In any case where a division or average is called for in the manual, the result will be rounded down unless specified otherwise.
Whenever a point is added to or subtracted from a stat, such as racial modifiers or points from traits, these numbers will affect the minimum and maximum values of the stats they modify as well as changing the number of points available to be allocated to stats. Statistics still may not go over 10 or under 1. These values are only applicable at character creation. Events after the game has begun may raise or lower stats past their maximums or minimums.
For
example, if Bob takes the Bruiser trait he will gain 2 points of Strength. These points are added to the minimum value
of his Strength, so his minimum Strength is now 1 + 2 = 3. Also, if Bob chooses to play a Ghoul, he
will lose 2 points of Charisma. This
means that the maximum Charisma he may choose is 8. If Bob makes his Charisma 8 at character creation, he may still
increase it within the game by any number of methods, including the Gain
Charisma perk or surgical augmentation.
However, he may not increase it past 10.
Although the manual does not explicitly say it, you may take up to 2 traits as in the Fallout games. You may take fewer than 2 if you wish.
The Small Frame and Bloody Mess traits are unavailable. Encumbrance will not be used since it takes too much time for too little benefit so Small Frame is invalid. Bloody Mess will be hard to simulate in a pen and paper RPG.
The
Heavy Handed trait will alter the way critical hits work. If you roll a damage bonus on the critical
hit table it will have 30% deducted from it.
If you roll a crippling, blinding, or unconsciousness, another roll must
be made on a 1d100. If this rolls is
less than 30, the critical hit will fail and it will be treated as a normal
hit.
The
Jinxed trait will change the range for critical failures for anyone near the
character with that trait. Rather than
having critical failures occur on attack rolls of 97-100, they will occur on
rolls of 93-100. When and who the
Jinxed trait will affect will be left to the GM’s discretion.
Although it is not mentioned in the manual, we will use the rule that states that each percentage point in a skill over 100% costs two skill points. However, if it is a tagged skill each percentage point will cost one skill point.
A
new aspect has been added to the Repair skill.
It is now the Repair and Building skill. If you wish to create something from scratch such as a gun, an
arrow, or a computer, this is the skill you will use. The creation of some objects may require a penalty to the skill
roll, however. If you try to create a
year 2000 level computer from spare parts you may find that you have a 50%
penalty, so that even with 100% Repair and Building skill you only have a 50%
chance to make the computer. If you
fail in an attempt to build something, you may not try again until the next
day. You may make small items, such as
arrows or bullets, in batches, however, provided you have the materials. Also, if you have a critical failure trying
to create a specific kind of item, you may not try again until you have gained
a level. This is to prevent people with
a 1% chance of creating the “Super Blasto Death Ray(tm)” from spending months
of game time trying to create it.
For
the Doctor and First Aid skills, for every 4 points above 100% in the skill,
and additional hit point is healed on each use. So a Doctor with 115% Doctor skill would always heal 2d10 + 3 hit
points when using his skill.
I
am introducing the concept of specialization to the skill system. Each skill will have some sub skills in
which you may specialize. When you
specialize, you lose some points from the general skill, but in the specialized
area you gain twice those points. You
can choose how many points you wish to use to specialize, but the number of
points cannot exceed 15 and your basic skill cannot go below 1%. Specialization can only be set at character
generation. When you add points to the
skill both the general skill and the specialization rise at the same rate. For Unarmed Combat, the specialized skill is
used to determine when new moves are available. For perks that require a certain level in a skill, the base skill
level will be used, not the specialized level.
For
example, say Bob has a Small Guns skill of 40%. Bob wishes to specialize in pistols and devote 15 points to the
specialization. Now whenever Bob uses a
pistol, it will be as if his Small Guns skill was 40% + (15% * 2) = 70%. However, if he tries to use a shotgun or
other Small Gun, he will only have a skill of 40% - 15% = 25%. If Bob gained a level and chose to add one
point to his Small Guns skill, he would now have a skill of 71% with pistols
and 26% with all other Small Guns. If
Bob wanted to take a perk that required a 50% Small Guns skill he would be out
of luck; even though his specialization in pistols is over 50%, his base skill is
only 25% which is not high enough to meet the requirement.
Listing
of skills and specialization areas:
Small
Guns: Bows
and Slings, Pistols, Sub-machine Guns, Shotguns, and Rifles
Big
Guns:
Flamethrowers, Heavy Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers, and Large Support Weapons
Energy
Weapons: Laser,
Plasma
Unarmed: Punching, Kicking
Melee
Weapons:
Cutting (swords, knives, axes), Bludgeoning (hammers, crowbars, baseball bats)
Throwing: Cutting (throwing knives,
throwing axes, darts), Bludgeoning (rocks, baseballs, grenades)
First
Aid: No
Specializations Available
Doctor: No Specializations
Available
Driving: Cars, Tanks, Boats, Planes
Sneak: No Specializations
Available
Lockpick: Normal, Electric
Steal: No Specializations
Available
Traps: Traps, Explosives
Science: Biology, Chemistry,
Physics, etc (ask me if you have one in mind)
Repair
and Building:
Repair, Building
Speech: No Specializations
Available
Barter: No Specializations
Available
Gambling: Poker, Blackjack, Craps,
etc.
