Combat rules
So after 30+ years.....yeah I have modified the combat rules as I am sure all of you have also done. However unlike many I have note completely overhauled the system per se but more tweaked, streamlined, reduced, or added on to the system as we know it as I felt necessary. You will see it still is very much based on Palladium in general but may feel like it has more.....intricacy to it.....so here it is.
Each melee round is 15 seconds and consists of 3 phases of 5 seconds each
step 1 - initiative, this will be the initiative order for the entire combat encounter not just one melee round or phase
Step 2 - attack rolls/actions
Step 3 - dodge/parry roll/defensive actions
step 4 - repeat steps 2 and 3 until all three phases of the melee round are done
Step 5 - next melee round to reset everyones attacks
PHASES
Each character can take a number of actions in each phase. Refer to the chart.
Total Attacks - Attacks per phase 1/2/3
3 - 1/1/1
4 - 1/2/1
5 - 2/1/2
6 - 2/2/2
7 - 2/3/2
8 - 3/2/3
9 - 3/3/3
10 - 3/4/3
11 - 4/3/4
12 - 4/4/4
MOVEMENT DURING THE MELEE ROUND
Character/Anything thqat has a SPD Attribute
Walk - SPD x 1 = feet per phase.
Jog - SPD x 3 = feet per phase. -3 strike, +3 dodge.
Run - SPD x 5 = feet per phase. -6 strike (this is effectively shooting wild), +6 dodge.
Vehicles/Power Armour/Aircraft/Combat Robots/Borgs/'Bots/Anything that has MPH as speed and not a SPD attribute
You have to calculate the three speed modes. Combat, Cruise and Max.
Combat is 1/5 top speed. (x0.2)
Cruise is 3/5 top speed. (x0.6) -3 to strike, +3 to dodge
Max is top speed. -6 strike (this is effectively shooting wild), +6 dodge.
It takes one phase to accelerate from combat to cruise or cruise to max or to decelerate rom max to cruise or cruise to combat. Accelerating and decelerating is a free action.
To determine how many feet it is take the miles per hour use this formula:
MPH x 7.3 = feet per phase (round accordingly)
IE 60mph Combat is 12mph/88 feet per phase, Cruise is 36mph/263 feet per phase, and max is 60mph/438 feet per phase
INITIATIVE
Men at Arms OCCs receive a +1 to initiative at levels 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15
Non Men at Arms OCCs receive a +1 to initiative at levels 4, 8, 12
Roll 1d20 plus all applicable bonuses.
STRIKE ROLLS
Roll 1d20 plus any and all relevant bonuses less any and all releveant penalties.
Bonuses come from hand to hand and ranged combat training, weapon proficiencies and skills, or from the weapons themselves.
DODGE/PARRY ROLLS
Roll 1d20 plus any and all relevant bonuses less any and all releveant penalties.
Bonuses come from hand to hand or mecha combat training, weapon proficiencies and skills, or from the weapons or vhicles themselves.
Parry rolls do not cost characters an action/attack if they have HTH training. Dodge Rolls always cost an action/attack.
AUTODODGE ROLLS
First Everyone can autododge. However this is NOT the same as say the Juicer or Crazy autotdodge in rifts.
Autododge rolls do not cost characters an action/attack but typically have lower bonuses than a normal dodge.
Bonuses may come from a PP atribute bonus, hand to hand training, mecha combat training, weapon proficiencies, skills, weapons, or vehicles themselves.
Roll 1d20 plus any and all relevant bonuses less any and all releveant penalties.
MELEE COMBAT
STRIKE
Bonuses
Come from Hand to Hand training, skills, attribute bonuses and weapon proficiencies
Penalties
Using your off hand is -3 strike
DODGE/PARRY
Bonuses
Come from Hand to Hand training, skills, attribute bonuses and weapon proficiencies
Penalties
Using yor off hand is -2 parry
MODERN COMBAT
STRIKE
Unenhanced Infantry Hit On:
<50ft - 5+
>50ft - 200ft - 8+
>200ft - 500ft - 10+
>500ft - 1000ft - 12+
>1000ft - 15+
Vehicles/Power Armour/Robots/Aircraft/Enhanced Infantry(Special optics and targeting helmets GMs call)/Borgs/'Bots hit on:
<100ft - 5+
>100ft - 8+
Bonuses
PP Bonuses DO apply to ranged weapons for infantry, borgs/'bots, some power armour, juicers etc, but NOT for Combat Robots, vehicles or Aircraft
Aimed Shot +3 strike but takes 2 attacks
Bursts +1 strike for short and medium bursts, +2 for long bursts, +3 for full melee bursts
Machine guns/autocannons are an additional +1 strike for bursts (higher rate of fire)
Gatling guns and railguns (nor rail cannons) are an additional +2 strike for bursts (even higher rate of fire)
Telescopic Sights will give you an additional +3 strike on aimed shots
Laser targeting Sights will give you an additional +5 strike on aimed shots, +2 strike on non aimed shots
This is addition to any attribute, skill, training or weapon bonuses to strike
Penalties
Using your off hand is -2 strike
Firing while moving (Infantry etc)
Walking is no penalty
Jogging is -3 strike
Running is -6 strike
Firing from a vehicle:
Combat speed - no penalty
Cruise speed - -3 strike
Max speed - -6 strike
Firing beyond effective range
Max range of weapon to 2x max range of weapon - penalty of -5
2x max range to 3x max range - penalty of -10
Cannot hit targets beyond 3x max range of a weapon.
