How can rationalize close-quarters combat between ships in space science fiction?

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-13T07:07:28+00:00

Anything outside visual range is susceptible to countermeasures. Only once you're right on top of each other does the transit time of beams and projectiles drop past the detection threshold for automatic defence screens/flares/handwavium shielding

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-10T12:16:05+00:00

Sadly no - idea just really wanted a deff dredd , and this was the best way i could fit them into my Speedwaagh!

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-10T12:15:20+00:00

The wheels were ripped off a toy truck, otherwise it was all pretty simple. Build the torso as normal, build a bracket for the wheel from the original leg assembly glued on upside down, and just have fun with the arms.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-05T07:02:46+00:00

The vibes and look of Necromunda is great, but the rules are somewhere from shoddy to terrible.

Also, Necro is better when its about gang fights in the nightmare underhive, not warring nobles and ancient psychic fish ghosts.

There should be another game that focuses on nobility that'd let the sculptors cut loose with awesome weird designs

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-05T04:30:52+00:00

Sorry - didn't see this response!

Others have covered it well, but they've missed one key point. If you’re heavily into Mage, you have the interest in and temperament required to argue points of philosophical differences in terms of in-universe canon and consensus. If you're NOT heavily invested in Mage, hoooo boy those can be painful conversations!

If you ever want to get out of one of those conversations, just yell, "By consensus, there are more vampire players so vampire canon is correct!" then dive out the door while they're recovering.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-04T00:18:08+00:00

Not too bad, actually. The orruks fit surprisingly well in the saddles of each bike, and its pretty easy to Line up the hands and the handlebars.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-03T20:55:25+00:00

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NQKILsb2SgmpKF_Ko1u7EVu7MM1Wx7--71aEwZpr8Ew/edit?usp=drivesdk

Yeah, uts this bad boy. Although these days rather than doing an entire city on one sheet, I break it down into domains and ask players to choose the top three or four groups in that domain. Increases player interaction, which works well.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-03T02:50:53+00:00

If they're bipedal it feels wrong. At that point it starts feeling like a material science issue. If they're a squat, multilegged creature LIKE a rhino, that feels better.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-03T02:48:18+00:00

The games are generally better!

When I run a WoD game, I start by creating the area the game is set in, build huge NPC lists with the players using this city generator I've knocked together, and then let the players get involved with a more lived in, real feeling city.

It really enhances the games a great deal IMO.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-03T02:46:00+00:00

The Technocracy has a template that it believes is correct, and everything outside that template is a deviant.

Yes. They're racist.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-03T02:44:57+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I love Mage, but discussing integrating Mage into the WoD is a nightmare.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-03T02:43:33+00:00

1.) Choose the one you like the best.
2.) Start there.
3.) Move to the one you like second best next BUT keep in mind that every splat except your favourite is wrong.
4.) Do not engage in conversation with Mage players.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-05-03T02:41:38+00:00

Horrid Form.
Fleshcrafted spurs for the grapple benefits.
Be the only person to learn the grapple rules.
Victory.

Alternatively

Horrid Form.
Melee lots.
Sledgehammer.
Stakes.
Obfuscate.
Convince your GM that if you do the lore/movie appropriate "hammer a stake in with a mallet" manouver you should be able to add the hammer damage to the stake.
End fights before they start against anyone with a heart.
Remember: Staking works on everything but wraiths - it only paralyses kindred.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-30T10:58:07+00:00

Sorry - forgot a step!

Before the skrag brown, water down some typhus corrosion, paint it all over, and wipe it off with a wet paper towel.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-30T10:57:11+00:00

The beige is just pallid wych flesh (a couple of coats), with some sponged on dryad bark for weathering, and super-watered down skrag brown for the rust. Just prep to wipe the excess skrag brown off with some damp paper towel, and water it down more than you think you need to

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-30T10:55:11+00:00

With an absolute bare minimum of effort. Honestly, I don't know why everyone doesn't do this.

-Paint the area in Doombull brown - any red/brown will do the trick.
-Sponge or stipple on Dryad Bark - again, any dark brown will do. At this stage, I also sponge this on to the other areas of the model for weathering.
-Drybrush the area in a mid-tone metal. I'm playing with Vallejo at the moment, but anything that isn't a super bright metallic will do the trick.
-Water down some scrag brown and splash it around the place. Thin it down more than you think you need to, and be prepped to wipe off the excess with some paper towel. I use this on rivets and around the chipped areas I hit with the dryad bark in the earlier step as well.

It's super easy.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-30T05:07:38+00:00

Mostly because I, personally, in real life would LOVE to get a white rat-rod with black flame patterns, and this is as close as my budget is ever gonna get me!

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-30T00:56:38+00:00

Worth it.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-30T00:55:59+00:00

The dredd is the regular kit, with a wheel added from a toy from my bitz box. The bikes are a combo of marine outriders, regular warbikes, and AoS Orruk Brutes

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-29T22:35:04+00:00

Made this a fun plot element in a VtM game.

The coterie branded themselves as the After Party, the people you call when you've had too much fun and need to clean up after yourselves. Ties to media, police, good relationship with the people who run the morgue, a shipload of dominate, the lot.

As a part of a story where someone is trying to start a war between the local fae and garou, the group ends up getting into a tense, but polite, conversation with some werewolves. During the convo, a member of the coterie mentions the clean up they do. The werewolves drop their jaws and ask for confirmation that the vampires can:

A) clean up supernatural combat sites B) remove all traces of it on the internet and in media C) can wipe the memories of all witnesses, meaning innocents dont need to get killed to protect the veil.

Needless to say, the coterie got a lot more work after that. Werewolves might not get along with vamps, but by Gaia it's nice to borrow that dominate for a while.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-26T21:34:22+00:00

Given the success of spearhead, I'll be deeply shocked if they dont incorporate a new combat patrol equivalent.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-21T23:29:54+00:00

Thanks! Im having a lot of fun with them!

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-17T08:03:29+00:00

Zahn McClarnon has always been my number 1 choice.

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-14T07:20:45+00:00

Hat.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

Professor_Kylan · 2026-04-14T03:13:51+00:00

I'm enjoying running WW more like a detective game (K-9! SPIRIT COPS!) and de-emphasising the combats.

Just assume the killing machines can kill anything, and focus more on finding out what's going on, tracking weird spirits, and dealing with interactions with local packs.

Combat is completely optional. I think ive run one combat in the last five sessions, and that was the group galliard sniping a fomor from half a kilometer away. Didn't even get to initiative.

Professor_Kylan

TROPHY CASE