Outdoorsman: No Specializations
Available
When
a weapon has a Strength requirement, a character may still use it if their
Strength is lower than the requirement.
However, for each point of Strength lower than the requirement, the
character will suffer a 20% penalty to their rolls using that weapon. For example, assume that Bob has a 50% Big
Guns skill and a Strength of 5. If Bob
wants to use an M60 which has a Strength requirement of 7, he will incur (7 –
5) * 20% = 40% penalty, giving him an effective skill of 10% in Big Guns when
using the M60. No skill benefit is
gained if your Strength is over the requirement.
Weapons
will not become damaged each time they miss.
Rather, weapon damage will be a common critical failure.
Books
work differently in this game than in the computer version. Rather than giving a skill a one-time boost,
a book will enhance a skill roll when used with that skill. Each book will apply to a skill or a
specialization of a skill, and the bonus that the book gives will vary between
books. Don’t plan on carrying a
library, though; you can only carry so many books.
Light
and cover modifiers will not be used. However, cover will alter the available
targeted shots. If you can only see an opponent's head, for instance, you can
only target the head or eyes, and in fact you must do so.
The
rule that states that unused action points are converted into armor class at
the end of a round will not be used as it requires too much bookkeeping.
Because
calling a targeted shot on the torso increases the critical chance, it should
be more difficult to hit. Targeted
shots on the torso will receive a 10% penalty.
The
critical failure table has been changed, but it still uses 1d10 to determine
the effect. Because not all weapons
have ammo or can jam, I have created three different tables. One covers guns of all kinds, one covers
melee weapons, and one covers unarmed combat.
The tables are shown below:
Critical Miss Table for Guns:
1-5 |
Weapon is Damaged |
6 |
Bad Ammo (remaining ammo is lost) |
7 |
Weapon Jammed |
8 |
Loss of Action Points for Round |
9 |
Hit Something Else |
10 |
Weapon is Damaged Twice |
Critical Miss Table for Melee and Thrown Weapons:
1-5 |
Weapon is Damaged |
6 |
Damage Self at 50% Damage |
7 |
Weapon Drops to Attacker’s Feet |
8 |
Loss of Action Points for Round |
9 |
Hit Something Else |
10 |
Weapon is Damaged Twice |
Critical Miss Table for Unarmed Combat:
The attacker takes damage here rather than the weapon.
1-5 |
Lose 1d4 Hit Points (bypasses armor) |
6-7 |
Fall Over |
8 |
Off Balance: Lose Rest of Turn |
9 |
Off Balance: Lose This and Next Turn |
10 |
Lose 2d4 + 2 Hit Points (bypasses armor) |
The method of determining knockdowns in melee combat is changed. Rather than using the number rolled by the attacker to determine the chance of a knockdown, the number rolled divided by three, rounded down, will be used. For example, if Bob has a 50% chance to hit a critter and rolls a 47, the chance he will knock the critter over is 47 / 3 = 15.667 = 15%.
The
manual suggests that a critical hit will be scored when an attack roll comes
under the attacker’s critical chance plus one.
Technically, this will make the critical chance a true percentage. However, I would prefer to say that a
critical hit will be scored if the attack roll is less than or equal to the
critical chance. This will have the
effect of making everyone in the game 1% less likely to make a critical hit,
but will reduce confusion.
The critical hit table has been changed slightly. I removed instant death and replaced it with another bypass armor. Here is the new table:
1-2 |
Bypass
Armor (ignore DR and DT) |
3 |
150%
Damage |
4 |
200%
Damage |
5 |
300%
Damage |
6 |
Target
becomes unconscious for 1d4 turns |
7 |
Target’s
leg is crippled (roll 1d2, 1 is right, 2 is left) |
8 |
Target’s
arm is crippled (roll 1d2, 1 is right, 2 is left) |
9 |
Target
is blinded (Perception is reduced to 1) |
10 |
Target
is knocked down |
The
Animal Friend perk’s minimum level has been lowered to 3.
Comprehension
now grants a 50% bonus to the bonus a book provides on a skill role. For example, if the Big Book of Science
normally provides a 20% bonus on a science roll, a character with the Comprehension
perk would have a 30% bonus instead.
The
Healer perk has a typo. With one rank
it adds 5-10 points on each use, and with two ranks it adds 10-20 points.
The
HtH Evade perk will be available but that will be the only time the unused
action point rule is in effect.
The
Pack Rat and Strong Back perks will be unavailable because encumbrance is not
being used.