Post by Mutant Lord: William McAusland on Apr 17, 2013 15:36:16 GMT -8
Vehicle Damage
by pansophy » Wed Sep 28, 2011 4:23 am
Hi Forum,
I must admit, I am new to the philosophy "Armor makes you harder to hit"; I am more into "Armor subtracts Damage".
So here's my question: a light tank in the rules can be slowly reduced to nothing by ... a pistol? How do you guys get around this problem? I know my players - they will ask me for sure how this will be handled, even before they consider playing the game.
Sure, I can simply judge a pistol won't make it through the armor - but having one rule-lawyer in the group, I want to address this problem, before it comes up ...
--
cheers!
Re: Vehicle Damage
by WillMcAusland » Wed Sep 28, 2011 6:57 am
Good question. A scrap built light tank or armored car is not built near as well as ancient tanks, and has many weak points in the armor. You could say that repeated strikes by a pistol begins to dismantle the vehicle, part by part, bolt by bolt, and mess with the inner working such a shoddy vehicle. Now, for relic tanks, as GM I'd flatly say no standard pistol or rifle round can inflict damage at all.
Years ago, the idea of a three stage combat system was attempted. First you roll to see if one strikes the target, the second roll to see if it penetrated or harmed the target, and the third roll was the damage. Penetration of armor at the chest was different than the leg or head, and soon a fourth table to determine body location was needed. Its logical and gives one a lot of options: however, it bogged fights down to a simulationist study instead of the cinematic narrative game play we preferred. The current system is a compromise between reality and game-ability.
If, as GM, you wanted to create quick penetration table for each armor, creature and character type, it could be worthwhile. We should look into this ourselves as a possible Excavator Monthly article and optional rule for those interested in employing a three stage system.
Hope that helps,
Will
Re: Vehicle Damage
by pansophy » Wed Sep 28, 2011 10:50 pm
Hi Will,
thanks for the idea - I might simply apply a Hazard Class to vehicles, listing different types of Weapon classes (using Table "TME-1 -55 Weapon Expert Category Table d100" as a starting point) to reflect their chance of penetrating the targets armor.
I think it is not necessary to use this rule for personal combat; but for vehicle combat I think it is necessary to keep my players in check.
by pansophy » Wed Sep 28, 2011 4:23 am
Hi Forum,
I must admit, I am new to the philosophy "Armor makes you harder to hit"; I am more into "Armor subtracts Damage".
So here's my question: a light tank in the rules can be slowly reduced to nothing by ... a pistol? How do you guys get around this problem? I know my players - they will ask me for sure how this will be handled, even before they consider playing the game.
Sure, I can simply judge a pistol won't make it through the armor - but having one rule-lawyer in the group, I want to address this problem, before it comes up ...
--
cheers!
Re: Vehicle Damage
by WillMcAusland » Wed Sep 28, 2011 6:57 am
Good question. A scrap built light tank or armored car is not built near as well as ancient tanks, and has many weak points in the armor. You could say that repeated strikes by a pistol begins to dismantle the vehicle, part by part, bolt by bolt, and mess with the inner working such a shoddy vehicle. Now, for relic tanks, as GM I'd flatly say no standard pistol or rifle round can inflict damage at all.
Years ago, the idea of a three stage combat system was attempted. First you roll to see if one strikes the target, the second roll to see if it penetrated or harmed the target, and the third roll was the damage. Penetration of armor at the chest was different than the leg or head, and soon a fourth table to determine body location was needed. Its logical and gives one a lot of options: however, it bogged fights down to a simulationist study instead of the cinematic narrative game play we preferred. The current system is a compromise between reality and game-ability.
If, as GM, you wanted to create quick penetration table for each armor, creature and character type, it could be worthwhile. We should look into this ourselves as a possible Excavator Monthly article and optional rule for those interested in employing a three stage system.
Hope that helps,
Will
Re: Vehicle Damage
by pansophy » Wed Sep 28, 2011 10:50 pm
Hi Will,
thanks for the idea - I might simply apply a Hazard Class to vehicles, listing different types of Weapon classes (using Table "TME-1 -55 Weapon Expert Category Table d100" as a starting point) to reflect their chance of penetrating the targets armor.
I think it is not necessary to use this rule for personal combat; but for vehicle combat I think it is necessary to keep my players in check.