Re: Just wondering.....

On Fri, 4 Jul 1997, Ground Zero Games wrote:

> i) allow the pulse torps to ignore the armour, as the advantage
against
> beams is really enough for the KV;

So, the vanilla ruling would that armor does help against PTs.
Exactly how? Subtract from the damage roll?

> Amusing as a storyline, but not a great deal of fun as a game! 

But the other way around it is?

This leads me to the general subject of "arms race" in game design.
We all know it's there, some publishers have honed it to nigh perfection
but very few avoid it completely (apart from those that never manage to 
publish supplements).

Think about it. Have you *ever* seen a supplement that had a
race/ship/equipment clearly and intentionally inferior to the ones
previously published *and* meant to be used with those (e.g. Car Wars
Chassis&Crossbow doesn't count -- it's not intended to mix with the
"modern" tech)? The wave gun in MT doesn't count either -- it's a less 
powerful version of the Nova gun, not an inferior copy since it also 
costs/masses less etc. If KV had been in FT and humans in MT, that would

count.

Publishers obviously publish things they think will sell, so are we as 
the gamers really to blame? Are we really subconsciously looking for a 
bigger gun when we shop for supplements?

> what about a weak alien force being "picked on" by a nasty human
power,
> with other human nations trying to "protect" the poor little
aliens...?

Pointswise, I could see this as "the valiant few vs. the screaming 
hordes" or "the oppressed masses vs. the evil overlords" (take your 
pick) type of battle. 

Assuming the points are balanced. If not, just blot out the race names,
and 
it's the situation we currently have with KV.

OR.... warrior aliens, whose aim in life is to die gloriously in battle 
and lacking better opponents, fling themselves at humans using 
intentionally inferior technology. Though that would be better as a 
RPG scenario...

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