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WrattsStep 6: Entering, or staying in a cone of fire?
Provokes a Stress check, subject to GM’s decisions. Failure forces you to stay the fuck out of harm’s way!
Check penalties impairing characters in a cone of fire apply as normally given in the rulebook.
(-10% Shift to all checks for anyone in a field of light suppressive fire <4-10 bullets>, -20% for moderate <11-20>, and -30% for major <21+>)
Firearms Cherries
– Aeon Flux: Handled as the Melee cherry given in the rulebook, under the name „Monkey Dodge“.
– Bateau: The hit(s) are treated as if they had been dealt with armor-piercing ammo.
– Desperado: When firing at multiple targets, the GM does not divvy the damage score, instead the GM deals the basic resulting amount of damage to each target.
– Equilibrium: When using two guns simultaneously, you don’t have to divide your skill rating for the next check when using both of them at the same time.
– Gunslinger: You get to fire an extra single shot at any target of choice, without any penalties.
– Knock Down: Handled as the equally named Melee cherry given in the rulebook.
– Lone Star: Disarms your target immediately, forcing her to drop her weapon in a random direction.
– More Pain: Handled as the equally named Melee cherry given in the rulebook.
– Quick Reload: Allows you to reload your firearm in the same round.
– Turning Tides: Handled as the equally named Melee cherry given in the rulebook.
– Wolfwood: Ignore the firearm’s maximum damage rating altogether.
WrattsStep 3: Calculate damage.
This is as given in the rulebook, but you add the number of ammo spent to the roll result.
Crits deal damage equal to the maximum damage rating. Fumbles let the GM choose; either you shot yourself or a different target for minimum 20 points of damage. Match failures cause a jam or misfire, depending on the weapon type. Match successes deal damage equal to the firearms skill, but naturally limited by the maximum damage; and if gunnery is your obsession skill, you get firearms cherries to pick from. Basically, the damage dealt by firearms is equal to what you rolled (body armor causes it to be computed like melee damage instead – the sum of the dice, instead of the final roll result). Additional shots and other stunts may modify this result, as given in the steps.
If multiple targets get hit (intentionally or not), the GM divvies the damage score among them. There’s only one roll for all targets, and remember that a Focus Shift is only applied to a single target!
Step 4: This is a painful one.
The GM might rule that certain weapons (i.e. a shotgun, or rocket launcher) deal a minimum damage, no matter what was rolled. Ouch.
This might turn that measly 06 / 6-point damage into a whopping 20-point shotgun blast, or even 50, if the GM makes the situation call for it.
Generally, a firearm has a minimum damage rating of (maximum damage / 4). However, when firing multiple shots, there is no minimum damage.
Step 5: Here comes the recoil, baby!
A weapon’s recoil nerfs any Focus Shift bonuses on the following round (although some of the gun-toting maniacs will compensate this by empyting their clip in the first round, and maybe reloading the clip on the following round or dodging enemy attacks). It also limits the amount of shots you can fire in the subsequent round without further penalty, based on the type of firearm:
– fully automatic weapon (i.e. assault rifle) à up to 12 shots
– burst fire weapon (i.e. SMG) à up to 6 shots
– semi-automatic weapon (i.e. semi-automatic pistol) à up to 3 shots
– single shot (i.e. shotgun) à 1 only, no more
If you try to continue firing more shots, thusly exceeding the recoil limit in the subsequent rounds, you gain cumulative shifts of –10%, up to a maximum of –30%.
Note though, that a tough motherfucker might have a Body rating that exceeds the sum of the ammo spent and the weapon’s maximum damage – in this case, she may ignore the recoil effects! Remember that for single-shot weapons firing multiple shots at a single target, that the maximum damage rating is doubled – this is considered when checking for recoil, too. If using two guns simultaneously in one hand each, the recoil of both guns are summed up to a total for recoil purposes.
WrattsMultiple Shots, Suppressive Fire, and Fully Automatic Fire
All the original rules on these subjects are superseded by the following modifications. Some of these suggestions might conflict with eachother, but the general idea is that the most reasonable one is applied to the situation in question.
– A single-shot weapon (i.e. Shotguns, hold-out pistols, revolvers), allow you only one shot per round, however two shots if your Firearms skill exceeds 30%.
– All other firearms (i.e. semi-automatic pistols, SMGs, fully-automatics) allow you to empty their entire clip within one round, given that the actual weapon allows such a rate of fire (rpm – this is up to the common GM’s and player’s jurisdiction of knowing real-life weapons).
The firearms checks have no shifts, unless there are other advantages or disadvantages given by the GM. Sucker shots can be done with firearms too, but they are called “John Woo maneuvers”, i.e. sliding over the ground while shooting, down the stairway railing, etc.
Step 1: Called shot restrictions.
Called shots can only be taken as a bonus on single shots without any penalty.
Leg shots have a minimum roll of 30, arm, hand, and feet shots 40, and head shots have 50 with a bonus shift of +10%.
Light burst fire (2-3 bullets spent) raises the called shot difficult with a shift of –10%.
Heavy burst fire (4-10 bullets spent) raises the called shot difficulty with a shift of –20%.
Fully automatic fire (11 or more bullets spent) raises the called shot difficulty with a shift of –30%.
Step 2: Choose a cone of fire – narrow or wide.
à Wide cone: Maximum damage of the firearm is applied as normal – a limit for damage. The number of ammo spent poses a bonus to any minimum roll for people to dodge bullets in the cone of fire.
à Narrow cone: Ignore the weapon’s maximum damage, instead, add the number of ammo spent to the effective damage roll and the maximum damage rating.
à Special: Sawed shotguns with buckshots at medium range or common shotguns with buckshots at long range both fire in a wide cone, giving a minimum roll to dodge its blast cone, equal to (maximum damage / 4). Sawed shotguns with buckshots at short range or common shotguns with buckshots at medium range both fire in a narrow cone, giving a bonus damage rating equal to (maximum damage / 4).
Note: Firing a single-shot weapon twice in the same round at the same target doubles the maximum damage!
WrattsMultipost is nearing.
Here are some custom rules I’ve been tailoring recently. They don’t necessarily make things more or less realistic than they are in UA, but they certainly meet my requirements of keeping the rules as light as possible while allowing some complexity in combat tactics.
Called Shots
These are in addition to the standard Called Shots rules.
Melee weapons deal firearms damage on called shots if they’re done with a „penetrating“ type weapon of +6 damage bonus or higher.
Damage Codes
Every wound measuring above 5 points of damage is considered a „serious“, or rather, Major wound. Roll a Body check in this case, with a minimum roll equal to the damage. On a failure, the character loses her next turn! Furthermore, should the damage score exceed the character’s Body rating, the character in question gets knocked down (see the Combat section of the rulebook to refer to rules concerning characters getting knocked down).
In terms of knocking down people with a melee weapon: Multiply the weapon’s damage rating by 10 – if this rating and the maximum damage rating together exceed the injured target’s Body rating, the target gets knocked down. Sprint attacks also double this rating for knockdown purposes.
There are no penalties applied to damage taken, as long as the remaining Wound Points are above zero. Once a character reaches zero wound points, she is knocked out cold for an amount of rounds equal to the negative Wound Point rating she’s currently at. Then, once having regained consciousness again, she can only take partial, heavily impaired actions (at shifts of -30%). If she gets knocked out yet again now, she goes comatose.
A character dies if her sum of negative Wound Points exceeds her Body rating. Lights out, fin.
To figure out how badly you’re hurt during a fight, spend a full round and perform a diagnostical First Aid / Medicine check on yourself (note that this imposes a Major check as you’re in combat!). This will only give you a rough overview and idea of how badly a character has been hurt („You have a gunshot wound in your shoulder which might require some medical attention, but the knife stab wound in your chest – dangerously close to where your heart would be – is ejecting worrisome amounts of blood.“).
WrattsI’ve written a few UA mods for different settings, among others the setting of Final Fantasy VII.
Something I came across is that the Madness Meter of “Unnatural” doesn’t fit in as well in a world setting where people are significantly more superstitious, exposed and confronted with the supernatural; far more than in our own real-life world — as UA’s setting imposes. The Unnatural stress type implies that the majority of people simply discredit the existance thereof, it reflects how their mind goes snap when they’re proven wrong.
Now, I read that in this draft’s terms, the majority is aware of the unnatural, and fear or demonize it.
I’d suggest a different fifth Madness Meter to replace the Unnatural, instead a Madness Meter of “Divinity” — a sort of “Helplessness” towards the Divine and supernatural, towards the incapability of controlling your own “fate”, and the supernatural powers that be merrily dictating the direction of your path.
I found that this worked much better in a more fantasy-based setting with an UA mod.
WrattsCheers from Switzerland, here.
Hey, it’s a shame this game gets less fame than the other RPGs out there, but hell, as long as you can always rack up a good group of players, it’s guaranteed fun.
On the upside, the fact that alot of experienced RPGamers don’t know it is a great thing when you introduce them into UA — in-game.
