Alternate Vehicle/Aerial Combat Rules for d20 Modern?

[Breakdaddy]

Thanks Wulf! These rules are a really nice read, and appear abstract enough to suit my group. I hope you add more Aerial Maneuvers in the future! We are trying these out this weekend and if they translate to the gaming table as well as I think they will, then I'll be buying a copy of Grim Tales.

-Breakdaddy (who has the benefit of being the GM for our little rabble)

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I hope you add more Aerial Maneuvers in the future!

Well, keep in mind that you can use all of the maneuvers presented earlier in the chapter, which I think are pretty comprehensive-- remember, keep it abstract! Close/Lengthen, a few ways to Ram/Herd, and a few ways to Evade and you're pretty much set.

It's just that, even in the abstract, aerial combat requires a couple of other key maneuvers (take off, land, etc.) that change your position relative to the ground. Tracking the position of the ground is one relative scale abstraction that's pretty important, obvious, and exclusive to atmospheric aerial combat.


Wulf

 

[Breakdaddy]

It's just that, even in the abstract, aerial combat requires a couple of other key maneuvers (take off, land, etc.) that change your position relative to the ground. Tracking the position of the ground is one relative scale abstraction that's pretty important, obvious, and exclusive to atmospheric aerial combat.
Wulf

Your point is well taken, I just like the "Kewl Factor" of some of the possible aeronautical feats of prowess as it were. It is perfectly workable and far simpler as is.

 

[Ranger REG]

Agreed, grid-based is terrible. Grim Tales is very, very relative.

Anyone who wants a peek can email me; my email is readily available at the Bad Axe website.

I dunno. As an old-school wargamer who fell in love with grid-based combat rules, it has its place in stationary battlefield.

But even I know it is not good for chase encounter scenes. Spycraft offers the rules for chase scene but not for tactical battle scenes. d20 Modern offers the rules for tactical battle scenes but not for chase scenes. A good ruleset would have to include both.

 

[beverson]

Agreed, grid-based is terrible. Grim Tales is very, very relative.

Anyone who wants a peek can email me; my email is readily available at the Bad Axe website.


Wulf

Wulf, I bounced around the Bad Axe site and couldn't find your email anywhere - unless my morning coffee just hasn't kicked in yet.....

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I dunno. As an old-school wargamer who fell in love with grid-based combat rules, it has its place in stationary battlefield.

Oh, please don't get me wrong. I like a grid-based, or better yet, hex-based system for, as you aptly put it, a stationary battlefield. I've enjoyed many a Battletech game in my time.

I should have been more precise. I just don't understand why d20Modern has a grid based chase system. That's just silly.

Car Wars kinda made it work, and it seems to me there's a lot of Car Wars in the d20M rules, but the difference is that Car Wars was a game unto itself. As a rule subset in the complicated juggernaut of d20 rules-- not so good an option.

Wulf

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Wulf, I bounced around the Bad Axe site and couldn't find your email anywhere - unless my morning coffee just hasn't kicked in yet.....

Gotta be the coffee.

See that button marked CONTACT US?

Try thatta one.


Wulf

 

[Breakdaddy]

Gotta be the coffee.

See that button marked CONTACT US?

Try thatta one.


Wulf

I can see his apprehension. I almost didnt click that one either. I wasnt sure if it would go straight to you or some webmaster that would reply "what are you talking about???"

 

[ledded]

Oddly enough, our d20 Modern group used the Spycraft rules for chases and the Blood and Guts/Hell on Earth aerial combat rules mentioned in this thread. While I like both, the Spycraft just feel a little too abstract to me sometimes; I'd like something just a bit more, but I'm not sure what. We tried the d20 Modern grid system and it just did not work at all for us.

We did enjoy using the BnG/HoE rules, with the HoE classes and feats to make it more fun for our WWII based short campaign. I still have a guy in my group that keeps mumbling about getting revenge on the BF-109's that shot him down...

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Ledded, I've sent you the PDFs as you requested.

I hope you find them useful, though they are, like Spycraft, very abstract.


Wulf