First Law: Override - Combat Rules v2

Greetings friends!

Ok I don't know if you read my post yesterday, but I attempted to explain how ground combat will be working in my game First Law: Override.

There were a lot of bits that I didn't like about it and it felt over complicated and unnecessary, so I did what I always do in that respect:

I packed my bags, wrapped up warm and went to visit my Rules Guru who dwells in the most sacred of Tibetan temples.

The journey was difficult, but after many trials and tribulations I made it to the Temple of Forgotten Game Rules, and there waiting for me was my Rules Guru.

"Sansei" I said "these rules for this game! They feel like they are on the right path, but they are convoluted, clunky and inelegant!"

"Silence!!" Replied the Rules Guru "it is not the rules that are convoluted, clunky and inelegant. It is your mind!"

And so he showed me how best to clear my mind and together we explored what did work and what did not, and after further brief discussion v2 of the ruleset was born.

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Now there is no mention of melee in this. It is not needed yet. By trying to lock melee into this ruleset I am making things too complicated initially. The rules for melee will be tackled separately.

So first: THE TURN
Ok so the game works in a "All PCs go one after the other, then all AIs go one after the other".

I much prefer the I Go, You Go system of modern skirmish games, but against the AI I can foresee this causing issues.

In each turn the AI's actions are determined by it's AI programming such as "run to cover and fire your weapon" or "run at the enemy and hit them with your melee weapon" so I don't be discussing that here.

PC actions however are open as Players can actually choose what to do.

Players have a choice of 1 Utility Action and 1 Interact Action with a single exceptions (more on that in a moment).

The most common Utility Action is WALK. If you do this then you move in a direction of your choice up to your move range.

The WALK Action's only effect on the game is to move your model.

Next is AIM. When aiming, any Ballistic attack you make (shooting with a gun) receives +1 Attack Dice. This modifier is the only effect Aim has on the game.

The last Utility Action is RUN. When Running you move 150% your move range rounded up; so if your Move range is 4, you Run 6 inches. Also you get the RUN BUFF which means that anyone trying to shoot you will receive a -1 debuff to their Attack Dice. In exchange however you may NOT to an Interact Action this turn.

Over time more Utility Actions may be added, these will take the form of Racial, Sponsor and Class specific Actions.

Then there are Interact Actions.

The first is SHOOT. Quite simple, you shoot with your gun. There are no maximum ranges in the game, but your standard weapons will receive buffs or debuffs depending on how far away from the target the shooter is.

The Interact Action is the originally named INTERACT. This is simple, use this action and interact with your environment.

Every mission will have objectives you have to interact with, computers to hack, equipment to steal etc. How you interact with these objectives will vary depending on the objective at the time.

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So now we have the Actions, you can see the combos available from the outset:

You can run which will make you harder to attack and get you across the board faster.

You can walk and shoot.
You can shoot and walk.

You can walk and interact.
You can interact and walk.

You can aim and shoot.

Remember at this stage I am not tackling melee.

**I should also note that this game uses a Line of Sight system of Base2Base and if 50%+ of the target's base is obscured then they count as being under cover and as such the shooter suffers a debuff to the attack dice.

So now we know what we want to do, how do you do it?

Well every weapon has an Attack Stat, this represents the number of Attack Dice you roll. Let's say your average crappy pistol has 2 Attack, so you would roll 2 Attack Dice. You then take into account modifiers.
* Range Modifier (+1 at close range, -1 at long range)
* Cover Modifier (-1 if target is under cover).
* Modification Modifier (any scopes or special equipment that can effect the dice?)

**NOTE: You may never roll more than 10 Dice.

Next we have our Player Character's Ballistic Stat (how good you are at shooting with guns). Let's say the starting stat is 4, and in order to hit you need to roll BELOW your Ballistic Stat (3s, 2s and 1s).

So you roll your Attack Dice and see how many successes.

Next is defence.

Defence is determined by taking the Defence Stat from the target's armour (even basic Jeans & Tshirt has a Defence of 1). This stat represents the number of Defence Dice you roll.

As with shooting, Defending has a stat to roll under. This is your Toughness Stat. The default is 3, so you need to roll a 2 or a 1.

Once rolled you see how many successful defences you have made.

Then you deduct the number of successful defences from the number if successful attacks and that gives you your Wounding score of how much HP the target looses.

So the formula is:

Successful Attacks - Successful Defence = Wounds Taken.

And that really is it!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley