Voidship Component Special Qualities

By Marwynn, in Rogue Trader House Rules

Just something I've been throwing around in my head for a while. It's an extension from Mathhammer, kind of, but it's more out of a need to add some variety into our macroweaponry.

I can't claim that it's anywhere near balanced. But for the most part, I used the language or the rules already provided in the Core Rulebook, Into the Storm, and Battlefleet Koronus.

Version 0.1 - Click Here !

Version 0.2 - Click Here !

Version 0.3 - Click Here! (Added 9/11/2014)

Special Qualities: 2 columns | 3 columns (Oct. 31, 2014)

Edited by Marwynn

Seem's pretty good. It will definitely make notation easier, particularly when making custom weapons. You might consider also adding the Proven(x ) quality, which is nice, or Tearing , which is fun. You used Storm on the chart, but didn't put it in the qualities list.

You also might want to change Ionic to Disruptive, given that Ion Cannons are basically Tau/Demierg Lances, and blow ships apart just as well as Lasers. For that matter, you could consider making "Lance" a quality tag for ultimate ease of notation. (like how "Flame" is a tag on ranged weapons)

Otherwise, this is probably getting used next time I'm building enemy ships for my game.

Thanks Quicksilver, I've added Proven, Storm, Tearing, and changed Ionic to Disruptive. Also added Lance, just so there's a shorthand for "ignores armour".

VCSQ 0.2

For Rending is that if a damage die equal to or greater than the one rolled an extra d10 gets rolled, or only if that target number is hit? Also is it only once per attack or once per hit? Does the extra damage penetrate void shields like a critical hit?

For example of a Godsbane gets maximum damage and rolls a 6, 6 and 8 on its dice, with the first shot getting absorbed by a voidshield, would you get to roll 1, 2 or 3 extra damage dice?

Also this is really useful for tracking some odd Xenos modifications for weapons. Can we submit homebrew weapons modifications too, or are you focusing on core ones right now?

These are pretty much homebrew already. They're "inspired by" the core stuff is all.

Rending's a good example of something that's not well balanced. The first shot against the void shields won't roll for damage though, normally right? It's only an extra D5... so I don't even know if that's worth it. Oh, and it should be X or higher.

I'd like to tackle Eldar, Ork, and other xenos stuff too. Submit your homebrews whenever!

Taking a stab at some other official ones. Also you should really add a disclaimer in Storm that it cannot score a number of hits above its listed Strength value.

  • Blinding: Any vessel struck by this weapon suffers a -15 BS during its next Strategic Turn ( Dark Cannon )
  • Coruscating (X): When a successful hit is made with this weapon, it may immediately make another attack against the same target. It can make a number of attacks in a Strategic Turn equal to X ( Eldar Lances )
  • Customized: All BS tests made gain a +10 bonus if it is being fired by the race it was originally designed for ( Eldar Weaponry ).
  • Ethereal (X): Every hit from this weapon does an additional X damage directly to crew population ( Stryxis Ghost-Light Weapon )
  • Focused: This weapon requires one fewer degree of success to score an additional hit ( Archeotech Lance or Rak'Gol Cluster )
  • Immaterial (X): On hit, roll a d10. On a result of X or higher, the hit ignores Void Shields (Yu'Vath). Note that I added a house rule that if you have the Gellar Field Integrant component, then this rule is ignored.
  • Oversized (Ship Class): On any ship smaller than Ship Class this weapon may only be mounted in the Prow and can only be fired into the Forward Arc
  • Self-Sufficient: This weapon does not require power to function ( Shard Cannon )
  • Sapping (X): Any vessel struck by this weapon suffers a -1 speed or -5 Maneuverability per hit. Effects last for X rounds ( Energy Drain Matrix )

And some of my house-made ones

  • Agile: This weapon component may be fired when engaged in a ramming action with another ship (I gave this to Las-Burner).
  • Blinding: Any enemy struck by this weapon component loses all information on the position of enemy ships, and must make an Active Augury during its next Strategic Turn to detect them.
  • Piercing: When an enemy vessel is struck by this component, during its next Strategic Turn if it performs any maneuver more complicated than a full move followed by a turn, it suffers one additional damage per Piercing hit it took last round.
  • Precise: Increase damage from all shots by 1 for every Degree of Success that exceeds the maximum Strength of this weapon.
  • Scattered (X): On a hit that would be blocked by a Void Shield, roll a d10. On a result of X or higher, the Void Shield is not brought down by this attack.
  • Resonating (X) : For every X full points of Armour the enemy ship has, increase damage against it by 1.

Oh! sounds like fun. Um...

Oh, those are some good ones, Era!

