Gaming Ballistic - Posts other than GURPS (PotG)

[sjard]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Is there any reason not to wear a helmet? My vague recollection from every version of DnD I can recall is that helmets were just assumed to be a native part of armor

Early editions assumed that you did not have them unless you specifically bought them. But the only use for them was to defend against a Vorpal Blade. That is, if you didn't have one, a vorpal blade could insta-kill you by cutting your head off, and if you had one, it couldn't.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

They are a native part of the armor. I seem to recall somewhere in the DMG Gygax talks about not wearing one. But honestly, if you were to go to war buck nekkid but for one thing, it'd probably be a helmet.

Not if you're an Iron Age Keltic warrior. Then you'll want to display both your body paint (not woad - it makes for crappy body paint, apparently) and your fancy hair-do. Nekkid all the way!

[DouglasCole]

In honor of the SRD being released for D&D, here's a whole bunch of bullet damage stats, done systematically, for that game. This formlulation borrows the concept of expanded critical range for big and dangerous bullets from a prior post, so it accounts for both size and energy.

[DouglasCole]

An expansion to the prior firearms post, now with 100% more Age of Sail goodness.

[DouglasCole]

Following up the Melee Academy post with a rules tinkering post. Can we put down a different disarming mechanic for DnD? Of course. Can we make one that's better? Depends on your goals. Nonetheless, I make the attempt.

[DouglasCole]

Welcome to the Sundary Review. On the table today is one of my favorite setting treatments - Dark Conspiracy - but one I wound up leaving behind rules-wise when I played it in the early 90s in college. With lots of hindsight, did my opinion change?

[DouglasCole]

Inspired by a post on shields and their usefulness, I started to explore making the narrative description I usually see at the gaming table more consistent with what the mechanics are saying. I'm told Fantasy Age has done something similar, but I've not seen it. This is less "alternate rules" than simply exploring that things might mean, using the friendly DnD5 mechanics, to more closely define hits, misses, and the giant pile of stuff that is currently hit points. Additional thoughts and suggestions very, very welcome!

Heretic DnD5: Hit, Miss, Armor, Shield

[DouglasCole]

Rolling vs. a "Defense Target" of 10+DEX Modifier (from a prior post) is going to make even very experienced fighters get hit an awful lot. On the other hand, armor subtracts from damage. How does that balance out?
Guess it's time to break out Excel. First thing that leaped out at me was that the armor was wonky . . .

[DouglasCole]

The old S&W B-Team plays White Star. We have to recover avian bovine cells from a crashed spaceship, and encounter some resistance and betrayal during the course of the mission. No one is surprised by this.

[DouglasCole]

I continue to build on my attempts to make the narrative and mechanical aspects of hit, miss, and armor more tightly aligned in D&D5. I've altered some terminology for clarity.

It still needs a lot of simulation to see if there are odd breakpoints. Plus account for character classes, magic, and Feats.

But it's a start. And I like where it's going.