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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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 Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 6:38 pm Post subject: Precision Targeting & Called Shots |
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I sort-of recall a rule that, if someone wanted to inflict a specific level or type of damage, they had to roll one Difficulty Level higher than normal To Hit Difficulty. For example, if the Base Difficulty for an X-Wing to hit a Capital Ship was Moderate, making a precision strike was Difficult.
What I'm thinking of doing for starship and vehicle combat is applying this roll to the Vehicle / Starship Damage Charts. Basically, if an X-Wing wants to inflict a specific result (damaging the engines, shields, maneuverability, specific weapons systems, etc.), they can call it in advance, then roll the Starship Weapons skill to hit at base difficulty +5. On a successful hit, rather than rolling a D6 and applying the result, they inflict the result they declared before making the called shot.
Looking for ways to streamline this and maybe throw in some penalties for missed shots. Thoughts?
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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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Last edited by CRMcNeill on Thu Dec 31, 2015 7:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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jmanski
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| Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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The Rules Companion had rules along that line, but not much more than you've already fleshed out. Basically "calling a shot" meant you could target engines, shields, etc at +1d difficulty. It does go on to say that on an engine hit, for instance, the space rating is reduced by one.
I like the concept as a way for starfighters to be able to (very slowly) damage capital ships.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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That's how it came up. The best way to do it is via the Lost Moves rule. Regardless of how big or powerful a ship is, if you can hit it with -4 Lost Moves, it is dead in space, and if you can get it to -5 Moves, it is destroyed. That means that 4-5 Lightly Damaged results specifically targeting the engines will destroy any ship, regardless of its size, or the fact that it never once got hit for Heavy or Severe Damage.
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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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jmanski
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| Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2016 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe that needs to be tweaked so that the ship is dead in space after losing its four moves but only suffers minor damage after other engine hits.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2016 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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| jmanski wrote: | | Maybe that needs to be tweaked so that the ship is dead in space after losing its four moves but only suffers minor damage after other engine hits. |
On the flip-side, if a ship's engines are so badly damaged as to be inoperative, they would have to be pretty banged up, and therefore more susceptible to additional damage than they would be if they were in undamaged condition.
_________________
"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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Kytross
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| Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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How do you handle weapon emplacements? Specifically capital ships emplacements being shot out by stunt fighters.
I use a +1D difficulty modifier to hit for called shots. Then I've done 2D capital scale for the emplacement itself or I make the emplacement one scale smaller at the body strength of the cap ship. So the starfighter is either shooting against 8D Starfighter scale for all cap ships or at a sliding scale of damage based on the hull dice code.
I like the 8D option. 8D is not insurmountable by an X-Wing's 6D or a TIE's 5D laser damage. And a 9D proton torpedo will take an emplacement out more often. Of course, dealing with the cap ship's shields is another problem altogether.
Thoughts? |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2016 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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Don't forget to add 1d to the damage dealt for a called shot!
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 1:17 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Don't forget to add 1d to the damage dealt for a called shot! |
Plus the RoE Optional Damage rule that allows you a bonus to damage based on how well you shot.
_________________
"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
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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That's IF you even use those rules. Of the games i have been a player in, only (IIRC) 4 gms even did. One was on the +1 damage for every 5 over damage, one was in the dice pooling at a 2 for 1 ratio (you could take 2 dice off your 'to hit' to add 1d to damage), the other 2 were both on the +1 damage/3 over the to hit you got..
The other dozen or so, didn't. Also sparks does not do that and in the 3 times i can remember it actually coming up, the idea got shot down rather easily.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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I use +1 damage for every 3 points of success, and it's pretty easy to justify. If a stormtrooper and Boba Fett were firing their blasters at an AT-ST, Boba Fett, with his higher Blaster skill, will be far more likely to successfully target a vital point and inflict greater damage.
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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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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Posts: 16283
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Kytross wrote: | | How do you handle weapon emplacements? Specifically capital ships emplacements being shot out by stunt fighters. |
I hadn't quite gotten to that point yet, mostly because my various house rules have made it a bit easier for starfighters to damage capital ships.
