A-Wing w/ missiles or without

[CRMcNeill]

[MrNexx]

[garhkal]

[cheshire]

I figured if it would have been in anyone's campaign, it would have been in garhkal's.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[garhkal]

It was great times when i was in Norfolk, having both a SW group, and an ADND group going at the same time.. I wasn't the DM for either...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Ray]

Considering the manufacturing process for A-Wings in Old!Canon (from the X-Wing books to be specific), the A-Wings have certain parts mass manufactured, then they're shipped out to be built in Cottage-Style facilities (a dozen dudes in a warehouse, that sort of thing.).

What this means is that you'd get lots of variants and can't have a "Typical" A-Wing. I figure the stats in the rulebook are for the "Blueprint" A-Wings, what they're supposed to be.

In reality, you get one assembled that didn't get jammers, but got missiles (which I see as really, really tiny compared to torpedos) instead, figuring that the missiles would be a better kill option for, say, TIE Bombers. Or a bigger punch for smaller capital ships, making their ability to do some damage to them rather than annoying them with the twin lasers.

Some might get Heavy Laser Cannons, and not be as nimble, or are slower. Others might have Repeating Blaster Cannons that lack punch but have burst fire that's great for taking out a tight cluster of TIE Fighters.

Some have wood panelling. Some might even have a cupholder. It's a mashup.

The engines, sensor system, typically weapons, things that aren't easy for civvies to get are supplied and standardized. Everything else, like hull and displays might have a lot of regional variants indeed.

Pity the poor human or Mon Cal that gets a Zerpine-built model. Yeah, it works great, but those damned displays are so tiny!

[Kytross]

The missile argument needs to include range and shields. Lasers have a max space range of 25, missiles and torpedoes have a max range of 7. A-Wings will be within laser range of their target whenever they are attempting to fire a missile. Additionally, you have to drop particle shields whenever you fire a projectile, a move that will reduce your hull score by 2D.

Neither of these are concerns with modern aircraft. Modern Missiles tend to have better range than guns, as well as additional targeting systems.

In Star Wars lasers can travel the ridiculous ranges of space combat farther and with no fuel needed. Missiles have limited range, and if you're homebrewing a speed to projectiles, lasers move considerably faster.

I've GMed a number of starfighter campaigns. No one uses missiles while dogfighting. Well, no one does it twice. Dropping your particle shields is an action, putting aside the hull loss, MAPs add up pretty quick in starfighter combat. All the maneuverability dice and fire control an X-Wing has makes it a very forgiving starfighter in regards to MAPs and people still won't fire torps while dogfighting.

The lack of MAPs are also one of the reasons combat modified freighters are so deadly. The pilot is taking one action. Each gunner is taking one action. If you have enough crew there is probably someone with a low Mechanical score working the shields or the sensors during the fight. A starfighter pilot has to do all of this on his own. Or assign a task to his astromech.

Torpedoes against capital ships is a different story. You're pretty much dead if you get hit by a capship turbolaser anyway, so the 2D hull loss isn't a big deal. The player is relying on the +6D scale bonus to dodge to survive. The player can get in close, drop shields, fire the torp and dodge out of there the next round. Considering that capship turbolasers tend to have a max range of 75, 50 more space range than a starfigher laser, the player has already made a number of dodge rolls in their starfighter just to get close enough to use their torpedoes.

Dogfighting inside capship turbolaser range is scary and fun!

I know in the X-Wing books it works differently, but Stackpole and Allston weren't writing their scenes following the D6 rules.

With all that in mind, A-Wing pilots don't use missiles, not if you're following the RAW. They don't have the torpedoes necessary to damage capships and using missiles in dogfighting is almost always a bad idea.

Now utilizing a single hardpoint to give them a torpedo, like the dive bombers in WWII, that's an interesting homebrew. Not something that would help you against a Star Destroyer, but it could definitely do some damage against a corvette.

[Ray]

One other item I'd like to mention is Return Of The Jedi, specifically The Space Battle Of Endor.

During the battle, we see a few A-Wings do a run against the Executor's shield generators over the bridge (and, as much flak as the guy that put a straight single exhaust port for the Death Star-I has gotten, especially now that we know it was on PURPOSE, the Kuat Drive Yards idiot who put the Shield Generators on the OUTSIDE of their main capital ship series really needs a talking to. In a dark alley. With nailbats), where they fire what are obviously not typical laser cannons, but look nearly identical to the Millenium Falcon's Missiles fired at the Core Reactor inside the Death Star-II.

Do all A-Wings have missile launchers? I'd say no. But some do. Call them A-Wing-As and A-Wing-Bs perhaps? The A-Model is an assault model designed for pure dogfighting, with the Jammer that makes it harder for those Starfighters to target them. The B-model is a Bombardment model designed to have some kind of punch they can use against lighter capital ships, or targeting specific sections of slowly moving larger capital ships (like the RotJ example.)

I like the idea of varieties of missiles, myself. Different warheads available for the same size launcher for tactical flexibility just makes sense.

[CRMcNeill]

If you really want to randomize it, come up with a D66 chart to generate a particular variant: Missile-heavy with no jammer, mixed missiles and jammer, maybe a recon variant with enhanced sensors and remote FC designation capability, or a two seat trainer variant.

I prefer a common design, but if you’re wanting to throw a ringer at your PCs, then a random dice chart would be the way to go.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

Actually, a Recon variant sounds useful and fun. I have a couple days off coming up, so I’ll bang something out then.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index