|
Post by Zero on Jun 24, 2010 14:48:36 GMT
re: hit locations: That's what I intended. Center mass is easier to hit than most other parts. Also, it allows one more area for 2x damage. Good call on triple damage for headshots as well.
I doubt that hitting someone in the head with a small knife would kill them, unless you managed to puncture their brain. You'd have to go through the skull, or put your knife in their eye or something. I was actually tempted to leave hit locations out of close combat entirely; the idea that close combat is slower but you're nearly guaranteed to deal damage to your opponent is nice, compared to the "all-or-nothing" that guns and ranged combat present. Really, shooting and close combat are two very different things, I think. *Realistic* CC is more about attrition than killing your target in one blow, assuming you're standing toe-to-toe (not sneaking up to assassinate someone, say). Guns, on the other hand, strike me as "find your shot and take it".
|
|
|
Post by askhati on Jun 25, 2010 7:14:46 GMT
Hmm, that is a good point on the Close Combat fighting - so we leave that as per the current LW/FW rules?
As for CC weapons, we could play around with larger weapons that not only give a CCS bonus, but also other bonuses, e.g.: - Flick Knife (2)... This is a normal weapon from FW 01 - Nail Club (3) - Chainsaw (-2) (2x damage)... Heavy and difficult to wield, but lethal if it hits - Biker Chain (2) (if you deal more damage than opponent, pick number from RNT - if '0' picked, the chain entangles the opponent's throat and gives them -5 CCS the next round)
What else do we need to run a game? Shall I set something up at RPoL?
|
|
|
Post by Zero on Jun 25, 2010 13:16:45 GMT
There are a couple more things on the table. We have two options for armor:
1) Armor provides static damage reduction that never goes away, but only works if certain target areas are hit 2) Armor just increases END flat
Which one works better? And if we do go with option 1, what's that do for helmets? Do they provide a damage decrease; cause the user to take normal damage; negate the headshot but get destroyed in the process...?
Furthermore, areas protected by armor:
Leather: Arms, Body Class IIa: Body Class II: Body Class III: Body, Groin Class IV: Arms, Body, Groin
As written, armor has *no effect* in close combat. I think that's okay, but it might be something to consider.
I'm not familiar with the CC weapons in the other FW books, so I'm just going to throw out a couple other CC possible weapons:
Sledgehammer (4) Saber/sword (3) Stun Gun (negate target's END loss; if higher, roll RNT, even means target is unable to act the following round) Fire axe (3)
The gist is, small = 2; small+nasty = 3; large = 3; large+nasty = 4
If this is all satisfactory, I can draw up a quick rulesheet and upload it.
|
|
|
Post by askhati on Jun 25, 2010 13:26:39 GMT
I vote for armour option one. The flat bonus makes the armour too much like a one-shot health booster instead of an active damage reducer.
As for helmets, they can provide a damage reduction of X - but if the damage dealt to the head post-reduction is larger than the reduction provided by the helmet, the helmet is also destroyed in the process.
E.g. Helmet A gives 3 EN armour bonus, and wearer gets hit in head by Shotgun (12 damage). Damage dealt = 12 (Shotgun base) - 3 (helmet) = 9 EN damage Helmet = Destroyed, since 9 > 3 Damage received = 9 x3 (hit location multiplier) = 27
So unless you have a really, really tough helmet, a shotgun to the head will be fatal in most cases.
Go rulesheet go!!
|
|
|
Post by Zero on Jun 25, 2010 15:08:18 GMT
One last thing: The Freeway Warrior RNT is very different from the Lone Wolf RNT. Lone Wolf's distribution was just ten copies of 0-9. Freeway Warrior has the following (strange) distribution:
1: 5 times 2: 10 times 3: 6 times 4: 12 times 5: 10 times 6: 15 times 7: 9 times 8: 16 times 9: 8 times 0: 9 times
I assume we want to go with the standard LW RNT?
|
|
|
Post by askhati on Jun 28, 2010 6:32:50 GMT
Standard LW RNT can work. Ideally we would want a 10x10 Sudoku-type distribution, so that the numbers are spread semi-evenly all over - some of the LW RNT's favoured certain numbers over others.
|
|
|
Post by Zero on Jun 28, 2010 13:21:37 GMT
Progress update: I have most of the rule manual specced out; the story elements aren't there yet, but I plan to flesh those out for possible campaign setting ideas. I'll put up a version here for review and editing (and again, thanks for all the help, Askhati!) as soon as all the rules are in order.