DODGE/PARRY
Bonuses
Walking is no bonus
Jogging is +3 dodge
Running is +6 dodge
This is in addition to any attribute, training and skill bonuses to dodging
Vehicles:
Combat speed - no bonus
Cruise speed - +3 dodge
Max speed - +6 dodge
This is in addition to any attribute, training and skill bonuses to dodging
Penalites
Infantry
This is only applicable if being attacked from within 10m (approx 30ft), no dodge penalty and half the parry penalties out to 20m (approx 60ft)
VS Thrown Weapons------ -1 dodge / -2 parry
VS Arrows-------------- -2 dodge / -4 parry
VS Firearms/Modern Guns -3/-4 Dodge / -6/-8 Parry
VS Energy Weapons------ -5 dodge / -10 parry
VS Explosions---------- roll 1d20 under the characters PP score
DODGING MISSILES
.......now personally I like most mecha anime and as such they dodge swaths of missiles on a regular basis.....
How I do it is as follows.....
Maximum number of missiles you can dodge:
3 + pp bonus if any + character level
Example 4th level spa elite with a pp of 16
3 + 4 + 1 = can dodge up to 8 missiles unpenalized
Dodging more than your maximum:
For every missile double the penalty to dodge starting with 1 missile over is -1 to dodge
Example 4 missiles over is -8 to dodge the volley ( -1, -2, -4, -8)
OTHER RULES
Called shot - 1 attack. 12+ to hit. Some targets may be small and difficult to hit thus giving a penalty to hit.
Aimed Called Shot - 2 attacks
Bursts:
For damage multipliers of infantry and infatry support weapons see the individual Ranged Combat Training skills
Machine Guns are +1 to short and medium burst damage multipliers and +2 to long and full melee multipliers
Gatling guns and rail guns (not rail cannons) are +2 to short and medium burst damage multipliers and +3 to long and full melee multipliers
Vehicle Bursts are as follows
Shorts Bursts: costs 1 attack
Autocannon/Machine Guns x3 damage, 10 rounds used
Gatling/Railguns x4, 20 rounds used
semi-automatic/automatic x2, 3-5 rounds used
Medium Bursts: costs 1 attack
Autocannon/Machine Gun x5, 20 rounds used
Gatling/Railguns x7, 30 rounds used
semi-automatic/automatic x3, 5-10 rounds used
Long Bursts: costs 2 attacks
Autocannon/Machine Gun x8, 30 rounsd used
Gatling/Railguns x10, 50 rounds used
semi-automatic/automatic x4, 8-15 rounds used
Full Melee Bursts: costs all attacks
Autocannon/Machine Gun x12, 100 rounds used
Gatling/Railguns x15, 200 rounds used
Semi-automatic/automatic x6, entire magazine emptied. Cannot fire full melee bursts if less than 20 round sin the magazine
Special note - the burst damage multiplier cannot exceed the number of rounds fired in a burst. IE If you only fire 3 round sin your burst it cannot do more than x3 damage. This is specifically for Ranged Comat Training as your burst damage multipliers increase as you level up.
ARMOUR PIERCING
Armour Piercing Rounds and weapons are specially designed to penetrate armoured targets. As such any attack made with an Armour Piercing round or weapon the Target's AR is halved.
While there are special bullets and rounds that are armour piercing there are some weapons that are inherently armour piercing:
Vibro blades/swords
Lasers
Railguns and Rail cannons if using armour piercing slugs.
Optionally on a successful attack with an armour piercing weapon, the attacker may roll to see if any critical damage has been caused. Roll a percentile (d100). A roll over 80 will let you roll on the appropriate (for the where the attack hit) optional critical damage table found in RUE.
SDC/MDC
1 MDC = 10 SDC
Explosive sdc rounds increase damage by 50%, ramjet rounds increase sdc damage by 100%. Ramjet rounds are also Armour Piercing.
POWER ARMOUR
Power armour uses the characters hth and ranged combat training for combat rolls etc. You still have to take power armour elite to gain full bonuses though. Power armour basic gives you only half bonuses though you still get the full number of attacks. No Combat training means you lose 2 attacks per melee and are -3 to strike/dodge/parry.
ROBOTS/VEHICLES/AIRCRAFT
Use special training much like HTH and Ranged Combat training while IN the robot, vehicle or Aircraft.
OTHER NOTES
Railguns are still burst weapons. Rail CANNONS however are single fire weapons (IE Spider Skull Walker, Death's Head Transport, Glitterboy etc, now have rail cannons not rail guns). See individual vehicles and weapons for any changes.
Also, Pulse rifles do not do triple damage for the burst, they will do normal burst damage using single shot damage as per the burst rules above or as per Ranged Combat Training.
TAKING DAMAGE
SDC beings not in armour getting hit with MDC weapons are essentially toast unless they have a LOT of SDC. MD weapons do their damage X 10 in SDC (see above notes about the sdc-mdc ratio)
Beings in body armour, power armour, robots and vehicles are pretty well protected barring massive damage (ie from a boomgun or sumsuch). All body armour, power armour, robots and vehicles have an AR. See AR and Armour elsewhere.
MDC weapons against SDC vehicles et al do thier damage X ten as per the SDC-MDC ratio above as long as they beat the AR of the vehicle.
SDC weapons versus MDC
vehicles have their damage DIVIDED by ten as per the SDC-MDC ratio as well. IE 20mm round does 2d4x10+10sd or 2d4+1md.
Note this is how you can determine if an MD weapon can actually harm an SDC vehicle and vice versa.