Fresh off from my posts on the 1 or 3 YYs for a reroll controversy, I'm ready to take on another QAGS rule!

This one is from Rocket Jocks, and it involves multiplying a spacecraft's BODY times SIZE times 5 to get its Hull Points. I completely understand the BODY and the SIZE things, but the 5 makes me scratch my head. This formula gives the "Millenium Falcon" equivalent (the Flux Jumper) 480 Hull Points. That's about 8 or 9 shots from a "building destroying" weapon (+50 DB, according to QAGS 2E). The "Star Destroyer" equivalent (Kraken Battle Cruiser) has 1350 Hull Points. Add in its Shields (792 SP), and you'll need two shots from a "city destroying" weapon (+1000 DB ) to take it out. Removing the x5 brings it down to a much more respectable 96 hull points for the Millenium Falcon and 270 for the Star Destroyer.

Granted, a lot of bad things still can happen once the spacecraft starts taking damage to its hull points, but I always got the feeling either in Star Trek or Star Wars that once your shields dropped, you were hosed (as even the mighty Imperial Dreadnought Executor discovered during the Battle of Endor) and could expect explosions and bodies to be hurled around momentarily. Right now in Rocket Jocks, that isn't particularly true (especially if you have a good engineer and a ship with a high BODY).

So, I'm asking what is with the x5 thing?

Hey, the original draft had the multiplier as x10.

The reason I gave the ships the multiplier is because I didn't want ship-to-ship battles to end too quickly. Spaceships in RJ are huge, massive machines, and ship-to-ship battles should be important events, not something you want to gloss over or speed through.

Despite the obvious Star Wars/Trek influences in the book, the spaceship rules were more heavily influenced by a computer game I used to play a lot called "Space Empires" and the Buck Rogers video games. In these games, you pound and pound on enemy ships with heavy guns, even after the shields are gone. Systems degrade and your crew races around trying to decide what systems to repair.

So it's a taste thing, really.

If you want to drop the modifier for your games, I certainly don't have the resources to hunt you down and stop you. I can certainly see dropping the modifier for "nameless mook" ships.

(As an aside, getting rid of the multiplier as you did in the Sex, Lies, Ultraspies car rules makes perfect sense, thematically)

i think its justa matter of sci fi taste and an equal ratio between defense and offense.

i cut my rpg teeth years ago when i started playing battlelords of the 23rd century, which has some of the most wickedest weapons i've ever had the pleasure of wielding with a 700lb steroidy iguana. ( don't ask long story) there are also a lot of things in the game that protect your posterior from serious damage.

lond story short, there is regular points of damage and heavy points of damage, the equal of 100 poins.

so i have no issue with too much armor and hit points, as long as i have a sweet gun to blast through it.

mk