D20 Future Q&A With Rodney "Moridin" Thompson and JD Wiker!!

[apoc527]

You know...

Many of us have Star Wars d20...

Many of us likely have Warships (and it's available for free on www.alternity.net, so if you don't have it, you also don't have an excuse!).

As Mr. Wiker said, "design it from scratch." Well, there's no reason why WE, as the fans, can't go ahead and design a more detailed starship construction/combat system using these as ideas. Heck, I bet the d20 Future rules (which BN.com STILL has yet to get to my house darn them) will provide a fine starting point.

One thing that always struck me as funny is SOME fans' dependence on the "professionals." Guess what--all those guys (and no offense meant of course), WERE ALL "JUST FANS" like us at some point. I think I even remember when Moridin was just the unpublished webmaster for a large Star Wars gaming site.

All I'm saying is this: if we, the fans, want a more detailed space combat/starship construction system, all we need do is make one up ourselves. Plenty of people in this hobby have extensive experience with PDF software...we could even "publish" it as a freebie online somewhere (though admittedly my knowledge of the law in this area is still somewhat lacking).

Perhaps I'll start a new thread here once I get my d20 Future book and see if I can't get something going.

Who's with me?

 

[Olive]

Who's with me?

I'm certainly into doing some conversion on the Warships book to D20 Future. I don't have the starwars book tho. And I know nothing about alternaity.

But it all seems fairly straight forward.

The problem with this sort of thing is that everyone will come at it from a different perpective. Personally I want a more detailed construction system, but I'm more or less happy with the basics of the combat system (witha few house rules to do with HP loss leading to crit table rolls like Moridin suggested, as well as maybe a few other things).

Similarly, I'd want it to shoehorn more or less into what is there in d20 Future already. For example you should be able to build the ships described in the Future book with a more detailed construction system.

Othes will want different things.

However, the system should be more or less modular. You should be able to build rules that work together as options, rather than requiring a more complex combat system to make sense of the construction rules.

 

[RodneyThompson]

I have a question.

Looking over the Everybody's Human section on page 15. It states that the advanced classes have the human extra skill points and the extra feat (for being human) built into them. I just don't understand this. How can a advanced class have the human extra feat at first level "built" into it?

Sounds like a typographical error to me -- probably someone was cutting and pasting a template and forgot to remove that part.

 

[The Black Kestrel]

I've got a couple of questions.

1. What ssumptions did you make for Crew Quality, i.e. class levels, ability array and feats?
2. Do these same assumptions apply to the Driver and Gunner Autocomps?

Thanks

 

[JDWiker]

1. What ssumptions did you make for Crew Quality, i.e. class levels, ability array and feats?
2. Do these same assumptions apply to the Driver and Gunner Autocomps?

Unfortunately, this is another case where my original design was rewritten, so I'm afraid I can't answer this one.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

1. What ssumptions did you make for Crew Quality, i.e. class levels, ability array and feats?
2. Do these same assumptions apply to the Driver and Gunner Autocomps?

I think there is no assumption about Class levels and ability scores behind it. It is basically copy & pasted from the Starwars Crew Quality rules.
I don´t like it - it might be simple, but it is problematic the moment characters from the ship crew become important outside the ship.

A method with a base in the rules would probably look like this:
Crew Quality ranges from 0 to 10. Attack Bonus is 3/4 (round down) of CQ, Skill Bonus Quality +3, except for 0, in which the bonus is -4 for attack and +0 for Skill Bonus. (This would be the values if the main operation crew would consist of heros with levels equal to the quality that have the skills maxed and all prerequisite feats, and no abilty bonus)
And than, an even better method might use rules similar to the town creation rules in D&D to generate the crew of the ship, if it ever becomes interesting.
(Like in the old Buck Rogers game where the characters always hoped they would be boarded so they could go and kill the enemy crew)

 

[Upper_Krust]

I have a brief question.

Hand Grenade = 5d6 damage (avg. 17)
1 Megaton Nuke = 16d8 damage (avg. 72)

How far did WotC bend, not only the laws of physics, but also their own d20 rules to get that Nuke damage?

Surely by using the x8 Mass* = x1.5 (base) damage rule inherant in d20, the weapon damages are easy to determine. Explosive yield would also be increased in the same manner.

*equivalent to +1 size category.

Assuming the hand grenade has approximately 125g of TNT (for simplicities sake) a 1 Megaton explosion is effectively 11 size categories larger. Which (assuming a 5d6 base) means the damage should actually be 240d6 (or 24d6 x10 if you prefer: avg. 840).

So how did WotC end up with 16d8?

 

[deranged DM]

Simple. IIRC, the nuke damage you are quoting is in space. Much of the physical damage caused by a nuclear weapon on a planet is caused by overpressure and shock - you know, where the superheated ATMOSPHERE expands rapidly, driving a shock wave that knocks things down, etc.

Unfortunately, in space, there is nothing to cause overpressure, launch rubble, cows, etc. All you get is thermal bloom, any surviving case fragments, and lots of radiation. Hence, significantly less damage (except maybe on a direct, penetrating hit prior to detonation). If the nuke makes hull contact before detonating, you MAY get pressure effects and spalling inside the target. Radiation isn't too big a deal, though, unless the hull is breached - as anything travelling in space had best be hardened against rads anyway...

I would recommend different damage for airbursts.

 

[Peterson]

Anyone else notice the Fighting Space/Reach of the Large-sized Weren?

Just curious if this is correct.

Peterson

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi deranged DM!

Simple.

IIRC, the nuke damage you are quoting is in space.

Correct.

Much of the physical damage caused by a nuclear weapon on a planet is caused by overpressure and shock - you know, where the superheated ATMOSPHERE expands rapidly, driving a shock wave that knocks things down, etc.

Well 50% of the energy is blast, 35% thermal radiation and 15% nuclear radiation (inc. EMP damage).

However even assuming 16d8 represents only the thermal radiation its still way down from 84d6 (35% of 240d6).

Unfortunately, in space, there is nothing to cause overpressure, launch rubble, cows, etc. All you get is thermal bloom, any surviving case fragments, and lots of radiation. Hence, significantly less damage (except maybe on a direct, penetrating hit prior to detonation). If the nuke makes hull contact before detonating, you MAY get pressure effects and spalling inside the target. Radiation isn't too big a deal, though, unless the hull is breached - as anything travelling in space had best be hardened against rads anyway...

I would recommend different damage for airbursts.

We can easily determine:

120d6 blast
84d6 heat
36d6 radiation