One more random rule thought: I quite liked Zipp's "arse dagger" rule (i.e. you can store a dagger as a free weapon), and thought I'd adapt that to carrying a pistol in a holster as a sidearm, so here are the current carry rules for firearms. Please let me know if this seems feasible:
|
|
|
Post by askhati on Jun 28, 2010 13:58:45 GMT
Okay, that makes sense. But just for clarity: what happens if you carry only two firearms? A sidearm in the ("arse") holster, and then a second firearm - rifle or sidearm - as your main weapon - would that entitle a Stealth penalty or not? (I'd interpret it as no penalty) You might want to spell that out a bit, e.g. "If you carry more than two firearms, you take a Stealth penalty".
Also, you might want to include a Boot Knife slot for a free CC weapon to be carried tucked into the top of the boot...?
|
|
|
Post by Zero on Jun 28, 2010 14:15:41 GMT
The wording is clumsy, I admit, but I don't want to generalize to -1 Stealth for 3 firearms. The idea is that you can carry a pistol and a shotgun with no penalty, or a pistol and a rifle with no penalty, but a rifle and a shotgun together do suffer the penalty (due to bulk and noise), regardless of whether you have a pistol as well.
Would it be clearer to say this?
|
|
|
Post by askhati on Jun 28, 2010 14:40:53 GMT
Yep, clearer.
Looking forward to seeing this up and running! Any ideas for a campaign yet? I was thinking of something along the line of "The Book of Eli"...
|
|
|
Post by Zero on Jul 1, 2010 15:31:22 GMT
I've prepared the preliminary draft of the Freeway Warrior Multiplayer gamebook. If anyone has any ideas, criticisms, assistance, or otherwise to contribute, I'd very much appreciate it! Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by askhati on Jul 2, 2010 6:29:22 GMT
EPIC!
|
|
|
Post by Zero on Jul 3, 2010 5:03:03 GMT
So you like it then?
|
|
|
Post by Zipp on Jul 3, 2010 17:06:49 GMT
I just downloaded it. I'll check it out.
|
|
|
Post by Zipp on Jul 3, 2010 18:25:55 GMT
Feedback:
First of all, great job. You've really got a fine product here that I think we should submit to Mongoose and see what they and Joe are willing to do with it. Also, thank you very much for the special mention! I didn't expect that and it was nice to see. I appreciate it a lot and I'm glad I was an inspiration to your efforts here. I'm honored to have helped have a hand in this very cool product.
I do have some comments and some suggestions. Here they are.
CLOSE COMBAT SCORE AND ENDURANCE One problem with the Lone Wolf RPG is the set CS and END scores. It's too easy to get into a situation where one player rolls a bad-ass killer character (CS 19, END 29) and another rolls a weakling (CS 10, END 20). In that scenario, one player is going to have fun... the other will not.
Fortunately, you attempt to play this down somewhat with a suggestion for using points to buy CS and END. As you rightly assume, END is not as useful as CS and thus is worth 2 per point spent. I like this system for Freeway Warrior because everything gets balanced out by the long range combat, which doesn't use the CS score and can be very deadly.
SURVIVAL SKILLS What's the max you can have in a skill? Also, you'll have to take care that percpetion, driving, and field survival are as useful as shooting and stealth, which are really important for surviving combat. Driving has good use in vehicular combat, which will happen often. Field survival maybe could be tied in the effectiveness of med-kits, to make it sort've a "healing" skill in addition to its more situational-uses. Perception should be involved in detecting ambushes and traps but still doesn't live up to the other skills. Therefore I think it should be used in a special long-range "aim" action that allows you to aim for specific body parts. Of course, the actual aim action will have to be developed, but I think it's worth it. Maybe also use perception for initiative.
Setting DCs for skills naturally takes into account penalties and bonuses. I don't think the GM actually has to give out penalties and bonuses to the roll itself, unless the player uses specific items that do these things. I would make this more clear to avoid confusion.
HUNGER ENDURANCE Do you have to keep track of endurance lost to hunger seperately? And how do you recover it if med kits can't recover it?
COMBAT Here's some confusion that is bound to come up (and have come up in the LW system) and some answers that I suggest.
- what is the combat round? Answer: the combat round occurs for each player-character in order of their perception score. Each player picks an enemy target and engages in a single roll of either close range or long range combat. If a player is attacking multiple enemies, they continue to attack until they have resolved one roll for each enemy (keep in mind the enemy CS bonuses for this). Then the round proceeds to the player with the next highest initiative. Keep in mind that if they attack an enemy who has already been attacked, they gain a CS bonus. The last player to go in this fashion has to attack any unattacked enemies at this point, unless they are at long range.
