Dragon Alert!

[Wyvern]

I just saw in the lastest installment of "In the Works" on the Wizards website that the April issue of Dragon is going to have a vehicular theme. Here's the quote:

"Hey, it's the April issue. You know it's going to have some good, funny stuff right up front. But, you probably didn't know that once you're past the humorous material, there'll be a huge article on vehicle combat written by Dave Noonan. When I say huge, I mean H U G E. This feature covers tons of craft: land vehicles, water vehicles, air vehicles -- you name it, it's there. You'll find carts, chariots, catamarans, sleds, submersibles, zeppelins, ornithopters, and more -- much, much, much more. It's got rules for movement, attacking, collisions, weather conditions, additional armaments, vehicle augmentations, a horde of new magic items, and more. There are even five fully statted "ships" (with maps) that are ready to rumble right off the page."

Methinks this is going to be a must-buy. I'm sure we can cannibalize it for lots of good ideas. Might even consider doing Cosmonomicon "conversions" of the vehicles listed, though we'd have to tread carefully so as not to overstep the bounds of the OGL. At the very least, they could provide a benchmark for creating our own sample vehicles. Anyhow, it should be in stores before too long, so keep an eye out for it!

Wyvern

 

[BlackJaw]

Oh dear god. I can't wait to see what they do with this. I get Dragon sent to me each month, so I'll see it soon enough.

For the record I also have the older one with Water and Underwater rules.

 

[Wyvern]

Underwater combat

For the record I also have the older one with Water and Underwater rules.

You do? Good. I took a look at that issue but I didn't find enough of interest in it to buy it. I wish I had a copy of the underwater rules, though. I was going partly by memory and partly by the "D&D FAQ" download when I wrote the rules for fluid media. Maybe you can tell me if I got anything wrong or left out anything significant. For example, is a +2 cover bonus for fighting across a water boundary right? And do they address the range increments of weapons? (I said they'd be halved, but I'd like to know if there's an official ruling.)

Wyvern

 

[BlackJaw]

Had to track down which one that was (291, gnomes)

The rules published are by Skip Williams, but they are overly complex in my book. the whole 3d calculations, and modifers determined by footing, and amount of water, etc.

anway here are some basic parts you were asking for:

Attacks through water have cover, determined by amount of body in water. the cover works both ways (under to out, out to in) BUT there was ALSO another penalty for passing through water. -2 for every 5 feets. Freedom of movement removed cover penalties. This also means that if you have freedom of movement, and are on dry land/etc and attack into water, the cover doesn't count.

There is a lot stuff on sight ranges underwater.

Oh and Throw weapons don't work.

AND freedom of movement also doesn't work on your ranged attacks (BUT it does on melee including reach weapons, although that extra reach generates more penalties because it's 10' not 5' and therefore has -4)

There is also a tiny little bit on magic in water, then half a page of special underwater weapons, like special crossbows, and how javelins work underwater, etc.

 

[BlackJaw]

The new Dragon does have vehicle rules, but they are based off those found in the DMG. They are just as clunky and hard to work with. They don't have a system for building crafts, just for adding things to their stock crafts, and that system is just "if you have 600 gp, you can put a ballista onto your gnome submarine/dwarven tunneler/small chariot etc." Not the best system. If I was rich, I could put half-dozen things on my one horse chariot, and technicaly none of them should be able to fit into the 5 by 10 space that chariot takes up.

Still haven't read all the way through it yet.