Xenos Rampant: Tunnel Brats Part 1

   So what is this all about?  Well the comic should explain it but for many moons I have been pondering rules for a basic AI system to fight miniatures battles in and now with Xenos Rampant I think I have both a good use of it and ideas to add to the fun of the game and make use of my entirely too large collection of games and tiles.  If one ruleset let's me use a bunch of things without having to remember and or relearn rules for each and every one of them?

  Well why the heck not?

(As always click the image for larger if you need to!)

Warhammer 40K: A Rogue Trader Styled Campaign Part 2: Rules

This is the second part where I awkwardly smoosh together rules from both Rogue Trader and 2nd edition 40K into something resembling a playable game by also taking stuff from later editions.

And then jamming a simple RPG system into it.

I am a very silly person who seems to like wasting time on these sorts of things...

Updated 22 March 2013

Rules and Rules Changes:

Initiative/Turn Order:

At the start of each encounter (when appropriate) each player rolls a D6 and adds their characters' Initiative value to this roll. The GM does the same for whatever opposing forces (OpFor) are in the mission if any. Ties are rolled off.

Going in order of highest to lowest each Player and each GM unit does their Move and then Shoot Phases in order. After all players and OpFor have taken their turns, Close Combat happens as one gigantic melee then everyone may make Rally checks at the end of the turn.

(This does mean there can be multiple units charging and then getting charged in return.)

Movement:

As in 2^nd ed rulebook.

Shooting:

As in 2^nd ed rulebook.

Overwatch: When going into Overwatch you will not be able to fire until the next FULL turn. So if you go into Overwatch you may NOT fire until the next turn begins. (This keeps players from going on OW when they win initiative and just camping all day long.)

Close Combat:

As in the Assault Phase section of the 5^th or 6^th edition rulesbook. (5^th ed minibook is pages 36-45.)

Changes to the rules from said book:

The To Hit chart is the one from Rogue Trader.

As this is RT/2nd edition, units are not allowed to shoot before charging.

Weapons with the Parry ability may cause a reroll of an enemy attack die thrown against them but only once per weapon with this ability per Close Combat phase.

Psychology and Morale:

As in 2^nd edition outside of the Close Combat rules.

Psionics:

As in Rogue Trader. (Pages 48-52)  Will and Cool are considered to be the model's Ld value.

Post Game Sequence/Advancement

After a mission has been one or lost the GM may decide it is time to have a Post Game. (Some missions may be multiple battles or may have a win/loss effect which keeps the adventure going and thus these following events will not happen yet.)

The sequence is as follows:

1: Roll for survivors and injuries.

2: Roll for scavenge.

3: Use Destiny Points if mission failed or Player Character is dead.

4: If won, get an Experience Point plus 2d6 Requisition Points and D10 Force Points.
4a: It is HIGHLY recommended that each mission also have some sort of Requisition Point bonus.  Probably 10-20 a mission.

5: If 5, 10, 20, 40, or 80 Experience Points have been attained, the Player Character levels up.

Rolling for Survivors:

For each lost model, players roll 1d6 against Toughness. If this roll is higher than the model's Toughness or a 6 the model is Dead and must either be replaced with Requisition Points or done without until more RP has been earned. If the roll is equal to the model's T they are “Injured” and unavailable for the next mission plus lose any purchased equipment except for Armor or their default weapon.

A Player Character who suffers a Dead result loses a Destiny Point instead.

If the Players lose the mission and the GM decides they have a chance to possibly recover their fallen, the D6 Survivor Roll is instead D6-1.

For vehicles the damage result will show if it is possible to recover and repair it. If the damage result that took it out clearly shows it to be a destroyed wreck it cannot be repaired. If it was merely disabled in a manner that could be fixed, it will be unavailable for the next mission and will cost D6x5 Requisition Points to repair it.

Scavenging:

Scavenging when allowed after a mission gives the winning Players a chance to recover anything useful off of the corpses of the fallen. Roll under each Player Characters' INT with a 2D6 roll. If this roll is under the INT they find D3 useful items at the GM's discretion.

(Such as Wargear, special weapons, ect. An Imperial or Eldar campaign clearly wouldn't allow the recovery of Chaos wargear to be used by the players.)

Use Destiny Points: A Player Character who has died MUST spend a Destiny Point. If a PC has lost a mission they also lose a Destiny Point. If a PC has no more Destiny Points, the Character and his or her forces are removed from the campaign and a new Character and unit must be generated by the player.

Victory Goodies:

If the Player was on the winning side he or she gains 1 Experience Point, 2D6 Requisition Points, and 1D10 Force Points. Depending on the mission and GM fiat, there may be additional rewards.

Character Advancement:

After 5, 10, 20, 40, and 80 Experience Points have been earned (keep running total. EP does not reset upon advancement.) the Character levels up with the following rewards:

5: 10% increase in Force Points (go by current value). 1 Special Ability. 1 more Destiny Point.

10: Becomes a “Hero”. +1 WS, BS, S, T, W, I, A. 1 more Destiny Point. May now have 2 Wargear Cards. (L2 Psyker if capable)

20: 10% increase in Force Points. 1 Special Ability. 1 more Destiny Point.

40: Becomes a “Mighty Hero”. +1 WS, BS, W, I, A, LD, INT. 1 More Destiny Point. May now have 3 Wargear Cards. (L3 Psyker if capable)

80: 10% increase in Force Points. 1 Special Ability. 1 more Destiny Point.

Special Abilities

When a PC earns a Special Ability, he rolls on the chart. If a result rolled is one they already have, the PC instead earns 40 Requisition Points, 15 Force Points, and an extra Destiny Point.

1: Fearless: PC and any squad he is attached to now never have to fall back and pass any Morale check automatically.

2: Feel No Pain: The PC upon losing his last Wound in combat ignores the wounding hit on a 4+ provided the Strength of the attack is not double his Toughness.

3: Fleet of Foot: The PC may move an extra D6” when alone, or when with a squad it is D3”.

4: Furious Charge: The PC gets +1 I and S when they charge into Close Combat.

5: Preferred Enemy X: The PC may choose an enemy type/race/faction. They now may reroll 1 missed hit in Close Combat each Close Combat Phase.

6: Stealthy: The PC is -1 to hit in Ranged Combat provided he has Cover.

7: Tank Hunter: The PC now adds +1 to her Armor Penetration Rolls, and adds +1 to his squad's AP rolls if attached.

8: Wide Deployment: Any unit the PC is part of or joined now has their Squad Coherency increased by 1”.

9: Infiltrator: The PC and any unit she is part of or decides to start the mission attached to may either start 2d6” further into the battlefield, or may start “Hidden” if behind cover in the normal Deployment Zone.

10: Agressive Commander: When rolling for Turn Initiative at the start of a mission the PC rolls 2D6 and takes the highest.

11: Warp Resistant: The PC is considered to be +1 to their Ld for all Willpower checks against Psychic effects hostile to them.

12: Protector: The PC may reroll her Death result after a mission, or if he had 1 Wound remaining or more at the end of the mission he may make the first Death result rolled on his troopers be ignored.

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Well, this is pretty much it currently for my rules.  Its juuust enough to add some depth and flavor while taking the 40K rules I like best.  It generally doesn't look like it will work for any sort of non GMed game but for what I have in mind it will do nicely.

I may add or modify rules as I go though.

