From: uplink@cwis.unomaha.edu (John M. Scheibeler)
Subject: Re: Star Wars questions
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 18:19:39 GMT

jonas@his.se (Jonas Mellin) writes:


>I'm posting the following for a friend:

>Hi.

>I am GM-ing a Star Wars campaign, who is slowly being revived from
>it's long time stasis. I have some small problems, or rather som big
>problems, with the starfighter rules. I don't think they are realistic,
>not even considering the Star Wars Space Opera scope of the game. I
>have been thinking about incorporating the Star Warriors boardgame as
>space fighter rules, but I have found the board game being too slow
>for my taste.

>What I would like to know is if there is anyone who have any more
>"realistic" space fighter rules, perhaps based on modern jet fighter
>(which all spacecrafts with the exception of the Death Star seems to
>emulate more or less, even capital ships). What I find disturbing with
>the current rules are the ignoring of both attacker's and defender's
>heading; you can fire at an opponent wherever he is around you, as if
>you could turn 180 degrees without problems like G-forces or metal
>stress in the craft.

   As we said earlier, they're not _supposed_ to be realistic.

>Another thing I've been thinking about is the fact that very few
>fighters in the films fires single shots. X-wings fires bursts of two
>shots from diagonally opposed guns. TIEs fires a long burst from both
>guns and are often using them as tracer fire. The only single shots
>I've seen are from Y-wings in Return of the Jedi, in the gigantic
>space battle above Endor.

>Thirdly, why do the Stormtroopers get worse the more time that passes?
>One theory I've heard is that the "major victory" spoken of in the
>ingress of A New Hope is the destruction of the Stormtrooper academy,
>but that seems unlikely to me. If the Empire can build two Death Stars,
>arm the Navy to the teeth and build at least one Super Class Star
>Destroyer, they can certainly finance better training of the so-called
>"elite corps" of the Empire and most certainly build a new Academy
>somewhere else. I have always used "improved" Stormtroopers, and my
>players are getting some healthy respect for them.

   Stormtroopers are supposed to be the "red-shirts" of the Star Wars universe
in that there's always more of them, and sure, they may not be too well
trained, but they have other options available to them (like combined
fire) to hit those pesky PCs.  You should be able to give your PCs a
good dose of respect for Stormtroopers _without_ "improving" them.

>Finally, why are the blasters much more effective in A New Hope than
>in Return of the Jedi? They obviously ruin the entire Docking Bay 94
>at Mos Eisley, but later they give Leia nothing but a scratch of a shot
>which should have blown her arm off in the first film. Maybe the
>Imperials wants prisoners, or they want their death to hurt a bit
>more. Or maybe (God forbid) Imperials suddenly got human and said
>"Thou shalt not kill!". Or is Leia Organa a Real Heroine?

   You're missing the point.  The blasters in Star Wars are powerful, yes,
because they do indeed shoot chunks out of crumbling old buildings.  Yet
when they shoot Leia, she survives, because blowing her arm off would be
counter-genre (a big no-no).  Leia Organa is a _HERO_, and so she gets extra
karma from the universe.

>Well, that's it. I'd be happy for all answers.

   You want my opinion?  You're more interested in playing a more realistic
game like MegaTraveller or 2300AD, not this "unrealistic" Star Wars game.
But the game is unrealistic on purpose because the designers wanted
it to be fun.  The PCs are HEROES, not your everyday average joes, and as
such they get to largely ignore realism.  My advice?  If you want to 
continue to play Star Wars, back off the realism and have fun.  If you can't
have fun without realism, switch to a different game system.


>| "When you shoot, | Krille = Krister Sundelin | email to:             |
>|  shoot. Don't    |          Kilbacksv. 13 c  |       sp0krisu@his.se |
>|  talk!"          |          541 38  SKOVDE   |                       |
>|      / Tuco      |          SWEDEN           |                       |
>--
>Disclaimer: Even a blind man may know how to C.
>    _____________________________________________
>   /      /  /   /   /\  /    /      /| /|	|E-mail: jonas@his.se
>  /      /--/	 /    \  /    /	     / |/ | 	|UUCP:   ...!sunic!his!jonas
> /      /  /	/    \/ / /  /      /     |	|Phone:  +46 500 77692
>/_____________________/  \_/ onas /      |ellin|Fax:    +46 500 16325
>Snailmail: Jonas Mellin,Hogskolan i Skovde, Box 408, S-541 28 Skovde, Sweden

>
			    	
THAT looks better!
uplinkovich
.s
		  
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc