Possible New Combat Rules

[spacedman]

Hello Guys!

This is my first post on this site, and I wanted your opinions on some alternate, but more advanced combat rules I have come up with for DWAITAS. The campaign I am currently running has a fairly heavy UNIT involvement and has a horror feel to it. I am thinking of introducing the following rules, but they are quite rough and a work in progress, subject to change.


Damage Limit: Instead of attribute reductions characters have a new stat representing the amount of physical damage they can take. This is equal to the Strength score x2 + the Resolve score. Reaching 0 could equal death or incapacitation, depending on how the GM feels.

As an example the average Humans Damage Limit would be as follows: Strength 3 x2 + Resolve 3 = a grand total of 9.
The average Sontaran would be 18, ouch!

Ranged weapons damage does not increase with the amount the attacker beats the difficulty number by, a hit is a hit and the damage is randomly determined.

An optional rule is to multiply damage as follows by location. Round up and deduct any armour protection first:

Limbs x 0.5
Body x 1.0
Head x 1.5


Ranged Weapons Damage: Ranged weapons do damage as below, but the dice combinations that follow do the same damage range as the numbers listed in the book.

Arrow 1d4
Crossbow Bolt 1d5+1 (1d10/2 +1)
Flintlock Pistol 1d5+1
Pistol (9mm) 1d6+1
Pistol (Heavy Caliber) 2d4
WWII Rifle 2d4+1
Shotgun 1d8+2
Assault Rifle 2d4+1*
Sub-Machine Gun (9mm) 1d6+1*
Sub-Machine Gun (Heavy Caliber .45 etc.) 2d4*
Machine Gun (Squad Support) 1d8+2*
Sniper Rifle 4d3 (d6/2)

* Indicates a weapon is capable of firing in 3 round burst mode or in fully automatic.

The 3 round burst: This gives a flat +1 to hit the target.

Fully Automatic Fire: This empties either half the weapons magazine or 15 rounds, whichever is lowest. Using this causes a -2 penalty to hit, but allows the firer to cover an area up to 15 feet across, and attack every target within.

Firing in either of these modes grants an extra hit to a random location for each +2 the attackers beats the 'to hit' number needed by.

Energy Weapons (Lasers, Dalek Ray etc) still use the normal hit success rules doing 4/L/L on a hit. The only exception been to limb hits where they do 4/8/12 indicating survivable hits to the extremities.

I have yet to work on melee combat, but I will do so. Tell me what you all think so far?

Regards

[Gas Mask Zombie]

Fantastic!

I may not be to fond of randomized ranged damage, the single roll mechanic for determining both success and damage being one of the more novel aspects of the game, but I defiantly adore the damage by location multipliers.

I also Like the Damage Limit, it makes sense that Resolve and Strength would be paramount over the other Attributes for determining how much damage one can take. Although I think a system that would have a set HP, or Damage Limit, that would be drained by damage before severe ability affecting injury would be marvelous.

I hope you still plan to do melee rules, I always found existing system, of melee weapons only adding to strength, lacking.

[NurseRani]

We use a "Hit Point" total derived by adding various attributes together.

Physical Hit Points = Strength, Coordination, Presence, and Resolve
Mental Hit Points = Awareness, Ingenuity, Presence, and Resolve

Thus, the 10th Doctor would have 16 Phys. HP, and 22 Ment. HP.

We use Physical HP for combat-damage and Mental HP for damage from Telepathic mind probes, etc. And damage is figured as per the basic rules thus a shotgun still does 7(3/7/10), counted against PhysHP.

This has worked really well for our game, and for speeding up combat-play. And while we don't have too much combat in our game, it helps to have a ready-made stat for counting off damage.

[hgpdoc9]

Thanks for the tips MsRani! I think this will be good as I am running a UNIT campaign for my first Doctor Who game. Thanks again!

[Curufea]

There's a nice rule in the Hero System you could use as well to add some realism - stun.

If a character takes in a single round, more damage to their hit points than the highest attribute used for it, they are stunned and must spend the next round recovering.

So for MsRani's two PHP and MHP -
Whichever is the highest of Strength, Coordination, Presence, and Resolve would be the amount needed to physically stun a character - this could be shock, trauma, blood loss, pain - all the reasons why someone shot with a bullet doesn't immediately do something, but is not yet dead.
Whichever is the highest of Awareness, Ingenuity, Presence, and Resolve would be the amount needed to mentally stun a character - this could be shock, horror, nausua, catatonia, concussion - all the reasons why someone suddenly confronted with the dead body of their dearest love don't immediately keep walking by...

[Marnal]

While I like the rest of the combat system I found the damage rules way to complex. I just subtract weapon damage to Str (+armor+toughness) and use this chart...

DAMAGE EFFECT (Damage is now applied to Strength.)
0 Stun: -2 to all stats for 1 turn
1-2 Wounded: -2 to all rolls till healed
3-4 Incapacitated: -4 to all rolls & Organics are unconscious
5-6 Mortally Wounded -6 to all rolls (must make roll each turn
or death)
+7 Dead

WAY faster. [and if this looks similar to West Ends Star Wars table there's a very good reason for that ;D]

[Curufea]

Also, it must be said - if you want a proper Doctor Who combat system, the best way to go is the Doctor Who Miniatures Game. It covers all combat you're likely to want to simulate - UNIT version invading aliens, etc...

[zarohk]

Jul 11, 2011 1:58:15 GMT Gas Mask Zombie said:

Fantastic!

I may not be to fond of randomized ranged damage, the single roll mechanic for determining both success and damage being one of the more novel aspects of the game, but I defiantly adore the damage by location multipliers.

I also Like the Damage Limit, it makes sense that Resolve and Strength would be paramount over the other Attributes for determining how much damage one can take. Although I think a system that would have a set HP, or Damage Limit, that would be drained by damage before severe ability affecting injury would be marvelous.

I hope you still plan to do melee rules, I always found existing system, of melee weapons only adding to strength, lacking.

I agree that ranged weapon damage should not be a randomized roll. To quote p46 of the first GM Guide "a bullet or a laser will do the same amount of damage if it hits, no matter who fires it". That should be a constant, even if it's adjusted up or down.

I agree that it makes sense that Strength and Resolve would be important for damage; my group doesn't have many melee fighting characters, and so we essentially use Strength as a hit point stat.

Also, as a starting suggestion for melee rules, divide weapons up into Strength weapons and Coordination weapons: anyone can pick up a hammer (or BFS) and start swinging it around it hit anything nearby, but using a reasonably sized sword is much more a matter of having the dexterity to swing and twist, rather than just to hack away at your opponent with a piece of metal that happens to have a sharp end.

Strength Weapons: Hammer, Metal Weapons over 5 ft. long, baseball (and cricket) bats, blunt objects and improvised weapons.

Coordination Weapons: Swords, Bladed weapons under 5 ft. long, Daggers, Boleadoras, Glaives (all kinds), all ropes, whips, chains, wires and other flexible materials.