T5 combat done the Licheking way

[Licheking]

This is a set of houserules and interpretations of the T5 combat system and isn't meant as fix or comment on the rules as written, just the way my group and i play.

Ok first thing i did was make the combat round 6 seconds instead of 1 minute. My group and I have been playing MT for decades and thats the way we like our combat detailed and tactical.

Range bands are now read as the top end of the band not some mid-point.
Range 1 = 0 - 5m
Range 2 = 6 - 50m
Range 3 = 51 - 150m
Range 4 = 151 - 500m
Range 5 = 501 - 1000m
Range 6 = 1001 - 5000m

Similarly Speed is converted into how many squares on a traveller deckplan you can move.
Speed 1 = 5 squares or 7.5m (4.5 kph)
Speed 2 = 10 squares or 15m (9 kph)
Speed 3 = 20 squares or 30m (18 kph)
Speed 4 = 30 squares or 45m (27 kph)
Speed 5 = 50 squares or 75m (45 kph)
Speed 6 = 100 squares or 150m (90 kph)

Everyone can have an Action, this can either be Fire a weapon, Use a piece of equipment, Move or Use a Psionic Power. Move can be combined with any of the other actions but then applies its speed as a negative modifier on your task asset. (eg if you are moving at Speed 3 then you have a -3 on your C+S+K).

 

[Licheking]

Initiative is determined as normal with one side declaring it wishes to be the attacker which then makes the other side the defender by default unless they wish to try and seize the initiative. Use the Disrupted Initiative Task on P215 as normal going to Tactics if neither side has Leader. Tactics points can be used on this roll.

The attacker has a choice of shooting action they are:-
SnapFire = Up to 3 Shots can be fired with SnapFire the first has a +1D, +2D on the 2nd and +3D on the 3rd, if after each dice is added you are still under your Fighting Asset then you have hit with that round. (e.g. Our attacker C+S+K=12 shoots at mr Bad Guy at 20m away this is Range-2 so is a 2D task, but its SnapFire so 3D, and gets 8 so a hit, then they roll another dice this comes up 3 for a total of 11 which means the next shot has hit as well, we then add another dice for a result of 4 and a total of 15 which means the last shot missed, although if the dice had come up a 1 then all 3 shots would have hit.) I do not add 2D to damage, you instead do the damage for however many shots have hit.

Aimed Shot = Only 1 aimed shot can be fired per round, and you cannot be moving when doing it. You may reduce the Range to target by 1 or pick a hit location. This attack uses 1 shot.

AutoFire (Burst) = Up to 3 Bursts can be fired per action and can either be used for extra damage in which case use the procedure above, or for a better Aim in which case reduce the Range by 1. A burst uses 3 shots.

AutoFire (Full) = Up to 3 Full Burst can be fired per action they follow the same rules as AutoFire (Burst) above but you can fire at up to 3 targets or the same one 3 times. AutoFire (Full) uses 10 shots

Suppressive = The Attacker designates an area (triangle) emanating from them to the range wanted and with a base of no more than 10 squares wide. Anyone who sticks their head (or any other body part for that matter) up can be attacked by the shooter. This is done normal but at +1D for suppressive fire and ignoring the targets movement mods. This takes 30 shots to do.

Assuming we have a hit we can move on to Penetration and Damage. The roll to hit is as written but with Movement mods from both Attacker and target as a penalty to the C+S+K.

 

[whulorigan]

I believe you also had a special set of house rules (or an interpretation of the RAW) for armor penetration and applying wounds to PCs/NPCs as well, IIRC?

 

[Licheking]

I have expanded the Effects to give some different results and injuries.

Flash = works as written
Slash = as written but bleeding is done at 1 point per round
Bang = as written
Cold = as written
EMP = as written with an additional stun for Rating rounds, if an End roll is failed using EMP rating for the difficulty.
Hot = as written
Pen = dice are doubled and taken off the AR, but whatever damage goes through is halved.
Bullet = as written, the benchmark
Wound = as written
Corrode = Armour degrades by rating if roll doesn't penetrate armour, and reduces the AR to 0 if it does penetrate.
Blast = the rating becomes the area of effect with the roll divided by the rating and applied to all within the area. (e.g. Blast-5 would be an area 5x5 squares or 7.5mx7.5m and the result from the 5 dice is divided by 5 and applied to everyone/thing in this area.
Frag = Doubled against people, but halved against armour and does no armour degradation if it doesn't penetrate and only 1 point if it does.
Burn = as written, but healing takes twice as long
Rad = as written but make an End roll using the Rad rating as the difficulty and if this fails reduce the genetic code of the character by the Rad rating in 1 random stat. If this reduces the Genetic stat to 0 then the DNA of this person can no longer produce good clones and the victim has some long term radiation sickness, reduce C1, C2 or C3 by the Rad rating.
Elec = as written but with an additional Stun rating equal to the Elec Rating minus 3
Infection = stops healing taking place, each day make an End roll versus the Infection rating if you fail then the infection gets worse by 1, if you make it it goes down 1. Once the infection is gone then you can start to heal normally.
Poison = Depends on the whims of the poison or GM
Grav = Does armour Degradation regardless of penetration or not.
Pain = as written, but End roll using the Pain rating as the difficulty or scream/make noise (no stealth)
Psi = as written
Stench = as written plus End roll against the Stench rating or vomit, you must make this roll each round until you make it.
Tranq = as written
Magnetic = as written
Sound = as written plus make an End roll against the Sound rating or be deaf for the rating in rounds.
Gas = as written and with additional effects based on GM whim
Vacc = as written