Warhammer 40K: A Rogue Trader Styled Campaign Part 1: Overview and Character Creation

Yes.  You see with the recent cheap release of the Ultramarines CGI Blu Ray movie and my Gamma World game getting off to a rocky start I want to do SOMETHING campaign related but I also adore miniatures and like old school 40K even if Games Workshop is the buttiest butt that ever butted a butt.

So why not smoosh together some Rogue Trader and 2nd edition 40K stuff, print out the bits I like, and make a RPGish campaign ala my old Silent Death Star Wars TIE Fighter campaign?

I have all the minis one would need, I have all the books.  Being the GM means I can cut out all the stupid, the overcomplicated, and the cheesy from RT-2nd ed and make it a quick and fun RPG Lite experience!

Let's get the party started!

(Note this will be added to as I get around to bringing in more factions and as we possibly find what works and does not.)

Also currently the army lists are from the "Black Codex" that came in the 2nd edition box.  Cheap, balanced, fun, and portable.

Warhammer 40K RPG Battle Campaign

The Imperium is dying. A Daemon Lord known as “Gideon” attacked Holy Terra. While he was defeated and the most Blessed Emperor still guards Mankind upon his Golden Throne, foul Xeno forces used the battle as an excuse to all but vaporize everything else upon the planet.

Psykers screamed, reality warped, and many heretics say the galaxy is “back as it should be”.

The Imperium needs valiant units of Space Marines, Imperial Guardsmen, Adeptus Sororitas, Inquisitors, Assassins, and Arbites to protect the Imperium in our most desperate hour since the time the Emperor walked amongst us.

Rebellions need to be put down, ships retaken, the cleansing of taint throughout the galaxy.

Small teams will be formed and sent out. Capture lost and stolen technologies. Put the heretic, the mutant, the unclean to the cleansing fires of the Emperor's Will.

Basic Concepts:

This will be a quasi RPG miniatures campaign where players control at most 2-3 squads of 2^nd edition Warhammer 40K Black Codex Imperial (and optionally Squat & Eldar though with some tweaks it could even be used to run Ork or Chaos campaigns. For our initial purposes we are presuming Imperial however.) forces with a Champion level character as each player's avatar within the game, either in direct command of a squad, or as a separate character commanding his or her forces. (Allowing for such things as a Chaplain or Librarian.)

Rules will be a hybrid of 1^st (Rogue Trader) and 2^nd edition 40K with the odd thing nicked from later editions. The 40K universe will be closer to its original Rogue Trader era settings as the initial story concept basically says that when Terra was attacked reality subtly shifted though few people know about it.

Players will earn points to make their forces somewhat larger in size but in general each player will never have more than 500 points of 2^nd ed 40K forces. Their characters will potentially level up 5 times, 2 times into Minor and Major Hero statlines, and 3 more which will be options to gain special perks and equipment.

Characters will also have Destiny Points which will be used to survive otherwise fatal events, or which get removed upon failing missions.

Game Session Outline

Players will be given a mission to complete by the GM. They will then go do said mission. If successful they gain an Experience Point. If not they do not plus lose a Destiny Point. (Usually.) Upon winning if possible rolls are made to see what they recovered from the battlefield and what happened to their troopers who may have fallen in battle. After this Requisition Points may be spent to replace fallen troopers or to buy new ones up to the maximum level of Force Points that player has.

Character Generation:

In general each player has 330 2^nd edition 40K points to build his force. If a Champion class character is chosen it may be the upgrade or normal choice for a squad. If he or she is not the command upgrade for a squad, the purchased squad can NOT have the Champion upgrade.

No other characters may be purchased at creation. (So if you start out as a Veteran Sergeant in a Space Marine Scout squad you could not use your extra points for an Apothecary.)

Each player has 330 Force Points for the maximum size of their force in combat. Any additional points not spent or gained during play are part of your storage called Requisition Points. Force Points are the maximum you may bring INTO a battle. Requisition is how much you have to replace casualties or buy new units.

Force Points are increased through advancement.

Characters start with 3 Destiny Points.

Characters also gain 1 new Stat. Intelligence (INT). This stat is 5+1d6.

Maximum Force Size:  No Player may have more than 500 Force Points.

Marine Generation:

Legal Characters: Apothecary, Champion Chaplain, Techmarine, Librarian Lexicanian. Veteran Sergeant commanding a Tactical or Assault Squad.

Legal Squads: Tactical, Assault.

Legal Support: Rhino, Attack Bike, Marine Bike, Dreadnought, Razorback, Land Speeder.

Legal Wargear Cards: Armor Piercing Ammo, Aux. Grenade Launcher, Aegis Suit, Bionic Arm, Bionic Eye, Bionic Leg, Cameleoline, Combi-Weapon, Digital Lasers. Force Axe, Force Sword. Frenzon, Haywire Grenade, Immune, Master Crafted Bolt Pistol, Medi Pack, Refractor Field, Scanner, Seeking Ammo, Targeter, Teleport Jammer.

Legal Wargear: Terminator Armor, Refractor Field, All Assault and Special, All Heavy Weapons besides Multimelta, Terminator Heavy Flamer, All Scout Weapons, Frag, Krak, and Plasma Grenades plus Melta Bombs, Force Axe, and Force Sword.

Legal Vehicle Wargear Cards: Ablative Armor, Bulldozer Blade, Electro Hull, Grenade Cage, Heavy Flamer, Searchlight, Storm Bolter, Supercharged Engine.

Imperial Guard Generation:

Legal Characters: Commissar, Tech Priest Engineer, Command Section, Veteran Sergeant commanding a Tactical, Assault, or Rough Rider Squad.

Legal Squads: Tactical, Assault, Penal Legion, Rough Rider, Ogryn, Ratling.

Legal Support: Chimera, Sentinel, Leman Russ.

Legal Wargear Cards: Armor Piercing Ammo, Aux. Grenade Launcher, Aegis Suit, Bionic Arm, Bionic Eye, Bionic Leg, Cameleoline, Combi-Weapon, Digital Lasers. Force Axe, Force Sword. Frenzon, Haywire Grenade, Immune, Master Crafted Bolt Pistol, Medi Pack, Refractor Field, Scanner, Seeking Ammo, Targeter, Teleport Jammer.

Legal Wargear: Refractor Field, all Assault and Heavy Weapons, Frag Krak and Plasma Grenades plus Melta Bombs, All Special Weapons.

Legal Vehicle Wargear Cards: Ablative Armor, Bulldozer Blade, Electro Hull, Grenade Cage, Heavy Flamer, Searchlight, Storm Bolter, Supercharged Engine.

[Gamma World] Gamma World Survival Horror House Rules!

Like it says on the tin.  Some conversion rules to make Gamma World play more like Resident Evil, Dead Space, System Shock, and Aliens.

These rules are a work in progress so hopefully expect a second part with more stuff.

Edit:  Thanks to Xiw on #tinypewtermen (Irc.synirc.net) for some mistakes I made and some inspiration and opinions that got me to tweak and improve my initial version!

Gamma World House Rules Document

Healing Surges: Once per 24 hours including at least 6 hours of rest outside of combat players may heal all HP damage. In combat once per day PCs may heal ¼ th (rounded up) HP damage as a Standard or Move action. At level 4 and 8 PCs gain 1 extra in Combat ¼ HP surge.

Other Effects: Negative effects that are normally “Save Ends” now stay on the target but may be avoided as normal using a Combat surge or automatically removed via the Full option.

(Note special abilities or items can allow for extra saves or surges as well.)

