RE: Rules for BFG/FT Conversion.

On Thursday, 28 January 1999 13:54, John C [SMTP:john1x@hotmail.com]
wrote:
> [Snippity-Snap]
> No, I can't see the Solar Wind changing direction either.  If it does,

> you've probably got more important things than a battle to worry about

> ("Hey!  Who turned out the sun?")  

Yep.  Solar wind goes from the star outward.

> Letting the intensity vary from turn to turn might be cool, though--it

> would never drop below one, or change by more than one or two points
in 
> a turn.  Unless the star just went nova; and again, you've got bigger 
> problems in that case.

Aha!  Here we apply a handwave and decide that the sails don't work
because
of solar wind, but because of currents and eddies in warp space.  It is
40K
background that warp space is very chaotic.  Assume that the sails grab
ahold of warp space 'winds' and translate that to normal space movement.
Boom - variable speed and direction each turn.

> >I hope we can not bring up the discussion about 'how do you tack in a

> solar
> >wind?'. *shudder*

You can, it's just very time consuming.  Using the solar wind to propel
anything with any useful mass is very, very difficult.	There just isn't
that much thrust.

> >Again, though, let's not talk about the difficulties imagining ships
> >actually tiny dots on our tabletops, lumbering, trying to get close 
> enough
> >to do a ram.
> 
> Piffle.  Look at the ranges at which combat took place in B5!  Not
many 
> people complained about *that*!  Ramming may be a bit silly, but the 
> "Fun Factor" outweighs that, in my opinion.

True.  Any 'real' space combat (whatever that may turn out to be) will
take
place at much greater than visual range.  However, it is fun to actually
see
the enemy (as in B5) and B5 ships moved *mostly* as they should.

> I have always liked the GW background.  Heavy on the atmosphere, light

> on the logic, but it leaves a lot of room for creativity.  Or, at
least,
> it did.  Remember the Jokaero?  Remember the days of the deodorant
stick
> APC?	That was a golden age...simultaneously encouraging gamers to 
> scratchbuild AND use deodorant!  They should try something similar 
> today.  Soon. 

I still am a fan and regular player of the 40K Rogue Trader rules.  I
still
use deodorant regularly. :-)

> *sigh*  I miss those days.  And the box of 30 Imperial Guard for
$30.00.

<OLDCODGERMODE>

Ahhh, ya young whipper-snapper *cough*wheeze*.	why, when *I* was a kid,
GW
was nothing but a Traveller licencee.  *wheeze*hack*
</OLDCODGERMODE>

vargr1							 UPP-8D9B85
---------------------------- Omnia dicta fortiora, si dicta latina.
Meyers-Briggs personality type: ENTJ		    vargr1@jcn1.com
"...the ENTJ is not one to be trifled with."	  dmoody@bridge.com