10-15-2017, 12:10 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: T'Pol's Ready Room
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GURPS: Spaceships Questions
So. I've been reading through the Spaceships book specifically for the space combat and I have a couple questions that I haven't quite been able to resolve from my reading. The answers might be there and I've just overlooked them, but ... you know how it is.
1. Are all events in a round simultaneous or do they happen in the order established? For example, say you have PC Ship and Bad Guy Ship engaged in a voidfight. PC Ship goes first 'cause their pilot is better or the captain won the opposed Tactics check or whatever. In the Gunnery part of the round, the PC on the weapons kicked butt and straight up critted the bad guy and then the Bad Guy Ship totally failed to dodge all of the other shots, so he takes like 10 laser shots to the hull. In the course of the damage dealt, the Bad Guy Ship goes to -1xHP and fails the required HT check which, by the rules, means it is destroyed. Does this mean the space combat is over right then or does the Bad Guy ship still get to make this rounds actions and then goes boom? I'm just not clear on that part. The space combat rules in Traveller: Interstellar Wars implies (or at least I infer) that everything happens simultaneously so ships could blow themselves up in the same round. 2. The whole Delta-V/"mps" stuff. Is this even applicable to Traveller or Star Wars kinds of ships that have /c in their Move? The ships I've really looked at will generally have something like 1G/c or 4G/c in Move, not something with MPS, yet there are constant references throughout to MPS (e.g., "Disable Fuel Tank" on p62.) 3. Related to that, if a Traveller or SW ship that doesn't have MPS in the Move (e.g., 2G/c) ends up with a disabled or destroyed fuel tank, does that actually apply to the combat? The way I've been reading Traveller stuff, for example, it shouldn't since those fuel tanks appear to principally be for the Jump drive. Right now, it seems like the only thing that would actually slow such a vessel down is if a weapons shot struck the maneuver drive although, interestingly enough, there isn't a specific reference to Disabled drives in the damage section. Thanks in advance...
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10-15-2017, 12:22 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Oklahoma City
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Re: GURPS: Spaceships Questions
Traveller uses reactionless thrusters, so no fuel for maneuver drives, AFAIK. But they do have fuel for the jump drives.
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10-15-2017, 12:40 PM | #3 | |||
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: GURPS: Spaceships Questions
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GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars doesn't use GURPS Spaceships, it has its own system. I can think of no reason to expect rules from the former to have bearing on the latter. I don't know right off whether it has simultaneous turns, but GURPS Spaceships certainly does not. Quote:
Stuff about spending delta-V does tell you a bit about how much you're using your thrusters, if you're interested in that. Quote:
Anyway, no, there is no specific reference to disabled drive because there's no need for one. The section starts with a blanket rule: "If a system is disabled it is normally no longer functional." The systems that are mentioned are ones that either violate that by retaining partial functionality, have contents whose fate needs to be addressed, or in the case of life support a relatively obscure functionality that might be overlooked. Rockets and reactionless thrusters alike are not noted (except by way of being volatile systems if applicable) - which means they simply lose their functionality per the general rule.
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10-15-2017, 02:16 PM | #4 | ||
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: T'Pol's Ready Room
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Re: GURPS: Spaceships Questions
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To me, the more time that a "round" takes (e.g., the 10-minute turn), the less sense it makes for actions aboard various hostile vessels to not happen concurrently. For example, if actions are not simultaneous, that means it is entirely possible for a PC vessel in a 3-minute or 10-minute round to get completely wiped in the opening round of a space combat without even having the opportunity to fire back, even if they're completely aware of this. Strikes me (personally) as kind of weird, that's all. If I'm a player in a game with a (FREX) Basic Speed of 7 and I normally go before our Pilot, and because our Pilot is only of average Speed, our ship goes after the bad guy ship & is destroyed in round 1 before any of the players get to act, I think I might complain a little bit. If we're destroyed in that round but manage to return the favor to our enemy (mutual TPK! That's one way to end a campaign, I suppose), I think I'd be less irritated. Since you're telling me that the each spacecraft's respective turns aren't simultaneous per RAW, though, I may consider house-ruling that ... maybe if initiative is determined by Tactics check instead of Pilot basic speed, then it's sort of like a quasi-ambush? Something to ponder, I suppose. Quote:
Appreciate the response!
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"Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant." Star Trek: Endeavour - a fanfiction site Frak, Frel, and Other "F" Words - my blog Last edited by Rigil_Kent; 10-15-2017 at 02:20 PM. |
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10-15-2017, 03:34 PM | #5 | ||
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: GURPS: Spaceships Questions
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Radically reworking Spaceships before using it isn't a bad idea by me, to be sure. But putting that out there... You should probably actually look at what's on that page 49 - tactics contest is one of the suggestions.
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10-15-2017, 09:31 PM | #6 | |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: GURPS: Spaceships Questions
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