Combat Stuffs:

Weapon Reloads: Weapons that have ammo now have a “Reload” action. Reloading a weapon is either a Move or Attack action. This does mean you can shoot your guns as much as you want now.

(Optional: weapons with ammo have a condition. Every extra time it is fired roll a D10. If the roll equals or beats the condition points of the weapon it degrades by 1 point. Repair is then needed.)

Weapon Range: Weapons now have a range. At Short the weapon's hit modifier is added to your roll. At Medium it is not. At Long the roll is now -5.

Aimed Shots: Aimed Shots are an extra -5 to hit but if successful are counted as a critical hit (max damage) or if something with a weak point or multiple locations (like a Romero styled zombie say..) that is hit and rolled for damage as appropriate.

Critical Hits: A normally rolled Critical Hit also counts as an Aimed Shot as the firer's choice.

Weapon Special Abilities/Upgrades:

Indirect Fire: Indirect Fire shots are 15 AC if target/target square is visible, 25 if not visible. When the hit is a miss, for every point missed the shot 1 square in a random direction, ½ if going back towards the firer. (Round up) Scatter roll is 1d10 with 1 back towards firer, numbers go clockwise with 10 being a “dud” shot. When a Hit is rolled the shot hits the target square/target but it scatters d4-1 if indirect. (Again, a 10 rolled for direction is a dud even if you scatter 0 range on an Indirect spot.)

Cone Attack: Cone Attacks ignore cover bonuses for Hit rolls. Range is distance weapon fires. Shot is reduced 1 die in damage per square after the second. No Long/Med/Short ranges.

Multifire : May not be used at Long Range. Requires weapon to be held 2 handed. Uses multiple rounds of ammo. (Roll 1d4 shots used) If main target is hit, any adjacent targets take half damage regardless of AC. Target's cover AC is reduced by 1 step. (Partial is cancelled, Full becomes Partial.)

Multifire weapons may be fired on “Single” shot mode but lose all multifire bonuses and penalties. (So you no longer waste multiple shots or have to fire 2 handed unless the weapon itself requires it. And you know, you get Long Range!)  As long as you have 3 rounds in the weapon you can still go Multifire and if you roll a 4 for shots just count it as having been 3.

Antitank (#): Antitank weapons ignore DR equal to the (#) value.

Heavy: Heavy weapons may only be fired if the firer has not moved at all including Shifting. If the firer does move it may be fired at half normal range values and it is -5 to hit.

Melta: Melta weapons are ½ normal weapon type range with Antitank +5 and ½ normal ammunition, rounded up. Stacks with Antitank.

Laser: Laser weapons are +2/4/8 range, +1 To Hit, ½ ammo capacity rounded down.

Flamer: Cone Attack doing Fire damage. No To Hit rolls required but targets evade on a 11+ roll with their Dex bonus added to the roll. Targets hit take 5 Ongoing Fire, Save Ends. No Cone Damage Dice reduction. All targets in a straight line take the hit, adjacent squares to the line take half damage with no Ongoing Fire.

Red Dot Sight: +1 To Hit rolls, target may either use AC or Reflex, whichever is higher.

Sniper Scope: If firer doesn't move, weapon gets +2 to hit and +4/8/16 to range.

2 Handed: Requires 2 hands to fire, otherwise -5 to hit.

Blast (#): Hits target square full on, surrounding squares take ½ damage. (#) is size of the blast.

Armory:

Pistols:

Light: Range: 5/10/20 Damage: 2d4 Ammo/Clip: 9 To Hit Bonus: +3

Medium: Range: 7/14/28 Damage: 2d6 Ammo/Clip: 7 To Hit Bonus: +2

Heavy: Range: 8/16/32 Damage: 3d4+1 Ammo/Clip: 6 To Hit Bonus: +1

Carbines: (ALL 2 HANDED)

Light: Range: 9/18/36 Damage: 2d6 Ammo/Clip: 24 To Hit Bonus: +3

Medium: Range: 11/22/44 Damage: 2d8 Ammo/Clip: 20 To Hit Bonus: +2

Heavy: Range: 13/26/52 Damage: 3d6+1 Ammo/Clip: 16 To Hit Bonus: +1

Rifles: (ALL 2 HANDED)

Light: Range: 15/30/60 Damage: 2d8 Ammo/Clip: 8 To Hit Bonus: +3

Medium: Range: 20/40/80 Damage: 2d10 Ammo/Clip: 6 To Hit Bonus: +2

Heavy: Range: 23/46/92 Damage: 3d8+1 Ammo/Clip: 4 To Hit Bonus: +1

Machine Guns: (ALL 2 HANDED, HEAVY, MULTIFIRE)

Light: Range: 25/50/100 Damage: 2d10 Ammo/Clip: 20 To Hit Bonus: +3; Antitank 2;

Medium: Range: 30/60/120 Damage: 2d12 Ammo/Clip: 16 To Hit Bonus: +2; Antitank 3;

Heavy: Range: 32/64/128 Damage: 3d12+1 Ammo/Clip: 12 To Hit Bonus: +1; Antitank 4;

Shotguns:

Sawed Off: Damage: 4d6 Ammo/Clip: 2 To Hit Bonus: +1; Cone 5

Hunting: Damage: 5d6 Ammo/Clip: 2 To Hit Bonus: +2; Cone 7; 2 Handed

Combat: Damage: 6d6 Ammo/Clip: 8 To Hit Bonus: +3; Cone 9; 2 Handed

Slug Ammo: Shotguns may be fitted with “Slug” rounds that turn the Cone range to Medium, with Double that Long, and NO Short range. Slug rounds fire like normal guns and ignore Cone rules. Slug shots are also -2d damage dice. (So a Combat Shotgun with Slug would have -/9/18 for range, and do 4d6 damage/

Incendiary Ammo: As Slug but damage dice is HALVED from the normal Shotgun damage, and the shot is Fire damage, adjacent targets take half damage. 3 Fire Ongoing, Save Ends.

Flamers:

Light: Damage: 3d6 Ammo/Clip: 10; Flamer Cone 6; 2 Handed

Heavy: Damage: 3d8 Ammo/Clip 6; Flamer Cone 10; 2 Handed

Heavy Weapons: (ALL 2 HANDED, HEAVY)

Grenade Launcher: Range: 10/20/40 Damage: 2d6 Ammo/Clip: 6 To Hit Bonus: +1; Indirect Fire; Blast 2

(ADD SPECIAL GRENADE TYPES)

Bazooka: Range: 18/36/72 Damage: 2d10 Ammo/Clip: 1 To Hit Bonus: +2; Antitank 5

Box Launcher: Range: 20/40/80 Damage: 2d12+2 Ammo/Clip: 4 To Hit Bonus: +1; Antitank 10; 

My D&D 4e Castlevania Campaign Notes Part 1: House Rules

This is just going to be a series of writings based on both whatever dumb house rules I come up with (and possibly reports of how terrible they were in active play), and the history/cosmology of my campaign setting.

It looks like I am starting it up Tuesday, thanks to a bit of luck, and me being entirely too aggressive via the internet in roping people in.    If you can't get people to play the most popular RPG in the world (even if its taken a serious marketshare blow from Pathfinder) what can you get folks to play?

Probably nothing unless you have a large and openminded group of friends.

So here we go!

House Rules:


Healing Surges:  Normal Healing Surges(HS) can NOT be used.  Once per day as a Standard Action a PC may immediately recover ALL HP, have all negative status effects cancelled, and gain Defense and Resistance bonuses equal to their Level x 2.  Regular HSes may only be used through powers and abilities.