Roll the effect dice compare it to the applicable protection rating, anything higher than the protection rating goes through and damages the target check the severity chart on page 232. Also roll for Hit location which is on p.222.

Armour degradation occurs when anything damaging hits the armour. Anything that gets through and hurts the target within reduces the protection value by the effect number (e.g. Bullet-4 would reduce the AR by 4, Sound-3 would reduce SoundProof by 3). Anything lower than the protection fails to penetrate and unless stated otherwise reduce the protection in that location by 1.

Most hits that get through will be divided by 2 and applied to the severity chart on p.232. So if 4 points gets through then it is a Severity 2 injury. 2d are then rolled and the target decides which dice comes of which attribute from C1, C2 or C3. The few exceptions for this procedure are listed on p.222 or 225.

If the damage is more than Severity 6 (12 points), then whatever is left over can be carried on to the next logical target whether that is a friend or foe or piece of equipment. We found that this led to the right weapon for the job, no fusion guns on board ship, beam lasers for mass unarmed foes.

 

[Licheking]

I believe you also had a special set of house rules (or an interpretation of the RAW) for armor penetration and applying wounds to PCs/NPCs as well, IIRC?

Was writing them down as you responded

 

[Licheking]

Ammunition is handled as follows.

Weapon Type	Capacity	Ammo Size	Descriptor	Capacity Mod
Artillery - Gun	TL	2	Assault	x3
Artillery - Gatling	TLx10	1	Battle	x2
Artillery - Cannon	TL/2	2	Combat	x5
Artillery - Autocannon	TLx3	2	Hunting	/2
Long Gun - Rifle	TL	1	Machine	x5
Long Gun - Carbine	TL	1	Fusion	x2
Handgun - Pistol	TL	1	Plasma	x3
Handgun - Revolver	6	1	Laser	x10
Shotgun	TL/2	1	Gauss	x5
Machinegun	TLx5	1	Body	/2
Projector	TL	1	Snub	/2
Designator	TLx5	1	VRF	x100
Launcher - Launcher	1	3	Fixed	x5
Launcher - Multi	TL/2	3	Vehicle/Turret	x2
		-1 (min 1)	Light/Very Light	x2
		+1	Heavy/Very Heavy	/2
		+1	Over Sized	/3
		+2	Titan	/5

So to find the ammo capacity for a weapon look up the type on the left side this gives you the base capacity then find the descriptor if any and modify it by that. If more than 1 descriptor applies either apply all or pick one that makes sense.

 

[Licheking]

damn the table collapsed, those things along the top are supposed to be columns and then the info below was organized to be under them. Well hope you can make sense of it.

 

[Licheking]

Spectacular Success or Failure, we have dealt with this by only applying it if the roll succeeded or failed which made more sense to us.

I have done something similar for space combat.

 

[whulorigan]

Pen = dice are doubled and taken off the AR, but whatever damage goes through is halved.

Just to be clear, when you say "dice are doubled", you mean the number of dice rolled is doubled, correct? (e.g. Pen-4 means AR is reduced by 8 points, but the damage rolled on 4D6 is divided by 2 before being applied as wounds).

 

[Licheking]

Sorry no, Pen is rolled so in your example Pen-4 would be 4 dice then the result from them is doubled and taken from the armour. If there are any points that go through then these are quartered. But this rarely happens in our games and Pen is usually paired with another type of damage like Burn on laser weapons so any damage from the Burn dice would be halved once it got through the remaining armour.

A typical Laser in our game is Burn-5, Pen-2 (A-LPM--D), so you always roll Pen first and we get 7 say, this is doubled to 14, against a Vacc Suit (AHVSM-D) Ar-28, this would reduce its Ar to 14, then you roll the Burn of 5D, and get 18, applied against the remaining Ar-14 4 point get through, because Pen was needed, the damage is halved to 2, which then provides a Severity 1 Injury (1D applied to C1, C2 or C3). Because the shot penetrated the Ar is reduced by 7 so the next shot will be u against Ar-21 if the hit is in the same location.

