SLA House Rules

[deject]

Can we retcon these new scopes then? Something that costs comparable to what we paid for originally?

[Dog Pants]

Absolutely, I wouldn't disadvantage you because of a rules change. I've not definitely implimented it yet, I'm just opening it up for discussion, but if nobody has objections then I probably will.

[deject]

I think it's good, to help separate the red dot / ACOG type sights from the long range sniper types.

The minimum range thing is interesting, since scope do drastically limit your FoV. I have no objections to these changes.

[Dog Pants]

I had Berk in his back garden playing with a 4x scope for me as a test

There's nothing in the game for red dots, but I always wondered what the advantage was over iron sights. Turns out it's faster to get into firing position, hence being able to get the bonus on a single aim, whereas the others need a +1 aim (ie, two aims) to get the bonus. Since you don't need to look over the sights at all with a laser painter you get that bonus even with wild shots, but only as far as you can see the dot.

So now there's a nice range of scopes with a definite set of advantages and disadvantages.

[Dog Pants]

I've had an idea for a new skill package; the electronic warfare (E-War) package. The e-war trained Op's role is to confuse and disadvantage the enemy by interfering with their electronic systems, while aiding colleagues by gathering combat data and disseminating it.

Electronic Warfare Package:
Computer Use
Computer Subterfuge
Electronic Locks
Tactics
Detect

The e-war Op is able to utilise a range of equipment designed to give him and his squad the edge agains opponents. EMP grenades will damage enemy sensory equipment like radar and motion trackers, IR flares and laser strobes can effectively blind opponents by overloading their optics, and spoof signal generators can cause conflicting information. The e-war Op's ECM suite is a reality overlay device that can be fitted into a helmet or worn as a monocle. Linked to a micro Guava-Half 'Shock-Core' processing unit it can assimilate data from up to 64 sources such as cameras, microphones, and motion tracker buoys, and disseminate it over the comnet to linked tactical overlays worn by other squad members. In addition, the Shock-Core processor has a wireless capability combined with a package of negotiation and brute horse software designed to help the e-war Op hack into nearby networks and break encryption. Using the device the Op can break enemy comnets, listening in to their tactical chatter and passing it to their squad, or hack into building security networks, taking camera images and controlling entry systems.

[The Shutting Downs]

UV v. Rush

I know the house rule that UV/Blaze UV no longer remove half damage, and just make you ignore bruising.

How does this work with Rush, as it's main effect is to remove 25% damage, but to put it in the same 'ignore brising' as UV and Blaze make it better than it's supposed to be.

Suggestions?

[Dog Pants]

I'd stick with ignoring bruising. It makes the damage mitigation the same as UV, but you still have less additional phases, no auto-pass cool rolls, and less duration. Ignoring bruising isn't that great anyway, but I hate the idea that a drug should make you somehow bulletproof.

[Dog Pants]

Not strictly a house rule, since the guy who posted this is Dave Allsop, the flaky original designer of SLA Industries.

http://slahq.blogspot.com/2011/01/bla-33-zip-gun.html

7mm firearms trialled to Shivers. Quite an interesting step, I think.

[Dog Pants]

Two house rules things have opened up in the big carrien hunt; auto-fire using scopes and mass intimidation.

For the auto fire I'd certainly say effective recoil is doubled (or maybe even multiplied by the elevation factor), representing any weapon movement being amplified. I'm still not sure on the sights either - a Surekill with a 12x scope has a range of 24km under the current rules. There really should be some sort of hard limit, but I'm not sure how to impliment it.

For intimidation I think it just needs a few modifiers, for example;
Number of opponents/Ops, or how much they outnumber you
Number of them you've killed
How close they are
How large they/you are

Ideas, feedback?

[HereComesPete]

Ideas vomited -

Sights - a hard limit on distance per weapon type and ammo calibre maxing out at say 5k for a huge rifle with huge cannon calibre? Every drop in gun size and calibre gives a maximum distance the bullet will travel regardless of skill.

Auto fire - some weapons are designed for this as you well know, bi/tripods, floating barrels, gas venting to help constantly correct etc if you push the recoil too high then it discourages auto fire and I think the cost of ammo does that enough. Possibly reduce the accuracy in some arbitrary fashion, a choice of suppressing fire - a long burst or full auto rendering the sight almost useless with the shaking - and accurate single shots/short bursts??

Intimidation -

a)pretty much your house rule.

b)a sliding scale based on the roll achieved versus 'numbers' -

eg 50 normal carriens, 2 mutant, 3 bear-like, 1 Greater.

= .5 per normal carrien, 1 per mutant, 2 per bear-like and 3 for greater

= a 'mob mentality' score of 36. They will all stand firm until the number drops to below the roll scored on intimidate then you are back to your house rule. It gives the ops a chance to take down the big things and scare the chaff away faster thus saving money and speeding up combat.

The numbers are of course arbitrary, a well seasoned darknight op would be higher numbers, but may well peel away once overwhelming odds become apparent. A crazed rogue frother would never run etc.

[Dog Pants]

Sights - a hard limit on distance per weapon type and ammo calibre maxing out at say 5k for a huge rifle with huge cannon calibre? Every drop in gun size and calibre gives a maximum distance the bullet will travel regardless of skill.

Hmm. Thing about a hard limit is that it makes it pointless buying a 12x scope if your range is limited to only double the normal range, using the current rules. I think the ranges on the weapons are right, and that I've got the way scopes are modeled wrong. Extending the weapon range isn't right, it should make it easier to aim the long shots. I can't think of a way of doing that without making it even more complicated though.