I kind of like more of an old school thing as opposed to having everyone rest up to max constantly.


Action Points: Gone.  However once per character level (and you can keep collecting them if you don't use them) you may spend a "Hero Point" to change the value of any die roll made by you or that affects you.  Any roll at all.

Don't like Action Points and keeping track of them is a tad odd.  I do however like the idea of a "Get out of doom free" thing.  Honestly I would say all PCs ought to save this for things like their final death save or if they find themselves in a position where if they fail a roll they are dead.


Death: For saving against Death a 19-20 takes you into safety instead of just a 20.

A little less brutality here.  Its kind of tough but fair, and this helps a bit.  I could go with "Add your CON bonus to the roll" but that makes death all but impossible outside of TPKs and the like.


Enemies: Enemies do NOT have Healing Surges or Action Points.  Also to speed gameplay and compensate for reduced PC self healing average monster HP will be reduced by a good 25-33 percent.  I am lazy so it will be me eyeballing it.   If things are really too hard or easy I can modify on the fly and who will know?  BWAHAHA.

Minor PC nerfing ought to have minor monster nerfing too.  Plus, as I said, speeds up the game.  Do you want to do math for 600 HP monsters all the time?  No.  400 is sillier but not AS silly.


Dead PCs:  If a player's PC dies their replacement starts with half the xp of their previous one provided they play either the same race or the same class as their fallen character.  (Could be a comrade from back in Wizard school or a relative.  Be creative here!)  Their starting gold is whatever level the new PC is times 150.
This CAN be used to buy their choice in magic items from the Essentials books or possibly Adventurer's Vault 1 and 2.  If a new PC only has the XP to be Level 1, they just start as a Level 1.

Adventure Cards:  If you build a deck, I get to draw one of your cards before play each session and may use it for the enemies.  Or I may use the card to cancel a card you play.  So your 8 card deck becomes 7.  Hope I don't take your favorite!

Game Table: Open table for anyone who isn't rude or disruptive.  First 6 players play (announcing playing ahead of time locks your slot in, though if you don't show up at least 30 minutes after play has begun it becomes someone else's slot), next person in line becomes the DM's assistant and helps move monsters and stuff.  The DM's Assistant gets 3/4ths the XP the rest of the PCs get and 1/4th the treasure.  It is assumed all the regulars and semiregulars are present each session but only so many can be handled by one DM.  So people are there but not really.

This makes it a far less restrictive game.  People don't have to be there every session if they can't make it, and it doesn't OH NO GAME IS RUINED every time one or two people don't show up.  If you can only play 1 out of every 4 times well that's fine.  Sure your XP gain is gonna suck and you might not want to play a front line fighter, but you can still show up and get some monster bashing in.  I seriously doubt I will have a 7+ player group ever much less constantly but I have given some thought just in case I do.


Campaign Restrictions:


Essentials ONLY classes and races.  Standard arrays from those rulesbooks.   If you really want to play some race not in it, do "Counts As".  You might be following the rules of an Elf or a Halfling, but you can say you are a Drow or a Gnome.  Good enough for government work!

While not restricted, it is HIGHLY recommended nobody play Dragonborn or Tiefling as the former are very rare in this setting, and the latter are generally despised.

Good and Unaligned alignments please.

Level 1 to start.

Essentials is what I have and what I like.  If there is that much outcry for non Essentials stuff I will probably just allow the PHB classes that are the same core as the Essentials, albeit with different builds.  So: Assassin, Fighter, Wizard, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Cleric, Druid, and Warlock.  Thanks to the D&D Character Builder online and my books it shouldn't be a big issue, but if it is I could easily see myself meeting folks halfway at least.


Character Level Cap:  The Cap for this campaign is Level 15.  From Level 1-10 XP costs are as usual.
The chart for level 11-15 is as such:
11: 50,000
12: 80,000
13: 120,000
14: 170,000
15: 230,000

I want to have a campaign with a semi set length, and I really don't want to go far beyond the Level 1-10 tier.  If there is enough outcry for me to continue the campaign past my end point I could do it, or I could either let someone else DM the next part as they choose to, or we could start a new game or new campaign.  But I want a campaign with less insane levels of power, and with a SET SATISFYING ENDING.  Even reaching level 10 should take a good 9-12 months given the schedule I am setting.


Schedule: 2 games per month on roughly a biweekly basis.  Long as we manage 2 games per month we are GOLDEN.  Due to my schedule and player desire we may have 2 games back to back then it could be 4 dead weeks before we play again. I will do my best to make it every other week however.

 If scheduling and player desire is so strong we play more than 2 I have no issue, but I generally want a schedule everyone can keep without being too intrusive.  Free time to spend with friends and family outside of playing imaginary Elf Braunsteins (go look it up kids!) is ALWAYS a good thing.  And hell, holidays and the like always make stuff a bear.






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Well this is what I have so far.  Hopefully everyone will enjoy it and the house rules will work smoothly.  If not I can always fall back to RULES AS WRITTEN, or even what the players wish.

Sure I might be the DM, and I have been quite beloved due to my loving tortures and terrors I put Players and their Characters through, but its EVERYONE'S GAME, not just the DM.  Gotta make it as fun for as many people as humanly possible.

[Let's Play] Fun in Mystara! Let's play Order of the Griffon Part 3: Worst Keep EVER.

I meant to upload this Friday morning but Blogger was having difficulties at the time.

Oh well.  I am only promising 1-2 updates a week anyhow, so this means I can be all set for the week.
(Though I have done some mapping and prep work for the next few installments.  This is the time for me to conquer this game.  It has been unfinished for far too long.)

While due to the voting on the Something Awful forums I had to start from the beginning, losing out on 3000 XP worth of XP, I honestly didn't lose too much.  And I am using that play for mapping and preview purposes, letting me know what is coming up next.  Its actually going to save me around 600-1000 gold pieces, which is pretty huge in game.  Some of the best gear costs insane amounts.  And this being Basic D&D rules death is all too easy and common an occurrence.



And for a fun bonus section, my personal house rules to make Basic D&D more fun without gutting what makes it what it is.  A little from Game A, a little from B and you get something I would love to run or play in.  Sure the Old School Groggies would loathe it, as would the D20 and 4th ed kiddies, but every version of D&D ever made has been terrible in some ways and great in others.  Its just.. everyone has a different opinion of what is good and what is bad!


Rufus' house rules to make Basic D&D awesome.

For better and more fun starting player characters, roll 2d6+6 6 times for attributes, putting each result where you want.

For starting Hit Points, put your CON score plus 1/2 rounded down maximum rolled HP.

Hit Point dice values are changed to their 2nd edition AD&D counterparts.
(Fighters and Dwarves: 1d10.  Clerics 1d8.  Halflings, Elves, and Thieves 1d6.  Magic Users 1d4.)

(So a CON 10 Elf at first level would have 13 starting HPs.  10 for his CON, plus 3 for his Hit Point dice value.  (1d6 max is 6, divided by 2 and rounding down is 3.)

Gamma World: My Houserules

Over at Arkham Asylum in Norwich CT there has been a couple rumblings about me doing a demo of the game.

