Forums of the Megaverse®

This post comes to me due to the one about the best way to eliminate Glitter Boys.

Fact : a lot of the ways suggested are based on the GB's notorious lack of mobility and inability to fire while on the move (i.e. having to anchor before firing to avoid getting thrown on its back 60 ft to the rear)

Fact : I don't know of any official game mechanics dealing with that.

How long does it take to anchor, and to get mobile again?

In the RMB, I believe it called for an action to be spent to anchor.
In other books/stories, I believe that it started to show that the Firing System and Pylons were engaged at the same time.

The answer: Whatever your GM (or You, if you are the GM) decide.

I'd say that once you get ready to fire, the pilons drop and you pull the trigger.

Well it never really says anything about how long it takes to deply the pylons. But how I run it in my games is to allow the GB to plant the pylons and fire all in the same turn, but the pylons stay deployed until the beginning of his next turn (it doesn't take an action to retract them, but the GB pilot can't move/dodge until his next action), then he's free to spend his next action as he pleases. This doesn't hamper the pilot's abilty to fire the Boom Gun every action, but it actually brings the GB's lack of mobility to fire the gun (without having to take away any actions from the player).

Other options would be to allow the pilot to attempt a dodge when the pylons are engaged, but at a serious penalty (-10 or -12). I don't use the infamous -10 rule in my games, so if you do, then that would pretty much be meaningless.

Tyciol wrote:I don't know about you guys, but if I was fighting a grounded target, I'd use my jets to go above him, aim down and fire. So you get thrown 60ft in the air and might spin around a bit, a little control roll and a safe landing beats being anchored

Hope broken skulls, necks, joints, major bones, etc is on your list of things to experience then sunshine!

After all...your ARMOUR is MDC...YOU are not.

you're quite right warrior... but beside the question. the matter is not whether the pilot has anything to do, but how long it takes for the system to work.