RCS:Simple Changes and Additions

From MegaTravellerWiki

This is a series of minor changes to the MegaTraveller combat rules which are not important enough to warrant whole sections.

Close-Range Fire Combat

Attempting to track a target with a weapon at close range is more difficult than the original rules imply. Pistols are king at this range but are still difficult to use; rifles are extremely difficult to use at this range.

Firing a Pistol-class weapon at close range is Routine, not Simple. The Difficulty Profile is otherwise unchanged. Reduce difficulty one level if the target is immobile.

Firing a Rifle-class weapon at close range is Difficult, not Routine. The Difficulty Profile otherwise progresses as normal. Reduce difficulty one level if the target is immobile.

Throwing a weapon at a target at close range remains Routine.

Close, Short, and Medium Range

Close range is altered to 1 metre to 3 metres (inclusive). Short range is altered to 3 metres (exclusive) to 6 metres (inclusive). Medium range is considered 6 metres (exclusive) to 50 metres (inclusive). Ranges then proceed as normal.

Point-Blank Range

Point-blank range is defined as being close enough to be able to strike you with a fist or other appendage. Against humanoid targets, point-blank range is defined as being within 1.5 metres of the target. The assumption is that when you attack a person or animal at point-blank range, the person or animal will actively seek to knock away your weapon, increasing the difficulty of the attack. If the enemy target is not active (stunned, unconscious, bound, or surrendered) or the enemy target is unaware of the impending attack, the point-blank attack is treated as being at Close range instead.

Bear in mind the distinction between point-blank range and close range. On the 1.5 metre scale, if a target is 2 hexes from the firer, the target is at close range. If a target is adjacent, the target is in point-blank range. Point-blank range is effectively a brand new range band, and difficulty from firing at a target at point-blank range is completely distinct from the difficulty of firing at a target at close range.

• Firing a pistol at an aware target at point-blank range is a Difficult task, not a Routine task.
• Firing a rifle at an aware target at point-blank range is a Formidable task, not a Difficult task.
• Throwing a weapon at an aware target at point-blank range is a Difficult task, not a Routine task.

In most cases, a rifleman caught at point blank range will attempt to apply a strike or a shove with the rifle, and can then shoot the target if the target is stunned or knocked back. NPCs with poor combat training may attempt to fire anyway. Player characters with poor combat training (consider Weapon-1 or less to be poor training) are not obligated to fire anyway, but players who do something which is obviously disadvantageous because they know their character doesn't know any better definitely deserve a reward for good roleplaying!

Roundtime

If an action takes a number of seconds to complete, the character attempting the action is placed into "Roundtime". While in roundtime, the number of seconds taken to perform the action is divided by 3, with all fractions rounded up, to determine the total number of Short Actions it takes to complete the activity. Once roundtime ends, the person may act if they still have a Short Action remaining on the turn that roundtime ends, or must wait until the next turn to act if they do not.

Example: Loading a derringer pistol has a time increment of 1 second. At the beginning of a turn, Cooley declares that he is attempting to reload his derringer, throwing 3d6 for the time and applying DMs as usual. With a Pistol skill of 1, and a Dex of 7, Cooley has an effective DM of +2 for the task. His result is 11, and subtracting DMs gives him a time of 9 seconds. As this is equal to 3 Short Actions, Cooley is in roundtime for all of this round, as well as one Short Action of the next round. He does, however, get one Short Action on his next turn.

During roundtime, a character can move at one-quarter rate, but may make no other actions. A character can voluntarily abort the task being attempted in roundtime at the beginning of their turn.

By the discretion of the referee, it may be possible to cancel roundtime, take a number of actions, and then pick up where the character left off afterward, but in general, any act which causes the character to break roundtime causes the task to be failed, and the character resumes normal activity at the next Short Action. If they want to attempt the task, it requires a Determination roll to start again.

Example: Cooley, while trying to reload his derringer, is shot in the leg halfway through. He falls to the ground, yelling in pain. He loses the roundtime he has accrued on the task and waits until his next Short Action to try again. Once his turn comes up, he begins to reload the derringer again, passing his Determination roll, and is once again shot halfway through, this time in the hand, causing him to drop the gun. By this point, Cooley is getting frustrated (to use the term lightly). He picks up the derringer with one Short Action, and when he attempts the Determination roll again on his next Short Action, he fails to stay determined to reload the derringer. He gives up on trying to reload the derringer, because he seems to be attracting bullets instead, and decides to make a run for it!

Crossbows

Accuracy

Crossbows do not use the average of Strength and Dexterity as described in Player's Manual p.72 on their To-Hit task, but only the Dexterity attribute. Additionally, most people can never use a Crossbow in an unskilled fashion -- all characters have Crossbow-0 (even at High Stellar or above) if they have Edu 5+ and are from a world of TL 2 or greater, due to the weapon's pure simplicity.

Simplicity of Training

Any person of a primitive tech level (TL 1-) and Edu 5+ may be taught how to load and fire a crossbow at Crossbow-0 with five minutes of instruction, provided a means of communication is available. The teacher throws against a routine Instruction task (once per student), and may repeat the process upon failure as many times as Determination allows. This knowledge applies only to loading and firing the crossbow; this skill cannot be used for repairing or customising it. Mark the skill as "Crossbow-0 (attack only)" on the primitive person's record sheet if taught in this fashion. Normal training can bring the skill to "Crossbow-0" with no special restriction.

Crossbows were the great levellers of the battlefield because a weak peasant with very little training could pick up a crossbow and kill a knight. Not surprisingly, crossbows were very, very illegal for civilian use in lower-tech cultures, as they severely interrupted status quo. Even in tech levels 5 and up, crossbows are considered distasteful compared to bows as crossbows need considerably less physical prowess and training to aim and fire.

Gun Combat Default Skill

Gun Combat-0, instead of being possessed by any non-Barbarian, is instead possessed by anyone at tech level 3 or higher. The crossbow is ubiquitous and the mechanics of loading and firing primitive firearms are not understood by the mainstream population until that point.

As an optional rule, you may allow anyone who receives five minutes of Instruction to receive Gun Combat-0, even if they are TL 2 or less, in similar fashion to a crossbow. This skill applies only to loading and firing the weapon and cannot be used for knowledge checks or technical checks involving recognition of weapons, gunsmithing and the like.

Hand-to-Hand

Each time a person successfully completes a punch, the attacker receives 1 Damage Point of Non-Lethal Damage to the Lower Arm location used in the attack if they strike a "hard" target (like a person's head or a brick wall).

If the attacker strikes a "semi-hard" target (like a person's chest or a wall padded with 1 cm of foam), they receive this damage point if they fail a Routine roll against their Brawling or Martial Arts skill.

If the attacker strikes a "soft" target (like a person's abdomen or a punching bag), they do not suffer this damage.

If the attacker has an AV of 1 or better in the hand location used, they do not suffer damage regardless of which surface they strike, regardless of whether the armour is Soft, Flexible, or Hard.

If a person breaks a window with a punch, they suffer 1 Damage Point of Lethal Damage unless it is safety glass, where they suffer 1 Damage Point of Non-Lethal Damage instead. Once again, this Damage Point may be absorbed by armour. At tech levels above tech level 8, windows are usually replaced with "bulletproof" clear resin which is practically unbreakable.

Kicks do not suffer any of these problems, but cannot be used with Brawling skill unless a target is down or is a very small lifeform on the ground.

(If you have not yet read the remainder of the following rules, 1 Damage Point is considerably different than 1 Damage Value. A person who completes a punch inflicts more damage to the person punched than to himself, even when punching something solid.)

Attacking While Moving

Under the new rules, a person may attack or move with a single Short Action. Doing both at the same time increases the to-hit difficulty by one level before the movement modifier is applied.

Clubs

The clubs in the standard rules are one-handed clubs. Other clubs exist:

Tonfa 

Also known as police batons or nightsticks, tonfa run along the length of the forearm and are excellent parrying weapons. Tonfa have a Penetration of 2, a Block of 2, and a Damage Value of 2.

Bat 

Two-handed clubs like baseball bats have a Penetration of 2, a Block of 1, and a Damage Value of 3 if used in both hands. If used in one hand, treat the bat as a standard club with Pen 2, Block 0, and DV 2. Under the new rules, such weapons inflict Non-Lethal Damage and so are considerably less deadly than swords which have the same Damage Value. Bats cost Cr10, but might be found naturally.