I wouldn't mind doing one at all because I really like the game and how goofy you can run it, or with some tweaks its more of an X Men type game.  Or Rifts.  Or Fallout.  (And for a Fallout game, tell me this isn't THE BEST MUSIC EVER for its late 50-early 60's feel:  )

While my actually running the game and what silliness level I would do depends on the potential players and what they want, the following house rules are ones I would probably use no matter what:

1: Origin Rolling:  In Gamma World you normally roll for two origins, with a double roll (made nearly impossible with the expansions that add in even more origins) on the chart equaling Enhanced Human as one of them.  For my house rules, players may choose one or both origins at a starting XP penalty of 125 each, or 250 for Enhanced Human and you MUST roll for the second origin.  Players selecting one of their  two origins must choose it FIRST then roll for the second one.

2: Ability Scores:  In Gamma World your first origin is your primary and the second is the secondary. (NO WAY!)  Your origins give you an 18 in its' ability, and the secondary a 16.  Normally you roll 3d6 in order for the other 4 abilities.  BEFORE ROLLING, players may choose to assign the 4 rolls as desired, and instead of 3d6 roll 1d8 and add 8.  (Meaning instead of a spread of 3-18 you have a spread of 9-16 and choose what to put where.)

3: Alpha Mutations:  Normally you draw a single card and deal with it.  But normally your Alpha Mutation changes every time there is an Alpha Flux or an Extended Rest.  This is a little too random for me so here is what we will do:  At creation the player draws THREE cards from the deck and chooses ONE.  Outside of an Alpha Flux or other in game effect that would cause a Mutation change this is your PC's power.  When something comes up that would make you draw (Extended Rest changing being removed.), you can instead burn a Healing Surge and keep your power.  Draw 3 select 1 also happens for your level 4 and 8 choices.  There is NO power draws outside of Flux type events or character generation.

4: Player Mutation and Tech Decks: These are BANNED unless the player chooses at creation to instead of building a 7 card deck, build an 8 card. The DM at start gets to draw and KEEP a card.  If you are going to be a degenerate munchkin paying 4 dollars for a package of 8 blind buy cards you must pay the DM for this right.  By giving the DM one of them.  Tip your friendly neighborhood Dungeon Master.  (At DM's discretion other gifts such as booze, candy, toys, or helping them clean up after the game could be accepted as well.)

5: Keeping your Omega Tech even when you shouldn't:  Normally an Omega Tech item either degrades or goes Tubby Bye Bye when used.  If you REALLY like your new toy you may choose to keep it upon receiving it (aka you make the choice THEN AND THERE, no waiting) you PERMANENTLY sacrifice 1d3 Healing Surges and its yours for the life of the PC.  If for some reason you have no Surges left to sacrifice after the roll,  (Like your PC has 2 Surges total and you roll a 3 meaning you now have -1 Surges) your PC is now unable to use ANY Omega Tech cards at all.  This also means you LOSE all Omega Tech you previously owned instantly.  It serves you right for being that greedy with your toys.  Outside of permanently sacrificing Healing Surges to keep an Omega Tech card, failing an Omega Charge roll works as normal.

6: Gun ammo:  Normally in Gamma World you get ONE shot with any gun or ammo type weapon, and if you use it a second time in an encounter its out of ammo permanently till your PC can somehow find more.  This is sort of silly.  Instead of a heavy accounting of ammo now you have the PC's level in shots per encounter PERIOD.  No overshooting.  Whenever the PCs go to any place capable of salvage or to purchase more ammo the DM will tell you how much it will cost (or time wasted, probably spent in Healing Surges for the day) to stock back up on ammo.  Whenever a 1 is rolled to hit with an ammo weapon it has run out of ammo for the encounter, AND until the character can find some reloads.


7: BE A MAN: Roll for everything by the book and accept whatever you draw for your Alpha mutation and start with 250 bonus XP.  If you choose this bonus you may not expend surges to keep an Alpha, but may sacrifice 1d3 to keep an Omega Tech.  You may also never use a player deck of either, and never get to draw 3 take 1 at level 4 and 8 either.

8: D&D Essentials Races for an Origin: These may be chosen and counted as Enhanced Human either in rolling or taking a 250 XP starting penalty for creation.  Any abilities of the D&D race that are not applicable to Gamma World are ignored but otherwise the race works as listed.

The above I think makes for a slightly less ridiculously random game with a more stable Gamma World Earth as opposed to one where everything and everyone seems to change what they can do constantly.

X-Plorers Mecha and Vehicle Rules Construction Example 1

Well, let's put my work into action!

Remember this vehicle of mine, a siege tank for a very popular GRIMDARK sci fi combat game?




(Its the one on the right!)


I think we can get it really close, which using my rules is the whole point. To get something "close enough" as opposed to tons of detail and all.


I first need to figure out the size. If we are using your usual 25-32mm scale minis the tank looks like a Heavy Vehicle with the following statline:


Unit Size            Physique    Agility     HP      AC     Speed   System Points   Weapon P.
Heavy                         16                 12           25        18         14                      5                         5


Well if we remember our game fluff, the tank has a short range (roughly 48 meter) big blast anti tank/anti fortification cannon with options for a pintle mounted anti infantry gun of the same range, and the big bulldozer on the front.


Its a pretty simple machine, rugged but not super rugged.  I spend 3 System Points to give it 3 point "Improved Construction Systems" which gives it +5 HP per point spent, or 15 extra HP.


I spend 2 more for "Improved Defensive Systems" for +1 AC per point, or +2 AC.  


I am pretty happy with the core statline otherwise so I don't mess with lowering anything to gain more points for anything.  The tank is a normal speed machine.


Our current statline is now:


Unit Size            Physique    Agility     HP      AC     Speed   System Points   Weapon P.
Heavy                         16                 12           40        20         14                      5                         5


Now its time for the main cannon, and hopefully some points for the Bulldozer Blade and the pintle mounted anti infantry gun.


To remind us, here is the main stats of a "Direct Fire" weapon, what our main gun is:


 Damage      Accuracy(To Hit Bonus)    Range(In Meters)     Ammunition   
 1d6 / 1d6                      0 / + -1                                 200 / 50                        25 /  5


That's 1 Weapon Point.  I decide to get the range close to the original game its from, but 50 meters is kind of too small so I only drop it to a 100 meter range weapon, giving us 2 points of WP.  I decide to use 3 of my 5 total WP for the main gun, so I have 4 WPs on this one weapon left to play with as it always costs at least 1 WP regardless of downgrades.    I spend all 4 on Damage upgrades to bring the weapon to a nasty 5d6 damage.  But this cannon is supposed to be REALLY tough, so I drop the Ammunition down to 20 shots which gives me another WP and I raise Damage another point to 6d6.


The weapon does a big blast so I sigh and drop Ammunition 2 more points bringing it down to 10 shots, but it now has a 2 point "Blast" attribute.


Since the gun is hull mounted and not on a turret as you can see, I make it front mounted and gain 2 more WP.  I raise the damage 2 more points to a BRUTAL 8d6.


So our big gun now looks like this:


Damage      Accuracy(To Hit Bonus)    Range(In Meters)   Ammunition     Special   
     8d6                               0                                          100                                 10             Large Blast
                                                                                                                                               45 Front arc


  On average each hit will do 28 HP in damage to tanks, or a massive 70 to poor infantry.  That's pretty devastating and pretty close to how it works in its parent game.


I use 1 more WP for a pair of anti infantry guns with a 360 fire arc.  I choose a pair of Automatic Rifles from the X-Plorers rulebook.  (Yeah I could use good or bad X-P personnel weapons, but other than in game money, it doesn't much matter.  This a GM system and GMs can approve or disapprove of any design for whatever reason they want.  In this case the Automatic Rifle is pretty close to the source material so I go with it.)