Hope that makes more sense, i have found it hard to write these down, since they have become second nature to our group now. Any further questions i would be happy to answer.

 

[Licheking]

Thanks for fixing the table

 

[Supplement Four]

Ammunition is handled as follows.

Weapon Type	Capacity	Ammo Size	Descriptor	Capacity Mod
Artillery - Gun	TL	2	Assault	x3
Artillery - Gatling	TLx10	1	Battle	x2
Artillery - Cannon	TL/2	2	Combat	x5
Artillery - Autocannon	TLx3	2	Hunting	/2
Long Gun - Rifle	TL	1	Machine	x5
Long Gun - Carbine	TL	1	Fusion	x2
Handgun - Pistol	TL	1	Plasma	x3
Handgun - Revolver	6	1	Laser	x10
Shotgun	TL/2	1	Gauss	x5
Machinegun	TLx5	1	Body	/2
Projector	TL	1	Snub	/2
Designator	TLx5	1	VRF	x100
Launcher - Launcher	1	3	Fixed	x5
Launcher - Multi	TL/2	3	Vehicle/Turret	x2
		-1 (min 1)	Light/Very Light	x2
		+1	Heavy/Very Heavy	/2
		+1	Over Sized	/3
		+2	Titan	/5

So to find the ammo capacity for a weapon look up the type on the left side this gives you the base capacity then find the descriptor if any and modify it by that. If more than 1 descriptor applies either apply all or pick one that makes sense.

I like this, Licheking. Interesting stuff. I like the direction you took. I'm going to add this page to my "T5 Fixes"--a link bringing views to this page, offering T5 player an altertative from my idea on ammo tracking.

I see capacity...how do you track it, btw?



BTW, you left out the descriptor "Improved", as with the ImP-6 Improved Pistol shown on page 244. That's a 200 round magazine used with the weapon, holding 3mm bullets (Magazine S on page 248).

Also, you've got "/2" for "Hunting"? The Precision Hunting Carbine-11 shown on page 245 uses a 200 round magazine that also includes a binary propellant reservoir (Magazine L on page 248). How does one duplicate that weapon using your system?

 

[Supplement Four]

BTW, it's obvious that your combat system is COMPLETELY different from what is written in the T5 Personal Combat chapter. It's apples and oranges--heavily house ruled.

But, interesting.

 

[Supplement Four]

Ammunition is handled as follows.

Weapon Type	Capacity	Ammo Size	Descriptor	Capacity Mod
Artillery - Gun	TL	2	Assault	x3
Artillery - Gatling	TLx10	1	Battle	x2
Artillery - Cannon	TL/2	2	Combat	x5
Artillery - Autocannon	TLx3	2	Hunting	/2
Long Gun - Rifle	TL	1	Machine	x5
Long Gun - Carbine	TL	1	Fusion	x2
Handgun - Pistol	TL	1	Plasma	x3
Handgun - Revolver	6	1	Laser	x10
Shotgun	TL/2	1	Gauss	x5
Machinegun	TLx5	1	Body	/2
Projector	TL	1	Snub	/2
Designator	TLx5	1	VRF	x100
Launcher - Launcher	1	3	Fixed	x5
Launcher - Multi	TL/2	3	Vehicle/Turret	x2
		-1 (min 1)	Light/Very Light	x2
		+1	Heavy/Very Heavy	/2
		+1	Over Sized	/3
		+2	Titan	/5

So to find the ammo capacity for a weapon look up the type on the left side this gives you the base capacity then find the descriptor if any and modify it by that. If more than 1 descriptor applies either apply all or pick one that makes sense.

@Licheking

I wonder if we took your idea above and married to THE AMMO DICE AND AMMO CODE ideas I have, if that wouldn't be a pretty neat system.

Using the Ammo Codes I suggest, we would never have to figure magazine capacity for any weapon--as just as the T5 GunMakers don't computer. Using your matrix above, or something like it, Ammo Codes could be assigned weapons.

From there, the Ammo Dice method is used where we don't worry about ammo usage except when doubles show up on the ammo dice.

What do you think?

 

[Licheking]

BTW, you left out the descriptor "Improved", as with the ImP-6 Improved Pistol shown on page 244. That's a 200 round magazine used with the weapon, holding 3mm bullets (Magazine S on page 248).