- do enemy's get a "turn?" Answer: no. Only players ever roll the dice for combat. Damage is done simultaneously. The only exception to this is if an enemy has a long range weapon and a player chooses not to engage him or cannot engage him. Then, after players have gone, the enemy will automatically fire.
- what happens if some players are in close combat and others are in long combat? Answer: Combats are resolved as normal per player initiative. However, players take a massive penalty to shooting into a close combat where their friends are.
- can a player be in close combat with one enemy and long range with another? Answer: Yes! But they take penalties in both cases.
WEAPONS I think your basic range of weapons is good: pistol, shotgun, rifle. I think, though, to add variety to this list, you should include some modifiers, as suggested here:
Automatic weapon: if a weapon is listed as automatic, you can reroll the hit location die Silenced: If a weapon is silenced, you can fire it without needing to make a stealth check afterwards for alerting nearby enemies Attached Flashlight: your weapon can also function like a flashlight Attached Scope: weapon gains +1 to its medium and long stats
DAMAGE FROM WEAPONS This seems okay for now. I think it needs playtesting before one can be fully sure.
CLOSING DISTANCE There needs to be some kind of check for this. Enemies shouldn't just be allowed to close distance. There should be some kind of opposed roll for this and a system for handling the results.
WHO SHOOTS FIRST I think shooting should happen simultaneously (both attacks are resolved before damage is dealt) unless it is a surprise attack.
ARMOUR I think Armour needs to be able to take damage and be destroyed. After all, this stuff is getting slashed at with knives and shot up with bullets. Maybe even hit with grenades. So it's gonna break.
GRENADES IN COMBAT I think grenades need stats like the weapons or else are used instead of a long range weapon for a round of combat. They cannot be used in close range combat except by sacrificing the player.
Players will wonder how and when grenades can be used, so it needs to be clarified.
NO ACTION IN A COMBAT ROUND This needs to be clarified since there aren't really combat "rounds" in Freeway Warrior or Lone Wolf. All enemies are engaged in Lone Wolf, not sure how you want to handle that here, but I think the following will help:
If you are reloading during a close quarters combat, you suffer -4 to your close combat skill and do no damage that round. If you are reloading during a long-range combat, you cannot fire that round, you suffer -4 to stealth (unless you are behind cover) and your enemy can choose to instantly close the distance with you.
GM NOTES I would also include a section that offers advice on ways to use the skills. For instance, give some examples of when a driving roll would come into play and give some potential consequences for various rolls. Such as...
George Swift is driving in his toked-up racer across the arid cliffs of the Cascade Mountain range when suddenly he drives over a set of iron tacks set in the road. His tire blows out and he desperately tries to maintain control of the vehicle. Because he was going fast and he's in dangerous terrain, the GM sets the DC for this roll at 12. Swift has a Driving skill of 6, so he has to roll 6 or better to make this DC.
Now see, as a GM I would be curious as to what the expectations for failure and success in this case are and that needs to be clarified in this system. My suggestion is that the player has to state an intention when he makes these rolls (ie. don't crash Swift's car) and how successful the outcome is depends on how close to the DC the player rolls. I would offer a chart for this purpose, as suggested:
Player's roll is... -4 of the DC: the results are disastrous. In the above example, Swift's car plummets off of the cliff and he crashes to a fiery death hundreds of feet below. -3 of the DC: the results are terrible. Swift's car plummets off the cliff, but he survives and pulls himself from the wreck, barely alive and with his equipment destroyed. -2 of the DC: the results are bad. Swift dives out of the moving vehicle and hits the street hard, taking damage. The car flies off the edge of the cliff, leaving him on foot. -1 of the DC: the results aren't successful but not too injurious. Swift crashes the car into the side of the mountain rather than driving it off the cliff. Now he has a busted up car to fix, or he'll have to take the rest of the trip on foot. meets DC: the results are succesful. Swift slows the car to a halt and gets out to check on his busted tire. +3 of DC: the results are outstanding. Swift turns his vehicle into a wide drift that speeds him around the tight cliff corner and sends him rocketing down the road without even a break in speed. He continues on this way for a mile or two, avoiding any potential ambush that was set for him, and then stops the car to change the tire.
EXAMPLES In general I think the document needs more examples. I can provide you with some after playtesting. Examples are never a bad thing and would be nice to reference for situations such as equiping, character creation, grenade use, skill tests, and all combative situations.
PLAYTESTING I'd be happy to run a one-month, one-shot campaign for anyone who wants to playtest these rules. Seriously, this could easily become a favorite system of mine. Great work here, guys.
|
|