Re: (TFT) Building

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/22/2007 3:39:19 PM Central Daylight Time, 
selfinflicted_wounds@boardermail.com writes:


> ITL pg. 44-45
> DOORS
> 
> 
> doors doors doors doors doors.

I've completely dumped the rules for doors in my game, and written a 
more-or-less unified set of rules for breaking things in general: 

==========
Breaking Things

Relatively large objects, like doors and full-sized statues, will have both a 
Strength score and an armor score, much as living creatures do. 

Relatively small objects, like weapons and locks, will have only a "damage 
to-break" score. An attack against the object that does damage equal to or 
greater than this score will break the object. A lesser attack will normally leave 
the object unharmed.

If a character can get leverage, he can attempt to break a weapon or other 
small object by making a 3-die roll against Strength. This roll has a -1 penalty 
for every point of the weapon's to-break score above 10, (or a +1 bonus for 
every point below 10).

Weapons
A normal weapon will have a to-break score of 5 plus half the weapon's 
required Strength (round down). Thus a normal short sword (St 11) will take 10 
points to break. An improvised or cheap-and-shoddy weapon will have a score five 
points less than this - half the required St score, plus zero, rounded down. 

A fine weapon will add +6 to its to-break score, plus another +3 per +1 
bonus. Thus a fine weapon with +1 Dx and +1 damage would add +12 to its to-break 
score. 

A wizard's Staff enchantment adds +1 per day to the underlying object's 
to-break score, to a maximum of +7. In addition, if Staff was cast on an improvised 
weapon, (or non-weapon object) it will no longer count as "improvised" after 
a week: Its to-break score will increase by 5 points, and it won't break on a 
to-hit roll of '3.'

A magic weapon will have +3 added to its to-break score for each enchantment 
(other than the wizard's Staff enchantment). In addition, it will add +3 for 
each magical +1 bonus. Thus a sword with a magical +3 to damage will add +12 to 
its to-break score: +3 for the Weapon/Armor enchantment, and another +9 for 
the +3 bonus. 

A shield will have a base to-break score of 12, plus +3 for each point of 
armor. 
    
Locks
A lock or trap will have an assigned to-break score similar to a weapon's. 
See the rules for locks and traps, above. 

Walls and Other Thick Objects
Walls have armor and St scores, just like living figures. Furthermore, thick 
walls and barriers get +1 armor per 10 cm (4 inches) of thickness, in addition 
to their natural armor from the material of which they're made. (This bonus 
armor applies to any object so large that a character can only attack one 
face.) If a character bashes at a barrier for over a minute, he may ignore this 
bonus armor from thickness (but not the base natural armor) once every twelve 
turns. In addition, any damage from missile spells also ignores the extra armor 
due to thickness. 

For example, a character digging his way into the stone face of a cliff will 
have to overcome 4 points of natural armor, plus many tens of points of 
additional armor from the many meters of stone. Once every 12 turns, however, he 
only needs to overcome the 4 points of the stone's natural armor, ignoring the 
mountain of armor that comes from the mountain of mountain that he is attempting 
to tunnel into. 

Note that attacks against barriers cannot get damage bonuses for "called 
shots."

Armor and Strength by Material
Wood normally has 1 or 2 points of natural armor. Wood reinforced with metal 
typically has 2-4 points of armor. Once past this armor, a 1 meter by 1 meter 
panel of wood typically has 3 to 5 points of Strength per 1 cm thickness. Thus 
a typical heavy door, one meter wide, two meters high, and 6 cm thick, might 
have 2 points of armor and St 48 (4 St per cm times 6 cm thickness times 2 
square meters). 

Stone normally has 3 to 5 points of natural armor. Once past the armor, a 
square meter slab of stone typically has 6 to 10 points of St per 1 cm thickness. 
Thus a stone door (1 m by 2 m by 6 cm thick) might have 4 points of armor and 
St 96. 

Metal normally has 6 points natural armor (and sometimes has more). A square 
meter slab of metal typically has 10 or more St per 1 cm thickness. Thus a 
metal door of 1 m by 2 m by 6 cm might have 6 points of armor and St 120.

(Note that these are the armor and St values for the doors themselves; the 
hinges and locks on the door will have to-break values, instead. The wooden door 
might have a lock with a to-break score of 11 or 12, the stone door might 
have a lock with a to-break value of 23, and the metal door might have a lock 
with a to-break score of 30. A character faced with a door thus has a choice: 
Attempt to break the lock, or attempt to hack and bash the door itself.)

As noted above, thick walls get an additional +1 armor per 10 cm thickness. A 
2 meter thick stone wall might have 4 points natural armor, 20 points armor 
due to thickness, and St 1600 per square meter (St 3200 for a 1 meter by 2 
meter doorway-sized section). A character attempting to break through that wall 
would have to overcome 24 points of armor with most attacks, but only 4 points 
once every 12 turns if he keeps bashing. (He also has to overcome only 4 points 
of armor if he uses missile spells to try to blast through.) After 
subtracting the armor, he will then have to do 3200 points of damage to cut a 1 meter by 
2 meter doorway through the 2 meter thick stone wall. If using a pick that 
does 2d+2 damage, this will take between 10 and 11 hours of tunneling. 
===========

Note: I ought to explain about wizards staves breaking on a 3 (instead of an 
18): I don't use the rules for drop/break weapons on a high roll to hit (or 
for triple/double damage on a low roll). Instead, only improvised or 
cheap-and-shoddy weapons have a chance to break in combat in my game. And they break on a 
roll of '3', even as they hit, rather than missing and breaking on a roll of 
'18.'


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