Baron

It feels a bit like THAC0 for AD&D.

ie number to beat gets smaller rather than skill used getting higher as you get better.

Saying that though, haven't you missed the PC's skill at shooting out?  I suppose you could shift the numbers around, say add ten to all of them and then add the PC's REF & skill to the roll.

Surely a head shot with an armour of 12 is still going to have a F of 7?  How about adding a modifier for bits of the body?  8 for a headshot, 5 for a torso, 0 for limbs?  You'd still need to roll for location though...

BTM?  How are you thinking of factoring that in?

As a concept I can see it could work.  I just think you've missed bits.  Either that or I have when reading your post!  

Cheers Mark!

Exactly the sort of answer I was after.

Hi Guys,

Just wondering about peoples opinion on mixing ammunition in a magazine.

I'm thinking mainly for automatic weapons, but what are your thoughts on mixing, say AP with dumb dumbs.

Any problems you can forsee with this, or do you think it would work just fine?

I've seen someone pick up an GPMG (brit version of the M60) up by the barrel once.

Now, it had only fired a few hundred rounds through it, but it took some effort for him to drop it (it stuck to him) and he pretty much webbed his fingers...

Yeah on the whole I try to plan for things too.  The problem comes if you haven't had loads of time that week to prepare in infinite detail whatever you're running that night (a problem I seem to have more and more) or the players just plain surprise you with their method for solving whatever problem you've set them.

Rather than try to steer them down the route I'd thought of I try to let them carry on in their own style.  That's when you quickly need to work out the problems their new route might take them through.

I think Monster does point something so obvious that it's often forgotten.  What feels sensible?

Snowdog, I've always found that stopping to look up a rule tends to annoy the players more than improve the scene.  Maybe annoy is too strong, but frustrate certainly.  Altering the pace of the scene can be beneficial, but I've always felt that an artificial pause has always seemed just that.  Artificial.

I'm glad you like the 3d10 thing I use. Feel free to use with aplomb, I nicked it and altered it slightly from a mate.  He uses a d8, d10 and d12, instead of red, orange, green.  He has a slightly more involved system that lets him increase the resolution of answer for particular questions.

Nice effort!

Much appreciated!

In the spirit of the posts Malek77 is putting up...

On a slightly different vein, how do you keep the game running quickly?

I'm thinking more game mechanics here rather than the "plot" (for want of a better word).

Do you stick religiously to the rules or do bend then to make a decision fast if things a running quickly and you think they'll slow things down too much.

Any tips?

I'll start with one I use if the players do something utterly unexpected, ask a question I've not thought of the answer to or I want to add a bit of randomness.

I have 3d10, one red, orange, one green.  Roll them in under my hands, whichever die is nearest me when I look dictates the answer to a question I'm asking myself.  Red = bad for players, Orange = ok, Green = Good for the players.

Eg Does the NPC know the info the players want?

Green = Yes

Orange = Might know bits of the info they're after.

Red = Probably know the info, but for whatever reason will lie to the players.

Further resolution can be added by looking at the numbers.  High is good for players. So red 10 = bad but not that bad, (probably doesnt know the info but wont spin them a pack of lies), Green 10 = knows everything will tell them it all and might provide info they'd not thought of asking for.

Of course it would depend on the exact situation invloved ie in the above example if the NPC is a friend he'll be less likely to utterly lie to them.  But it does mean that you can get a general outlook on things for the PC's.  Occaisionally lets you do something you'd not thought of doing.

Any other ideas floating around out there?

Yeah setting a deadline of some sort normally helps get the tension going.  Be it a deadline set by whoever they're working for or something they have to do before something bad happens.

I've dropped the game into real time before when the team had placed a bomb and where trying to get out of the building before it blew.  The building was quite crowded, so there were many opportunities to delay the team trying to get out.  

They managed it just, but the tension caused by them trying to rush everything and messing the odd thing up was certainly intense enough to be remembered by the players years after.

Depending on how you're running things and the campaign there is no need to railroad the players.

After all in the example above they were the ones that decided 5 minutes was enough to get out of a crowded shopping centre just as lunch started.  Yes, there were lots of innocent casualties to their bomb and yes there were repercussions...

I could see this turning very complicated though...

I think the whole corner thing could be handled with just the probability of roll high damage.  Especially if you're using multiple dice, because you'll get something approximating a bell curve.  Corners, edges can be assumed on the higher roles, the short ends on mid range and the big flat side on the lowest.  Any thing more complicated would probably be made irrelevent by the fuzziness of glancing blows, is it thrown or dropped, wind etc.

I'm only going on personal feel here but 4d6 from 10 stories sounds a touch low.  Only on max damage are you going to get into the serious mortal territory for an unarmoured bod.  I'm umming and ahhring though.  I'd have to try it out a few times.  You might be spot on, but it just feels a bit to low a probability that an unarmoured bod is going to get his head caved in by the brick.

I'll have a think about a graduated scale for a brick.  I think a xd6 for 1 floor, yd6 for 2 floors would probably be the simplest thing to run in game.  Then adapt that for other common objects (pianos, anvils, safes, rocks).

Lexan,

But what about size/shape of object?

Weight is one thing, but although the brick might have the same energy as a bullet from 5ft up, it's a lot less likely to kill some one that a bullet at point blank range (muzzle velocity..)

A brick from a floor above you is likely to hurt, maybe knock you out, crack your skull.  A 9mm bullet to the head is going to kill.

The brick's energy is spread over a larger area than the bullet's.  The bullet has much more penetration.

I'm not doubting that a brick from 10 floors up wont kill most of the time, but I think that your values are maybe a touch on the high side.  Maybe not for high up, but certainly for the lower heights.

How much of a punishment did you think this was though?

You were effectivly turned off for x number of years, before being brought back.  Yes, you lost your body, but so it would appear do a number of people that just use it for any number of other reasons, (travel, disguise, combat...)

Yes, you may well have lost all the people you knew.

But unless you were aware of the time passing (I don't think you were, may have read that wrong though...) is it really that much of a punishment to skip through time effectively.

Has anyone read the sequel "Broken Angels"?