Skills

Skill

Description

Initiative

Initiative is a skill. Every PC has it at a base of 30% plus stat bonuses. It is the only skill that has 2 stat bonuses receiving a bonus for both reflexes and intuition. As for any other skill, skill points can be spent to increase it.

The initiative roll is always made at the start of combat at a normal difficulty factor (DF). The only time it would be made with a modifier to the DF would be in a surprise or ambush situation.

All characters make an initiative skill. Those succeeding will act before those that fail the roll. Of those that succeed they will act in order of actual skill level with the character with the highest going first and the character with the lowest going last. The characters who failed the initiative roll will then act again the character with the highest initiative skill acting first and the character with the lowest going last.

 

SKILLS-difficulty factors

Basic

Skill * 3

These are the difficulty levels for all skill and combat rolls. Modifiers for stat. Bonuses and other bonuses are applied before applying any difficulty factor mod. The last calculation to be made is the multiplier for the skill level.

Example. A PC is attempting to hit an opponent in combat with a pistol. His base skill is 75%. He has a stat bonus of 7%, +10% for a targeting laser and -1 difficulty factor for range and -2 DF's for attempting to hit an arm. His chance to hit is:

75 + 7 + 10 * 0.25 The difficulty factor is NORMAL - 3 levels which brings it down to difficult 0r 0.25% I.E. 92*0.25=23% - This is the number that must be rolled or less than on d100

Easy

Skill * 2

Simple

Skill * 1.5

Routine

Skill * 1.25

Normal

Skill * 1.0

Hard

Skill * 0.75

Very Hard

Skill * 0.50

Difficult

Skill * 0.25

Impossible

Skill * 0.10

 

 

Skill vs Skill

At times it will be necessary for 2 characters to pit their skills against each other. For example when one character is attempting to conceal himself from another who is looking for him. When this happens a skill vs. skill contest is required. Both characters make a skill roll which in this case is probably concealment and perception. If both succeed then the character with the higher stat. Succeeds – if one succeeds and one fails then obviously the one who succeeded with the roll wins. – If both fail then again the character with the higher skill wins. Simple isn’t it.

NOTE: A skill vs skill contest is only used where two characters are both performing actions. A sole character performing an action would rarely be drawn into a skill vs. skill contest.

For instance in the above example if the 1st character was trying to hide BUT the second character was not looking for him then all that would be required is for the first to succeed at his skill roll at whatever difficulty factor was assigned. If the roll was failed then the GM may have the 2nd character roll vs perception to see if they noticed something, again with whatever difficulty factor modifications the GM thought applicable!

The Basics of Combat

All combat will basically take place in 6 second phases. This phase is broken into 3 2 second sub-phases for the purposes of determining who goes when and what they can do.

1st Sub-Phase – the only action in this sub-phase is the firing of a loaded ranged weapon. It can be fired up to ½ it’s ROF. i.e. once for those with a ROF of 2 or less and foe example 5 times for a Light Machine gun. This is to represent the fact that it is lot easier/quicker to pull a trigger than run and/or hit someone with a sword.

2nd Sub-Phase – In this phase the remainder of missile fire takes place. Also a PC can choose to move up to ½ their movement rate or attack an opponnent in range of a mellee weapon.

3rd Sub-Phase – This final sub-phase is for any remaining ranged fire, mellee attacks or movement. A character may only perform actions in 2 of the sub-phases not all 3. (you cannot ½ move 3 times 0r fire twice and ½ move!!)

Any 2 second action can be performed in sub-phases 2 & 3 but only ranged fire can be performed in sub-phase 1.

Damage & Hit Locations

There will be two types of damage – the permanent kind represented by hit Factors and the faster healing less permanent shock factors. For instance a bullet will inflict both Hit Factors (HF’s) and Shock Factors whilst a punch in the face whilst it may knock you out will only inflict Shock Factor damage.

The damage will be applied to 7 hit locations as shock factors & to the overall hit factor total. The hit locations are-:

Head – 20% of Hit factors as Shock Factors

Chest – 40% of Hit Factors as Shock factors

Vitals – 33% of Hit Factors as Shock factors

Left Arm – 20% of Hit Factors as Shock factors

Right Arm – 20% of Hit Factors as Shock factors

Left Leg – 33% of Hit Factors as Shock factors

Right Leg – 33% of Hit Factors as Shock factors

As you can see a character will generally have twice as many Shock Factors as Hit Factors.