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The Vehicle Construction System: Level based
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<blockquote data-quote="BlackJaw" data-source="post: 1564700" data-attributes="member: 888"><p>Tech Ratings are 0-9 like spell power levels.</p><p>0- (0 "points") Stone Age (fire, the wheel)</p><p>1- (1) Bronze & Iron Ages (swords, armor, simple clockwork)</p><p>2- (4) Dark/Middle Ages (little advancement historically, guns eventually)</p><p>3- (9) Age of Reason (advanced clockworks)</p><p>4- (16) Industrial Age (mechanical computers, steam & fossil fuel engines)</p><p>5- (25) Information Age (modern day; computers)</p><p>6- (36) Fusion Age? (“abundant” energy; Fusion power)</p><p>7- (49) Gravity Age? (manipulate mass/gravitons; artificial gravity)</p><p>8- (64) Energy Age? (energy manipulation; force fields)</p><p>9- (81) Mater Age? (ability to make mater out of energy; teleportation)</p><p></p><p>the "points" ratting are for the number of power "points" a system of that tech level would generate using your system (square of the tech level). I like it. Your also right that fuel could use a the same system although we still need to work that out a bit.</p><p></p><p>Recap:</p><p>an engine system generates a number of movement points per equal to 1+ the Tech Level to be split amongst speed and manuvering. For every X number of engine levels/hd/what ever we call it you have on a vessel, you also increase your needed crew (sails and a few other things might also increase crew size too.) You also increase fuel usage? what about engines that run on power directly? hmmm</p><p></p><p>For each time your speed point equal your vehicle's hit dice, you move one unit (25') as your base speed (min 1 unit? what about 1 unit as long as you have 1 level of engines?). Similarly if you have no manuvering points you are a clumsy flier (as long as you have at least 1 level of engines, although you could take all the points from your many engine levels for speed and stay clumsy at 0 manuvering). Each time your manuvering points equals your hit dice, your manuverability increases one step. Maybe it should work like speed in that you'd have to have double your hit dice to get past clumsy to poor (just like you have to have double hit dice to get to 2 grid units speed if we use the min speed rule).</p><p>Note: the min speed and manuvering rules are intended to keep the problem of designing unflyable vehicles from coming up. Any vehicle can fly as long as it has some source of speed points, although it will likely be very slow and clumsy unless it has good engines or similar abilities.</p><p></p><p>Sails:</p><p>sails are a "special function level" feature and not an engine. They are likely more effective then the low tech engines would be and require no fuel or power. they still add to your crew requirment.</p><p>A set of sails (wind, solar, psychic/etc) provides a base number of speed points and manuvering points or maybe just manuvering points. The key here is that the vehicle gets faster in faster winds. The DMG states various wind categories. For each one above normal you get +1 units (25' squares again) of speed. Slow or no wind migh even reduce your speed in units.</p><p>What I want to avoid if it can be helped is that diffrent wind speeds provide difrent numbers of movement and manuveirn points to work with. That would require recalculating the vehicle's speed depending on the current winds. This is too much work. It should be a set speed modified in grid units depending on the wind for easy of use. There can be a generic rule that with there is dead wind/no wind the vehicle can only move (at the penalized speed) if it has engines, otherwise it's simply dead.</p><p></p><p>Power Arrays: solar pannels, psychic energy collectors... etc. They draw power from the enviroment. well now, no easy overall unit bonuses or penalties work here, thankfully power scores don't get any calculations or comparisons vs size or hitdice for effect. They simply are added up and then used up. The problem here is that if vehicle is dependant on them, and your in an area that doesn't have enought power for your engines then you got a problem as far as calculating in combat, something I want to avoid at all costs.</p><p></p><p>Fuels:</p><p>Still not sure how to handle this... fuel may not need to be defined mutch but the engines and generators that run off it will. Likely a TL based system again where the engines or generators are more efficient at higher tech settings. Anyway, it should be possible to make a system that can handle both long lasting systems ( months or longer like a nuclear sub) and short lasting systems (airplane fuel lasts hours, and early ones lasted minutes) which I figure can be a part of the TL system somewhere. We also need to define how fuel is drawn on by engines of various sizes and generators, etc. Fuel should only effect overal time in flight, and should not generaly effect combat. I'd prefer a "calculate once durring vehicle construction to determine range and don't mess with again unless you rebuild part of your ship" system.</p><p></p><p>We also need to think about pricing. the 3.5 PHB has prices for nonmagical sailing ships which we can use a starting place. Keep in mind we are talking about price for just the vehicle not the weapons or special systems. Also vehicles don't give most of the benefits of flight in a D&D thanks to their size and manuvering they don't fit in dungeons, keeps, or wizard towers. Pricing might be better based off the overland flight and similar travel spells.</p><p></p><p>PS: for compatibility and standards reasons I switched to 25' squares. 