Also, you've got "/2" for "Hunting"? The Precision Hunting Carbine-11 shown on page 245 uses a 200 round magazine that also includes a binary propellant reservoir (Magazine L on page 248). How does one duplicate that weapon using your system?

I completely ignored the magazine page for a more complete and uniform system. But if you want to use the ammo capacities from that chart use them instead. I left out Improved because i didn't feel that it would improve ammo capacity as its only a slight improvement over the original, the Descriptors i used i wanted to reflect MT ammo capacities and Improved really doesn't cover that.

BTW, it's obvious that your combat system is COMPLETELY different from what is written in the T5 Personal Combat chapter. It's apples and oranges--heavily house ruled.

But, interesting.

Its not completely different, the Task system is the same, the Effects are there just expanded, I do Armour degradation differently agreed, and the Injury section is open to my interpretation as it is to yours. The only thing i can see that is very different is that i don't use STAMP and instead i use the MT combat round, switching from one side to the other until all participants have gone. And ok i have changed the SnapFire/AutoFire/Suppressive fire rules to make the combat more tactical but that is all down to changing the combat round length. You could just say the combat round is 6 seconds and use the system as written and it would still work, since the T5 combat system is so abstracted that the time frame is actually meaningless.

I see capacity...how do you track it, btw?

Check the various Firing actions this tells you how many shots are used for each type of action, the player just tallies up how many shots are used and then they know when they need to reload.

 

[Licheking]

I wonder if we took your idea above and married to THE AMMO DICE AND AMMO CODE ideas I have, if that wouldn't be a pretty neat system.

Use as you wish, but your Ammo Dice doesn't work if your only rolling 1D to hit i.e at R-1. I personally don't like the random nature of the Ammo Dice, and any good combatant can keep track of their shots left and will reload at every opportunity to make sure they are at full capacity. Ammo Dice could work for the untrained, but then i would have thought that most weapon beyond TL-8 will have ammo count readouts (like in Aliens) so even the untrained can keep track of their own ammo.

 

[Supplement Four]

Use as you wish, but your Ammo Dice doesn't work if your only rolling 1D to hit i.e at R-1.

I don't think the 1D thing will come up often with firearms since 1D range is 5M or less (that's shooting someone that you're standing, speaking to). But, when it does, simply roll and extra die that doesn't count towards the task.

I personally don't like the random nature of the Ammo Dice, and any good combatant can keep track of their shots left and will reload at every opportunity to make sure they are at full capacity.

No problem. It's just a suggestion for people looking for a simple solution. It's quick and easy and gets the job done. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

I did put in the bit about skill, though, that makes highly trained people less likely to empty a mag.

 

[Epee]

In the action (combat style) shooting competitions I have been in a large factor which comes into play, right behind ahooting accurately, is reloading quickly, efficiently and surely. I've seen competitors start out like some kind of robo-cop only to blow a certain lead by dropping a magazine, dropping loose rounds (depending on tech-level), or even grabbing the cell phone from their belt and jamming it into the magazine well :rofl:!

I would suggest a 3D task roll for reloading with the weapon's tech level as the base target, modified by weapon skill and stage modifiers as follows: Experimental= -2, Prototype/Early= -1, Basic= 0, Standard= +1, Improved/Modified= +2, Advanced= +3, Ultimate= +4.

While adding more die rolls, which is generally a bad thing, this should ramp-up the anxiety and excitment in a gun battle.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

It happens.

I don't think the 1D thing will come up often with firearms since 1D range is 5M or less (that's shooting someone that you're standing, speaking to). /snips/

That is actually the range most gunfights happen at. Shoot outs often occur at a range of under 21 ft or 7 yds or about 6 meters. So, that 1D roll can come up a lot for Adeventurers. For Mercenaries not so much if they aren't doing urban ops, but if they are, they are going to get a lot of CQB and 1 or 2D rolls.

EDIT:And Épée thanks for the mess up list, the cell phone is a new one, haven't seen that one yet. Perhaps I should hunt the YouTube for of that.

 

[Epee]

As skirmish rules I like the idea of "Ammo Dice"; roll this and you need to reload. However, for role-playing an adventure where personal load is used long-term, say in a cross-country trek, I think someting that allows a more detailed or personal monitoring of ammo expendature & retention is called for.

Don't give up on the idea. It may just need some refining. What the final tell will be is if keeping track of the necessary modifiers for Ammo Dice to produce the desired results is easier than counting bullets off of a personal load sheet.

EDIT:And Épée thanks for the mess up list, the cell phone is a new one, haven't seen that one yet. Perhaps I should hunt the YouTube for of that.

I saw that real life in the days before smartphones or even much of an internet. I suppose if you link reloading to the task system that would be a catastrophic failure (the phone wedged fast in the mag well).