Talk:Aberrant 2.0 Combat Alterations

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Aberrant 2.1 Combat

Miscellaneousness

Qualities: Character qualities now act as attribute specialties, increasing the attribute by 1 in situations where they apply (this includes for fixed values). This does weaken qualities when applied to dice pools above 10, but strengthens them for dice pools below 10.

Mega-Attributes: A mega-attribute allows a character to 'cheat' and get results that are unlikely to outright impossible for a normal person. A character with a Mega-Attribute may reroll all 10s whenever that attribute is used in conjunction with any ability.

Size

Size is now less extreme, with each dot of 'Size' representing roughly a doubling of mass and a commensurate increase in height. Humans are still Size 0. Negative Sizes still exist.

  • Size -6 ~= 0.5-1 kg
  • Size -5 ~= 1-2 kg
  • Size -4 ~= 2-5 kg
  • Size -3 ~= 5-10 kg
  • Size -2 ~= 10-20 kg
  • Size -1 ~= 20-40 kg
  • Size 0 ~= 40-125 kg
  • Size 1 ~= 126-250 kg
  • Size 2 ~= 251-500 kg
  • Size 3 ~= 0.5-1t
  • Size 4 ~= 1-2t
  • Size 5 ~= 2-5t
  • Size 6 ~= 5-10t
  • Size 7 ~= 10-20t
  • Size 8 ~= 20-40t (APCs and IFVs)
  • Size 9 ~= 40-80t (Main Battle Tank)
  • Size 10 ~= 80-160t (Trinity supertanks)
  • Size 20 ~= 160,000t (aircraft carrier)
  • Size 23 ~= 1.3 million tons (Trinity-era space cruiser)
  • Size 25 ~= 5.1 million tons (Leviathan Jumpship)

Every difference in Size becomes an external penalty or bonus to post-soak damage-a Size 0 character against a Size 2 car reduces all post-soak damage by 2 health levels, while shooting at the Size 9 tank reduces all post-soak damage by 9 health levels. A Size 0 character attacking a Size -4 cat deals 4 extra health levels of damage. Furthermore, every full 3 points of Size difference add or subtract 1 from the difficulty to hit a character (down to the minimum of 0). The smaller being finds it easier to evade the larger one's attacks and easier to hit the larger foe. To continue the example, the Size 0 human attacking the Size -4 cat would be at +1 difficulty to all attack rolls, but the cat would be at -1 difficulty to attack the human.

Size-increasing/decreasing powers and body modifications will need to be rebuilt given this, most likely so they no longer give bonuses to soak/Stamina and possibly reducing their health level bonuses. Similarly, Mastery increases the effective scale of character's powers by an undetermined amount.

Health Levels

Characters get (Willpower) + (Stamina * 2) HLs in total. Novas and Psions add (Quantum) or (Psi) to that total, respectively. Mega-Stamina grants 6 HLs per dot (2 bonus + counting as 2 dots of Stamina for derived attributes), while both Mega-Strength and Mega-Dexterity grant an additional HL per dot. Characters suffer a cumulative -1 wound penalty for every [1 + ([Stamina + Resistance]/2)] health levels of damage they suffer, rounded down. The Redundant Organs/Vital Organ Shielding Body Modification is renamed Extra Health Levels and repriced at 1 XP per 2 Health Levels. High Pain Tolerance and Pain Editor reduce wound penalties by 1 for all purposes save healing.

Low Pain Tolerance increases wound penalties by 1 for all purposes save healing.

A character who takes more damage than he has health levels is Incapacitated. A character has an additional (Stamina) Incapacitated levels. If all those are lost, a character starts dying. Characters have (Strength + Stamina) * 2 Dying health levels.

Wound Penalties

Characters may no longer roll resistance to reduce wound penalties. Instead resistance adds to Stamina to determine how much damage is required for a character to suffer a wound penalty.

Mega-Stamina no longer provides wound penalty reduction normally. Instead, it adds +2 to Stamina for static values, increasing the amount of damage required before a character suffers wound penalties.

Healing

A character heals HLs at the rate given below for bashing/lethal damage. Humans may not heal aggravated damage without cutting-edge medicine (in which case they heal at 1/4th the rate of lethal health levels). Novas heal aggravated damage at half the speed they heal lethal damage, and divide all healing times by (2 + Mega-Stamina). Note that the numbers given below are per health level.

  • -0 HLs: 1 hour (bashing)/12 hours (lethal)
  • -1 HLs: 2 hours (bashing)/1 day (lethal)
  • -2 HLs: 4 hours (bashing)/3 days (lethal)
  • -3 HLs: 8 hours (bashing)/1 week (lethal)
  • -4+ HLs: 12 hours (bashing)/2 weeks (lethal)
  • Incapacitated: 1 day (bashing)/1 month (lethal)
  • Dying: 5 months (lethal)

A trained nurse (Medicine of 2+, Intelligence + Medicine pool of at least 4) can halve healing times. An expert physician (Medicine 4+, Intelligence + Medicine pool of at least 7) can divide them by 4. Similarly, a well-stocked clinic can reduce wound penalties by 1 for healing times, while a state-of-the-art hospital can reduce wound penalties by 2 for healing times. These are cumulative-so a hospital with a physician reduces wound penalties by 4 and quarters healing times. Incapacitated and Dying health levels are considered to be 2 wound penalties worse than the next highest wound penalty.

So, for example, a character with Strength 4, Stamina 4, and Resistance 0 (for 11 HLs) has a HL track which looks like this: -0 x 2/-1 x 2/-2 x 2/-3 x 2/-4 x 2/-5 x 1/Incapacitated x 4/Dying x 16. If he was reduced to Incapacitated,

Baselines may only heal aggravated damage if treated by an expert surgeon (7+ Int + Medicine pool, Medicine 4+) in a state of the art hospital, and gain no bonuses from either. They heal aggravated as lethal, but a quarter speed.

Weapon Damage

Weapon Damage is likely going to be increased by +2-5L across the board with additional damage adds, and Armor Soak/Temp HLs increased by the same to compensate. The protective powers (Armor, Shield, FF, etc) will also be buffed. Power combat!

Multiple Actions

Multiple Action penalties are simple. Each action after the first suffers a +1 difficulty penalty. Every 2 points of multiple action penalty reduction reduces this by 1. Odd points of multiple action penalty reduction simply add +1d to subsequent actions (So 3 points of multiple action penalty reduction reduces the difficulty penalty by 1 and adds +1d to any roll affected by multiple action penalties after the difficulty reduction.

Passive Defenses

The difficulty to hit a character is (Lower of Dexterity or Wits)/2, rounded down. Instead of rolled defenses, a defensive maneuver adds the ability in question (Athletics for dodge, Brawl or Melee for parry, Quantum + Power Rating for power block) to the pool and subtracts the multiple action difficulty modifier-this works once for a single attack. However, massed attack can still overwhelm a character's defensive abilities. Each attack, dodged successfully or unsuccessfully, reduces the difficulty to hit the character by 1 (to a base of +0).

Characters making an active defense may use the higher of Dexterity or Wits, or the attribute which governs the power's dice pool for any quantum power. In this case, total the pool, divide it by 2, and round down.

Called Shots

Called Shots grant additional damage, reduce soak, or deal crippling injury. Multiple called shots may be made in a turn.

  • Large Target (Upper Body): +1 difficulty, +[1] damage OR -2 soak
  • Small Target (Limb, Vitals): +2 difficulty, +[2] damage OR -4 soak
  • Tiny Target (Head, Part of Limb, Purse, etc): +3 difficulty, +[4] damage OR -8 soak
  • Miniscule Target (Eye, skull joints): +4 difficulty, +[5] damage OR -10 soak.

These can be combined. Called shots can also be made to reduce the level of injury. A +2 difficulty called shot allows a character to choose the number of levels of damage an enemy takes after damage is rolled.

Aberrant 2.0 Mass Combat

This isn't technically just a 2.0 system. This is also supposed to be a replacement for the Exalted mass combat system. This is not designed for strategic level clashes, but rather tactical clashes with infantry and armor battalions and the like. Its timescale (and therefore unit movement scales) expand as larger units are brought into play.

It is intended to model the advantages of, say, modern C3I and drone assets. These become unit merits.

The Battlefield

Despite the popular belief of better weapons and more grit winning wars, this rarely is true. Battlefields are maelstroms of blood and death where information is the most valuable weapon of all, communications is often deadlier than firepower, and the application of force in the wrong way can be as damaging as a failure to apply that force.

As communications technology advances, it becomes easier and easier to apply force where it is necessary.

Statistics

Units get several statistics, which derive from the traits of their members.

  • Combat skill: How good a unit is at fighting overall. For this, use the average attack dice pool of the soldiers in the unit (generally Dex + Firearms, sometimes Per + Gunnery for armored units).
  • Coordination: Communications level. This will be explained in more detail later.
  • Firepower: The average firepower a member of the unit can bring to bear. This is primarily based off of the heavy weapons a unit carries, not the weapons of most of its members, shockingly enough.
  • Mobility: How a unit can move. This is based off of the movement rate of its slowest members.
  • Endurance: A unit's ability to sustain losses. This is a combination of morale and armor protection.
  • Support: A unit's offboard support assets. These are often merits.
  • Size: How big a unit is.
  • Power Stat (for supernaturals/sorcerers/psions/novas): A unit's supernatural power.

These mean different things in different contexts. For example, support may involve having professionally trained archers in a game of Exalted or other high-fantasy, but in Aberrant 2.0 it means having on-call missile strikes and artillery fire, and in Trinity it can involve having OMEN tactical strikes and battlefield nukes.

Tech Level

Sometimes units have a significant technical advantage or disadvantage in overall equipment. A force of light infantry trained in phalanx warfighting with magic spears and bows and mithril full plate may have equivalent firepower and protection to 2020s battlesuit troopers, but their massively inferior technology outside of guns and armor tells.

They don't have the nightfighting gear, they don't have the medical equipment, their doctrine is significantly inferior, their weapons have grossly inferior range and rate of fire, they are less psychologically conditioned, and so on. Tech level is important. On the flipside, very good soldiers can stalemate or even defeat technologically superior foes. Each level of difference gives +1 difficulty to all rolls for the inferior side. For a more cinematic game where swords can beat guys with laser guns, the penalty can be halved (rounded up) or capped (often at +4).

Note that these characteristics are general. This system is primarily intended for fighting, say, strange Z-Ray creatures from Adventure! throwbacks that might have iron age technology but magical lasers and super-metals, or the Chromatics, who have neolithic technology except for their psi powers and Trinity-equivalent biotech. In general, if the tech level difference is too big, unless the force disparity is absolutely huge, the guys with better tech will win.

(some chart goes here, suggestions get XP)

Coordination

Command and control is the heart's blood of a unit's ability to act. A unit with elite generals and poor coordination can be destroyed by a mediocre general who can see the moves the opponent will make long before they become a threat. Coordination is a unit's initiative, yes. But it is more than that. It is what allows a unit to fight as more than a mob, it is what separates an elite, well-drilled fighting force from a mob. It separates soldiers from warriors. Coordination is not just training, but discipline and speed.

Mechanically, coordination determines when a unit declares its actions and acts. Every unit declares its actions in order of their coordination (so low-coordination units declare first) and act in the reverse order (so low-coordination units act last). Furthermore, coordination also negates dice penalty from multiple actions. Every 2 points of Coordination negate 1 point of multiple action penalty, so a unit with Coordination 5 will negate 2 points of multi-action penalty, while one with 10 will negate 5. Units with high coordination are much better at, well, doing more than one thing at a time. Finally, a unit with higher coordination, acting against a unit with lower coordination, gets +1 automatic success on its rolls. A unit with lower coordination acting against a unit with higher coordination adds +1 difficulty to its own rolls.

Coordination is benefited by both training (i.e. the average Wits + Tactics and Int + Strategy levels of the participants) and by communications gear.

Resolution

Each turn in mass combat is approximately 10 combat turns (30 seconds).

Morale

Units have a Morale stat which determines their willingness to fight rather than break. Morale 1 is a barely-trained rabble, Morale 10 superhumanly motivated killing machines.

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