S4's Rewrite of the T5 Personal Combat Chapter

[Supplement Four]

Simple changes and additions to the T5 Personal Combat Chapter with the intent of correcting problems with the system.



Page 212: Multiple Targets

As a version of the Hasty rule, add this rule that allows a character to attack more than one target during a combat round. Add +1D difficulty for every additonal target. The attacker may attack as many targets as desired.

If firing at one target, add nothing to difficulty. If firing at two targets, increase difficulty by +1D. If firing at three targets, add +2D to difficulty, and so on.







Page 214: SnapFire

Change SnapFire to allow for single shot weapons. Consider the chart on page 218 correct in that SnapFire allows movement of Speed=0, Speed=1, or Speed=2.

Character with single shot weapons will use this attack type in order to move and attack in the same combat round, and characters with weapons capable of burst or automatic fire will use this attack option when running is also necessary.







Page 216: Suppression

Anytime a character uses AutoFire, the player may declare his attack to be Suppression. The firing arc (the direction of suppression) must be designated. The character is considered to be firing a lot of ammo in the firing arc in order to suppress the area, but no attack tasks are made unless the enemy (in the suppressed arc) attempts to attack.

When a suppressed enemy attacks, the character attempting Suppression is allowed to attack that enemy character first. Any number of supressed enemies can be attacked in this fashion, and the Multiple Target rule does not apply.

Thus, if no suppressed enemy fires at the character, then no attack tasks are rolled (though the ammunition is considered spent).

Any suppressed enemy must first survive an attack by the character attepting the Suppression before the enemy can attack himself.

 

[thalassogen]

Like. +1.

I am wondering why T5 could not state its rules in such an understandable way...
Please keep going and rewrite the whole chapter!

 

[Supplement Four]

Like. +1.

I am wondering why T5 could not state its rules in such an understandable way...
Please keep going and rewrite the whole chapter!

There are some issues in the T5 Combat rules that I haven't tackled yet, and since I don't play the game, I'm not sure if I will address them.

If/when I make changes, though--changes that really makes sense--I'll continue in this thread.

Hopefully, we'll see some T5 errata making some of my changes moot.

 

[Supplement Four]

Ammunition

T5 does not track ammunition usage, and the GunMakers do not create magazines or ammo capacity. HERE are some ideas for bringing ammo tracking into your game. There are at least three different ideas in that thread.

Here, I will pick the most simple idea in keeping with T5's abstract combat round.

AMMO DICE: Designate two dice from the Fighting Task difficulty to represent the ammo dice. These dice will pull double duty. If rolling 3D for the task, for example, all three dice are added normally to determine the success of the task, but two of those 3D are designated as the ammo dice and are read seperately after the task has been thrown.

It helps to use two different colored dice as the ammo dice to easily seperate them from the other difficulty dice.

When the ammo dice show doubles, this indicates that one or more magazines for the weapon have been emptied.





AIMEDFIRE: When the ammo dice show doubles, this indicates that one magazine has been emptied.

"Magazine" is used interchangably with "clips", "speed loaders", "brick", "drum" and the like.

Reloading is performed automatically within the combat round.





SNAPFIRE or AUTOFIRE: When the ammo dice show doubles, note the number of the doubles (1 through 6). When doubles show on the ammo dice, this indicates that one or more magazines have been emptied. The number of the doubles indicates the number of magazines emptied (to a minimum of one).

Thus, if a SnapFire task is made, and the ammo dice result in 3,3, this means that 3 magazines were emptied.

Skill: A trained, skilled character will use less ammunition than a novice. To reflect this, lower the number of magazines used by the amount of the character's skill, to a minimum of one.

Thus, if a Skill-3 character conducts AutoFire, and the ammo dice show 5, 5, then two magazines are expended.

High Capacity Magazines: Weapons that have what the Ref designates as high capacity magazines (The Improved Pistol-6 shown on page 244 of T5 uses a 3mm round with a magazine capcity of 200--see Magazine S on page 248.) can warrant modifiers applied to a character's skill when considering magazine usage.

Low Capacity Magazines: Weapons that have what the Ref designates as low capacity magazines will use the SnapFire/AutoFire method of determining magazine usage, even when AimedFire is attempted, and Skill cannot be used to lower the magazine count.





Ammo Code: If a Ref wants to regulate ammo use with regards to specific weapons, he simply needs to write an Ammo Code along with the weapon's extension or LongName. For example, the ammo code M=3+ could be added to a weapon with a large magazine. This ammo code means that doubles of 3, 4, 5, or 6 will be ignored, and thus, only doubles of 1 or 2 will designate the emptying of a magazine.

Likewise, an ammo code of M=6 means that any ammo dice double showing 6,6 is ignored and does not indicate ammo usage. Doubles of any other number are used as described above.

Weapons with no ammo code use the rules as described above.