[Vigilance Press] Coming in 2010 - Kaiser's Gate

[mikelaff]

I might be able to put together some previews of the manuscript..

Anyone have any requests for something they're curious about?

If not - I'll just pick something

[Slobberknocker]

Aircombat would be great

[mikelaff]

Chuck Rice actually wrote a fast and fun mapless vehicle combat system for Kaiser's Gate. I'll try to put together a preview of that and post it in the next couple of days..

[mikelaff]

While I'm putting together the air combat preview -- here's a peek of the preliminary cover

[mikelaff]

Sneak Peek of Vehicle Combat Rules
Kaiser’s Gate is set in what many consider the golden age of aerial combat, when fighter aces such as the dreaded Red Baron patrolled the skies. Add in dragons, wyverns and other fantastic flying contrivances and creatures, and combat in the air becomes more important, and most importantly, more fun!

Any time an attack would strike a vehicle, the pilot may make an opposed Pilot skill check to treat that attack as a miss. The DC of this roll is equal to the successful attack roll. If a vehicle is hit, it makes a Toughness save just as a character would, though the effects are slightly different (as explained below).

Note that many of the “vehicles” available in Kaiser’s Gate are creatures. These suffer damage normally and use the same damage table as characters.

Vehicle Saving Throw
Result Lethal*
Succeeds No Effect
Fails -- Rattled+damaged
Fails by 5 -- Engine damage+damaged
Fails by 10 -- Tailspin+damaged
Fails by 15 -- Breaking up

Damaged: The vehicle takes a –1 penalty to Toughness saves

Rattled: The pilot is battered about the cabin and suffers non-lethal damage equal one-half the weapon damage of the attack (rounded down)

Engine Damage: The vehicle imposes a –1 penalty on Pilot checks until it is repaired. If this result occurs more than once, these penalties stack.

Tailspin: The vehicle spins wildly out of control and loses 60 ft. of altitude each round. This inflicts non-lethal damage on the pilot equal to the weapon damage of the attack. The pilot can take no action other than making a Pilot check to try to end the tailspin. The vehicle is moving on its own and the pilot is being buffeted about too much to make an attack, even a wild one.
Ending a tailspin requires a Pilot check (DC 15). If this check fails, the vehicle automatically suffers a tailspin on the next round, losing more altitude and inflicting damage on the pilot again.
If the aircraft’s altitude is reduced to zero, it is destroyed. The pilot must make a Toughness save against +10 lethal damage.
There is one small upside to being in a tailspin: your aircraft gains a +10 Defense bonus as it spins wildly out of control.

Breaking Up: Your aircraft is coming apart and is no longer able to hold itself in the air. It loses 100 ft. of altitude each round. If the pilot is still in the craft when its altitude reaches zero (it crashes), he suffers +15 lethal damage.

*Vehicles are immune to non-lethal damage.

Relative Position
This system allows the narrator to run simple vehicle combats without the use of a map grid.

1. Combat begins at a range of 200-400 feet, decided by the combatant with the highest Pilot modifier (ranks+ ability+ any miscellaneous modifiers that apply).

2. Once combat begins, if both pilots wish to change the distance in the same direction (closer or further away) this happens automatically at the rate of 200 feet per round.

3. If only one of the pilots wishes to change distance, or they wish to change it different ways (with one wanting to get closer while the other wants to be further away), this is determined with an opposed Pilot check. The winner of this check moves 100 feet in the direction of their choice.

4. The pilot of the faster vehicle (in MPH speed) gains a +4 bonus on all opposed Pilot checks to change distance.

If you would rather track vehicle movement like character movement, the following table will allow you to readily convert the MPH speeds in the core rules to feet per round. Since many vehicles can move across a typical battlemat in a single round, a 10:1 chase scale is also provided.


MPH FPR (Chase Scale)
10 18 (1)
20 36 (3)
30 54 (5)
40 72 (7)
50 90 (9)
60 108 (10)
70 126 (12)
80 144 (14)
90 162 (16)
100 180 (18)
120 216 (21)
140 252 (25)
160 288 (28)
180 324 (32)
200 360 (36)
225 405 (40)
250 450 (45)
275 495 (49)
300 540 (54)
350 630 (63)
400 720 (72)
450 810 (81)
500 900 (90)
550 990 (99)
600 1080 (108)
650 1170 (117)
700 1260 (126)
750 1350 (135)
800 1440 (144)
850 1530 (153)
900 1620 (162)
950 1710 (171)
1000 1800 (180)

[mikelaff]

apologies for the delay - a peek of the vehicle rules has been posted above

[ValhallaGH]

Huh. So the best part of the Vehicular Combat feat is free, and apparently unlimited. Odd, but I'll deal.

Getting shot-at while flying is super-duper dangerous. The least dangerous Toughness failure is between -5 and -9, where the pilot doesn't take any damage (and doesn't risk being Dazed, Staggered, or Unconscious), and merely gains a cumulative -1 to all Pilot checks.
If the vehicle Toughness save is failed by one or two, there's a good chance that the pilot will be knocked out (Dazed, Staggered, Unconscious), turning the aircraft into an uncontrolled disaster. If the failure is by 10+ then it will crash and probably kill the pilot, since anything that hits hard enough to cripple an aircraft like that will probably also rattle the pilot into a continuous loss of action state.

Wow, that's mean.

[mikelaff]

Huh. So the best part of the Vehicular Combat feat is free, and apparently unlimited. Odd, but I'll deal.

Getting shot-at while flying is super-duper dangerous. The least dangerous Toughness failure is between -5 and -9, where the pilot doesn't take any damage (and doesn't risk being Dazed, Staggered, or Unconscious), and merely gains a cumulative -1 to all Pilot checks.
If the vehicle Toughness save is failed by one or two, there's a good chance that the pilot will be knocked out (Dazed, Staggered, Unconscious), turning the aircraft into an uncontrolled disaster. If the failure is by 10+ then it will crash and probably kill the pilot, since anything that hits hard enough to cripple an aircraft like that will probably also rattle the pilot into a continuous loss of action state.

Wow, that's mean.

Of course, the chart can be easily tweaked by an enterprising GM.

These rules were the invention of Chuck Rice, that dastardly fellow.

I'll see if I can get him to come in a comment.

Any other requests for previews?

[mikelaff]

I'll ping Chuck again to see if I can get him to comment.

Layout is continuing. Hopeful about a late June release

[mikelaff]

well - late June didn't happen. Hoping for late July at this point.

[haidivolume]

I just want to say great!

[mikelaff]

Thanks!. I just saw the first 12 pages laid out. so "progress is being made".....will keep you posted...

[mikelaff]

layout continues -looking for an august release at this point..

[mikelaff]

I've got a draft of the finished pdf in my virtual hands now. Making a few tweaks. Hope to release this week or next

[mikelaff]

should be releasing within the net 7 days.