30' ones didn't work well for grid use. 25' works better. movement speeds for things tend to be in 30' incriments it's true, but 30' grids were harder to determine face sizes and reaches for, etc.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BlackJaw, post: 1564700, member: 888"] Tech Ratings are 0-9 like spell power levels. 0- (0 "points") Stone Age (fire, the wheel) 1- (1) Bronze & Iron Ages (swords, armor, simple clockwork) 2- (4) Dark/Middle Ages (little advancement historically, guns eventually) 3- (9) Age of Reason (advanced clockworks) 4- (16) Industrial Age (mechanical computers, steam & fossil fuel engines) 5- (25) Information Age (modern day; computers) 6- (36) Fusion Age? (“abundant” energy; Fusion power) 7- (49) Gravity Age? (manipulate mass/gravitons; artificial gravity) 8- (64) Energy Age? (energy manipulation; force fields) 9- (81) Mater Age? (ability to make mater out of energy; teleportation) the "points" ratting are for the number of power "points" a system of that tech level would generate using your system (square of the tech level). I like it. Your also right that fuel could use a the same system although we still need to work that out a bit. Recap: an engine system generates a number of movement points per equal to 1+ the Tech Level to be split amongst speed and manuvering. For every X number of engine levels/hd/what ever we call it you have on a vessel, you also increase your needed crew (sails and a few other things might also increase crew size too.) You also increase fuel usage? what about engines that run on power directly? hmmm For each time your speed point equal your vehicle's hit dice, you move one unit (25') as your base speed (min 1 unit? what about 1 unit as long as you have 1 level of engines?). Similarly if you have no manuvering points you are a clumsy flier (as long as you have at least 1 level of engines, although you could take all the points from your many engine levels for speed and stay clumsy at 0 manuvering). Each time your manuvering points equals your hit dice, your manuverability increases one step. Maybe it should work like speed in that you'd have to have double your hit dice to get past clumsy to poor (just like you have to have double hit dice to get to 2 grid units speed if we use the min speed rule). Note: the min speed and manuvering rules are intended to keep the problem of designing unflyable vehicles from coming up. Any vehicle can fly as long as it has some source of speed points, although it will likely be very slow and clumsy unless it has good engines or similar abilities. Sails: sails are a "special function level" feature and not an engine. They are likely more effective then the low tech engines would be and require no fuel or power. they still add to your crew requirment. A set of sails (wind, solar, psychic/etc) provides a base number of speed points and manuvering points or maybe just manuvering points. The key here is that the vehicle gets faster in faster winds. The DMG states various wind categories. For each one above normal you get +1 units (25' squares again) of speed. Slow or no wind migh even reduce your speed in units. What I want to avoid if it can be helped is that diffrent wind speeds provide difrent numbers of movement and manuveirn points to work with. That would require recalculating the vehicle's speed depending on the current winds. This is too much work. It should be a set speed modified in grid units depending on the wind for easy of use. There can be a generic rule that with there is dead wind/no wind the vehicle can only move (at the penalized speed) if it has engines, otherwise it's simply dead. Power Arrays: solar pannels, psychic energy collectors... etc. They draw power from the enviroment. well now, no easy overall unit bonuses or penalties work here, thankfully power scores don't get any calculations or comparisons vs size or hitdice for effect. They simply are added up and then used up. The problem here is that if vehicle is dependant on them, and your in an area that doesn't have enought power for your engines then you got a problem as far as calculating in combat, something I want to avoid at all costs. Fuels: Still not sure how to handle this... fuel may not need to be defined mutch but the engines and generators that run off it will. Likely a TL based system again where the engines or generators are more efficient at higher tech settings. Anyway, it should be possible to make a system that can handle both long lasting systems ( months or longer like a nuclear sub) and short lasting systems (airplane fuel lasts hours, and early ones lasted minutes) which I figure can be a part of the TL system somewhere. We also need to define how fuel is drawn on by engines of various sizes and generators, etc. Fuel should only effect overal time in flight, and should not generaly effect combat. I'd prefer a "calculate once durring vehicle construction to determine range and don't mess with again unless you rebuild part of your ship" system. We also need to think about pricing. the 3.5 PHB has prices for nonmagical sailing ships which we can use a starting place. Keep in mind we are talking about price for just the vehicle not the weapons or special systems. Also vehicles don't give most of the benefits of flight in a D&D thanks to their size and manuvering they don't fit in dungeons, keeps, or wizard towers. Pricing might be better based off the overland flight and similar travel spells. PS: for compatibility and standards reasons I switched to 25' squares. 30' ones didn't work well for grid use. 25' works better. movement speeds for things tend to be in 30' incriments it's true, but 30' grids were harder to determine face sizes and reaches for, etc. [/QUOTE]
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