Topic: Mass-Based Damage?

So I was explaining how the rules for Matter Conversion Beamers changed between Space Hulk 1e ('89) to their rules in Deathwatch ('10) to a fellow gamer, and made a Starmada analogy: "They went from mass-based damage to inverted range-based damage."  This, in turn, prompted the idea for mass-based damage; weapons that generate a cascading damage effect on targets of higher mass.  A notable example in fiction (outside of 40k's conversion beamers) is the Little Doctor from Ender's Game.  My notion for the rules is increasing damage against targets with high hull, but I'm not sure how best to implement it; multiplication seems a little steep.  Maybe adding 1 to the effective damage rating of the weapon for every 6 hull points the target has (or fraction thereof)?  And then there's the costing issue...

Re: Mass-Based Damage?

You could use the existing size "classes" (for example see rule E.1: Damage Control).

Hull 1-3 = x1 Damage
Hull 4-8 = x2 Damage
Hull 9-15 = x3 Damage
Hull 16-24 = x4 Damage
Hull 25+ = x5 Damage

For point-costing, the issues are similar to those raised by the "ignores shields" trait. If you assume an equal number of opportunities against each size class, a modifier of x3 would be appropriate.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: Mass-Based Damage?

I like it!