> On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 09:52:00PM +0000, agoodall@att.net wrote:
> This is an industry site, not a sci-fi site. It sounds as though
It is.
The only setting I'm aware of which has non-bomb-pumped grasers is Honor
Harrington.
But I think Jared's point is that even "laser" is a lot more specific than
"beam battery", and I think it's a fair one. I play Full Thrust mostly in the
GZG universe, but not everyone wants to do that...
One could level a similar claim at anti-matter torpedoes; who's to say
that the _standard_ missiles don't use anti-matter, in the universe
someone's trying to emulate with Full Thrust?
From: Roger Burton West <roger@firedrake.org>
> But I think Jared's point is that even "laser" is a lot more specific
Personally, I think this one is real easy, since we're only talking
nomenclature and/or PSB, which you can choose however you want. A
Graser is essentially a Torp-Beam in teh most generic "name it after
the game mechanic" sense- hits like a beam, damages like a torp. But
Torp-Beam doesn't have a nice ring to it. If you change universes, you
change names to fit the PSB and effects to match. If you're dying for a more
generic name for Grasers, propose one. FT is pitched as a generic
game, but it is _also_ a genre game of its own. As long as the
mechanics are generic, the names don't have to be.
> On Fri, 12 Mar 2004, Noam Izenberg wrote:
> FT is pitched as a generic
I agree; at some point you have to ask yourself, how generic can you get
without essentially requiring the players to make up everything themselves?
(Players of the RPG "Fudge", you know who you are...;)
What if my universe has only missiles, no beam / other energy weapons at
all? I could just as easily argue for the "specificity" of beams in this
case... Let alone the fact that the Fleet Books aren't exactly "generic"!
Cheers,
> --- Roger Burton West <roger@firedrake.org> wrote:
That is exactly what I meant. The "standard beam battery" can be a
laser, particle accelerator/cannon, phaser, maser, graser, ion cannon,
pulse battery, disruptor, etc.
I understand that for Dean Gundberg's crossover game at ECC this year he
replaced the EFSB heavy beams with the beta "graser" mechanic. In this case,
it is being used as a "heavy beam" (EA slice'n'dice beams were never described
in more detail) and would, by extension, be used for Minbari neutron cannon
and molecular cannon.
> One could level a similar claim at anti-matter torpedoes; who's to
> --- Noam Izenberg <noam.izenberg@jhuapl.edu> wrote:
I did, indirectly. "Long range, heavy beam" or 'Long range,
high-damage beam".
> --- Jerry Acord <acord@imagiware.com> wrote:
When writing up a conversion, I usually refer to them as "FT Standard
Batteries". Thus they work for ST phasers/disruptors/lasers, SW
turbolasers, B5 pulse batteries, etc. If I were to convert the Sci-Fi
Channel BSG (2003), I would use this mechanic for the massed, rapid fire,
apparently ballistic weapons and something else for the large
ship-killer missiles.
J