Taharqa’s Corner

Ok, its been awhile since I posted on my emerging MW2.Mine system. I said at the end of my last post that I was going to focus on traits next, but I lied. Since this is all work in progress, why go in order? I have been thinking a lot about the damage system used in combat.  At first, I thought the aToW system seemed pretty good and figured that I would just leave it as is, but the more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized I wanted something that meshed with pilot damage in battletech even more closely.

Damage systems are a pretty important component of RPG systems to me. In fact they rank right below the main dice mechanic in terms of importance, because they convey to me the realism of the system. I want the damage rules to convey a sense of danger to the PCs but at the same time still allow them to be the heroes of the story.  That means that there has to be the potential that a single shot or sword thrust can incapacitate and a really good strike might even outright drop somebody dead.

The damage system was actually the main reason that MW2 originally turned me off. The damage system meshed very well with battletech but was built in such a way that the average Joe took about 6 or 7 pistol shots to take down.  Thats where my suspension of disbelief just cracks right in half. What I am trying to do here is develop a system that looks a lot like that MW2 system but feels more gritty. I actually use a lot of ideas from aToW, so the damage system comes out as really a hybrid of the two systems.  First, just like in aToW, there are two kinds of damage, Wounds and Fatigue. Let me handle each in turn.

Wounds

Non-subdual weapons cause potentially lethal damage. As characters take damage from such attacks, they accumulate a wound value (WV). The total WV that a character can have before they drop dead is equal to their BOD*5, but they are likely to be taken out of the action before they reach this point.

There are various wound levels that a character reaches as he/she accumulates WV.  Each level is equal to the BOD of the category. There are five levels altogether:

The TN modifier applies to all skill checks that would reasonably be affected by physical wounds. The movement mod seems self explanatory.

Every time that a character takes damage, he/she must roll a KO check.  The KO check is a BOD+WIL attribute check that is modified by the wound mod shown in the table. The KO check is made after the WV is adjusted for the new damage. A character that fails the KO check falls unconscious. Furthermore, a character that falls unconscious must then make a BOD attribute check using the same wound modifier. If he/she fails this check, then the character is bleeding out (see below).

Any time a character suffers damage equal to or greater than his/her BOD score, the character must make a BOD attribute check modified by the current wound mod.  Failure indicates that the character is bleeding out. Characters who are bleeding out gain 2WV at the end of each turn. If the character is still conscious and this bleeding damage places them in a higher wound level, then they must make a KO check. Once a character is bleeding out, no further bleeding checks need to be made.

To stop bleeding, a successful MedTech check (complex action) must be made on the character with a modifier equal to the current wound mod. Success indicates that the bleeding has been stopped.

It is not hard to see how this system mirrors pilot damage in battletech. Each wound level is equivalent to a pilot hit and for an average mechwarrior (BOD4, WIL4), the TN for each KO check will be the same as in battletech. Well, except for the Critical wound level. The TN here would be 9 while it is 10 for battletech, but I just couldn’t give up the nice clear progression in the wound mod to put in a +4.

Fatigue

Fatigue works much the way it does in aToW, except the maximum fatigue a character can accumulate before collapsing is equal to (BOD+WIL)*2.  Characters accumulate fatigue points as a result of:

• Physical exertion
• Subdual attacks (including unarmed melee attacks)
• 1 point of fatigue is gained every time a normal attack hits for damage.

When a character has taken more than (BOD+WIL) points of fatigue, they will suffer a +1 TN penalty applied to all skill checks.

Rescaling Weapon Damage

In working out this system, I still want to be able to keep as much of the stats about weapons from aToW as possible to make the system compatible with mine. In order to do this I use a simple scaling of the aToW system to determine damage.  The AP and Base Damage of all weapons is doubled. The BAR of standard armor is also doubled to maintain its effectiveness. For ranged weapons, the total damage delivered is equal to Base Damage + 1* MoS.  For melee weapons, the total damage delivered is equal to Base Damage + 1 * MoS + STR. The amount by which the MoS increases damage can be modified by a few specific circumstances:

• Burst Fire: If using burst-fire, then 2*MoS is added instead of 1*MoS, up to an MoS that is less than or equal to the number of bullets fired. So if the MoS is 4, but only three bullets are fired then the total MoS damage is 6 (2*3).
• Surprise: If the defender is passive and unable to react, then 3*MoS is added instead of 1*MoS. If burst-fire and surprise are in effect, then 4*MoS is used.

Why did I double damage? This might seem strange because I am taking BOD*5 to be the “dead point,” while aToW uses BOD*2, thus suggesting a ratio of 2.5.  One has to remember that the scaling of attributes is slightly different. Average BOD in aToW would be 4 or 5 (although the system is a bit vague on this), while average in MW2.MINE is 3. So the dead point for an average Joe in aToW is between 8 and 10, while in MW2.MINE it is 15. So, if anything, doubling makes MW2.MINE slightly more lethal. And MoS adds more in my system, making it once again more lethal.

Doing it this way, I pass two important tests. First is the “shooting the average Joe” test. What happens when you hit somebody with average BOD (and average WIL) and no armor with an autopistol? Doubling the damage for an autopistol means that it does 8 points of damage. If the MoS was zero, then the target would receive a WV of 8. This would be more than double his BOD (6), but less than triple (9), meaning he would now have Serious wounds. A KO check would be made with a +1 mod. With a BOD and WIL of 3 and the mod, the TN for this check is 9, meaning that there is a 72% chance for this attack to incapacitate the victim and (since the TN for the bleeding check is the same) a 72% chance for this victim to begin bleeding out. Just two points of MoS and the wound level jumps to Critical and there is a 92% chance of a KO and bleeding. The MoS needed for an insta-kill is 7, so it is unlikely that one shot will instantly kill, but fairly likely that one shot will incapacitate the target and without medical attention, he will eventually die. That works for me.

The second test is the throat-slitting test. Can a stealthy character sneak up and dispatch someone in one attack? The increased MoS for surprise attacks makes this possible. Lets say a commando has a STR of 4. That will give him a base damage with a combat knife of 6.  If a typical guard has a BOD of 4, then an MoS of 5 will kill the guard outright and even a lesser MoS is likely to make him fail a KO check.

Is it too lethal?

This all begs the question of whether the system is too lethal and will cause the PCs to avoid combat as if they were playing a game of Call of Cthulhu. I think the best way to combine a lethal damage system with heroics is to allow PCs to use Edge points to “soak” damage ala Savage Worlds.  I haven’t exactly worked out the rules for this, but they will be featured when I discuss how edge will be used in MW2.MINE.

Taharqa MW2.Mine, RPG Design