Sidran's Vehicle Posts

[BlackJaw]

Have either of you looked at the ship rules from the Fantasy Flight Games Seafarer's handbook ( it is chapter for Ship construction is all open game content)




It talks about common forms of ships

Barge, Caravel, Cog, fishing boat, Great Galley, and Longboat.

This is something I think should be mimiced have examples of different vessels based off the rules.


Ships stat groups are

Size
As with a creature size

Propulsion
Speed
Crew
Cargo

Hull

Armor Class
Hardness
Hit Points

Deck

Armor Class
Hardness
Hit Points

Weapons:

Ship qualities: (like feats for the ship)
Cost and Construction time


The size of the ship can be Tiny small medium large huge and colossal, and for ours we could add titanic, or whatever to the size

And the Vehicle can have a type modifer

Example

Huge Vessel ( Submarine)





Spitfire Mk. II
Tiny Vessel (Aeronautical)
Tech Level 4 Arcane Level; 1
Propulsion; Fusion engines
Speed 70 ft ( Aerial) 80 ft. ( Space)
Crew 1 pilot
Cargo Personal compartment only
Hull :
 Armor Class 14 (+2 Maneuverability, +2 Size)
 Hardness 10
 Hit Points 50

Weapons; Twin Laser arcs (fore), 2 torpedo tubes (fore)
Design Merrits Battle Tested, Speed Demon
Special Qualities Fighter Qualities
Cost and Construction time: 8,605 GP, and 2 months, 3 days.

Fighter Qualities As a tiny vessel the Spitfire Mk. II gains the following abilities. Docking (DC 17) As a fighter the Spitfire can dock with vessels of the huge or larger size range, in some instances the Spitfire may be able to dock with large vehicles (DC 25 ) if they have a docking port. Quick Stop In space a Spitfire can reverse its vector of thrust and hover in one place this is a special stunt and requires a successful pilot check (DC 16), or the vessel will spin out of control. Manueverability as a tiny vessel the Spitfire gives the pilot a +2 circumstance modifier to the Hulls AC while manuevering the vehicle. If a Pilot is knocked unconcious the vessel looses the bonus to AC, and has the potential of going out of control. Afterburn Fighters are built with a special throttle that allows for short bursts of speed to give it advantages in combat. Fighters are able to serge up to +20 ft per round for a sustained period of three consecutive rounds before the afterburner will flame out. After flaming out the afterburner takes four rounds to cool enough to be used again.

Modification notes The Spitfire Mk. II can be modified to use Magic Missiles as replacements for the Twin Laser cannons, or [insert name of our Magical ranged weapon ability here], and the Torpedo tubes can be replaced with spells such as cone of fire, or fireball. This would change the tech level to 1 and the Arcane level to 4


Design Merrits


Battled Tested

Your vessel has taken the baptisim of fire, and survived

Benefits: The Vessel's hull gains a resistance save of +10 against heavy hitting weapons such as plasma cannons, or other weapons of highly technological vessels.

Speed Demon

This vessel is a racer, its sleek, its fast, and its furious.

Prerequisite: Medium, small or, tiny vessels only

Benefits: The vehicle moves faster than standard examples of its class. Vessels with this Merrit move at +5 in atmospheric, or undersea terrain, and at +10 in 0 gravity.




Their is a good example of my use of the Creation rules from FFG, and my own hack it rules for the Tech, the Magic, other mods I did.

It has the convienience of being easy to use and you could go through and write up Tech level Weapons, and Arcane Level Weapons in Charts for the vehicles

 

[BlackJaw]

Nother example of my Construction idea ( an asteroid miner)





Groundhog
Medium-Sized Vessel ( Cosmonautical)
Tech Level 5 Arcane level 1
Propulsion: H20 thrusters, Nuclear cell
Speed: 30 ft ( Burrow) 60 ft. ( Space)
Crew: 3 (1 pilot, 2 Miners)
Cargo: 175 Tons
Hull:
  Armor Class 12
  Hardness 15
  Hit Points 75

Weapons: Plasma cutters (fore), Turbine drill (fore)
Design Merrits: Work horse
Special Attack: Hydraulic Claw
Cost and Construction time: 9,500 GP, and 4 months, 3 weeks

Hydraulic Claw: Though not considered a fearsome weapon by any standards the hand like claw used for scooping and moving the debris of asteroids can be used as a bludgeoning weapon. This attack does 1d8 of hull damage, but leaves the claw arm vulnerable to a Vessel Attack of Opportunity.


Design Merits


Work Horse

The vehicle is a font of power, capable of lifting, carrying, and moving more weight than the average specimen of its class.

Prerequisite: Medium, large, or bigger only

Benefit: A vessel with this ability can carry +50 tons of cargo for each time it takes this merit.

Special: A Vehicle can gain this merit multiple times during its building process each time it does it gains +50 to the total Cargo capable of being carried)

 

[BlackJaw]

I'm not a fan of the "there are these vehicles to pick from, and you can add a new weapon etc" concepts.

I've been trying to make a vehicle construction system that works like making a new monster.

"how many HD"
"what kind of hull"
"how big is the engine, how big is the power source."
"can you afford a masterwork engine, gun, or power source?"
"does it all fit in the hull?"

