Ok, so once again it comes back to the vehicle creation rules.
The one thing we have sort of crystallized is that vehicles come in various types based off monster types. Object (un-animated construct), Construct (magically animated), Plant (ships made from living trees), Aberrations (organic ships), Undead (animated flesh you can ride in). Type determines some basic functions like what die is used for the vehicle’s hit dice, if it is repaired or can be healed, base hardness, base natural armor, etc. A vehicle’s size partially determines it’s hit dice (provides a span) and you pay by the hit die. (some types cost more per hit die). Also we figure that the number of hit dice (or size) will help determine exactly how much “stuff” you can fit in a given vehicle.
We’ve had some trouble figuring out the details though.
After months of messing with it we eventually ruled out a full point buy system for building vehicles as too distant from existing D&D rules, & too complicated. That’s hard for me to admit as I fought for it to begin with. I recalled enjoying the Alternity game’s ship construction rules. Unfortunately it would have suffered from that game’s same chances of build ships that actually aren’t able to fly or function. That means it’s too complicated. Point buy doesn’t happen in D&D either, so this would seem to fit the system overall.
Another idea that was mentioned a lot and that we’ve all seen in other products is to simply build some basic stats for various types of generic crafts, and then list add-ons that can be purchased and added to those. This is similar to the D20 Future ships rules which lists basic ship designs and then provides templates to add onto those basic ships. I’ve always fought against this system because it’s not flexible. All space fighters are very similar, and we’d still need to provide a lot of templates to get anything interesting.
The most recent concept I started working with was based off the Class system for characters. You could quickly define a craft as Combat 5/ Defense 3/ Engines 2/ Systems 2. now each of those ranks brings various advantages. The More combat “levels” you have the more weapons you can mount on your ship. The more Defense, the more armor or hardness you can get. Engines increases speed or maneuvering, and Systems lets you pick up things like life support/etc.
Another idea I’ve started tossing around works as such: You pick your vehicle size, type, and number of hitdice. Then you pick a general type (dirigible, vector craft, aircraft, space craft) which combined with your size gives you a base speed and manuveriblity, minimum speed/etc. The size also gives you X component slots which you can fill with components that sort of act like feats. Maybe it increases your speed, or lowers your minimum speed, or increases your glide speed, or improves you maneuvering, or adds armor, or lets you add a weapon, or makes a weapon larger, etc. It might be a better idea to have 3 sizes of components. The whole system is inspired by Astral Constructs from the 3.0/3.5 Psionics core rules.
I might try mixing my last two ideas as they seem to fit the system better, and are easier to work with, yet are still flexible.
Unless someone else out there would like to help me out with a better idea or maybe get me to look at one of my old ideas in a new light? Once again... HELP?
The one thing we have sort of crystallized is that vehicles come in various types based off monster types. Object (un-animated construct), Construct (magically animated), Plant (ships made from living trees), Aberrations (organic ships), Undead (animated flesh you can ride in). Type determines some basic functions like what die is used for the vehicle’s hit dice, if it is repaired or can be healed, base hardness, base natural armor, etc. A vehicle’s size partially determines it’s hit dice (provides a span) and you pay by the hit die. (some types cost more per hit die). Also we figure that the number of hit dice (or size) will help determine exactly how much “stuff” you can fit in a given vehicle.
We’ve had some trouble figuring out the details though.
After months of messing with it we eventually ruled out a full point buy system for building vehicles as too distant from existing D&D rules, & too complicated. That’s hard for me to admit as I fought for it to begin with. I recalled enjoying the Alternity game’s ship construction rules. Unfortunately it would have suffered from that game’s same chances of build ships that actually aren’t able to fly or function. That means it’s too complicated. Point buy doesn’t happen in D&D either, so this would seem to fit the system overall.
Another idea that was mentioned a lot and that we’ve all seen in other products is to simply build some basic stats for various types of generic crafts, and then list add-ons that can be purchased and added to those. This is similar to the D20 Future ships rules which lists basic ship designs and then provides templates to add onto those basic ships. I’ve always fought against this system because it’s not flexible. All space fighters are very similar, and we’d still need to provide a lot of templates to get anything interesting.
The most recent concept I started working with was based off the Class system for characters. You could quickly define a craft as Combat 5/ Defense 3/ Engines 2/ Systems 2. now each of those ranks brings various advantages. The More combat “levels” you have the more weapons you can mount on your ship. The more Defense, the more armor or hardness you can get. Engines increases speed or maneuvering, and Systems lets you pick up things like life support/etc.
Another idea I’ve started tossing around works as such: You pick your vehicle size, type, and number of hitdice. Then you pick a general type (dirigible, vector craft, aircraft, space craft) which combined with your size gives you a base speed and manuveriblity, minimum speed/etc. The size also gives you X component slots which you can fill with components that sort of act like feats. Maybe it increases your speed, or lowers your minimum speed, or increases your glide speed, or improves you maneuvering, or adds armor, or lets you add a weapon, or makes a weapon larger, etc. It might be a better idea to have 3 sizes of components. The whole system is inspired by Astral Constructs from the 3.0/3.5 Psionics core rules.
I might try mixing my last two ideas as they seem to fit the system better, and are easier to work with, yet are still flexible.
Unless someone else out there would like to help me out with a better idea or maybe get me to look at one of my old ideas in a new light? Once again... HELP?
