3rdEd SJ Ship's Weapons - 2nd hack

I spent some time discussing SJ Ship's Weapons with some friends,
and a few things became clearer.

Ballista, Bombard and Greek Fire Projector can be used both in
wildspace and in a gravity well with minimal adjustments - just
aim higher in a gravity well, though the usable range of the
Greek Fire Projector will probably go down to nearly point-blank,
unless you are flying higher than your target.

Catapult (and Jettison) must sensibly be rigged as a direct fire
weapon for wildspace, as indirect fire makes no sense except in a
gravity well - most of the flight path of your projectile(s) will
be straight, rather than in an arc due to gravity.  This means
that if you want to use these weapons for indirect fire (as you
would normally do) in a gravity well you will probably have to do
major work to change their orientation, and any aiming mechanisms
that you have set up will be useless until recalibrated.

The difference between operating in wildspace and a gravity well
means that the Range Increment will be quite different - I've
just taken the SJ range from the rules and divided by ten to get
a wildspace RI.  This takes into account that you are shooting
from a moving target, at another moving target, and you may well
be both accelerating in three dimensions.  Heavier projectiles
move slower, and mean that it is less likely your target will be
where you think it will be when the projectile arrives.  In
practice, the projectiles will keep moving indefinitely with the
same velocity, but space is pretty big and they aren't too likely
to hit anything; some will burn-up in planetary atmosphere.  This
does mean that at the maximum range you will be at -20 to hit.

Dropping the direct/indirect fire entry from the table means that
there is now room to put the 'personal critical' entry in, though
that and 'personal damage' are not likely to be the main use of
the weapons.

The next thing we need to do is work out the 3rdEd AC of ships
from their materials and size.  Hardness should vary between zero
and two hull points; stone, iron and mithral is one, adamantite
is two.


Spelljamming Ship's Weapons - 09/May/06

                      Range     Hull   Personal             Hull  Personal
Weapon              Increment  Damage   Damage   ROF  #Per  Crit  Critical
Light Ballista         900       -       2d6     1/2    1     -      x3
Medium Ballista        600      1d3      3d6     1/3    2    20      x3
Heavy Ballista         300      d4+2     4d6     1/4    4    19+     x3

Light Catapult         750      1d2      3d6     1/5    1    20       -
Medium Catapult        600      d3+1     4d6     1/6    3    19+      -
Heavy Catapult         450      2d4      5d6     1/8    5    18+      -

Bombard                300      1d6      3d6     1/3    3    20       -

Light Jettison         450       -       1d6     1/3    2     -       -
Medium Jettison        300       -       2d6     1/4    3     -       -
Heavy Jettison         150       -       3d6     1/5    4     -       -

Greek Fire Projector   150      1d3      4d6     1/4    3    18+      -

Range Increment: is measured in feet, and applies in wildspace
Hull Damage: is measured in hull points
ROF: Rate Of Fire, in attacks per full round
#Per: Personel required for full crew
Hull Crit: number needed to roll on ship Critical Hits table

                      Range     Hull   Personal             Hull  Personal
Weapon              Increment  Damage   Damage   ROF  #Per  Crit  Critical
Great Bombard                   3d12     5d6
Accelerator                     1d2      2d6

-- 
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/