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Spelljammer: A 5E Fan Conversion
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<blockquote data-quote="guildsbounty" data-source="post: 6813855" data-attributes="member: 6810481"><p>Okay, time for another round of input...</p><p></p><p>Siege engines...particularly in terms of fire rate.</p><p></p><p>AD&D had restrictions in place regarding how often a siege engine could be fired, and it was marked as once every X rounds (i.e. a firing rate of 1/3 could fire once every three rounds), and had a crew size that it required in order to fire. 5E's DMG has some VERY basic rules regarding Siege Engines, and it simply lists the number of Actions required to reload the weapon.</p><p></p><p>The problem with the rules as written for 5E, IMO, is what happens when you attach a crew to the siege engine. A ballista requires one action to load, one action to aim, and one action to fire. If you crew the ballista with a 3-man crew, the ballista fires every round. In fact, if you rotated the crew properly, you could fire it multiple times per round: a 9-man crew could move towards the ballista on their turn, perform an action, then step away...following this pattern, the ballista could be fired 3 times per round. And while a PC party isn't likely to do this...their NPC hirelings (read: the crew) would certainly be assigned to roles like this.</p><p></p><p>This would also mean that, assuming you had a full crew, everything from a ballista to the Grand Bombard could be fired at the same rate...and that rate is every bit as fast as how quickly a fighter can swing his sword</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, it's not terribly exciting to have to fly aimlessly for the next two rounds because you fired your weapons last round and they are still reloading. I'm starting to see why, despite the confusion it could breed, Spelljammer ships moved in Turns (60-second intervals) while everything else happened in Rounds (6-second intervals). When dealing with ship-scale movement...it was more a measurement of how many times per Turn your weapons could fire...but that unbalances a few other things as well.</p><p></p><p>So, the different ideas I've had so far are these:</p><p></p><p>1. Use the rules straight out of the 5E DMG. My issue with this is the machinegun trebuchet worry I listed above.</p><p>2. Use the rules out of the 5E DMG with the extra limitation that it can only fire once per round.</p><p>3. Use the rules out of the 5E DMG, but limit the number of actions that can be used on a single weapon per round (Limiting to 2 per round would cause a Medium Ballista to be able to fire 2 out of every 3 rounds, and a Trebuchet to fire twice every 5 rounds). The problem with this one is that it kills the necessity of having a crew on any weapon larger than the number of actions that can be used per round.</p><p>4. Use the 5E rules, but add a 'Max Crew' property to a weapon that restricts how many people can interact with a particular weapon in a single round before they just get in each other's way. (Sort of like #3, but with the bonus of being weapon specific...solving the crew-size issue)</p><p>5. Chuck the 5E rules and just bring the AD&D rules up to date (don't really want to do this one...I'd rather stick with the 5E rules)</p><p></p><p></p><p>Thoughts, anyone?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="guildsbounty, post: 6813855, member: 6810481"] Okay, time for another round of input... Siege engines...particularly in terms of fire rate. AD&D had restrictions in place regarding how often a siege engine could be fired, and it was marked as once every X rounds (i.e. a firing rate of 1/3 could fire once every three rounds), and had a crew size that it required in order to fire. 5E's DMG has some VERY basic rules regarding Siege Engines, and it simply lists the number of Actions required to reload the weapon. The problem with the rules as written for 5E, IMO, is what happens when you attach a crew to the siege engine. A ballista requires one action to load, one action to aim, and one action to fire. If you crew the ballista with a 3-man crew, the ballista fires every round. In fact, if you rotated the crew properly, you could fire it multiple times per round: a 9-man crew could move towards the ballista on their turn, perform an action, then step away...following this pattern, the ballista could be fired 3 times per round. And while a PC party isn't likely to do this...their NPC hirelings (read: the crew) would certainly be assigned to roles like this. This would also mean that, assuming you had a full crew, everything from a ballista to the Grand Bombard could be fired at the same rate...and that rate is every bit as fast as how quickly a fighter can swing his sword On the other hand, it's not terribly exciting to have to fly aimlessly for the next two rounds because you fired your weapons last round and they are still reloading. I'm starting to see why, despite the confusion it could breed, Spelljammer ships moved in Turns (60-second intervals) while everything else happened in Rounds (6-second intervals). When dealing with ship-scale movement...it was more a measurement of how many times per Turn your weapons could fire...but that unbalances a few other things as well. So, the different ideas I've had so far are these: 1. Use the rules straight out of the 5E DMG. My issue with this is the machinegun trebuchet worry I listed above. 2. Use the rules out of the 5E DMG with the extra limitation that it can only fire once per round. 3. Use the rules out of the 5E DMG, but limit the number of actions that can be used on a single weapon per round (Limiting to 2 per round would cause a Medium Ballista to be able to fire 2 out of every 3 rounds, and a Trebuchet to fire twice every 5 rounds). The problem with this one is that it kills the necessity of having a crew on any weapon larger than the number of actions that can be used per round. 4. Use the 5E rules, but add a 'Max Crew' property to a weapon that restricts how many people can interact with a particular weapon in a single round before they just get in each other's way. (Sort of like #3, but with the bonus of being weapon specific...solving the crew-size issue) 5. Chuck the 5E rules and just bring the AD&D rules up to date (don't really want to do this one...I'd rather stick with the 5E rules) Thoughts, anyone? [/QUOTE]
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