Product previews
Most of our on-line vendors have large previews of each of our products.
Previews for most of our products can also be found in the catalog
entry for that item, or in the case of EABA and Infinite
Armies, also on the dedicated pages for those titles.
EABA has pages dedicated
to it. If you are looking for samples of various EABA titles,
click the main EABA link on the menubar. If you want other
freebies for EABA, click here.
There's only a few things here that aren't covered in more
detail on the EABA sub-page.
We have an Excel spreadsheet by Neil Asato that deconstructs EABA
and puts all the numbers together where you can see them. Get
it here.
Second, if you want to see how EABA's 'best three' dice system
looks in graphical form, it's been charted out for you.
Get it here.
If you are having any problems with the quality of your EABA
.pdf printouts (or any other BTRC .pdf), download this quick
guide to maximizing print quality.
If you have any questions after reading the rules, you are always
welcome to email us. But first, download
the FAQ and see if that helps.
Here is a Perl script for generation Macho Women creature
names, courtesy of Charles Griswold. Download
it.
Macho Women miniatures! Unavailable for quite a while, MSD Games is going to be re-releasing the original Macho Women miniatures. Their listing was not fully up at the time of this page update, but if you don't see what you want, email them and ask.
Ebon
The indie site The Forge recently had a "two-page RPG challenge", where you had to make a complete RPG, including character sheet, in 2 pages or less. I designed up a little game called Ebon, which won "best overall" and "best mechanics" categories. I have no plans to do anything further with the game, but if you want to download it, here it is.
Posturing & Pretensions
If you want to play a roleplaying game, but don't have dice, only
have about five minutes, and are maybe a little inebriated, this
is the game for you. And it's free! Download
Posturing & Pretensions in .pdf form
3G3 and Fuzion®
The following .pdf file is an official conversion to generate Fuzion®
weapons from 3G3 stats. This is in neither the
softcover or hardcover version of the latest 3G3,
but the file is included in the .pdf version of 3G3
and the information is included in the latest version of the 3G3
spreadsheets. Download
the 3G3 to Fuzion® file in .pdf form
3G3 and Traveller:2300®
This
link should take you to Andy Slack's conversion notes for porting
3G3 weapons over to Traveller:2300.
TimeLords
Neil Asato has done some sophisticated mental work on the TimeLords
game and its premises, in a four part work. Parts 3 and 4 may be
of some interest to general technophiles and 3G3 users. Some of
this material only relates to the 1st and 2nd editions. The EABA
and CORPS versions were conceptually revised, but most of
the original premises still hold true.
Reality 1 (about 40kb)
Reality 2 (about 40kb)
Reality 3 (about 40kb)
Reality 4 (about 40kb)
Also by Neil Asato, some variant rules on cyberware and cyberspace
for the now out of print SpaceTime system, which uses the
1st edition TimeLords rules set.
Cyberware, etc. (about 35kb)
Here's a link to James
Upp's TimeLords page. If that doesn't work, we've archived
the entire site (07-17-2001) here.
Ythrek
Ythrek's overlapping and interfering climate cycles are graphed
out here.
Infinite
Armies has its own dedicated page, and all the info available for the game is listed there.
Slag!
Here you'll
find a new article on ship design, strategy and campaign notes for Slag!
by Neil Asato, a section on changes from first edition, new optional
rules, how to design ships for Traveller, and a guide to building
Babylon 5 ships in Slag!
The
latest work from Neil Asato is another worthy number crunching and strategy
article for Slag! that I have to apologize for not getting online
earlier (life intervenes). Anyway, here
it is, and it is worth reading!
Leszek
Karlek from Poland (the same one who did the Polish CORPS Nutshell)
has two Slag! pages that have been archived here. The first
is a lot of optional rules, and the second
is using Slag! for Star Wars space combat.
Check
out Bill Stripp's Slag! page!!
Slag! strategies from Neil Asato (80kb)
Slag!
campaign & empire rules from William Hostman
Changes from 1st edition Slag!
Fairly simple. You need 2 extra Sensors past the first to get
a +1 Sensor Rating, and the absolute maximum Sensor Rating you can get
from any combination of effects is (Ship Size+1)*2
Scout Sensors have been added (SS). These give a Size+2 Sensor Rating,
but only in the spine arc of fire and only one SS system is allowed
per ship. Regular Sensors may be used in concert, so a Size 2 ship with
3 regular Sensors and 1 Scout Sensor would have an overall Sensor Rating
of 3, and a spine arc Sensor Rating of 5 (2 regular and 1 Scout Sensor
would have given an overall rating of 2 and a spine arc rating of 5).
Ship point cost is now Size+1, squared. This is times .6 for Very Low
Tech, x.8 for Low Tech, x1.0 for Medium Tech and x1.4 for High Tech.
Silent running rules have been modified slightly, and this tactic is
now actually effective for certain ships. That's pretty much it!
Addenda to 2nd edition Slag!
After a while out there in consumer-land, someone brought up an
"unbeatable" ship design strategy and challenged me to prove them
wrong. This was a carrier group armed with as many Size 0 suicide
drones as it could carry. Indeed, this combo can crack open almost
any fleet built on the same number of points. The exception is a
single dreadnought built with that number of points. Such a behemoth
can carry sufficient armor and defensive weaponry to survive a mass
drone attack. However, it will be unable to catch the carriers,
and the carriers by themselves cannot hurt the dreadnought. Stalemate.
However, while these two strategies may someday be the ones used (superdreadnought
vs. carrier group, hmmm...), designing all fleets around one or the
other makes for a boring game. So, a minor rules tweak:
Any
ship declared on a collision course with another ship may be targeted
by weapons in a point defense role exactly as if it were a missile.
This is independent of ship size, maneuverability and ECM. This doesn't
necessarily mean a hit will take out the ship (it suffers normal effects
from the weapon fired at it), but it may give you a better chance to
target it.
That's it. This means that instead of "one weapon, one ship", suicide
rammers can be counted as just another missile, so any point defense
weapon can allot one or more of its hits during the turn to hitting
that ship. This makes it a lot more difficult to overwhelm someone
with Size 0 ships.
Clarifications
If you are using the optional Slow Missiles rule, remember that even
though they are represented on the map by counters, they are still missiles
and can be shot down by point defense weapons, regardless of the range
at which they are launched. However, if you shoot them down outside
your own hex, they are targeted individually (one weapon, one hit),
and would be treated as Size -1 ships.
If you build a ship with multiple tech levels, you should have the engines,
hull and armor all be the same tech, including ablative armor.
Optional rules
Here's a few new rules that you may want to try out and adopt if you
like them:
Random
hit quantity
Rather than using the simple 1d6-3 hits in Slag!, take the total
number of hits you would get (even if negative), and add 7. You must
roll equal or less than this number on 2d6 to hit. Making the roll exactly
is 1 hit, making it by 1 or 2 points is 2 hits, making it by 3 or 4
points is 3 hits and making it by 5 or more points is 4 hits. This also
applies to point defense, but you double the number of hits you get.
This gives small ships a chance of hitting, while reducing the number
of hits from larger vessels. You can work the tactical implications
out for yourself.
Kinteic
Kill Missile (KK)
These are effectively a "space claymore", a dynamically adjusted directed
fragmentation warhead that takes the place of a nuclear weapon. They
generate hits like a normal missile, but do damage like a railgun with
a damage of 4. That is, the weapon has a damage of 4, and ignores Force
Screens. Since they are detonated further away, it takes 2 hits from
a point defense weapon to take one out. Space Mines can be loaded with
fragmentation warheads instead of nuclear ones, and would be designated
"FM".
Dogfight
Missile (DM)
These are short range missiles with their own sensors and guidance.
While a normal missile in Slag! is about the size of a Trident
ICBM (and SIze 0 fighters only have 1 or 2 of them), dogfight missiles
are about the size of a modern cruise missile, and can only be used
against targets in Close Combat. Dogfight Missiles have an inherent
Sensor Rating of 3 (2 at V.Low and Low Tech, 4 at High Tech), and are
unaffected by the firing ship's Sensor Rating or modifications based
on attacker's damage (lost Bridge, etc.). They do however, get any Close
Combat bonus and are affected by enemy ship Size and Thrust. They are
shot down like normal missiles, and do normal missile damage when they
hit. Kinetic dogfight missiles are available (KM) and are treated as
a Size -2 ship for collision purposes.
