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Old 01-30-2015, 03:32 PM   #4
fredtheobviouspseudonym
 
Join Date: May 2007
Default Re: Post-Apocalypse Wasteland Adventure

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderjoe View Post
I would like to ask for advice on my ideas for how to run this. The average TL of the setting is TL-6 but this will vary wildly depending on person(even up to TL 10 in specific cases).
You'll have to think a bit about how a TL-10 society can collapse so quickly -- probably there will be off-world settlements that might intervene if Homeworld goes kerblooey. As a player I would ask.
Quote:
TL:
Average TL: 6
Weapon TL: 6(no penalties for using weapons up to TL 10 or for repairing weapons up to TL 8)
Armor TL: 6(double cost for armor requiring advanced materials)
Transportation TL: 5(some TL 6-7 areas exist)
Power TL: 5(can maintain and use but not build up to TL 8)
Medicine TL: 6 average but doctors are commonly TL 7-8
Remember that the more complex a society the more vulnerable it would be to such a collapse. City-busting weapons will not only smash productive facilities (and those facilities in the country would almost certainly be a major target too) but kill the people & destroy the data bases needed to do anything. It's possible that by TL 10 most folks will let AI's and other automated systems do about everything and devote their lives to non-technical vocations. So any technology more advanced than a piece of scrap metal hammered into some sort of shape might will be beyond the grasp of most human communities.
Quote:
Guns:
1) I have multiplied the price of all guns by 4 and I am following the rules for increasing the price as TL increases. A TL 6 gun will be 4x while a TL 8 gun would be 16x.

2) Cost for normal ammo is being multiplied by 8. This is to represent the difficulty of getting good quality ammo. I will offer half off on "cheap" ammo that increases malfunction by 1.

3) As I wish the game to be mildly cinematic in terms of player ability I have divided the damage of all high velocity guns by 2 and given them all an armor divisor of 2. This is so that the players will hopefully survive getting shot by a rifle once while maintaining the gun's power.
e.g.
If I wanted to control firearms I might go a different route. By TL 10 most weapons will work by some form of power cell. When these things go (perhaps fried by the TL 10 equivalent of EMP) the zillion kilowatt blaster rifle becomes a club.

Imagine some form of post-apocalyptic community huddled in the dust. To get a single shot from the community blaster might require dozens of people to pedal foot-operated generators for a week (and I might be optimistic.) That might well limit shoots as well as artificially declaring that guns are less powerful.

You could probably justify this by saying the megatech Kill-O-Zap ray guns are two hundred years worn and they waste a lot of energy getting the zap out of the barrel. Have the weapon become too hot to hold after a single shot. (Yeah, it might make no sense from the standpoint of modern science, but by TL-10 everything we now know is wrong.) Have some NPC weapons blow up very dramatically when fired. That'll keep shooting down and make melee weapons much more appealing.
Quote:

Melee Weapons:
Players are able to acquire many melee weapons from low tech. The goal is to make melee weapons feasible in combat by making guns rare and expensive.

Armor:
Modern armor from high tech will be available but anything that requires advanced materials to make will cost 4x extra on top of the increase from TL as many of the machines used to make them have been lost. Armor from low tech will be available and widely used as it is easier to manufacture. In fact metallic armor from low tech may have double DR or half weight for the same price to represent using salvaged modern metals and alloys.

Ultra Tech:
Some high tech groups will have access to some TL 9 and 10 stuff. Namely robots, cybernetics, powered armor, and weapons including Gauss, lasers, and mono-blades.
Try making a Gauss needle by hand filing. Good luck. Also, after generations the robots might by rather quirky . . . [quote]Might be fun but I'd suggest going the "old tech is problematic" rather than artificially modifying the damages of weapons. If ammo and power cells are scarce shots by the firearms remaining are likely to be aimed at significant enemy targets rather than just making the battlefield hazardous. So every significant leader & even warrior might have doubles wandering the battlefield to draw the heavy artillery. This could be voluntary (you can only marry in the Tribe of Ogg if you show your courage by being his dedicated double; and if you're lucky enough to survive). So a certain amount of play-acting skill is then explicable.
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