My final WP is spent to give the tank a front mounted shield, improving its AC to 21, which is pretty good.


So our final machine looks like this:


Unit Size            Physique    Agility     HP      AC     Speed  
Heavy                         16                 12           40        21         14              


Weapons: Bulldozer Shield on the front, 360 mount twin linked Automatic Rifle, 
Siege Cannon:        

Damage      Accuracy(To Hit Bonus)    Range(In Meters)   Ammunition     Special   
     8d6                               0                                          100                                 10             Large Blast

                                                                                                                                               45 Front arc

Now that we have made this tank, next time I will create a Mecha.

x-Plorers Mecha and Vehicle Rules Part 3 of 3

Well, let's finish this thing!

(New stuff update on Feb 10.  I forgot shields!  Another update on 11 Feb to fix something I missed.)

I will be going back to add in more nifty stuff to our Special Equipment list, this is the last core bit that needs to be done and you too can have some nice rules light generic sci fi mecha and tank rules.

As previously mentioned, Vehicles and Mecha have Weapon Points.  These WPs are generic and not really meant to get into massive detail.  We really don't care much about exactly how many guns or missiles get fired.

The basic setup for a WP weapon is this:  A WP is the cost assumed for an arm & torso (mecha) or turret/sponson mounted weapon that has access to an internal ammunition supply which can run out.  Reducing or improving factors such as Accuracy, Damage, Range, Ammunition, Special Effects (see the first part of my house rules!), and fire arcs can make the weapon cost more or less, but NEVER lower than 1.

With this system you can have high damage but short range siege cannons, hand carried type close combat weapons a mecha can throw down to get into fisticuffs if needed, or anything else.

Like much of my house rules, some GM fiat and a bit of imagination is required to make it all go down smoothly.  This isn't megadetail.  If you want that I recommend GURPS Vehicles.  (Bring a graphing calculator.)

For our purposes there are three weapon types to choose from.
Direct Fire:  Your rifles, cannons, laser beams and other point and shoot type weapons.
Missile:  Rocket propelled death in handy single or multiple missile fun.
Close Combat:  Mainly on Mecha, these are usually low to no ammunition expenditure weapons allowing you to rip things up in a more "civilized" way.  If you mean stabbing a tank with a 1 ton blade is civilized.  I suppose the lack of collateral damage is nice though...

Here is the handy core chart showing what the 1 Weapon Point version of each system costs, plus the costs/bonuses of up and downgrades:
(The #/# tells us what the default is, and the second number is the 1 WP cost/bonus level for downgrading or upgrading. The second number also shows the minimum this can be brought down to outside of Accuracy which can go as low as you want.)

                              Direct Fire Costs
 Damage      Accuracy(To Hit Bonus)    Range(In Meters)     Ammunition   
1d6 / 1d6                      0 / + -1                            200 / 50                  25 /  5

                               Missile Fire Costs
Damage      Accuracy(To Hit Bonus)    Range(In Meters)     Ammunition   
3d3 / 1d3                      0 / + -1                            300 / 50                  10 /  3

                            Close Combat Costs
Damage      Accuracy(To Hit Bonus)    Range(In Meters)     Ammunition   
1d6 / 1d3                     0 / +1-1                              4 / 1                    Unlimited

Special WP Costs:
Mecha Weapons:  A Mecha Direct or Missile Fire weapon made "Hand Held" can be picked up and dropped in exchange for 1 WP.  However it ONLY holds half the ammunition listed (round DOWN).

Vehicle Weapons: A Vehicle Direct or Missile Fire weapon made "Side Sponson" loses its 360 fire arc to a 180 and gains 1 WP.  Or it can only have a 45 arc in whatever direction the weapon is considered to be mounted in as a "Hull Mounted" weapon for 2.

Special Weapon Abilities: The list seen in the original set of X-Plorers house rules by me: X-Plorers Rules By Me For You! each cost a WP to add, except for Neo-Beam, and Anti-Ship which all cost 2 WP instead.  Ordnance costs a point per size.  (1 for Small, 2 for Medium, 3 for Large) Twin Linked costs 1 for the system and not per gun.

Close Combat Weapons: Close Combat Weapons use the Pilot's modified Physique attribute as a base to hit & damage as it is a Close Combat attack.  The Range effect counts for the size and reach of the weapon.  For Mecha the CCW can be made "Hand Held" for a 1 WP bonus, though it becomes a 1d3 Damage base weapon instead.  HOWEVER, if the "Hand Held" weapon is held in BOTH hands (meaning you aren't spending WP on the second hand at all!) it becomes a 2D3+1 Damage weapon.

Now to give an example of making a weapon:  We are making weapons for a Medium Tank.  Its got 4 Weapon Points.  Now I would like to make the guns for my Warhammer 40,000 "Predator" tank.  The model I have has 2 side sponson Laser Cannons, and 2 more turret mounted ones.  At base, we know that the 2 turret mounted guns would give us 2 extra WPs to spend, but the 2 turret mounted ones would cost a WP to be Twin Linked.  In the game it comes from, Laser Cannons are super heavy anti tank weapons with a very long range.  (Though in 40K's game case, its a measly 48", or 96 meters.)

1d6 damage isn't gonna cut it!  I decide to drop each gun's range by 50 meters, making them still longer range then what it has in its home game.  To my knowledge they never listed ammo requirements for the guns, but I decide they will also have 5 less ammo.  I decide not to do any more tinkering, but do choose to upgrade each gun now.

Let's look at what this does to the 2 sponson guns first.  Each gun costs 1 WP.  Dropping to a 180 side sponson makes it 0 WP (which is illegal to BUILD the gun, but its not finished yet!).  Dropping Range and Ammunition by 1 each makes it -2.  I take the 3 points I got and raise the gun's damage to a nasty 4d6.  So a 4d6 Damage gun with no Accuracy bonus and a 150 Meter Range (a nice 75" tabletop range for model based fighting), with 20 shots of ammo costs 1 WP of the 4 my tank has available.

So the 2 sponson guns are done, but now our turret mounted guns have a problem.  As it stands we will have to either make the 2 guns lesser in damage, or give them less ammunition.  I choose the latter, so the turret guns only have 15 shots each.  Now if I want to keep that sweet Twin Linked action I am going to have to go back to my currently designed tank and drop something so I can get an extra Weapons Point.

Shields:   Something many Mecha can carry are shields.  Some are made of metal, others are an electronic form, but either way they give machines a bit of a defensive edge against the more heavily armed tanks they are designed to take out.

Shields can be purchased with either System and/or Weapon points.  Depending on the points spent, the shield may or may not effect any other weapons in the arm(s) equipped.

For each SP or WP spent (up to 5 maximum), the unit gains +1 AC.  1-2 AC shields do not affect a Mecha's ability to use arm or hand weapons with the shield.  3 AC shields penalize weapons in that arm with a -1 To Hit, 4 AC a -2, and 5 AC shields do not allow the arm to use any weapon whatsoever.

Option:  Vehicles may choose to mount a shield on a facing of the tank as well with the same penalties as above.  (Its considered to be things like Bulldozer blades and reinforced armor as opposed to an actual shield.)

And that's it!  Now we have ourselves a nice generic system to make big smashy tanks and robots!

I hope everyone has enjoyed it and can put it into play!

I would like to recommend that any and all designs made using my rules are done by the GM for the campaign he or she is running, or if you allow players to make their own rides and the guns they carry, that you approve them.

