Maneuverability and Piloting House Rule Suggestion

[Soniv]

Hey guys, Soniv here again. It's been a long while, but I've started GMing a campaign, and the thought of ship and vehicle maneuverability came to me; namely, that simply adding maneuverability dice to the piloting skill seemed counterintuitive to how piloting works.

I thought back to my days playing X-Wing, TIE Fighter and the like, and remembered that while it was easier to pilot the more maneuverable ships, unless I actually knew what I was doing, all the maneuverability in the world wouldn't help me out. Thus, after some deliberation, I designed the following house rule:

If the player's piloting skill <= the ship's maneuverability die code, simply use the player's piloting skill.

If the player's piloting skill > the ship's maneuverability die code, average the piloting skill and the maneuverability die code. This is the new die code the player uses.

Examples:

Player A has Starfighter Piloting 4D and is in a TIE Defender, with Maneuverability of 6D. Player A simply rolls their 4D Starfighter Piloting.

Player B has 3D Starfighter Piloting, but is in a TIE/ln, with Maneuverability of 2D. Averaging the 15 pips and rounding down gives seven pips, or 2D+1. This is the amount they roll.

This has the added side effect of diluting advancement in piloting skills somewhat, but as of right now, I'm not entirely sure if this is a good or bad thing. Thoughts? Suggestions? Possibilities for streamlining or refining the rule somewhat?

[kinseyfs]

Okay, as maneuverability is factored a bonus to the player's skill, you would need to completely adjust the maneuver codes of all the ships. On top of that, this will penalize pilots. Do you plan on adding accuracy dies codes to blasters as well?
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"I don't remember 'There is no color, there is brown.' anywhere in the Jedi code." ---Mathew Starfire.

[Grimace]

Well, even though I haven't tested it, this makes a couple things pop into my mind. First, you're basically making maneuverability on craft pointless. If it's high, there's no effect. If it's low, it's a negative effect.

Second, by utilizing an "average", you're basically including a new calculation that must be done every time a pilot steps foot in a craft with low maneuverability. This particular feature will slow the game down slightly.

So while it's not exactly "accurate" of simply adding the maneuver to the pilot roll, it's currently the best thing because it gives a benefit for a more maneuverable craft and the better skill of the pilot.

You seem like you're heading in the right direction, but you're just not there yet.

[atgxtg]

While I think there is some logic to this idea (aaverage person with 2D MEC inside an A-Wing really in shouldn't be as good as a prefessinola Pilot with 4D skill in a Y-Wing), it does cause havoc with the rules.

THe difficulties for piloting maneuvers are set with the idea that pilots would be getting a bnous from the maneuverability. So piloting will get a lot harder.

You might consider useing 2xMAN as the cap, as most pilots will have skills higher than thier craft7s MAN rating.


Another method to achieve what you want would be to adjust the difficulty of tasks basedupon the maneuverability of the craft being pilotined. FOr example, if a tight turn has a difficulty of +6-10, you could use thre +6 for a highly maneerable craft (like an A-Wing), and use the +10 for "flying bricks".

That is kinda what WEG did in Start Warriors, and it works just fine.

[ZzaphodD]

[atgxtg]

[kinseyfs]

Okay, let me explain the penalize pilots aspect.

I play a pilot with Starfighter Piloting at 7D. With your method, the only way I can live up to the 7D skill is if I can find a ship with a 7D Maneuverability.

Now, we look at a gunslinger with a Blaster skill of 7D. His skill will always be 7D when he shoots, regardless of the quality and precision of the weapon.

What you are suggesting is a game mechanic that changes only one aspect of the game will only affect a certain group of character types. This penalizes those characters.

I understand what you are attempting. Perhaps, if you went with a modification of your first line to something like, "A pilot can only benefit from a maximum number of maneuverability dice equal to the corresponding piloting skill." This limits lower skill levels without penalizing the higher skill levels.

This can easily be translated over to any form of bonus dice granted by an object, like Fire Control.
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"I don't remember 'There is no color, there is brown.' anywhere in the Jedi code." ---Mathew Starfire.

[Soniv]

[ZzaphodD]

[kinseyfs]

This is probably going to be the closest you will get to that.

Let's take your average Joe, piloting 2D, and put him in just about any fighter. out there. With this rule the highest he can ever roll is 4D.

Now let's look at proper starting Brash Pilot with a Pilot Skill of 6D. Even in a ship with no maneuverability, he will out perform the average Joe every time. Unless the Wild Die is hating that day.

Capping the amount of maneuver dice by the skill is the closest you can get.

Now if you really want to add a touch more realism. The F1 ship will have high difficulties for its movement rolls due to its complexity and speed. There are other areas you can affect to simulate this outside of the skill dice.
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"I don't remember 'There is no color, there is brown.' anywhere in the Jedi code." ---Mathew Starfire.

[Bren]

[ZzaphodD]

[ZzaphodD]

Hmm, how about this for a starting point.

For each 'D' in maneuverability a ship adds +1 pip to the piloting roll for each D in piloting skill the pilot has. Any partial dice (pips) in manuverability are then added after the above calculation. So a 6D pilot with a 1D ship would add +6 to his piloting roll. If he would be behind the stick of a 2D fighter he would add +12. If hte ship would had 2D+1 in Maneuverability the pilotin bonus would be +13.

By the RAW a 6D pilot flying a 2D ship will have the same effective skill as a 5D pilot flying a 3D ship. With this system the 6D pilot will fly at 6D+12 and the 4D pilot at 5D+15. This means that the system does not unbalance the game totally, just make maneuverability a larger factor when two different ships are piloted by pilots with the same skill.

This is in more or less the above mentioned multiplier, but still based on the D6 philosophy so to speak.
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My Biggest Beard Retard award goes to: The Admiral of course..

[Bren]

[Whill]

While I certainly support any GM using whatever rules works for him, I thought this statement was humerous: