Re: (TFT) Doing damage modernly in the magical world of cidri

["John J Hyland" <johnnyboytmm@juno.com>]

Lots of interesting posts on this one, I thought I'd throw a simple set of TFT suggestions into the mix.
I am a big playability fan in the playability VS realism debate.  I want combat to move along quickly, while involving some tactical decisions, that's why I play TFT essentially straight out of the box, I have not modified the combat rules much at all, though I like the idea of RM's attack and defense rolls, but have not put them into practice.

All that having been said, I'd go with something real simple, using the 2 guns in TFT as a jumping off point.  First, sealed modern shells are not impacted by the gunpowder eating microorganisms, hand filled local replacements would be, until the manufacturer either involves a cleanse spell in the manufacturing process, or develops a technologically equivalent solution (sort of a clean room for bullets).

Moderm weapons ignore some archaic armor.  Light pistols ignore 2 pts, heavy pistols and shotguns ignore 3, rifles ignore 4 or 5, railguns and lazers ignore ALL mundane armor, and the first 5 pts of magical enchantment. (Magic should help a little against everything).

Damage something like 

Light pistol - 2 dice
Heavy pistol - 2+3
Shotgun 3+3
Rifle  4dice
Lazer/Railgun/etc (from 3 to 10 dice depending on size and GM desire for destruction)

And some sort of fire multiple times a round with skill and dex rules to make a skilled gunman fairly deadly.  As to frequency of fir for the advanced weapons, I'd keep them like guns, or maybe keep them at 1 shot per turn due to cooling requirements etc.  I just don't want them to be that deadly (I have a soft spot in my heart for the chainmail wearing swordsman fighting futuristic soldiers)

For automatic weapons, use the size of the gun to determine armor stoppage, triple the number of damage dice, and do away with the second attack each round - there is no such thing as skilled machine gun use in melee as far as I am concerned.

For military rifles that have an intermediate setting, firing off 3 or 4 bullets per trigger pull, and designed to do so without dramatically reducing accuracy, I'd just double the damage and again do away with the second shot.

Modern/futuristic armor might need 3 ratings (Yuck) 1 for melee weapons, one for bullets, and one for energy weapons (though only future armors really need the last one).  

So a NYC cop's bullet proof vest migh be 2/7/0
and advanced anti-lazer reflec armore  2/3/10
while a light space infantry combat array maybe 12/15/20

with railguns maybe using the bullet defense but ignoring modern (non-futuristic) armor just like archaic armor.  


I might also change the SHOCK rules in TFT for modern weapons to weaken them.  Essentially if you take 5 pts from a modern gun before your attack, you get this round's attack BEFORE the minus to dex, it affects your next rounds attack, rather than the immediate attack the way melee damage does.  I'd still have 8 points drop you immediately, but I want to give the big ax weilding barbarian some small chance to bash the guy who just shot him in the gut with a pistol.

Also, reverse missiles impacts all modern distance weapons, even lazers and energy beams (after all it reveses magical lightning).

Obviously, this is all WAY over on the fast and simple end of the spectrum, but that is how I run my game.

In no way do I claim that it in any way realistically models what would happen if you really fired a hand-held railgun at a charging barbarian weilding an enchanted greataxe, and protected by ironflesh, but I think it would be fast and fun to play.

John

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