Quote:
Originally Posted by onetrikpony
In the 'BYOBlaster" rules in Pyramid;
The curves; (dice/n)^3 Empty Weight, (dice^2)*Generator factor*Array range combined with the Tech Level advancement for Shots-per-dice-per-C-Cell do 'effectively' increase damage at later tech levels.
They just don't work well when going down tech levels.
This is understandable. TL9 to TL10 lasers in UT, use a different technology for Lasing medium, for example. Even speculative future parallel technologies don't usually fit well on the same curve, because they're parallel.
I suspect that while going over his outline and napkin math the author said; "TL11 cannon, check; 4000lb. TL10 cannon... why?! Aw hell; TL10 cannon, half dice, 4000lb."
The pyramid rules are a little bit simple; to enable doing the figures long hand on the back of a character sheet, probably. They kind of can, but don't really, facilitate engineering different form factors with different technology through different tech levels.
If you're building REALY BIG GUNS, you should probably be using the rules from spaceships. (the old Mecha book is kind of fun too.)
For middle weight lasers and blasters here's what I did to Mr. Pulver's very nice system.
Added a TL generator efficiency modifier
TL9- 1.5, TL9 1.2, TL10 1, TL10+ 0.8,
Created individual weight factors for generators on IR Lasers, MS Lasers, Particle beams, each has a different modifier for single shot through gatling i.e.;
MS Laser; Single shot 1, Semi auto 1.25, Rapid Fire 1.5, Full Auto 2, "gatling" 2.25
Added new "Rb" (from range; pg 13) factors for each type of beam in each form factor category i.e.; Blaster pistol 26, rifle 32, cannon 50.
I also did some stuff that's very specific to my setting and probably unrealistic like changing the 'shots-per-c-cell' efficiency. And writing in a function for maximum shots per turn or your power cell explodes.
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Interesting house rules. There is certainly a certain uniformity in certain numbers. ;)
I fear you are right in that the article may have been written with design-on-the-fly in mind; either that, or space constraints.
In any case, I view design such as this something to do up-front, and have a much more forgiving view towards up-front math than I do for in-play math. So I would much rather have the full formula than a "back of the character sheet" formula.