Here's how I see it working:
Step 1: Knowledge Skill generates a bonus to Gunnery Skill. Specifically, a character with a pertinent Knowledge skill (or with either Capital Ship or Capital Ship Weapons Repair) rolls his Knowledge skill to identify a particular weak point or design flaw. He either acts on this information himself, or passes it along to those who will act on it. On a success, I would allow the Knowledge-rolling character to make something up: "The heavy turbolaser turrets on an ISD 1 are still equipped with the seven-series static discharge vanes at the rear of the turret roof. If you take those out, it should cause an ion feedback into the turret's power feed and cause it to overload." In game terms, this is expressed by a +1 bonus to Starship Gunnery for every 3 points of success on the Knowledge roll.
Step 2: Pilot's Gunnery skill gets the above Knowledge bonus, plus the +1D bonus for the called shot, plus the +6D bonus for the Scale Modifier.
Step 3: Pilot's Gunnery skill generates a bonus to Damage (+1 to Damage for every 3 points of success). The pilot's shooting ability dictates how well he places his shot, thus increasing the amount of damage inflicted by delivering the beam or ordnance more precisely on the point which is the most vulnerable to damage. The real world significance of combined attacks by aircraft was less about delivering more total ordnance on the target for greater damage than it was about firing multiple bombs or rockets at the same target to increase the chances of getting in just one or two critical hits. For example, at the Battle of Midway, the Japanese carrier Akagi was only attacked by three dive bombers, and only one of them got in a direct hit with a bomb, yet that one bomb strike was enough to lethally damage the ship by starting a massive fire in the Akagi's hangar bay.
So, for example, say a single X-Wing is making an attack run on one of the heavy turbolaser turrets on a Star Destroyer. At 7D Capital-Scale soak, this is practically impossible on the face of it, but then start crunching the numbers.:
1). Say the pilot starts with a base Gunnery skill of 6D, but the his flight leader rolled his Tactics skill to identify a weak point on the turret, resulting in a bonus of +2
2). He's using fire-linked proton torpedoes, with their Fire Control of 2D, plus the +1D called shot bonus, plus the Scale modifier of +6D for a combined total of 15D+2
3). He fires at Short Range (Easy Difficulty, increased to Moderate due to Called Shot), and connects easily (likely result with that many dice is ~54, for a difference of 39).
4). So, using the +3 = +1 version of the RoE Damage rules, that translates into a bonus to damage of +13, so you would be rolling 10D+13 (predicted average of 48) vs. 7D+6D (predicted average of 45), for a damage result of +3 (Controls Ionized).
It's not a dramatic success by any means, but then, attacking a Star Destroyer with an X-Wing shouldn't be easy by any means. The example merely shows that it is possible for a single X-Wing to perform a surgical strike on an ISD and still get in at least minimal damage.
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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
Last edited by CRMcNeill on Mon Jan 04, 2016 2:56 am; edited 1 time in total |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2016 2:19 am Post subject: |
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That makes me wonder.. Could a fighter get UNDER a cap ship's shields?
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2016 3:26 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | That makes me wonder.. Could a fighter get UNDER a cap ship's shields? |
Not by the RAW, but multiple starfighter working together could force it to split its shield dice to cover multiple arcs, potentially leaving an arc uncovered.
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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
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| Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:56 am Post subject: |
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That's what i was on about. By the raw, the shield dice have to be split between the arcs (forward, aft, port, starboard, dorsal and ventral). So unless that 3d is split into +1/+1/+2/+2/+1/+2 arcs, there will be one left un protected, therefore a fighter should be able to slip under it to wreck havoc..
BUT that also depends on HOW the shields protect the ship? Does it form a bubble around it like in trek. Does it conform to the ship's outer lines??
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CRMcNeill
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 8:45 am Post subject: |
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Actually, by the RAW, there are only four fire arcs, not six, so the split isn't quite so bad.
As to how shields function, that's dependant on whose version you feel should take precedence: WEG or the X-Wing games. Personally, I prefer the X-Wing version, with full shield dice in all arcs, plus the ability to transfer power between them.
If TPM is any indicator (we can see the shields on Anakin's starfighter in the hangar of the Trade Federation ship), then shields are close to the skin of a starship, and follow its contours, but there is a gap between the two.
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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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