As in, putting them through traumatic experiences, making them thirsty for finding out the “truth”, and seeing how they all fall for this game above all others due to the super-fast and simple rules, eventually becoming like drug addicts to the game.
So, considering the “surprise effect”, I guess it has its upsides.
WrattsAmbients, soundtracks, and a broad mix of anything else from Indie Rock like The White Stripes all the way to Industrial like Nine Inch Nails, whatever happens to fit the current mood.
In fact, The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” was the “title song” to start off every game in a certain series of sessions I ran.
WrattsOr maybe he’s only a clued-in mundane, who happens to have taped something really freaky — so whacko that the OU wants to get into the dark of it.
Good ol’ Ricky Fitts.
Thanks for reminding me, he’d make a good GMC for my campaign.
But if I had to make a school out of those ideas of yours Arcturus, I’d pro’lly give him a taboo of a “reversed fetish program”, meaning that he needs to regularly film for fetish instead of blind consumption of other people’s works. And he couldn’t just film anything, but things out of the ordinary: freak accidents, natural anomalies, dead bodies on symbolic backgrounds, the girl next door undressing every night, etc.
Maybe instead of formulae, he would have “works”, not unlike a Narqui? Meaning that (for minors) he’d have insights and inner growth from watching stuff that fits his fetish; and the significant works being tapes that are severely edited, mingled with special effects and audio complementation, which will ultimately change himself and other people when they view them (House of Renunciation would love these!).
Just some random ideas off the back of my head.
WrattsIndeed the reinterpretation of the “Champion” is probably the root of the MVP.
I never had too much trouble coping with the MVP for one main reason: The Greek Olympics of ancient days. In a sense, the power of sportsmanship reaches very far back in the collective unconscious, as far as I can judge, and has always held power over the people all the way into modern days. It’s kinda misleading that Micheal Jordan is one of the very few suspected avatars in history according to canon, while a few other good examples would have probably been Milo of Kroton, Diagoras of Rhodes, Melankomas of Caria, Polydamas of Skotoussa, and Theagenes of Thasos. All Greek olympic champions. They didn’t have TV back then but the Olympics always had tons of fans.
Not to mention the Roman Gladiators! That is, as long as they weren’t proved to be true criminals… Gladiator, anyone?
WrattsIn a nutshell, the Stereotype, to me, is a powerful role model that is anchored in alot of people’s minds, while the Archetype is a primeval force that feeds upon something specific in everyone’s mind.
(Which is the main reason why I don’t like Archetype/Avatar designs that seem too modern or too “un-rooted” in the Collective Unconscious to qualify as a truly ancient Archetype.)
“The Mother” is a good example of a good candidate of being a primeval role (‘cuz who doesn’t have a mother, eh?). Something like “The Terrorist” however is not, because if we’d ask alot of individuals, we’d get alot of arguments on what the true nature of that archetype is, “The Boogeyman” on the other hand might be a good one, because even if there was no “Boogeyman” in your childhood, you probably just as well learned about “Boogeymen” (of one or the other sorts) in your adult life.
The bottom line for me though, is that there is no specific line to draw for the Archetypes, rather there is potential everywhere, and that more foothold in the Collective Unconscious means more power to the Archetype.
Applying this to “That Guy At The Party”-archetype, in my game this would mean that an avatar of that path might have weak taboo but also weak power that he gains from the Collective Unconscious.
And no matter how you correlate the game to the Occult Underground (if you do at all), I’m just wondering if the OU people would get as much as a laugh out of “The Dave, The Guy That Everybody Knows”-Godwalker as they’ve gotten out of the “Guy With Pencils Stuck In His Eyes”-Avatar.
Yet another thing to consider is that, supposedly, once all 333 spots in the Invisible Clergy are taken, the world ends, or some cosmic shizzle like that. Having Stereotypes fill in spots like the Archetypes would suggest all hell breaking loose very soon.
WrattsIronically, being players in Switzerland, our games take place in North America for the most part.
So far, I’ve been personally trying to stay away from involving Europe too much because I didn’t want to deviate too much from the canon of the game setting.
But considering that some of the next games in the campaign I’m running are going to take the troupe of player characters overseas as well, I’ll see what I can do – particularly the areas of France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and even parts of the Balkan area will be offering keystones in the campaign, and that means I’ll be coming up with original stuff just for the areas by jotting them all down.
My sketchbook is normally just one big mess of ideas and scribbled notes (can you say “Freestyler GM”?), but I’ll see if I can distill something worthwhile from the material over time.
Unfortunately may take me a while from now.
Is there a time limit for this project?