How Do You Put a Number on That?

I'm now writing complete Force books, which I intend to be ready to play.  That means every unit has to have statistics and a point value -- no more weaseling out of fixing an actual number to an actual unit!  So, the question becomes: how do I set all these values: the game statistics and the point values both?

Game Statisitics

Setting the game statistics was actually pretty easy.  I know more or less how tough or powerful I want each unit to be in the game, so setting its game statistics is largely a matter of expressing my idea in the mathematical language of the game system.  The rest of it is just logic and working out the implications.

For example, take Vehicle Armor ratings.  An Armored Vehicle needs to be immune to small-arms fire.  In game mechanical terms, this means that it needs to have a Vehicle Armor of at least 6. 

(In my system, the number needed to-Wound is 1 + the Special Characteristic protecting it - any opposing weapon's special Characteristics reducing it.  Since small arms are Anti-Tank 0, a VA 6 = 7+ to Wound.) 

Soft-skin vehicles, like trucks, should be hard to kill with small-arms.  So I set their Vehicle Armor at one less, at 5.  Small-arms will be hurting trucks on a 6+, that is, infrequently, but fairly reliably.  And soft-skin vehicles will die horribly to any real AT weapon.

Next, I need to set the Vehicle Armor values for actual tanks.   I decide I want to have three rating: Light, Medium, and Heavy.  This isn't a realistic game, where I actually care about historical armor plating, sloping, shaped charges, and so forth.  This is going to be a game with death-rays and giant monsters.  So my values should be whatever is convenient for play, not a treatise on armored warfare. 

I know that I want to have a little play between a minimally-armored vehicle (like a WW2 armored half-track transport) and the lightest tanks: a mathematical space into which I can fit vehicles less hefty than a light tank, but tougher than a mere transport.  For example, a heavy armored car.  So I set the Vehicle Armor of a Light Tank at 8 on the front.

Above this, there is a question of how much play I want in each category.  There's not much purpose in having a huge spread between Light, Medium, and Heavy.  I know I want Medium tanks to be mostly (but not quite) invulnerable to weapons that will kill a Light Tank, and Heavy tanks to be mostly (but not quite) invulnerable to weapons that will kill a Medium Tanks.  So I set Medium tanks at Vehicle Armor 10, and Heavy Tanks at Vehicle Armor 12.

I then want to create guns suitable for destroying each type: Light, Medium, and Heavy.  I decide that I want a gun designed to kill that type of tank to-Wound it on a 4+.  That means Light guns are AT 5, Medium guns are AT 7, and Heavy guns are AT 9.  It also means an AT gun can Wound the next size category up on a 6+.  That meets my definition of  "mostly (but not quite) invulnerable." 

So that's easy enough. 

Now certain statistics have given me trouble: for example, how powerful should an AT rocket like a bazooka be?  How Massive should an AT gun be?  But these are largely definitional problems.  How do imagine the rockets in this setting?  Or they are simple mathematical questions: how Tough are monsters going to be, and should AT guns be excellent or poor at killing them?  I do expect to adjust some of these numbers as I go along.

Next time, the zillion-dollar question: How do I set point values?