[Star Wars d20] The Death Star's Superlaser

[javcs]

Alright, this is a long story, but it boils down into:

I'm statting out the Death Star in Star Wars d20, but I have no idea what the statistics for the superlaser should be (and I can't really just handwave this away, unfortunately).

So, roughly speaking, what should the Death Star's superlaser be statted out as?

Also, on a somewhat related note, how much HP does the Prime Material Plane have? Some of my players are interested in this information.

 

[Tiberius]

Alright, this is a long story, but it boils down into:

I'm statting out the Death Star in Star Wars d20, but I have no idea what the statistics for the superlaser should be (and I can't really just handwave this away, unfortunately).

So, roughly speaking, what should the Death Star's superlaser be statted out as?

Also, on a somewhat related note, how much HP does the Prime Material Plane have? Some of my players are interested in this information.

I'm really curious as to why you'd need stats for the superlaser beyond "Enough to utterly destroy you + 1". If you really felt the need to quantify it, call it "(10^100)!d20 damage" or some other suitably outrageous value.

As for the second question, if it's in any way related to the first then it would seem a good bludgeoning from the thickest game book you can find would be in order.

 

[kaomera]

Alright, this is a long story, but it boils down into:

I'm statting out the Death Star in Star Wars d20, but I have no idea what the statistics for the superlaser should be (and I can't really just handwave this away, unfortunately).

So, roughly speaking, what should the Death Star's superlaser be statted out as?

Death Star Laser: Size-Of-A-Small-Moon Exotic Weapon; Cost: If you have to ask...; Damage: All of it; Rate of Fire: Once per six movies; Weight: It's in space, so it's weightless (duh); Type: Frickin' laser beam!; Availability: Not unless your name is Grand Moff Tarkin.

Also, on a somewhat related note, how much HP does the Prime Material Plane have? Some of my players are interested in this information.

Planes do not have hit points. You can't destroy a D&D Cosmology Plane with physical damage. You can mess up pretty much everything on one (except Elminster), but actually destroying (or even damaging) a Plane would require metaphysical / metagame effects.

 

[javcs]

I'm really curious as to why you'd need stats for the superlaser beyond "Enough to utterly destroy you + 1". If you really felt the need to quantify it, call it "(10^100)!d20 damage" or some other suitably outrageous value.

Fair enough on the amount of damage.
Well, beyond just straight damage, I need to figure the range and rate of fire for the superlaser.

As for the second question, if it's in any way related to the first then it would seem a good bludgeoning from the thickest game book you can find would be in order.

Unfortunately, most of my books are digitized.
They're related mostly in that if they can contemplate destroying the entire Prime Material (in one D&D campaign), I can contemplate having them neutralize a sufficient percentage of explosives planted on a planet to keep it from blowing up (in a different campaign).


EDIT: kaomera, I have to contradict you, the superlaser on Death Star #1 fired once in A New Hope, the one on DS#2 fired multiple (at least 3) times in Return of the Jedi.

 

[kaomera]

kaomera, I have to contradict you, the superlaser on Death Star #1 fired once in A New Hope, the one on DS#2 fired multiple (at least 3) times in Return of the Jedi.

True. You said "Death Star", I understood that to mean the Death Star from A New Hope, not "The Second Death Star" (as I'm used to seeing it referred to). Also there is a good argument that the SDS's laser was only able to "rapid fire" (comparatively) because it was being fired at a lower-powered (comparatively) "ship-killing" setting, not full powered "planet-killing" mode.

Regardless, the "actual figure" for the recharge rate on the Death Star Laser is one hour. I was being a bit sarcastic, as employing such a device without handwaving seems ridiculous to me. Planets don't need hit points. (Well, OK, possibly if you have a Planet PC...) There's a reason that the size scale doesn't continue upwards forever.

 

[Someone]

Treating Alderaan as a 8000 miles wide wall of stone, gives us a very rough approximation of 4 billion hit points for the whole planet. Since is a sphere and not a wall the total sould be smaller, though, but let's ignore that since the death star's superlaser wasn't only able to break the planet, but also to scatter the remains at great speed.

Edit: I screwed the calculations: that would be for a 10 foot stone wall 8000 miles long. The actual number should be in the vicinity of 48 x 10^18 hit points.

 

[hong]

Driz'zt would so pwn the Death Star.

 

[blargney the second]

Death Star Laser: Size-Of-A-Small-Moon Exotic Weapon; Cost: If you have to ask...; Damage: All of it; Rate of Fire: Once per six movies; Weight: It's in space, so it's weightless (duh); Type: Frickin' laser beam!; Availability: Not unless your name is Grand Moff Tarkin.

I'm laughing my ass off here.
-blarg

 

[Arkhandus]

Planets don't need hit points. (Well, OK, possibly if you have a Planet PC...) There's a reason that the size scale doesn't continue upwards forever.

Or your PC goes by the name Primus, Unicron, Galactus, Goku, Kakarot, Brolli, Baby, Vegeta, Freeza, Cell, King Cold, Cooler, or any number other of silly monikers (excepting the first three, which are decidedly less silly).

*re-lurks the Transformers fan does*

 

[WhatGravitas]

Driz'zt would so pwn the Death Star.

No, no, no! The Enterprise would pwn them all!