 July 2, 2013 - 9:12am | Having read the designer notes included in the rules I've decided that an equipment conversion might not be as easy as I first thought. Swon is at its base a retro clone of Basic D&D. Psychic characters have a 1d4 hit dice. And all first level characters are rather fragile. Lasers only do 1d6 per shot in this system. The designers set up the game for lasers to be easier to hit with than guns shooting bullets but bullets do more damage. SF lasers are variable in their power settings doing upto 10d10 and even 20d10 damage with the caveat that most smart characters will carry an albedo screen to prevent a one shot vaporization. The crux of the issue is that making a simple change in SwoN to allowthe its lasers to be fired like as 10d6 makes a massive change in the balance of the system. However, i feel like not doing a SF conversio. Of Swon equipment leaves a conversion half finished. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 2, 2013 - 12:21pm | I should point-out that Basic AD had static damage dice for laser weapons, so that should to be too big an issue. As for HP, one could do it like Gamma World, where the players roll their HD equal to the CON score. So a Psychic with a CON of 16 would roll 16d4 (40 avg.) for HPs. If that system is used, I also recommend a houserule I use in GW & MF, that adds an extra die based on STR, and can be used by itself for unarmed combat. (Range weapons also get an extra die as well, but not for STR) |
 July 2, 2013 - 3:13pm | I'd say leave the laser's alone at a fixed damage or maybe introduce the SF laser as a postTech laser with a setting of 1d6 or 2d6 for the pistol and up to 3d6 for the rifle. It's really the only weapon that has the variable setting in SF so just drop that little bit of flavor in favor of a good conversion that doesn't break the system. You've still got laser guns, they are just not super powered any more. Or introduce the albedo screen as well and you just have to take your chances and hope the bad guys don't have lasers. The low HP for new characters in SwoN verses the (relatively) static STA in Star Frontiers is definitely a major difference between the system. I think you just have to scale back the lasers from SF. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
July 2, 2013 - 4:21pm | Need to check rates of fire between the systems as well. And i need to check the SwoN burst fire rules because i remember seeing that lasers had burst fire. Scaling up some variable damage and cutting back on burst fire might be the way to go. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
