasters all the way up to heavy turbolasers, the hard part will be finding a workable conversion formula. I expect a lot of guestimation will be involved.
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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index