Re: FMA DSII+ [ATTN: JON]

Roger Books replied to MWS regarding Brian Bell's DS-FMA system:

> >Brian Bell has already the conversion - here's the URL:
> >
> >	     http://www.ftsr.org/ds2/techlib/ds2fma.asp
> >
> >I posted a request about a week ago for playtesting feedback on his
set and
> > got no response.  As soon as I get less busy, Lonnie & I are going
to run
> >a few games using Brian's mods and try them out ourselves.
>
>I looked through his mods and, while they look like they will work,
>have a different feel than the SG system.  He is attempting to
>duplicate the chit draw with dice.  I don't feel that is any more
>realistic, and certainly more complicated that the SG method.

Realistic? In SF? Well... <G>

I find Brian's game mechanics very elegant and easy to use during play 
(yes, I've tried them). Unfortunately they don't always succeed in 
duplicating the damage results of the chit draw system - and where they 
don't succeed, they do it in a way which reduces the "flavour" of the 
different weapon types by quite a lot :-(

The main problems is that the difference between a D4 and a D6 is far, 
*far* smaller than the difference between 1 and 2 chits, and also 
considerably smaller than the difference between Yellow and Red chit 
validity (etc. for the other die sizes/chit validities). The effect is
that 
the various weapons are *much* closer to one another in lethality than
they 
are in the chit system, both when you look at weapons of the same type
but 
of different sizes and when you look at weapons of the same size but of 
different types. (All/2 is much closer to Red than to Red+Yellow, too.)

For example, look at a target with Armour/5A (Armour D12 in Brian's 
system). Using the chits a HEL/1 (Validity: Yellow) has a 4% chance to
kill 
it (draw a BOOM), a HEL/5 has 21% chance to kill it, and a DFFG/5 at
Close 
range (Validity: All*2) has 91% chance to kill it. Quite a difference,
no? 
Using Brian's system the HEL/1 (Power D4, Impact D4) has 18% chance to
kill 
this same target (almost as good as the HEL/5 used to be!), the HEL/5 
(Power D12, Impact D4) jumps to 48%, but the DFFG/5 (Power D12, Impact
D12) 
*drops* to a paltry 62%... and that's at *close* range. At longer ranges

the HEL/5 beats the DFFG/5 - the DFFG/5 still kills more targets per
*hit*, 
but the HEL/5 *hits* more often so scores more kills in total.

Many weapons also get rather more lethal - particularly the size/1s and 
IAVRs (*not* "IVAR", please - Ivar is a Swedish man, IAVR is an Infantry

Anti-Vehicle Rocket), most of which score 2-3 times more kills using 
Brian's system, and infantry firefights are just plain massacres. PA in 
particular get *far* more vulnerable than they are using the chits, and 
there's not much difference between Rifle and PA/APSW/Assault unless the

target is dug-in.

There is another DS-FMA system in testing, based on what Jon posted on
this 
list some years back (Mars 7th, 1999) . It is slower than Brian's system

due to using multiplication rather than an immediate comparison of the
die 
rolls, but it does a better job of retaining the respective characters
of 
the various weapon families. (Still not an exact match, I'm afraid.)

Jon, I tried to mail you yesterday but it bounced so I try asking
through 
the list instead: is it OK if I post the current QDS version here on the

main list?

>It looks to me that with a little effort DS can be given much
>of the same "look and feel" of SG without damaging the system.

The problem is that by giving DS the same "look and feel" system as SG
is 
that the different scales don't necessarily have the same look and feel
- 
you risk giving a large-scale tank battle the same feel as a 
close-up-and-personal infantry firefight. Same problem as when you
attempt 
to use Warhammer to re-fight large field battles, really :-/

Later,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."