WIP: House Rules Starship Missiles

[Dr. Bidlo]

Here is my current work in progress house rules for missiles, torpedoes, and bombs that I developed several months ago. I know CRMcNeill is working on some rules as well, so I am curious to see what he is cooking up.

Missiles and Torpedoes

Missiles, bombs and proton torpedoes are physical weapons which deliver awesome firepower. However, they are difficult to target. Their difficulty numbers are modified by how fast the target is moving:

Increase to Difficulty:
Space 3 (100-150 Atmosphere): +5
Space 4 (Atmosphere 151-200):+10
Space 5 (Atmosphere 201-250):+15
Space 6 (Atmosphere 251-300):+20
Space 7 (Atmosphere 301-350):+25
Space 8+ (Atmosphere 351+):+30

Missiles, bombs and proton torpedoes and powerful weapons, but they have their limitations, especially when fired at moving targets and from long-range. Most missiles and torpedoes have sophisticated targeting computers that allow the missile to track the target until it is destroyed, or it runs out of fuel. On the turn a missile is launched, it will travel at cruising speed beyond the ship that fired it toward the target. The missile will increase speed by one level each turn up to all-out speed until it runs out of fuel, hits its target, or is otherwise destroyed.

All missiles have targeting computers that help them track their locked target. If a missile does not reach its target the turn it is launched, the missile will attempt to hit the target with its own homing skill, which is the combined targeting and maneuverability of the missile used to hit the target that functions both as a piloting and gunnery skill. If an automated missile with a homing skill missed its target, it will slow one level and attempt to maneuver back toward the target. These are typical examples, but missiles may have different homing and Fuel values.

Weapon, Space, Homing, Fuel, Damage, Fire Rate
Concussion missile (starfighter): Space 8, piloting 8D, 3 rounds, 7D - 8D damage, Fire Rate 1/2
Proton torpedo (starfighter): Space 6, piloting 5D, 3 rounds, 8D - 9D damage, Fire Rate 1/4
Bomb (starfighter): Space 2, piloting 2D, 1 round, 10D+ damage, Fire Rate 1/6
Concussion missile (capital): Space 6, piloting 7D, 5 rounds, 8D - 9D damage, Fire Rate 1/4
Proton torpedo (capital): Space 4, piloting 6D, 6 rounds, 9D - 10D damage, Fire Rate 1/8
Bomb (capital): Space 1, piloting 2D, 3 rounds, 10D+ damage, Fire Rate 1/12

Locking on
A gunner must perform a sensor Focus in order to ‘lock on’ with a missile weapon. After achieving the lock, the gunner may roll to hit as normal using the missile's Fire Control. A gunner may shoot a missile weapon as normal without locking on the target, but the shot had 0D Fire Control.

If a missile that has locked on does not hit its target the turn it is launched, the missile will attempt to hit the target with its own piloting skill. If an automated missile with a piloting skill missed its target, it will slow one level and attempt to maneuver back toward the target.

[garhkal]

RAW already has it, that shooting torps/missiles, has a mod for how fast the target is going. BUT i like the target lock function.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[Dr. Bidlo]

[CRMcNeill]

Something I did previously (then deleted, but am thinking strongly about reintroducing for all guided missiles) is having missiles take a full round to hit at Long Range when fired with a Lock-On.

My reasoning is that the base, unguided (i.e. not locked on) range represents, IMO, the weapon's effective range, as in what it can reasonably hit in the space of a round. However, I double the range of guided weapons with a Lock-On. So the premise would be that, when a Guided Weapon is fired at a target that is Locked, the weapon spends the remainder of that round in flight, and doesn't actually attack the target until the beginning of the next round. This means that the pilot has to maintain his Sensor Lock for the rest of that round, which in turn gives the target ship an opportunity to evade, maneuver to break the lock or fire his own missile in return. The vagaries of missile ranges may actually allow a counter-fired missile to hit before the original missile hits its target.

As an aside, it is actually possible to both evade an enemy's lock-on/missile while maintaining your own lock-on, via a process known as Notching (essentially, maneuvering in a way that costs the missile energy to match while still keeping your enemy in your FC radar's cone).
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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

[Dr. Bidlo]

[CRMcNeill]

[Dr. Bidlo]

I'll check it out.

[CRMcNeill]