Actually (coming back to this after I wrote the rest), the rules in the book state medium range is optimum x4, long is x8, extreme is x16. That actually matches up quite nicely with the scopes (x4, x8, x12). The modifiers are -2, -4, -6 and long and extreme require a scope. Maybe elaborate by making the scopes reduce range modifiers (-2 for x4, -4 for x8, -8 for x12). It's kind of a hybrid of the normal and house rules, since I still don't get the '3000m' rating of the MRB scopes.

Auto fire - some weapons are designed for this as you well know, bi/tripods, floating barrels, gas venting to help constantly correct etc if you push the recoil too high then it discourages auto fire and I think the cost of ammo does that enough. Possibly reduce the accuracy in some arbitrary fashion, a choice of suppressing fire - a long burst or full auto rendering the sight almost useless with the shaking - and accurate single shots/short bursts??

All those things you mentioned are for reducing recoil, which is in the game. Bi/tripods, recoil baffling, waldo units, and (I think) custom gas parts are all available, and the recoil is rarely prohibitive under normal circumstances. Maybe worth, for the sake of auto/support, giving bonuses for weapon support (+1 kneeling, +2 prone) to go some way to counter it, and maybe having a bipod reduce recoil too.

Intimidation -

a)pretty much your house rule.

b)a sliding scale based on the roll achieved versus 'numbers' -

eg 50 normal carriens, 2 mutant, 3 bear-like, 1 Greater.

= .5 per normal carrien, 1 per mutant, 2 per bear-like and 3 for greater

= a 'mob mentality' score of 36. They will all stand firm until the number drops to below the roll scored on intimidate then you are back to your house rule. It gives the ops a chance to take down the big things and scare the chaff away faster thus saving money and speeding up combat.

The numbers are of course arbitrary, a well seasoned darknight op would be higher numbers, but may well peel away once overwhelming odds become apparent. A crazed rogue frother would never run etc.

Nice theory. The numbers would be better based on COOL, maybe 1/10th, but I agree that being able to break large mobs (riots, gangs, carriens, cannibals) will give us an easy way of ending a large combat that's no longer threatening without taking up loads of time and ammo.

[The Shutting Downs]

I think there can be a standard bonus for most encounters.

Main spod type (ie, those there are most of) +1 cool per 5

Slightly harder spod type (better armour, better trained, more mutated etc) +1 cool per 2

Chuffing hard leader type (top end armour, ass kicker extreme, greater carrien etc) +1 per 1

So, in a group of carrien, where you have 25 normal types, 5 mutants and one greater, the mob mentality grants each lesser carrien +8 to thier cool (+5 for the carrien mob, +2 for the 4 mutants, +1 for the greater), each mutant +1 to thier cool (5 of the same type, only 1 harder though, so no bonus), and decreases as the numbers thin, or the bigger guys get offed. This also presumes that the harder types have a higher cool anyway.

the +1 per 5 means it can give a bonus with the 5 man DN teams we saw previouslym further boosted if that team were backed up by the guys on the top floor of the tower assault.

This can be transposed into darknight, thresher, scavs etc...

[Dog Pants]

Good call, I like it. Other modifiers may still apply, but as a baseline that looks like a good starter for testing.

[Dog Pants]

Some very good rules for unarmed combat clearly based on professional fighting. Feel free to use these - I will.

http://nightfall.me/viewtopic.php?f=13& ... 9943#p9943

[Dog Pants]

Updated wiki with morale rules. Short version is you can make an intimidate roll once per round to try to scare weak opponents away.

[The Shutting Downs]

Some very good rules for unarmed combat clearly based on professional fighting. Feel free to use these - I will.

http://nightfall.me/viewtopic.php?f=13& ... 9943#p9943

The person who posted stated those rules replace all the hand-hand rules in the book, are you doing the same?

If so, can I retro my MA into Striking and my UC into Grapple?

[Dog Pants]

The person who posted stated those rules replace all the hand-hand rules in the book, are you doing the same?

If so, can I retro my MA into Striking and my UC into Grapple?

Yes. I'm reluctant to make any permanent changes just yet, but I'm happy to let people retcon stuff after changes. Since there's no real distinction between MA and UC in the MRB I can't see any issue with losing those skills and replacing them with two that combine both in useful ways.

[Dog Pants]

Right, since it's becoming something more solid during play I'll put down my thoughts on being dog-piled. It's a tactic I've always had planned for use with carriens since realistically the easiest way they can take down an armoured target is by pinning them down and smashing them until their armour gives up.

So, first up is 'slots'. You can only physically get so many carriens on a person, so for want of a better word I've called the grabbable locations slots. A normal sized person has three - torso, left arm, right arm. A large (2m+) person has five - torso, each leg, each arm. The exact distribution may vary (having them on your back, round your waist, rugby-tackling your ankles etc), but for the sake of the attack it's just a locational grapple. Each attacker makes a Grapple roll to try to grab on, plus/minus any appropriate modifiers. Any hits are allocated to slots in order of least inconvenience - weapon arm will generally be last (as the target is likely to be focusing on moving that location most).

Once all hits have been allocated slots the target must make a PHYS roll to remain standing as the horse and weight of the dog-pile threatens to tip them over. PHYS is used as it is a combination of strength and balance (DEX). It is modified by the attackers' STR (average if it differs, but the tactic is most likely to be used by 'swarms' of similar NPCs), with an additional -1 for every extra successful attacker.

Whether the target remains standing or not, on their action they have the option of trying to free themselves a location at a time in reverse order (i.e. in order of most usefulness). The defender makes a STR roll minus the opponent's STR to pry or shake them off. If both arms are held the defender's STR is halved due to not being able to grab their opponent.

The attackers may attempt to bring down their target on subsequent actions, and the defender may attempt to get loose on their actions.