Tractor Beam Projectors

CRMcNeill · Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:22 am Post subject: Tractor Beam Projectors

Something that has always bugged me with the rules for Tractor Beam Projectors is that, in the canon, Tractor Beams seem to be equally effective against both starfighter and capital ship scale targets. This idea is simple enough, but seems to fly in the face of the WEG scale system. I've put some thought into it, and I'd like to propose a fix.

IMO, tractor beam projectors are capable of changing the focus of their beam. Capturing a capital ship scale target requires a tightly focused beam concentrating a lot of power on a very specific point. Capturing a starfighter-scale target would normally require a smaller, more precise tractor beam projector. In the case of Capital Ship-scale tractor beam projectors, their beams can be adjusted to a much broader focus, diffusing the raw power of their beams over a much broader area to engage a much smaller and nimbler target.

In game terms, if the Tractor Beam Projectors of a capital ship are to be used to engage a starfighter-scale target, the ship's must declare that action the round before the attack, then wait until the next combat round to attempt to capture the smaller vessel. After the one round wait, the tractor beam uses its normal Fire Control and Damage dice values, but uses them at Starfighter scale instead of capital. The one round wait is required by the tractor beam projectors' internal systems realigning for the new beam focus. If the capital ship wishes to shift the focus back to Capital Ship-scale, the tractor beam projector must deactivate and wait one round while its focus is realigned. Any Capital Ship or Death Star scale tractor beam can make use of this rule.

A common practice for ship captains is to split their bet by leaving one tractor beam in the engaged arc set for Capital Scale, then using the others to engage the starfighter scale target. Once the other tractor beam projectors have the target locked, the captain then focuses the Capital scale projector on the relatively immobile (and therefore much easier to lock onto) target with the full force of the vessel's tractor beams. No starfighter-scale target has the engine power to break such a lock, although some ingenious opponents have escaped capture by using decoys and dispersing clouds of trac-reflective particles.
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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.

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garhkal · Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:59 am Post subject:

I've just gone with tractor beams ignoring scaling diff to hit.
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CRMcNeill · Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 6:36 am Post subject:

garhkal · Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 6:17 pm Post subject:

As a linked Q... In both the films (well we only saw a Tractor beam used in ep 4) along with the novels, it seems tractor beams are NOT visable.
So should they even ;engineer a dodge roll' to avoid?
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CRMcNeill · Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:24 pm Post subject:

Kemper Boyd · Sub-Lieutenant Joined: 28 Jun 2008 Posts: 68

garhkal · Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:05 pm Post subject:

If that was the case, why didn't Han and Chewie know they were in a tractor beam till they tried to pull out?
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CRMcNeill · Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:42 pm Post subject:

garhkal · Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:47 am Post subject:

Perhaps it should be based on sensors. for Han and chewie, it seemed that they didn't monitor the sensors.. till it was too late.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!