Dogfight
combat
This is a way to break down Close Combat into something more interesting
than MSV*. Close Combat will resolve before all other combat.
Take a separate sheet of hex paper and lay all ships involved in a particular
sector on it, 4 hexes apart:
+4
you you you you
+3
+2
+1
+0 me me me me
All the "me" ships are in close combat with all the "you" ships. They
are not directly opposite them, and do not move diagonally
on this map. It is simply an abstract reference to the group of "me"
ships closing to a group of "you" ships. The +0 row indicates when you
are just outside close combat range. The dogfight is broken down into
separate move/fire subphases. On each one, each of the "me" ships must
either move closer or further away by exactly 1 hex, and can
only change direction once. If you decide to retreat, you must
continue retreating until you reach the +0 line, at which point you
stop. You may stop at the +0 line as your first move, which indicates
that is where you hold position, or you may stop at the +4 line, which
means you end the turn within boarding party range. After each submove,
fire resolves in order of Sensor Ratings. Between equal ratings, the
players put a spare counter under their hand, face up indicating "fire"
and face down "no fire". If you declare "no fire", you do not fire weapons
on that submove except in point defense, regardless of what your opponent
does. If you declare "fire", you must fire at least one weapon
at one other ship in close combat, using the modifier for the line you
are on instead of the default +4.
Once all ships have reached the +4 or +0 line (or been blown to smithereens),
normal combat resumes. Ships involved in the close combat may not fire
at each other after the dogfight phase. Boarding parties that survive
both close and normal combat, and are still eligible for boarding may
do so if their carrier is at the +4 line with regard to any other ship
in close combat.
*Massive Ship Vaporization
Traveller®
ships
While the lamented 4th edition of Traveller is no longer available,
here are some guides for using Slag! ships in the Traveller
universe.
Tech
Level
Most Traveller ships are going to be Medium or High Tech. Very
Low Tech corresponds to about TL8, Low Tech from TL9-10, Medium from
TL11-13 and High Tech from TL14-15.
Ship
Size
Ship sizes in Traveller are in ship tons, which are 14 cubic
meters and will actually be several metric tons. To convert to Slag!,
multiply the Traveller tonnage by 5 and compare to the tonnage
chart on the first page of Slag!.
Technology
Lasers are lasers (Ln), Missiles are missiles and Particle Beams (Pn)
are particle beams. Grasers in Slag! become Meson Guns (Nn) with Graser
damage and Armor penetrating effects, and Force Screens (FS) become
Meson Screens (MS), which act at full effect vs. Meson Guns, but have
no effect otherwise. Nuclear Dampers are available at appropriate tech
levels. Fuel (F) used as armor would be Sandcasters (SC), which does
not have to be deployed until the ship is targeted with lasers (i.e.
"he hit me 3 times, maybe I should deploy the SC"), but otherwise acts
normally in Slag! Force Screens as in Slag! do not exist,
and therefore all ships with atmospheric capability require streamlining
(SR).
Jump
Drive
Jump Drives in Traveller require an Auxiliary Power Unit (AP), as in
Slag!, but also require fuel. Jump is available at Low Tech,
but requires 4 Fuel to jump, 3 Fuel at Medium Tech and 2 Fuel at High
Tech. Fuel scoops and refinement plants are a single system (Z) and
allow a ship to scoop new fuel after a jump as in Traveller.
Ships with Jump fuel tankage are assumed to have purification equipment,
but ships without scoops can only draw fuel from landing near water.
Typical
ships
A 100 ton scout/courier (derived from Traveller: New Era)
Scout (High Tech)
Size 2
Dmg mod. -1 S
Cost 12.6(.8) H B L5
Sensors 3 Z H C
Thrust 2 AP JD AP
Armor/Meson Scr. 1/0 SR F AG F SR
Analysis
Pretty large for such an ineffective ship in Slag!, but it wasn't meant to be a combat vessel, and its stats reflect fairly well what this ship is capable of.
A 400 ton close escort (derived from Traveller: New Era)
Gazelle (High Tech)
Size 3(3/2)
Dmg mod. -1 SR
Cost 22.4(1.1) S H SS
Sensors 4(6) L3D B L6
Thrust 5(4) SR H SR
Armor/Meson Scr. 1/0 F H F
(FP) AP JD AP (FP)
AG H AG
EC
Analysis
Pretty good ship, but like most Slag! to Traveller conversions, the ship will have a lot of overhead like streamlining, Jump fuel and so on, which will take around 25% of the ship's systems without providing any extra combat capability.
Babylon 5® ships
We've done some unofficial work using Slag! to design ships from the television show Babylon 5. If anyone out there has show stats for Earth ships like the Agamemnon or other capital ships of the Narn, Minbari or non-aligned races, feel free to post them and design ships around them.
To avoid pissing off the people at the large and well....large Warner Bros. conglomerate, we'll just say that you can easily design ships for B5, and rather than give you ships with names that have undoubtedly been trademarked and sold as toys, etc., we'll just provide game guidelines for you. Feel free to post your own designs.
Technology:
All races seem to be Medium Tech, except the Vorlon, Minbari and Shadows, which are High Tech. Known/preferred/inferred technologies are:
Earth Alliance: Particle Beams, Jump Gates, Plasma Drives
Narn: Particle Beams, Jump Gates, Plasma Drives
Centauri: Particle Beams, Jump Gates, Plasma Drives
Minbari: Particle Beams, Jump Gates, Plasma Drives, ECM, Force Screens, Tractor Beams
Vorlon: Particle Beams, Jump Gates, Plasma Drives, Antigrav, Redundant Systems, Force Screens, Artificial Intelligence
Shadows: Grasers, Particle Beams, Plasma Drives, Ablative Armor, Artificial Intelligence
Note that no one in the B5 universe seems to use Missiles or Lasers of any kind, and very few ships seem to have any armor to speak of. Even fighters seem to be able to damage cruisers with their beam weapons. Most fighters are going to be Size 0 vessels, and most other ships seem to be capital ships of Size 4-5.
Note - Babylon 5, like most TV shows and movies, portrays space combat at unrealistically close ranges, just to keep the action on the screen at a dramatic scale. A ship/station as large as B5 should have sensors capable of picking out targets at huge ranges, and with its upgraded armament, able to take on capital ships without too much problem. Of course, it is not a military base, and has a large civilian population, so diplomatic solutions are to be preferred to firepower.
Epiphany
was an experimental story-driven, diceless game system, set in the
ancient remoteness of Hyperborea, where figures known only to us
as legends sought glory and conquest, and eventually unleashed terrible
magics that brought about their own downfall. But, it never caught
on, and is now out of print, though we may resurrect the background
for use with EABA someday.
If you own Epiphany, you already know its rules gave permission
to write and publish anything you want for the system (with a few
caveats), and this page section is devoted to compiling and sorting
the information that you have created, so that others may enjoy
it as well.
Unfortunately, Epiphany was never as successful in this aspect
as I had hoped. People like theÊgame from all accounts, but the
number willing to put their ideas down on "paper" was minimal. Still,
we'll continue to provide any material that comes our way and provide
email support for any questions you might have.
Officially approved Epiphany material
People
Ikestra
Akahest (noble daughter, Atlantis)
Places
Kontien
Wagehouse
Labyrinth
of Mist
Things
FowlGunnes
Gliders
Politics
Flora & fauna
Magic
The
Window of Opportunity
Adventures
Everything else
The Sher'ka
The
Geradnali
On the
Nature of the Hollow Earth
Black
Death
We've got a German translation of the Black Death rules.
Download it here. There is
also a licensed German version in the works. For general play, depending
on the playing styles of your group, you may get slightly better
game results if you start with 7 points instead of 6, and draw 2
cards when you are allowed to instead of 1. Other than that, no
problems.
If you have the version 1.0 of the Black Death download, you can get the version 1.01 changes by clicking here. These are just minor rule clarifications and do not affect the main map or counters.
3G3
The following are links to sites that have archived material for Guns!
Guns! Guns! or More Guns!. Please email us if you have any
updates or corrections to this list.
Traveller
New Era
Antti Henntu has put together some Traveller: New Era material
for the system here.
Typos
Sadly, there are a few typos in the latest edition of 3G3.
The only ones that have come to light thus far are in th damage equations
for energy weapons. The formula for damage should always be (Energy
in Joules x .735/beam diameter in cm)^.5. In some parts of the rules
it is listed as "mm", not "cm".
Dana Seckel has found a few
typos in the design aid sheets in the hypertext version of 3G3,
which means they are probably in the print copies as well.
“I was trying to design a Laser weapon using the 'Laser Design
Sheet' that is in the back of the book. I found two the formulas under
the heading of Magazine to be incorrect. Line 3b Magazine energy formula
is 3a x 2g. Well line 2g is for calculating the energy needed for each
shot, from the storage bank. When the formula in line 3b should be 3a
x 2i. Also, line 3c formula which is 3a x 2g, to find the base mass
of the magazine. Again line 2g is for the energy needed for one shot,
in the storage bank. Line 3c formula should be 3a x 2l. Line 2l is the
mass of the battery to recharge on shot.”
If
you have purchased the 3G3 spreadsheet software through
Hyperbooks Online, it is now on version 1.11. If you have version
1.04 or earlier, copy the following text and compare it to the cells
in the appropriate sheets. Note that vagaries of the Web deleted corrections
with a "greater than" or "less than" sign and if you pulled corrections
off here before that date, you probably missed something. Most of the
changes are things that only applied in special cases or odd combinations
of extras and didn't affect most weapons, but we do want you to have
the best possible version of the software. In any case where you think
you are getting bad results, compare the spreadsheet to a result that
is calculated manually from the book. Lines in red may have been added
or changed since the last update.
c53:=IF(C18="SA","SA",IF(C18="SS",C20,IF(C18="AT",C20/2,IF(C18="AB",C20,IF(C18="RV","DAR",
IF(C18="B","BA",IF(C18="LA","LA",C20)))))))
Version 1.11 only:
o56,k65,j71,i
7:=CONCATENATE(TEXT(0,$C$11),"kg")
l19:=p51+p52+p62+p63Ammo2
c16:=ROUND(IF(C13="RV",C14/IF(C5<13,(C5*0.08),1),IF(OR(C13="SA",C13="AT",C13="AB"),
C14/IF(C5<10,(C5*0.1),1),IF(OR(C13="SS",C13="LA",C13="B"),C14/IF(C5<9,(C5*0.12),1)))),0)*F51
c20:=CONCATENATE(TEXT(I50,0),"/",TEXT(0,ROUND(((1/C12)*C14*(G10/100)*0.735)^0.5,0)))
f43:=IF(F19="Y",3^((F20/2)),1)
g7:=I48-I52
g12:=IF(I39+I41+I43>I38,"too much volume in options!",CONCATENATE(TEXT(0,
ROUND((I38-I39-I41-I43-IF(C15="rocket",C16/(135*C5),0))/C12,2))," cc remaining"))