Like any point based system, there is always some way one can make an unfairly broken bit of equipment.

X-Plorers Mecha and Vehicle Rules Part 2 of 3

As promised its time for those Mecha and Vehicle rules.  (Though I may not do Psionics now that the game's creators have made their own official ones.  Or it may be in an "Anime" style X Plorers house ruleset from me at a later date.

(UPDATED 3 FEB)

The foundations of both Vehicles and Mecha is this:  There are 5 sizes of each that roughly correspond with each other, using the vehicles in parenthesis as a rough guide to size.
Super Light (Motorcycles)
Light (Automobiles)
Medium (Armored Personnel Carriers)
Heavy (Light Tanks)
Super Heavy (Main Battle Tanks)

It is my thoughts that if there ever are actual combat mecha they won't be of the massive size we see in cartoons and most current mecha hobby games.  They will largely be closer to powered armor, capable of going where tanks can't go, and being more agile.  If your campaign wants BIG ROBOTS, just change the scale of what each is.

Both Vehicles and Mecha have a number of attributes, their own Physique and Agility scores which in Mecha's case are ADDED to that of the pilot's, their Hit (or Hull) Points, their Armor Class which is modified by their Agility score, their Speed which is how fast they move in their Vehicle scale movement phase, their System Points for special equipment, and Weapon Points for how many weapons they can carry.

Look at the chart and meet me at the bottom of it in 5:
(The 2 numbers correspond to Vehicle then Mecha)
(For Physique and Agility scores mentioned for Mecha, a Cybernetic Port increases PHY by 1 and reduces AGI penalties by 1.)
(Mecha Weapon Points list anywhere and arm mounted ones which are either held or replace a normal manipulator arm.)
Unit Size            Physique    Agility     HP      AC     Speed   System Points   Weapon Points
Super Light           12/+3         18/-2      10/5    12/16     20/8                2                    2/0 2 Arm
Light                     14/+5         16/-3      15/9    14/18     18/7                3                    3/1 2 Arm
Medium                15/+7         14/-4     20/13   16/20     16/6                4                    4/2 2 Arm
Heavy                   16/+9         12/-5     25/17   18/22     14/5                5                    5/3 2 Arm
Super Heavy         17/+11       10/-6    30/21    20/24     13/4               6                    6/4  2 Arm

Optional: If a unit wants more System Points or Weapon Points it may DOWNGRADE to a lower level PHY, HP, AC, System, or Weapon Points.   Per level dropped the unit gains 1 additional System/Weapon Point.  No more than 3 downgrades may be done, and a unit can reduce its ratings in these categories down to Super Light if they wish.  Speed may be lowered to the next level as well but only upwards. (Like a Medium tank may wish to be just a really big infantry carrier.  Its already using 3 of its System Points but wants to carry a 9 man squad.  So its designer drops its Physique by 2, and its Weapon Points by 1, making it a Super Light for Physique, and a Light for Weapon Points.  This gives it the 3 System Points it needs to take a 4 point Passenger Compartment.)  (For speed a Super Light may want more WP so it could give itself Medium Vehicle speed (16 instead of 20 for a Super Light) and gain 2 Weapon or System Points.

Explaining the categories:

Physique:  This does not affect the unit's HP in any way, but is used for purposes of close combat damage, usually by ramming in a Vehicle's case.  For Mecha, it is added to the pilot's for the same purposes, but its total PHY score determines its Vehicle scale damage in close combat.  (A burly guy is more manly and thus his awesomeness affects how he can punch through a tank.)

Agility:  This does not affect the unit's AC in any way, but is a rough indicator of its maneuverability and such.  However for Mecha it DOES affect the overall AC.

HP:  The unit's Hit (or Hull) points needed to wreck the vehicle.  For Mecha the machine is still active, but the pilot is then exposed and can be killed.  (Pilot HP is still considered Personal Scale.)  A Vehicle or Mecha may be repaired unless it takes double its total HP when it is then destroyed with no chance of repair.

AC: The unit's armor class.  This takes in account the size and construction of the machine, though remember a Mecha may be penalized if its pilot's effective AGI is low enough.

Option: The AC for the sides of a Vehicle may be considered to be 2 lower, and 4 lower on the rear, and
Mecha may deal with whatever facing AC penalties the group uses in normal X Plorers combat.

Speed: The unit's normal movement rate during a Vehicle scale movement action.  Vehicles and Mecha CAN go flat out and move double speed like a Personal scale "run" type double move.

System Points:  As previously mentioned, System Points let you equip a unit with various upgrades to
improve its performance.

Weapon Points:  Similar to System Points, but is the number of weapon systems a unit can carry. 1 WP is equal to a 1D6 Super Light Weapon System (More detail in the final part!) or 2 Twin Linked Personal Scale weapons.  For Mecha, you may have Arm Mounted weapons that are either carried or replace a normal humanoid hand arm.  Hand carried weapons must have their own ammunition source unless they are a close combat weapon.

Other than this, Vehicles and Mecha fight out just like a normal X Plorers unit, though in this case they are in the Vehicle Scale as opposed to X Plorers' Personal.

Some readers may wonder why the HP is so low for the machines, yet a Super Heavy Tank can carry a 5d6 gun.  Well, have you read many war reports, or watched many Sci Fi shows?  Most of the time machines are killed with 1 or 2 hits from an equivalent sized gun.  Even the M1 Abrams could be taken out by a man carried LAW with a little luck from the firing team.  If a game group wants more Battletech or Palladium styled units double or triple the HP (and remember to do so to any System Point upgrades too!) and you will have more durable drawn out fights with machines.

I also am considering most Vehicles to only require 1 or 2 crew to control, and all mecha to be single pilot controlled.  GMs and their game groups may choose to put more detail in.

Well, all we have left to do is a nice weapons construction chart and my Mecha and Vehicle ruleset is done!

X-Plorers Mecha and Vehicle Rules Part 1 of 3

Ok folks!  I gave y'all the foundations of my X-Plorers mechanical stuff in a previous posting: http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2010/01/x-plorers-rules-by-me-for-you.html which gave you the skinny on the new weapon attributes, combat scaling, and how such things work together.

(UPDATED FEB 10 WITH NEW GEAR!)

For a quick refresher I will list some of it here.
We now have 3 scales of combat.  Personal, Vehicle, and Starship.  All scales have an action that takes place together, though the smaller scale gets 2 actions for every 1 of the higher, or 2 Personal to every 1 Vehicle, and 2 Vehicle (or 4 Personal) to every 1 Starship.  Units shooting at a smaller scale unit ignore 4 points of physical Armor class and do triple their normal damage, maximum possible rolled on a 20.  Likewise shooting at a target on a higher scale gives the target +4 AC, and damage is a measly 1 point unless a 20 is rolled to hit which then means you roll for damage as normal.

This is presuming that bigger targets really aren't aiming DIRECTLY at the smaller ones but more in their general direction, and that smaller ones can hit exposed components or luck out and get that super effective shot that otherwise wouldn't affect the bigger thing much at all.

Yes this does mean enough guys with baseball bats can possibly take out a tank.  Its just not really likely.  Mostly because our tank has bigger guns and is much harder to even hurt.

Take the Fighter on page 25 of X-Plorers.  It only has 5 HP and an AC of 10, and does a measly D6 damage.  Against a ground target its got AC 14 not counting things like range and speed, and is doing 3d6.  Most attacks back are only doing 1 point of damage.