Eldar

Pulsar

(These xeno laser weapons have powerful capacitors and advanced target recognition systems)

If this weapon hits, it may be used to make another attack this round, up to a maximum of 3. If this weapon fires 3 times in a round, it gains the reload quality. (my own adjustment to eldar pulsars)

Prism

(These xeno laser weapons use a prism array to combine their strength)

Before rolling to hit, the user may choose to half the strength of this weapon to increase its damage by 4

Ork

Unreliable

(The massive batteries of ork weapons can be devastating, if only they all functioned at the same time.)

The strength of this component is generated randomly every time it is fired. Roll a d10; the weapon has a strength characteristic equal to half the value rolled. If the value rolled is even, the weapon gains the [storm] quality. If a 10 is rolled, the component is critically damaged after this attack is completed.

Tractor

(Ork Meks make extensive use of traktor beams for propulsion and attack.)

If this weapon achieves a critical hit, the target ship moves 1 VU closer to the ork vessel in addition to the normal critical result.

'Ere we go

(Some orks will do anything to get into battle)

Roll a d10 when this weapon successfully deals damage past armor. On a 7+, the munitions were full of ork boyz instead. Deal no damage, but resolve an immediate Hit & Run attack.

Chaos

Corrupting

The Forces of chaos, particularly chaos raiders, sometimes mark their rounds with powerful summoning symbols and other horrors.

If this component deals a critical hit, ship cannot raise a geller field until this critical damage is repaired.

Necron

Gauss

With a solid hit, necron arcana can rip even the hardest armor, dealing devastating damage

If this component deals damage, and the damage die rolls a 9 or 10, the shot gains the [Lance] quality.

Tau

Ion

These weapons react on the atomic level with the target, burning away armor and leaving the target open to further attacks.

When this component deals critical damage, the firer may choose to instead reduce the armor on the closest facing by 3 points.

Other

Self-Guided

(These munitions have their own auspex and thruster arrangements , allowing them to adjust course to hit home, provided they can detect the target)

This weapon gains a bonus to hit equal to a quarter of the target's hull points.

Shield Breaker

The impacts of this weapon are particularly harmful to voidshield generators, disrupting their function.

If this component successfully hits a void shield, the shield cannot be restored next turn.

Gravity

Powerful and arcane weapons, these shots turn the enemy's heavy armor against them.

This component has the [Lance] quality, and deals bonus damage equal to half of the target's armor value (rounded up)

Screaming

Favored by some pirates and pirate hunters, the munitions contain powerful etherics or more arcane transmitters , broadcasting their location in space.

If this component causes critical damage, the target automatically fails all disengage attempts until the related critical damage is repaired.

Edited by Quicksilver

Hey guys, thanks for those lists. I found the original file (finally) so I amended it. I didn't add all of them, and I changed some a bit more.

Version 0.3 is here!

Ork - 'Ere we go

(Some orks will do anything to get into battle)

Roll a d10 when this weapon successfully deals damage past armor. On a 7+, the munitions were full of ork boyz instead. Deal no damage, but resolve an immediate Hit & Run attack.

that is awesome. perfectly captures Ork psychology. going into my next game. :o

Tractor

(Ork Meks make extensive use of traktor beams for propulsion and attack.)

If this weapon achieves a critical hit, the target ship moves 1 VU closer to the ork vessel in addition to the normal critical result.

I've been working on my own version of this based on the Leech Beam from Red Alert Three ( http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Leech_Beam )

Loota

(This weapon is a focussed array of traktor beams designed to rip target vessels apart.)

If this weapon achieves a critical hit and the damage dice is a 7+ the affected component is ripped out of the target ship and drawn towards the Ork ship. Components removed this way take 1D10 rounds to reach the Ork ship and the weapon cannot be fired until the component has been recovered without abandoning the component.

It still needs work to make it viable and and not overpowered but it is exactly the sort of weapon I can see a Deathskulls ship employing.

*YOINK*

So I'm stealing that idea. Plus I seem to have missed several previous entries. I've clarified some of the entries as well.

I've redone the PDF and it comes in two flavours, depending on which you find easier to read:

Special Qualities: 2 columns | 3 columns

Steal away. I like the idea of ripping the component out of a ship causing extra hull integrity damage. It makes sense and I should have included it in the write up.

I wanted to have something about the closer you are to the ship you're targeting the less time it takes to snag the component you rip out of their ship to encourage getting in really close to use the weapon more effectively but I could never figure out how to word it without making it annoyingly complicated to use.

Perhaps:

The component moves 1d5-1 void units per turn directly towards the capturing ship. One full turn after the component occupies the same void unit as the capturing ship, the component is considered to be lashed to the side and the weapon may fire again. (The component is considered an attack craft wing for all targeting purposes while in transit.)