I'm basing the system of an old RPG game I use to play that worked more or less in the same way.

Flexiblitly. The problem with using "standardized" vehicle types with basic stats is that they won't fit everyone's settings. veplins, to flying sea clippers, to space bound animated whale bones powered with necromatic blood-jammers.

it also lets players customize their vehicles more. Want to hover, or have a low min. speed? do you want to be more manuverable, handle better, fly faster, or some mix of those three?

Now we SHOULD include a bunch of vehicles pre-made with our system to act as examples and ready to use vehicles. I agree with that.

Man I need to get this stuff out so guys can see it!

 

[Sidran]

Hey I actually agree with that ( clarifaction--about the vessel types)

How I handled it with these vessels is for my own homebrew Sci-fi setting Starhaven

As an example of how it works though I think that we can work with the rules I blurbed out simplify some of yours and mix and match what we like


Give a Ship construction table that is based off of...


Size <---- The size of the vehicle Type Type of Atmosphere capabilities. examples

Aeronautical Vessels with this sub type are capable of going between aerial, and spacial settings

Universal Vessels with this sub type are capable of travelling through all types of atmospheres from undersea, to planar.

Atmospheric Capable of flying in an aerial setting and landing.


Cost and Construction Time; Based off a chart


The Cost of the Construction ( the Body of the Vehicle) by size

Tiny 5,000Gp (Base) 1 Month ( Base)
Small 5,500 Gp (Base)
Medium-sized 6,000 Gp (Base)
Large 10,000 Gp (Base)
and so on


I wasn't actually saying here is the base vehicle add weapons paint on nose art walla.

Well here let me do another example with a more magical vessel type


Griphen
Small Vessel ( Aeronautical)
Tech level 1 Arcane Level 4
Propulsion Psi-Cell Motivator
Speed 40 ft (aerial) 80 ft ( cosmos)
Crew 2 ( 1 Pilot, 1 Psion)
Cargo 150 Lbs
Hull:
Armor Class 21 ( +1 Size, +1 Invisiblty, + 10 Psi shield)
Hardness 10
Hit Points 65
Weapons Lightening rods, Sonic generator
Design Merits Speed Demon
Special Qualities Ethereal Jaunt
Cost and Construction time 8,750 Gp, 2 Months, and 1 week

 

[Sidran]

Size
Propulsion
Speed
Crew
Cargo
Dimensions:
Weapons:
Attacks:
Damage:
Hull
Armor Class
Hardness
Hit Die
Ratings: Structural, Maneuver, Radar
Design Merits: (like feats for the ship)
Ship qualities:
Threat Rating:
Cost and Construction time

Fighter

Small quick craft made to defend, and support the larger crafts of the fleet. Flown by the hotshot ace, or the green bird pilot fresh out of academy these craft have a high fatality rate. ( An X-wing, for example)

Hit Die: D8
Attack Bonus. As Pilot +2
Good Ratings: Maneuver, and Radar
Crew 1, or 2 (Sometimes with Astronav Droid)
Cargo no or personal only
Merits 1 + Structural Modifier ( +1/4 extra hit dice)
Hardness ( as material)

Notes: Fighters automatically gain the following abilities. Docking (DC 17) a fighter can dock with vessels of the huge or larger size range, in some instances the fighter may be able to dock with large vehicles (DC 25 ) if they have a docking port. Quick Stop In space a fighter can reverse its vector of thrust and hover in one place this is a special stunt and requires a successful pilot check (DC 16), or the vessel will spin out of control. Maneuver as a small or smaller vessel a fighter gains a +2 circumstance modifier to the Hulls AC while the vessel makes maneuvers. If a Pilot is knocked unconscious the vessel looses the bonus to AC, and has the potential of going out of control. Afterburn Fighters are built with a special throttle that allows for short bursts of speed to give it advantages in combat. Fighters are able to serge up to +20 ft per round for a sustained period of three consecutive rounds before the afterburner will flame out. After flaming out the afterburner takes four rounds to cool enough to be used again. Eject most fighters come with the built in ability to eject the cockpit from the structure of the vessel. An ejected pod is considered a fine sized vessel.
Size: Diminutive, Tiny, and Small

Hit Dice by size
Size HD Weapon slots
Diminutive 2-4 D8 2
Tiny 5-8d8 4
Small 9 D8 6

Above is how I used the article in the Dragon Issue 276 keep in mind I am mostly writting from a technically based world with very little magic ( rating tops at 3)

 

[BlackJaw]

Price system:

As I'm currently working on it, price works like this:

Base price is by hull material multiplied by its Hit Dice.

You then pay for each component you place into a vehicle. You can have one component for each Hit Die the vehicle has, although some components take up more then one Hit Dice. This is a cap, not a enforcement, so you can have "un-filled" hit dice, often so you can add something else in latter when you can afford it.

lastly you can apply a single design focus to a vehicle. This represents an intentional focus the builder(s) of the vehicle had in mind. This might be a slight increase in speed, hardness, handling, etc. Often a price increase (%) goes with it, although a couple might give penalties to the vehicle but decrease overall cost.

 

[Sidran]

Here are some vessel charts that I am using

This is the first modified chart of vessel construction next will be Construction Materials