i50:=ROUND(((1/C12)*C16/F51*(G10/100)*0.735/(IF((C9/10)>10,10,(C9/10))))^0.5,0)
i51:=ROUND((C14*0.735/(IF((C6/10)>10,10,(C6/10))))^0.5,0)
j22:=ROUND(L22*F39*F40*F41*F42*F43*F44*F45,2)
j23:=ROUND(L22*F39*F40*F41*F42*F43*F44*F45,2)
j24:=ROUND(L22*0.5*F39*F40*F41*F42*F43*F44*F45,2)
j25:=IF(C5<10,"n/a",ROUND(L22*2*F39*F40*F41*F42*F43*F44*F45,2))
f43:=IF(F19="Y",3^((F20/2)),1)
l22 through l25:=IF(OR(F19="Y",C15="Rocket"),IF(ROUND((I51^2/10000)+0.1,0)<2,2,
ROUND(((I51)^2/10000)+0.1,2)),ROUND(((I51^2)/10000)+0.1,2))
Guns
c21:cell should be empty
j24:=TEXT(0,ROUND(((L53+M20)*(IF(D15="SA",1,IF(D15="SS",0.5,IF(OR(D15="LA",D15="B"),0.7,
IF(D15="RV",0.5,IF(D15="AT",1.3,IF(D15="AB",1.5))))))+((D16-1)*0.2)))+M21,0)*IF(N7="Y",2,1)*(IF(N6>0,2^N6,1)))
l50:=MIN((IF(L48>L47,(ROUNDDOWN((L47+L48)/2,0)),L48)),L49)
n13:=IF(N11="Y",ROUND((D11*0.75)^0.25,0),IF(N12="Y",ROUND((D11*0.1)^0.25,0)," "))
q46:=ROUND((((L37+N8)*(1+((Q52)-1)/2)*0.735)/IF(D9/10<10,D9/10,10))^0.5,0)
Lasers
j4:insert =ROUND(((D9*(IF(N9="Y",100,1)))^0.5*((200/(D5-7)))*D15*L60*L61*L62*L63*L64),0)
j5:=ROUND(J4+K4,0)
j6:=ROUND((((J4/(D15))/3)^0.8/(D10/5)^0.5)*0.31416,0)
j24:=TEXT(0,ROUND(((L53+M19+M20+IF(N7="Y",L51,0))*M60*M61*M62*M63*M64*(1.8^(D15-1))*
(IF(D14="SA",1,IF(D14="AT",1.3,IF(D14="AB",1.5))))),-1))
k4:=IF(N7="Y",L50*D15,0)
Particle beams
j24:=TEXT(0,ROUND(((L53+M19+M20)*M61*M62*M63*(1.8^(D15-1))*(IF(D14="SA",1,
IF(D14="AT",1.3,IF(D14="AB",1.5))))),-1))
l37:=IF(D9>274783,ROUND((D9^0.9/314160)^0.5*10,1),5)
Railguns
d13:=ROUND((D9*0.735/(IF(D10/10<10,D10/10,10)))^0.5,0)
j24:=TEXT(0,ROUND(((L56+M20+M21)*(IF(D16="SA",1,IF(D16="SS",0.5,
IF(OR(D16="LA",D16="B"),0.7,IF(D16="RV",0.5,IF(D16="AT",1.3,IF(D16="AB",1.5))))))+
((D17-1)*0.5))*IF(N5="Y",1.1,1)),-1))
k4:=IF(N7="Y",L50*D15,0)
Archaic
a7:=IF(D6="Vehic","Type (Bow,Cbow,Torsion,Cweight)","Type (Bow,Cbow,Torsion)")
d13:=ROUND(((4.18879*(D12/20)^3)+(3.1416*(D12/20)^2*((D10-1)*(D12/10)))),2)*D11
These references are correct for the 5.0 version of Excel. If using
an older version or the SYLK conversion, note that the CONCATENATE command
will need to be replaced with your application's equivalent command
(usually "TEXT").
If you come across any other errors, please let us know so we can correct
them and post the updates here.
Neil Asato has done some sophisticated mental work on the TimeLords
game and its premises, in a four part work. Parts 3 and 4 may be of
some interest to general technophiles and 3G3 users.
Jump there now.
Charles Stanley Taylor has put a lot of work into a 3G3
to Shadowrun 2nd ed. conversion. You can download it from
this link.
Colin Spiers has done some work with Victorian culture and weapons,
and used 3G3 to assist with the weapon designs.
His files on Victorian culture
and Victorian weapons can be
found here.
CORPS
The following
are links to sites that have archived material for CORPS. Please
email us if you have any updates or corrections to this list.
CORPS Nutshell
The free, 4-page mini version of CORPS is available in a number
of languages. Pick one and get a cool, compact rpg in your native language!
The
CORPS Nutshell is a four-page introduction to the CORPS
role-playing game, with enough info to generate basic characters, use
skills and run combats. Of course, there's a lot more to the game than
this, but we think once you've seen what we can do with 4 pages, you
might be more interested in the remaining 140...
These
files are in Adobe .pdf format (version 4.0), which is platform independent,
and the reader for the software is available free at any number of sites,
like http://www.adobe.com/. These files may be uploaded
to bulletin boards and on-line gaming resources, provided that no fee
is charged for the files, aside from on-line time charges that would apply
to normal system use.
 English
CORPS character sheet
English CORPS Nutshell
French CORPS Nutshell
German CORPS Nutshell Finnish
CORPS Nutshell Italian
CORPS Nutshell
|
Norwegian CORPS Nutshell
Polish CORPS Nutshell
Portuguese CORPS Nutshell
Swedish CORPS Nutshell
Spanish CORPS Nutshell
Hungarian CORPS Nutshell
|
Cybernetics
Ian Liddle has done a fairly extensive set of cybernetics rules for CORPS. Download it.
Powers Program
Scott Levy has contributed a Visual Basic program to automate the design of CORPS paranormal powers. Download it.
Character Spreadsheet
This is an Excel spreadsheet that automates a lot of the character generation process for CORPS. It has been available from Thomas Bagwell's site for a while (thanks!), but I figure it should also be here. Download it.
House Rules
William Hostman has some house rules for CORPS here.
CORPS Q&A:
Q: I'm not sure how to handle maximum impairments. One part of the damage rules seems to contradict another.
A: For purposes of eventually and instantly fatal wounds you use the amount of damage done by the attack. For purposes of actual impairment to the character you use the maximum for that body part. A side effect of this is that the actual impairment is subtracted from the DV of an attack which could pass through a character (like a bullet).
Q: If I get (or lose) character points for an Advantage or Disadvantage, can I split these points between Attribute Points (AP) and Skill Points (SP)?
A: Yes, unless specifically stated otherwise.
Q: Can I use the Luck advantage to have things round in my favor during character creation?
A: No. Luck is meant for in-play use only.
CORPS VDS:
There are two known bugs in CORPS VDS. The first has to do with Body Armor (page 51). The design example (page 62) calculates the mass of 20 points of armor, but neglects that body armor automatically gets its AV as a soak value, so 20 points of body armor would have an extra 20 points of soak value, like an AV of 20/20, or in the design example, 32/8. To get the AV of 16/4 that is listed in the example, halve the armor mass. This error has already been corrected in the .pdf edition.
The second, and more serious bug is that somehow, the area formula for the Box1 and Slab configurations is off by a factor of 2. It is plain as the nose on your face, but neither myself or anyone in the entire group of playtesters caught this. D'oh! This is incorrect on the tables derived from these equations as well. If you have the print edition, simply multiply all the area numbers by 2. The corrected .pdf edition is at HyperBooks.
For print edition customers who don't mind a few extra pages lying around, this link will download a .pdf file containing correct versions of the affected pages.
Hey! We had a contest for vehicle designs in December 1999. Here is the winner and the rest of the entries.
Pirate Airship (Andy Wills)
Bradley M3A2 (Bertil Jonell)
Komodo Dragon SUV (Rick Havlak)
Eel Dragon hovercycle (Rick Havlak)
Here are some more vehicle designs from Bertil Jonell: File #1
Here is a vehicle design system for The Fantasy Trip which incorporates some concepts from CORPS Vehicle Design System (VDS): TFT Vehicle Design
*There's an old game industry joke that goes something
like this:
Q: What's the difference between a game designer and a large
pizza?
A: A large pizza can feed a family of four.
For lots of folks in this business who do it because they love
it, this joke rings far too true. Unless you hit the jackpot with
something like Magic: the Gathering of all available cash in the
gaming market, then we, as guys in the industry, don't have a lot
with which to pay you, as guys trying to get into the industry.
It's not that we don't like your idea, it's that we don't have the
man-hours or money to invest in something on top of the seventeen
other things we're already trying to do.
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Errata, technotes or pointers to
things our army of