Re: [FT] Scaling up for RPG play

On Tue, 21 May 2002 17:40:20 -0400, "Tomb" <tomb@dreammechanics.com>
wrote:

>So, can full thrust be successfully scaled up (ie small ships made big
>and thus making the ship survive more than one hit from a B3)?

I don't see why not. While playing around with a naval variant of FT, I
found
that it scaled down rather well.

The neat thing about FT is that it doesn't really have a scale, though
obviously the Fleet Book ships don't allow for large fleet actions
unless
you've got all day to do it.

Come up with a ton to mass ratio that you like, and give each weapon
turret
its own FT weapon system. You can alter the time scale (i.e. how long a
turn
represents) by altering the mass of the ship. That is, if it takes three
turns
of B3 fire (whatever you want a B3 to represent) to kill an 800 ton ship
--
and you think that's too short -- doubling the mass means that every
turn
effectively represents half the time.

You can even do fighters as discrete ships. Give them some mass, give
them a
single (or, heck, even more) 1 arc beam weapon, maybe some missiles, one
firecon and a high thrust. 

For skills, you'd probably want to define a range of Traveller skill
values
that relate to a -1, 0, and +1 die roll modifier (I think... I'm a bit
hazy on
Traveller, having sold my huge collection of classic Traveller stuff
last
year).

>In the other games, important aspects are:
>-- sensor acquisition of targets

Sensor rules would have to be cobbled together.

>-- electronic warfare

A tricky point, as FT doesn't really have EW.

>-- manned gunnery

See idea of a skill giving a "to hit" bonus, above.

>-- evasive manouvers

One thing I tried with naval FT was to not use pre-recorded movement.
Instead,
one side got the initiative. The players would then move their ships,
with the
initiative player having the choice of first or last. The first player
to move
moved the ships 1/2 distance, then the second player moved his ships all
of
their distance, then the first player moved his ships the remaining 1/2
distance. This, of course, could be broken down even further. It worked
well.
You could use a similar system, breaking the turn into multiple
"segments" and
having the player roll versus his skill. If the skill succeeds, the
player has
the initiative that segment (i.e. can move second). If not, the player
must
move the ship first. This could result in evasive maneouvres. 

>-- operation of defensive weapons like sandcasters

I believe someone suggested that the Phalon vapour shroud is essentially
a
sandcaster. Let the player controlling a specific weapon decide what it
fires
at and how. You may find that skill rolls aren't all that necessary, as
player
decisions will be more important. For instance, a player might have the
choice
of firing a sandcaster or a beam, and chooses beam. That might be a good
or
bad decision, but it's one that the player chose. For that matter, if
you see
something obviously stupid about to happen, let the player roll versus
skill
to get a hint. 

>Weapons tend to include:
>- beam lasers

Easy to adapt.

>- pulse lasers
>- particle accelerators
>- fusion guns

You'd have to see what weapons, if any, in the FT universe fit how these
weapons are resolved.

>- missiles (nuke and non-nuke)

Pulse torps or SMs. Maybe MT missiles.

>- sandcasters

Vapour shroud.

>- black globes (force screens)

I guess FT screens would work, though there would be a setting that
allowed
the screens to be used in several configurations, if I remember
correctly.

>Perhaps FT, using its D6 mechanics and relatively brittle ships just
>doesn't have what it takes to be a good engine for a space RPG combat
>extension. 

It was used for the B5 RPG, but I haven't looked at it in a while to see
how
player skills affected outcomes.

>Now, our conjectural Full Metal Thrust adapts the FMA engine to run on
>top of FT feasible designs and systems. This seems like something with
>the "right stuff" since it already includes a concept of user skills
>(quality dice) in the equation. 

Sure, but it would be a lot of work wouldn't it?

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"At long last, the earthy soil of the typical, 
unimaginable mortician was revealed!"