Drop Pods

[baldlea]

A friend is threatening to throw drop pods at my beautiful Redemption City.

How would people handle drop pods in the rules?

I think he was looking at a risk of some of them crashing and being destroyed (as well as potentially destroying buildings etc.).

Should we just be going for some sort of Perk added to the squads within each pod (and then rolling for safe insertion etc.) or handle them as a special scenario rule?

[Mr. Harold]

You could always use the "Infiltrator" perk... although that's not a perfect representation.

And it depends if you want your drop pods to have weapons, or just be a delivery vehicle. You could always do the Infiltrator perk with a deviation (maybe a skill check and if fail = 2d6" deviation, if succeed 1D6")

That'd be my guess anyways

[RuneCaster_Aris]

What Mr. Harold said is pretty spot on. If you're trying to make Pods like another popular scifi tabletop game, I would also suggest creating a GSV template with no weapons, transport capacity, and infiltrator special rule. If you want the drop pod to remain immobile, I would say cut the final cost by 25% (rounded up). I would take the Deviation as mentioned above as a great way to simulate the psudo-random landing of an orbital drop. Take a mental test, if you pass : 1d6" random direction deviation, if failed 2d6 random deviation. Hitting any building or difficult terrain causes a hit on the pod and the chance that the pod will explode.

[Scorpio]

Jan 3, 2013 7:47:19 GMT -5 baldlea said:

Should we just be going for some sort of Perk added to the squads within each pod (and then rolling for safe insertion etc.) or handle them as a special scenario rule?

Honestly, I would go with the scenario rules, because it's really not going to work in every game.

Off the cuff: for each squad deploying by drop pod, roll to target. Let's say on a one, you're right on target and on time. Two or three, this turn, roll for scatter. Four, on target, but start of next turn. Five, next turn, and roll for scatter. Six: roll again, one through five is same as above, but another six means the unit is lost. Maybe hitting like an artillery strike instead. Disembarking as per normal rules (one action and within 3".)

Yes, it's awful, but it would also be gloriously chaotic.

[comstar]

That sound fun Lea

I'll give that a go

[pakwagon]

I like the idea of using a drop pod to represent the infiltrators perk.
Seems more believable having heavy troops dropping close to an objective rather than trying to sneak up on the enemy wearing bulky power armour.

[demonetrigan]

Drop pods feels more like a perkz than a vehicle to be honest. Spending the points on a one use vehicle would need to be seriously discounted to make it balance.

I like the infiltrator use and with something to add the drop pod feel, humm going to have a play with various options.

[blooddave]

This book (fiction) treats Gruntz type warfare pretty nicely www.amazon.com/Marines-Crimson-Worlds-ebook/dp/B00902U0C2/ "Marines" by Jay Allen.

Anyway, the drop pods in that book hold 5 marines, and basically just bolt them to it by their powered armor. It's got basic point defense weapons. Once it's down, the point defense keeps working, providing some protection from missile attacks.

It's a pretty good book if you like ground battles, and there's some space battles, too. But mostly ground. The battles start small and get larger as the series progresses.