WEG D6 Rule Variants
Modifications to Space Combat
The following slight modifications were made to space combat
to make the game a little more realistic in terms of distance and travel time:
1. A space unit is officially defined as .1 kilometers in my campaign. Therefore, most
starfighters are in weapons range at 2.5 kilometers (25 space units). This clarification
matches the X-wing novels and X-wing vs. TIE Fighter.
2. To make the above distances make sense in terms of time of travel, I extend space combat rounds to 10 seconds of time
instead of the usual five second rounds of ground and atmosphere combat.
3. This system is not exact. According to this system, it would take an A-wing 10 hours to fly from a planet's surface to its moon. It should be more like two hours.
For the purposes of the game, these time and distance marker changes are only effective in combat and are flubbed for purposes of
interstellar or interplanetary travel.
According to the 2nd edition revised and expanded rules, most capital ship sensors have an average "search" mode range of 70
space units. This means that an Imperial Star Destroyer could be in weapons range of a scanning Corellian Corvette before the
Corvette even detected the Star Destroyer! Yeah, right! Sensors values are multiplied by 10000 space units for capital ships and
1000 space units for starfighters. It follows that capital sensors should be much more powerful
than starfighter sensors (based on the X-wing novels). By this rule, a Mon Cal MC80a can search for vessels halfway between a planet and its moon (taking
the average distance being EARTH to MOON=3,840,000 space units (384,000 kilometers). Sensors, of course
are used roughly in the game. Exact sensors numbers are rarely compared to distances.
Time to use: one round
This skill requires that the character have 5D in both
climbing/jumping and brawling parry
.
Acrobatics is an advanced Dexterity skill that allows the character to
perform acrobatics that can't be accomplished by the climbing/
jumping skill. For example, Luke jumping backwards onto the
catwalk in Jedi would fall under the Acrobatics
skill. This skill is only used for these extraordinary feats.
Brawling parry is required to cover the need for extreme
dextrous ability and allows Acrobatics to be used as a
reaction skill. If an moderate Acrobatics roll is made at
the beginning of a round, the character's movement can be increased
by +5 meters per round. The real benefit of Acrobatics comes from the ability to do these maneuvers as an action in the round-it takes less time and allows you to do other things in the same round.
Very Easy: Doing a short flip to face the opposite direction or that puts the character in a better position
Easy: Doing a short flip onto a ledge 4 feet high
Moderate: Flipping onto a higher ledge that is a number of meters away
Difficult: Doing a flip off of a high ledge to get down without injury (from as high as ten meters--higher heights reduces fall damage by 2D)
Very Difficult or Heroic: Multiple or more complex maneuvers depending on the situation-GM's discretion (Example: Spring-boarding off a plank and flipping high over it)
A lot of GM's think that the rules for improvement in the Second Edition revised
and expanded are adequate, but they don't suit my campaign.
My characters are directly involved in some of the happenings (like
the Battle of Sluis Van) of the Thrawn Trilogy. Therefore, I do not
go by the "increasing any skill only one pip between adventures" rule.
This rule does not allow my characters to move up fast enough.
I know that some of you are saying, "But Ackbar, don't a lot of your
players opt for super high skills like a 12D blaster." Great question, and
my answer is that my players are well aware that if they spend all
of their character points on one skill, they will be severely lacking in
other skills, and it ends up being more difficult for them when they are called
upon to use those other skills.
A Capital ship dodge fire? I don't think so. At least not at close range. My house rules say a Capital ship can dodge only at the long range of the weapon firing at it. At medium range of the weapon firing on the ship, the ship can move so a different quarter of the ship is facing the fire, but the gunner only has to beat the range difficulty to hit the ship. At short range, Captial vessels cannot dodge. Let's look at an example.
A Victory-class Star Destroyer has
ambushed a Nebulon-B frigate, preventing it from escaping.
The front of the Star Destroyer is facing the starboard side
of the Nebulon-B, making a T junction. At long range for it's turbolasers,
the gunners on the Star Destroyer fire on the frigate and miss because the frigate dodges.
It fires once more, hitting and takes down the starboard shields of the frigate. The Star Destroyer closes to medium range and fires. The only thing the frigate can do to dodge is turn their ship so the aft section (which still has shields) is now facing the Star Destroyer. If a gunner now fires and beats the dodge, he will hit the aft section instead of the starboard section. (To put this in better perspective, the dodge is just a turning of the ship, forcing any gunner's that hit to hit the shielded aft section). If the frigate survives until the Destroyer closes to short range, the gunner's will only have to beat the range difficulty to hit the frigate, as it is impossible for the frigate to dodge.
In my opinion, the ranges for missile weapons are totally unrealistic. You have to be right on top of something to hit it! That is fine....unless you get a Target Lock! In my system, the ranges for Torpedoes and Concussion Missiles given
by West End Games should be the range of the weapons to hit, firing without a Target Lock. Multiply the weapons ranges by ten for ranges of the weapons with a target lock. Here's how the mechanics work:
1. Firing any type of missile weapons takes two actions: One action to get a target lock, and another action to fire them (You can still fire without a target lock, but the range is reduced).
2. To accomplish this, the first action includes beating the difficulty for the range PLUS the current NET speed (in space units) of your ship and the opposing ship as the difficulty. What NET speed means, is that the difficulty is the DIFFERENCE (always added to the difficulty) between your speed and your target's speed. Modifiers that also apply here: +5 to difficulty trying to get a lock on a Starfighter at short range. +5 to difficulty to lock onto a Capital ship at long range. The second action (assuming the first was successful) is the normal rules for firing any weapon.
Example: A proton torpedoe has a range of 1/3/7 without a target lock. With a target lock, the range is 10/30/70. If you fired a torpedoe at a ship at medium range, the LOCK difficulty would be (NET SPEED + MEDIUM RANGE DIFFICULTY). If you beat the difficulty, you get a good lock and can fire the next time you can take an action. When you are able to fire, you roll your skill plus fire control of the weapon versus the range to target OR the dodge of the other ship if they dodge.
This isn't really a variation, just a reminder. Proton Torpedoes and Concussion Missiles are not affected by shields! Ray shielding is what most vessels have. When rolling proton damage vs. a ship, only roll its hull code!
* Adapted from a power created by Andrew Jackson
Sensors
(A)Acrobatics
Approximate Difficulties
Character Advancement
Therefore, I generally only require players to train for Force Skills and
other tasks that would require training (attributes and difficult skills)
and reduce the time required to train to one day per 3 character
points spent. If you used the skill in the last adventure, you can increase
it by as much as +1D, or, if you didn't use it, +1 or +2. This system allows
my characters to move up fast enough to keep pace with Thrawn's
minions without at least one person dying every adventure. My characters are HEROES
and with this ability to advance quickly, they play the role more
easily and can concentrate more on thinking, having fun, and ROLE-PLAYING,
which is what the game is all about. After my characters are at a level that they can compete with Grand Admiral Thrawn, I put them back to only being able to gain +1.
Dodgeing and Capital Ships
Missile Weapons
Shields vs. Physical Weapons
New Force Powers
Conduit*
Get your own Free Home Page