Staff/Cudgel

The "cudgel" part of the staff/cudgel weapon assumes that a rifle-type weapon is used to effect a "butt stroke" against an enemy, where the back end or side of the weapon is used to smash someone in the face or back of the head (if possible).

If the rifle is actually picked up and used like a two-handed club (as a pre-sentient caveman would do), it is treated as a two-handed bat above, but the weapon suffers a Major (3D) Mishap to be checked against its Break Chance (see PPP:Personal Equipment). If it does break, the weapon needs to be repaired. Repairing this damage is not particularly difficult:

Line of Fire

The MegaTraveller errata state that the line of fire rule affects only enemy units unless the task is an exceptional failure. In my rules, this applies only to semi-automatic/single-fire weapons. Anyone within the line of fire of a weapon fired on fully-automatic fire is subject to being hit, even if the to-hit task is successful. If you do not want to kill friendly units, you won't fire that heavy machine gun through your platoon!

Pinpoint Attacks

...are not possible, negating both the original rule as well as the erratum. Used the Called Shots and Aimed Shots rules to target a vulnerable area of the person's body instead.

Execution Shots

Most forms of body armour are designed to deflect partially the kinetic energy of an impact. When subjected to a shot from a perpendicular angle of attack, non-reactive armour has no means of deflecting that energy and must rely solely on its absorptive qualities.

If the following conditions are satisfied:

• The attacker is armed with a lethal weapon (a blunt weapon will not suffice),
• The target is at Point-Blank range,
• The target is Stunned, Unconscious, or otherwise completely Immobile, and
• The attacker makes a Cautious attack, thereby doubling the time required for the attack,

...then the firer/attacker may double his weapon's Penetration score, representing a straight shot at a vulnerable location on the target's body. If the target is unarmoured, damage is doubled instead, representing a straight shot at a vital organ. In the latter case, the final Damage Value of the attack has a minimum of 5.

This rule is intended to handle situations where a well-armoured soldier is somehow subdued and fired upon before he recovers, and also used to handle situations where a prisoner is executed on the battlefield. Outside of combat situations, an execution by firing squad results in automatic death: however, in the rare event that the players interrupt an execution—or where the players themselves are interrupted—it is necessary to simulate damage from the execution more accurately: a bullet still inflicts a certain amount of damage, and it is thus possible to survive an execution-style shooting if the executors cannot deliver a second or third shot to terminate the enemy.

Akimbo

Akimbo, literally meaning "hands on both hips", refers to using two single-handed weapons simultaneously (the assumption being that there is a pistol in a holster on each hip). In reality, doing this is generally impractical at best and foolish at worst, but for those people who want to insist on it, use the following modification.

If the weapons are fired simultaneously at the same target during a single Short Action, apply a DM of -4 to each hand of the character to reflect the difficulty of coordinating and aiming the guns without sighting along their barrels. Apply a further DM of -2 to the off hand of the character due to lack of ambidexterity.

If the weapons are simply fired one after another at the same target, taking two Short Actions instead of one, the firer can sight along each weapon in turn which is much easier. The firer must pay the "Retarget and Fire" bring-to-bear DM penalty each time they switch hands. The off-hand penalty DM of -2 also applies for the second weapon.

It is specifically impossible to fire at two targets simultaneously due to the human inability to independently focus on two objects at the same time. Any attempt to do so will select one target randomly and apply the DM -4 (DM -6 if firing off-hand) penalty to the shot, while the other target will be missed entirely.

Subject to the GM's approval, shots against targets who were not actively moving or resisting when targetted may allow either or both weapons to be fired with the standard DM of -4 (DM -6 for the off-hand weapon), in controversion of the above rule. For instance, if the person uses the Retarget Short Action for each gun to cover two different targets, and the targets do not move for fear of being shot, the firer may seize initiative and attack one of the targets (or even both targets) if either of the two targets suddenly try to flee. Another possibility is entering an area with your weapon arms sighted along pre-planned firing arcs; for example, if walking through a doorway with arms outstretched to each side, the unaware bodyguards on both sides of the door may be shot at simultaneously (again with the DM -4/-6 penalty).