Now there is the AV/AS weapon systems.  These allow for smaller scale units to get weapons that are designed to handle the next higher scale, but also have the same firing rate and the inability to move when firing, outside of Close Combat AV/AS which can be used on the move and every round of the lower scale, but lose the to hit benefits of hitting the smaller scale targets.

Ok, now that we have done a quick recap, its on to 2 new armor suits and some Vehicles!

Powered Armor:  A staple of Sci Fi, Powered Armor is the first step in mechanical combat before actual AFVs. (Armored Fighting Vehicles)  Powered Armor costs 2400 credits, and provides the wearer not only an AC 18, but 5 extra HPs.  Powered Armor provides a normal wearer +1 Physique and Agility (Ignore any HP bonus from this), and for characters with cybernetic ports, +2 instead.  HP damage from the armor is taken first, and even if taken to 0 does not effect the armor's use, though it may reduce its environmental protection effects at the GM's discretion.

These suits are  mostly sealed from the environment and provide a +2 to any sort of Saving Throw that full environmental protection could be used for.  Flash grenades, poison gas, flamethrowers, the vacuum of space, ect.  These suits also have 1 System Point for equipment.  (See below.)

Examples of Powered Armor include the armored suits from the Starship Troopers and Forever War novels, the Marine armors in Warhammer 40,000, and the bio armor in Guyver.


Overlord Armor:  Overlord Armor is sometimes considered to be a Super Light Mecha due to its capabilities and effects on the battlefield.  From being the front line of starship boarding actions to being a tank hunter this suit is more like a micro tank than armor!  Overlord Armor costs 10,000 credits (if even buyable!), and is AC 16 with 5 HPs.  Except it is considered a VEHICLE scale unit, and is thus considered to be AC 20 when Personal scale units fire at it.  It has 2 System Points for equipment, and may either mount 2 AV weapons (1 per arm), or 2 Twin Linked Personal scale weapons (1 per arm) or any combination of the same.  Overlord Armor provides a normal wearer +3 Physique and  -2 Agility (Ignore any HP bonus from this), and for characters with cybernetic ports, +4 Physique and -1 Agility instead.  Overlord Armor moves as a normal person though half movement in each Personal scale round or as normal movement but only in each Vehicle scale round.  (Your campaign's choice.)

Overlord suits are completely environmentally sealed and thus provide a +5 bonus to Saving Throws against such effects as listed in the Power Armor entry.

Examples of Overlord Armor would be the Sol Tekkaman suits in Tekkaman Blade, the Tactical Dreadnought suits of Warhammer 40,000, the "Ape" suits in Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, the Mospeada Ride Armors of Genesis Climber Mospeada (The Invid Invasion segment of Robotech), the Kolossus suits of AT-43, or the Hardsuits of Bubblegum Crisis.


System Points:  System Points are the main feature of Vehicle Scale units which includes the Powered and Overlord armors, Vehicles of any sort, and Mecha.   System Points are what make your machine suited for whatever combat role it was designed for.  Some System Point equipment may ONLY be taken by one type of machine (Armor, Vehicle, Mecha).

System                    Points            Restrictions             Effects
Speed Booster             1                      None                   The Speed Booster allows the unit to move its
                                                                                        normal movement in the next smaller scale round
                                                                                        along with its regular scale move.

Jump Booster              1                      None                   Allows the unit to move up to half its normal
                                                                                        move horizontally, but up to 10 meters vertically,
                                                                                        or 20 meters straight up.

Hover System             1                     Vehicle                 Allows the unit to hover, ignoring normal
                                                                                       ground terrain including water.  However the unit
                                                                                       has a -3 penalty on any sort of maneuver rolls.

Aquatic System          2                      None                   Unit gains the ability to move on the surface or
                                                                                       subsurface of water and other such liquids with
                                                                                       normal movements allowed.

Flight Booster             2                Mecha, Armor           Allows the unit to take its movement as if it were
                                                                                        flying, ignoring all terrain.

Targeting Systems      1                      None                    Unit has +4 to all To Hit rolls.

Advanced Sensors      1                      None                    Unit has sensors for Infared, Geologic,
                                                                                        Biologic, Audio, and so on for half a kilometer.

Stealth Coating           1                      None                    Unit has a mixture of audiovisual and spectro-
                                                                                        graphic dampeners making it harder to spot and
                                                                                        target.  (Advanced Sensors only spot passively
                                                                                        within 100 meters, 250 with an INT S. Throw.
                                                                                        Target also gains +2 AC.

Beam Coating             1                     None                     Laser and Plasma weapons do half damage
                                                                                        rounded up against this target.

Heat Coating               1                    None                      Gains major heat resistances and any heat based
                                                                                         weapons do half damage rounded up against it.

Agility Booster            2                Mecha, Armor          Unit gains +2 AGI.

Might Booster             2                Mecha, Armor           Unit gains +2 PHY for non HP gain purposes.

Repair Systems           3                     None                     Unit repairs d3 HP per scale combat round if it
                                                                                        makes a PHY Saving Throw.  If a 1 is rolled the
                                                                                        Repair Systems have shut down and must be
                                                                                        fixed outside of combat.  (Time to do so is GM
                                                                                        choice.)

Improved Defensive
Systems                      1-4                  None                     Unit gains +1 AC per system point spent.

Improved Construction
Systems                        1-3                None                     Unit gains +5 HP per system point spent, 4 for
                                                                                        mecha.

Teleporter                    3                    None                     Unit instead of moving may teleport up to 20
                                                                                        meters away by making an INT S. Throw.  For
                                                                                        every point missed the location deviates by 2
                                                                                        meters as if it was a scattered grenade in G.T. 1.
Passenger
Compartment             1-4                   Armor                  Each point spent gives a space for 1 human sized
                                                                                       person per size class of the vehicle to be carried
                                                                                       comfortably with their own exit to the side/rear.
                                                                                       (So a Medium tank with 3 points spent could
                                                                                        carry 9 passengers.  A Light would have 6.)

Transformation Gear  2/4                   None                    A Transformation Gear (2 points for Armor)
                                                                                        allows the unit to transform into a humanoid or
                                                                                        machine form from its normal mode.  It keeps its
                                                                                        normal systems from mode to mode though gets
                                                                                        arms and legs if its main mode is a vehicle.  One
                                                                                        vehicle type must be selected and if it is a form
                                                                                        capable of flight, it must also have a Flight
                                                                                        Booster.  Unit's vehicle characteristics other than
                                                                                        HP and system are counted as the new vehicle
                                                                                        type of the same size.  (So an Overlord Armor
                                                                                        would turn into a Superlight class vehicle, while
                                                                                        a Heavy Mecha could turn into a Heavy Tank or
                                                                                        Scout Starship.)
                                                                                                            
Animal Form                1                  None                      Unit is no longer a boxy vehicle or a humanoid
                                                                                        form but is now some form of animal, losing
                                                                                        access to hands if a Mecha type.  Unit gains a
                                                                                        bite/horn ram type attack that does D6+x where
                                                                                        x is a point per size level of the unit.  Close
                                                                                        combat weapons may be selected at GM's
                                                                                        discretion.  Unit may move through all sorts of
                                                                                        terrain freely based on the animal form chosen,
                                                                                        though an aquatic or aerial type would require an
                                                                                        Aquatic or Flight system as well.
    
Well, there we go!  2 new armor types and some nifty new equipment for the BIG GUNS with the next installment.  Now we have toys, we just need the machines to put them on!