Limiting Ammo for Capital-Scale Missile Weapons

[CRMcNeill]

In my various stat re-writes, I've tried to balance out the Missile & Torpedo Launchers by giving them lower Fire Rates than Turbolasers and Ion Cannon. However, with my latest update to Heavy Ordnance, making them even more formidable, I think it needs another nerf/rebalancing. An obvious solution is limiting the ammunition supply (since missile reloads take up a lot more room than compressed blaster gas), but an accurate system on a capital ship would Ammo values in the dozens or hundreds, and I don't really want to add missile ammo bean counting to everything else a GM has to deal with in combat.

A while back, I suggested a Ammo Dice house rule, and I'm thinking of introducing this to the stats of the capital ships I've done that are equipped with ordnance launchers. Here's the text of the rule, modified from the above link:

All Missile Weapons will have an Ammunition Rating, listed as 1D, 2D, 3D, etc...

On a Wild Die result when firing Ordnance, roll the Launcher's Ammunition against Very Easy Difficulty.

On a Success, the Launcher can continue firing; on a Failure, it has run out of ammunition, and can no longer be used until the ship is replenished.

However, each Success increases the Difficulty for the next Ammunition roll (from Very Easy to Easy, Easy to Moderate and so on).

Because launchers can be loaded with multiple types of ordnance, each type of available ordnance will have its own Ammunition listing, with more advanced or rare weapons having a lower Dice value. Some extremely rare weapons may even have a rating of 0D to represent their very limited supply.

In addition, a captain may choose to fire a single weapon, rather than a full volley (such as launching a handful of homing anti-starfighter missiles at a fleeing ship). If the captain fires 25% or less of his available launchers in a given fire arc, any Wild Dice Failures by +1 instead of +5.

With that as a framework, I'll be going through the various capital ship stats I've posted and giving all the Ordnance Launchers an Ammo rating, which will then be applied to the above rules.
_________________
"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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[Mamatried]

How would this apply to non capital ships with some of these systems.
Some starship weapons that fits on fighters and light freighters are in fact captial scale weapons in damage at least, like the light turbo lasers and the relevant to this thread the launchers.

I belive the stats for a Proton Torpedo Launcher is the same regardless of the size of the vessel.
Millenium falcon has launchers, the damage is statted as captial scale.

Are you also considering a limitation of actual rounds fired, I can not imagine the falcon being able to carry more than 2 maybe at the extrme maximum 4 torpedos, but I easily see an ISD carry 72 for each of his multiple launchers.

will the advanced light freighter equipped with a light turbolaser be able to store enough power to have the sma e number of shots as the light ttubo laser of the larger ISD etc.

is this something you have considered?

Love the rule suggestion by the way, I find it to make a lot of sense, and I can even see it fireing "duds" with this sytem and I like that

[CRMcNeill]

For most Starfighter-Scale ships, it'd be sufficient to stick with fixed numbers for ammunition counts, as that's pretty easy to keep track of.

However, a light freighter converted into a gunship by adding multiple turbolasers would be a good fit for this rule.
_________________
"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]

I am intrigued by this house rule. I have been avoiding letting my PCs use capital ships with missile weapons because the tendency to use them like default turbolasers due to their high damage and bypass of shields. I doo need to check the threads here though, so see what else you and others have done with missiles...

You are right - counting Missiles can quickly become unbearable, especially for a ship like a Victory class SD with 80 tubes.

How has this rule been working out in your games? Do you find your players are more conservative in their use of missile knowing any launch could be the last?

[MrNexx]

How did I miss this?

However, you might go with a two-tiered system, or just "failure" and "critical failure".

Failure means that a particular battery has run out, and out of service for the fight. However, give them a few hours to shift their supply, and they can be up and running.

Critical failure would mean they are OUT. That weapon will become non-functional on the ship in just a few shots, and is completely out right here.
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[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

[Dr. Bidlo]

[CRMcNeill]

Thank you for the complement.

I did originally want to give missiles and torpedoes a speed value, I decided against it as it would be one more thing for the GM to have to track insofar as rolling Piloting against Terrain, making Maneuvers to pursue targeted ships, etc. Ultimately it just seemed simpler to just treat them like weapons and go with the assumption that they were always going to be faster and more maneuverable than whatever they were fired at.

One possibility that might fit with giving them Speed Values would be with my Dogfighting rules, where Piloting + Maneuverability is used to determine positioning, and then Piloting + 1E Speed Code (which is added to the Space on all my ship stats, with a different value for Atmosphere if the ship performs better in one or the other) is used to determine range. If you were to give the missile a Speed Code in the 7D-9D range, you could treat the Missile like a ship that is constantly trying to achieve a Range of 0, at which point it detonates...
_________________
"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]

Coming back around to this...

I've been pondering over how to factor in the size of a missile / torpedo volley with ammunition consumption, and I had an idea. Under the original concept, I proposed starting with Very Easy Difficulty, then stacking based on Wild Dice results.

What I'm thinking instead is to have the original Difficulty start at 0, then increase it by +1 for every Wild Dice Failure. Then, if the ship uses any Battery Dice to add to the attack, all of the Battery Dice individually count as Wild Dice for the purposes of calculating Ammo Consumption. This increases the effectiveness of a salvo, with an attendant increase in the possibility of running out of ammo before the battle is over.

For example, a Victory I fires its starboard ordnance launchers in a volley with 4D+2 Battery Dice. The Wild Dice is rolled normally and gets a 1, but if any of the four Battery Dice come up 1, then they get added to the total as well.

It's also possible for a specific ordnance type (usually something rare and advanced like a smart anti-starfighter missile) to have an Ammo Rating of 0D, which means the ship has such a limited supply that the first time it gets a Wild One, it runs out.
_________________
"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