Re: Fwd: Sample combat scenario

At 22:16 6/03/01 -0000, you wrote:
>--- In sj3e@y..., nothajoe@h... wrote:
>Here's an example of combat using what I interpret ship combat to
>look like under the 3E rules.  Could anyone please help me flesh this
>out (be brutally honest please!)  If you see something, like HP or AC
>or anything and don't see how I got it, please ask as I either have a
>reason for it or I'm pulling it out of my arse. :)

For another point of view, I did some thinking a while ago about hardness
and ship hit points in 3e, and came up with this: (I haven't used it much
myself - had one multi-ship fight and it seemed OK).

Ship hardness = hardness of outer layer
Ship Hit Points based on material used in construction.  A ship has two
kinds of Hit Points; Hull HP and Internal HP.  Damage to the internals
occurs after the hull has been breached, and damage to the internals is
what will destroy a ship.
A ship's Hull hit points come from the hull thickness and material.  In
general, a ship has a 1" thick hull (unless metal, which is 1/2" thick, and
thin wood, which is also 1/2" thick), and so usually has 10-15 hit points
before it is breached.  Any damage which gets through the ship's hull then
gets applied to the internals, which have a number of hit points equal to
the 10 x internal hull points (frame hull points from Leroy's system).
So in effect, the hull acts like a big damage reduction device.  Hull
damage can still need to be repaired and thus incurs the normal repair
costs.  The hull cannot really be 'destroyed' because there is so much of
it, but I would suggest that there be a scale of certain levels of hull
damage which make it easier to get through the hull and into the internals.
 Say for every [tonnage x hull HP/10] worth of hull damage it gives a
cumulative 10% 'penetration chance', where the attack goes through a hole
and straight onto the internals.
If you want to bother with it, big holes in the hull could be targeted by
weapons (in more of a role-playing style than a tactical combat style) to
avoid having to go through the hull again (use the same ship AC above, but
apply a different size modifier depending on the size of the hole - as a
standard, use size Small, so a +1 modifier).
Plating will then affect a ship by increasing the thickness of the hull,
possibly increasing the hardness, but definitely increasing the hull hit
points.  Plating comes in slabs half as thick as the same material hull (so
1/2" for thick wood/stone, or 1/4" for metal).

As an example, say we have a 20 ton ship of Wasp style (standard thick wood
frame and hull).  This would have a hardness of 5, with a 1" thick hull
giving is 10 hull HP and a frame giving 150 internal HP.  The ship is
pretty much impervious to attacks which do 15 points of damage or less, as
these are soaked up by the hull.  If it takes 20 hull HP of damage, then
shots start to have a chance to get through the holes.  But a large
catapult shot which does 45 hit points (about average) of damage would bash
through and cause 30 HP of internal damage; five of those, and the ship is
toast.

Now the same ship gets thick wood plating put on.  The hardness stays at 5,
but the hull HP goes up to 15.  Now not only does a shot need to do more
than 20 to get through the hull, it also takes a cumulative 30 Hull HP
before the hull has holes in it.

Now the same ship replaces it's wood plating with 1/4" metal plating.
Hardness goes up to 10, and hull HP are now (1/4 x 30) + (1 x 10) equals 17
(rounded down).  More than 27 HP are needed to get through the hull into
the internals, and a cumulative 34 is needed to make holes.


Cheers

Andrew Tiffany