Edited by Quicksilver

I really like the idea that that component can be targeted so that you can destroy it to prevent someone else getting it, or perhaps even attempt to intercept it with fighters/small craft of your own but I feel actually having to track it's position makes for a more complex battle, especially if a ship has more than one Loota weapons.

Perhaps something more abstract like the component taking D10 rounds to get to the ship and D5 rounds if the critical hit occured at half the weapon with the Loota characteristic's range. The component may be targeted (counting as an attack craft wing) for up to half of it's travel time after that it is too fast/distant/close to the enemy ship to be a seperate target.

So if the Loota weapon had a range of six then if it gets a critical hit at ranges 4-6 then it takes D10 rounds and if it gets the hit at ranges 1-3 then it only takes D5 rounds to steal the component.

Too clunky?

One of the reasons I went for it's own travel speed was to also give the Orks in questions a reason to hang around. At 1d5-1 VU/turn, the component doesn't suddenly start moving faster if the ship flies away. But d10/d5 would work to. I wouldn't bother making it untargetable until it arrives though. Fighters that are near the attacking ork ship should have a chance to intercept.

I considered that but I prefer the idea that the component is being towed by the orks ship so if the ork's ship moves faster then the component is dragged along quicker too.

Yes I should probably drop the untargetable idea. I wanted it to give a sense of urgency to theft. Something to give the players a choice between destroying/recovering the component or being as effective as possible in a fight. 1D10 rounds is probably all the urgency they need anyway.

Relic Bump

Relic bump. but also:

Reliable / Unreliable is a bad name for repair modifiers. In that it can be reliable, but hard to fix, or vice versa.

Volatile (X) already exists in various forms (torpedoes, Nova cannon), perhaps it's better to generalise as " Volatile (10% [damage]|[hit] [fire]) ", using "Hit" for the weapons' own damage and effects (otherwise hull point damage value given) and after that, critical effects, if any.
Armoured (X) - there's already save roll mechanics for Armored Bridge in the very first book, so perhaps " Reinforced Armour (4+) " (for the bridge)?

Las-burner: Flak ? Why one beam would be very useful against bombers, etc? Versatile makes sense - cutting holes in the enemy hull precisely makes the entry easier (and without destroying much loot, at that).

Also, if you give Flak property to a macrobattery, why not missiles? Though to think of it, perhaps macro- Flak should not be useful defensively, but only allow a salvo with turret-like effect at a swarm of torpedoes/small craft at least 1 VU away (in transit, or scraping a friendly vessel about to be swarmed by bombers), but give Detection penalty in and out of attacked area, much like flak turrets (proportional to salvo Strength?).

Generally with missile batteries variant ammunition can be both more believable and more interesting - it takes more time to change them, so the Captain would have to think ahead and gamble.

Crippling (X) looks too tough.

Relic Bump... and in addition to..

Accurate and Focused are the EXACT SAME thing but different name.

Resonating is just absurdly OP as listed ( For every X full points of Armour the target has, increase damage by 1. ) What that literally means as written is that if you took Resonating (1) on a (1d10 damage) weapon and fired it at a Battleship with armor (25) then the shot would be the equivalent of 1d10+ 25 ! That kind of ability would turn even the smallest ships weapons into shipkillers ! Imagine a Str: 4 Macrocannon Battery with Resonating (1) as a special trait to it...If you got a lucky shot with it you could be dealing 4d10+100!

Reccomendation: Have the resonance (x) START at 10 and work downward.... Round fractions to nearest whole number ( so 2.5 would be +3 but 2.4 would be +2)

So it would go something like this for balance. ( against a battleship with armor (25) and a Macrocannon ( 1d10 damage base )

Resonating (10) = 1d10+3 (25/10=2.5 round up to 3 )

Resonating (9) = 1d10+3 (25/9=2.77 round up to 3 )

Resonating (8) = 1d10+3 (25/8=3.12 round down to 3 )

Resonating (7) = 1d10+4 (25/7=3.57 round up to 4 )

Resonating (6) = 1d10+4 (25/6 = 4.16 round down to 4 )

Resonating (5) = 1d10+5 (25/5 = 5 )

Resonating (4) = 1d10+6 )25/4 = 6.25 round down to 6 )

Resonating (3) = 1d10+8 ( 25/3 = 8.33 round down to 8 )

Resonating (2) = 1d10+13 ( 25/2 = 12.5 round up to 13 )

Resonating (1) = 1d10+25 ( 25/1 = 25 )

As written originally these weapons would deal horrendous damage against ships that had the Ironclad modification ( For those that havent seen it or dont know...Ironclad doubles the armor value of the ship but you cannot have void shields ) As per original if you had a Resonating (1) with the same Macro cannon shooting at an Ironclad Battleship ( armor 50 ) then the SINGLE macro shell could deal 1d10+50!

Prism: As stated in newest iteration. Largely worthless. The damage gain versus loss of strength is practically laughable.

