Nothing new...sadly

I am still working to get a couple people caught up in what I would like them to do. Till this happens and I have some gainful employment...well things are painfully slow. Money and food take president over my small projects. But hey I am still writing as I have ideas and people are moving forward. What more can really be said about this role playing game right?

Sitting in the doldroms...

Thought I would update, that really I had not to much to update. I have been looking for some work and trying to find a dedicated editor for my projects. After I got very frustrated and generally infuriated, I also figured it would be a good time to relax a little about everything.

So when I have cleared my plate, then I will be more frequent.

The universe hates me...

This week like last looks be be something of a bummer. I have been writing, and tweaking weapons and missiles in Manifest Destiny: Star Blazer. I did some of the background story also. But with real life striking me between the hammer and the anvil...I have not had a whole lot of time for more.

I will try to get back onto some kind of schedule...but I figure my writing and getting things done is better then posting here for the time. So that is what I am going to do. I will see about getting more information out in time.

Fighters and Missiles and Torps, Oh my!

I have been dedicating allot of run to to my work on the table top role playing game. Part because I have hit a very thick brick wall with Manifest Destiny. And partly cause I need an editor to continue as I can not do it all my self any more.

It is frustrating to know that you do not have all the necessary skills to achieve the goals at hand. Worse is when your so deep into something that you get lost and the only way out is if some one comes in and digs you out. That is kind of where I am at with Manifest Destiny.

So for the time I have been refining MD: Star Blazer. I have been reworking fighters and missiles/torpedo's to be a little more friendly. The issue was that they had to many attributes and I have had to simplify them signifacantly. This meant the removal of things like armor and other more cumbersome attributes and replacing them with a more generalized structure.

This extends to all of the systems, fighters have been getting a rework since they have the potential to be a very powerful tool. In turn I have had to rework their bays to a simpler number scheme and deployment rules. Missiles will be getting a couple alterations once fighters are done. Missiles will get more options but be simpler to use then I have right now. And torpedo's will also get some touch ups to.

All in all I have been filling my black notebook with rewrites like no bodies business. Fortunately enough this is not wasted work. Everything that I am doing with MD:SB will also find it's way into MD at some future point. That is what expansion books are for after all. But till those, there is allot of work to do. So back to my pencil and paper.

Let loose the dogs of war...

Well, after getting the sensor and counter sensor thing figured out. I have been beating my brain out to figure missiles vs craft and craft vs craft. First may be a little defining of what a craft it.

Craft in Star Blazer are small fighter and bombers that are launched from the ships. They are not piloted, more like drones. Well not drones...golems in the form of a fighter that is at home in space. This way they can be smaller, carry more stuff, and are expendable.

Craft are launched in flights of four, and each bay you add to your ship are able to launch up to three flights before they can no longer control any more. When a flight is destroyed, it takes three rounds to get a new one out of storage or replace lost units. But it is still up for grabs if this will be limited or unlimited.

Any way, missiles can intercept craft as well as other missiles. Guns can also intercept craft and missiles using area effect (flack or burst) ammunition. But missiles can do it from farther out as only small guns can make attacks on these weapons.

this interplay of missile vs missile, missile vs craft, and craft vs craft comes into play and something I need to really consider. Things like the damage a flight can take vs that of a missile...I am pondering if I should say that a flight has a total hit point of the four ships and it is only KO'd when all the HP are gone? Or may be if the flight takes enough to kill one craft that they die. It is a little complex.

Any way I will keep beating on it in my head. At least I am still working on things that are relevant to the role playing game side since this can be applied to other later elements, table top or not.

Working out the kinks...

After a long night I think I have solved at least my first kink in my table top issues. I just had to change how I was thinking about the issue. Something that happens allot when I am writing. I was treating sensors and sensor deception as a different thing then the basic attack. Instead I had to consider they were integral to attacks. May be a little explanation.

Every gun on the ship is rolled as 1D12. Batteries are rolled together against targets. A battery is defined by the officer in charge of the battery. And the batteries roll is enhanced by that officers skill and the skill of of crew. That may sound complicated, but the chain of bonuses is very well defined and simple.

Most weapons have a range increment. Guns add a +1 to their attack rolls per increment, while guided weapons get to reroll to see if they lock on when they reach a range increment. For guns this means that there is an upper limit to how far out they can hit based on the target number they are facing.

To alter this and add extra reach, I have added in a sensor roll. The player can roll sensor dice with successes (every other) adding a circumstance bonus to gunnery rolls. this extends the range of the ship, but can also make hitting smaller targets easier.

To counter this though, as there is always a counter, player can equip Sensor Deception gear on their ships. Sensor Deception (SD) rolls versus the attackers sensor strength. Successes with SD reduce the number of successes from the sensor roll. If all sensor dice are removed, then there is no bonus possible till the next combat round.

This opens a more organized can of worms then I had at the time of the last post. And this can be applied to different areas to. Environments in space can be designed to block visual targeting making the battle closer ranges. Or sensors can be disrupted to to make accuracy at range more random. I will have to keep tweaking this a bit. but in the end it should add a good touch with battles occurring at longer ranges making maneuvering a little more important. Or that is at least the hope.

Missiles, Sensors, and Sensor Deception

It may seam easy, but creating a simple opposed role system for a table top role playing game is not all that easy. The reason is once you start you also see all the things that it can apply to. This is what I have run into with the above three topics as they are essentially linked.

In this case I started with sensors. I wanted a system that would add a bonus to long range attacks to have combat that is beyond a set thresh hold. At the same this this led to the creation of sensor deception.

Sensor deception is an opposed roll to the use of sensor systems. For every success that the SD using targets gets. They reduce the number of successes the attacker with sensors receives. the culmination be that if the sensor tests successes are dropped to zero, the target can not accurately fire on the target.

But the applications of SD became very obvious against missiles also. So this has snow balled into multiple roles of missiles and SD. Because as a volley of missiles travels over rounds, they have a chance to reacquire a target. Thus making this entire thing VERY messy.

But in the end I will get it cleaned up some. I may just nuke the entire thought process...I am not sure yet though. In any case, that is what I am thinking at this moment. Interesting huh?