Might i suggest the following instead.

Prism (X): This weapons sacrifices massed lesser strength volleys for one very powerful strike. This weapon focuses the ENTIRE strength of the volley into ONE larger more destructive shot. For every point of (X) multiply the base damage of the weapon ( IE.. a laser battery 1d10 damage str:3 would instead become 3d10 damage str:1 ) This trait is ONLY available to energy weapons NEVER ballistic.

Done like this Prism would be useless on single strength weapons...it trades a chance of all or nothing damage for what would normally be an entire volley. If you added Accurate to this on a lance battery....just ouch...carve a ship in two with one shot.....or miss it entirely...trade offs but nothing really gained or lost per se. Just another option.

Proven(x): As written also suffers from the same as Resonating at current. Proven (1) is literally worthless as it gives NO benefit whatsoever...Proven(2) is only marginally better...

Reliable: As written isnt correct. By RTCB that trait means it wont screw up on a critical failure on the to hit check ( no jams or failures..only misses )

Turbo: Somewhere a long time ago i ran across this elsewhere. Only it had another effect in mind ( one that i and my group still currently use ) That is simply this. Turbo trait allows the weapon to fire 2x/turn instead of 1 ( some might say that would gain it the Storm trait BUT those are different in this. This is two full separate volleys per turn ( given a turn in RT is 30min span ) With this the idea is simple. Finely tuned autoloaders for Macros and other ballistics and rapid charge capacitors for lasers and energy weapons.

Unreliable: As written isnt correct. By RTCB that trait means it will screw up on a critical failure on the to hit check ( either jamming or exploding )

Disruptive: as written i love...hehehe

Compact: Imagine having a compact (2) component that had the added trait of being Armored(2)...same space..same power..but double armored...hehe

Armored: Imagine having a armored (2) component that had the added trait of being compact(2)...same space..same power..but double armored...hehe

Self propelled Ordinance: Can we say Torpedoes anyone????

Rending: As written ( When a damage die is rolled equal or higher to X, deal an additional d5 damage for that hit. ) Rending is best if taken at Rending (1) There would be no incentive to ever increase Rending above (1)

Edited by Cobramax76
10 hours ago, Cobramax76 said:

Relic Bump... and in addition to..

Accurate and Focused are the EXACT SAME thing but different name.

Better Critical hit vs. more Extra hits.

10 hours ago, Cobramax76 said:

Resonating is just absurdly OP as listed ( For every X full points of Armour the target has, increase damage by 1. ) What that literally means as written is that if you took Resonating (1) on a (1d10 damage) weapon and fired it at a Battleship with armor (25) then the shot would be the equivalent of 1d10+ 25 ! That kind of ability would turn even the smallest ships weapons into shipkillers ! Imagine a Str: 4 Macrocannon Battery with Resonating (1) as a special trait to it...If you got a lucky shot with it you could be dealing 4d10+100!

Reccomendation: Have the resonance (x) START at 10 and work downward.... Round fractions to nearest whole number ( so 2.5 would be +3 but 2.4 would be +2)

That probably was the idea.

10 hours ago, Cobramax76 said:

Prism: As stated in newest iteration. Largely worthless. The damage gain versus loss of strength is practically laughable.

1. It depends on (X), doesn't it?

2. It trades possible extra hits for stronger glancing (low-DoS) hits. Which could be a good idea if you don't expect to land good hits anyway - RAW salvo Strength does nothing if you can't score enough of DoS.

3. It looks like a workaround for salvo armour mechanics of RT core, in that low-DoS hits are insufficient to break through armour. It still needs fairly large (X) to overcome those armor values, of course.

10 hours ago, Cobramax76 said:

Proven(x): As written also suffers from the same as Resonating at current. Proven (1) is literally worthless as it gives NO benefit whatsoever...Proven(2) is only marginally better...

Proven (2) improves 1/10 of hits to less worthless. Which is more valuable for high-Strength salvo damage vs. high Armour values.

10 hours ago, Cobramax76 said:

Turbo: Somewhere a long time ago i ran across this elsewhere. Only it had another effect in mind ( one that i and my group still currently use ) That is simply this. Turbo trait allows the weapon to fire 2x/turn instead of 1 ( some might say that would gain it the Storm trait BUT those are different in this. This is two full separate volleys per turn ( given a turn in RT is 30min span ) With this the idea is simple. Finely tuned autoloaders for Macros and other ballistics and rapid charge capacitors for lasers and energy weapons.

It's from ITS upgrades, and BFG before that.

10 hours ago, Cobramax76 said:

Self propelled Ordinance: Can we say Torpedoes anyone????

Torpedoes are torpedoes. These are rocket assisted shells. Anyway, it's an option from Lathe Grav-culverin Broadside in ITS.