alt.War: Turning Anger into productiveness

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Username17
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Post by Username17 »

My family visit is over, and that means more writing. Here's the Vietnamese timeline:

Vietnamese History Timeline
1946: Nationalist Chinese troops withdraw from Vietnamese territory, leaving the region under French rule. First Indochina War begins.
1950: United States begins supporting anti-communist forces in Indochina.
1954: French depart from Indochina, Vietnam partitioned into North and South. Reuinification elections scheduled for 1956.
1955: Southern Vietnamese President Ngo Diem begins executing political rivals, cancels election. War of Unification begins.
1963: Ngo Diem is assassinated by his generals. United States takes over much of the heavy lifting for South Vietnam.
1975: War of Unification complete. North Vietnam becomes Vietnam.
1979: Vietnamese forces conquer Cambodia, force the Khmer Rouge out of power. Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia begins.
1979: People's Republic of China invades Vietnam. China is quickly defeated and withdraws.
1989: Vietnam voluntarily leaves Cambodia.
1992: Vietnam adopts a new constitution.
2013: Vietnam is forced to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees from Cambodia after the devastation of Cyclone Tanaguk
2014: First Plig attacks in Western Vietnam.
2022: Vietnam conquers Cambodia and ousts the Chen syndicates from power. Second occupation of Cambodia begins.
2028: Mnong uprising begins in the Southwest. Vietnam withdraws from Cambodia to concentrate on affairs at home. Mnong rebellion is crushed and most Mnong people are driven out of the country.
2034: Thailand and Plig-aligned forces independently invade along the Laotian border. A four way fight breaks out, and Vietnamese forces hold all three other groups to Vietnam's border.
2037: Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia and begin the third Cambodian occupation.
2039: Japanese Imperial State clashes with Vietnamese forces over mineral rights in South China Sea. Vietnamese claims upheld.
2043: Cambodian sovereignty turned over to the king, Vietnamese troops return home victorious. With the drug lords defeated in Cambodia, Vietnamese forces set up bases in Laos.
2046: Imperialist revolt rallies around a pretender to the throne of Vietnam. The rebellion is quashed, and the sword shown to be a fake.
2048: Chamic people begin revolution, which is brought down by the army. Chamic and Rhade people are forcibly relocated to cities, many move to Cambodia rather than comply.
2059: Dega Alliance begins operations in Vietnam.
2061: Year of the Comet. Hue is attacked by a titanic Plig. Vietnamese Army triumphs, but current whereabouts of the beast are unknown.
2064: The Dega Alliance performs an all-out invasion of Vietnam at Dak Seang. Dak Seang holds and the Alliance collapses.
2065: Crash 2.0 occurs. The new government in Laos kicks Vietnamese troops out of the country. Vietnamese intelligence agencies blamed for poor response, resulting in a massive shakeup of intelligence agencies. The CCC is created to cover the jobs of agencies downsized or eliminated.
2066: Montagnard Confederation declared, an attempt to annex Dak Seang into the new country is made, but Vietnamese defenses hold.
2067: Vietnamese merchants are expelled from Laos, Vietnam ceases all economic support of Laos.
2071: New Five Year Plan issued by Vietnamese legislature. Pledges to make Vietnam a “world power” in five years.
Last edited by Username17 on Wed Apr 27, 2011 5:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Username17
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Post by Username17 »

So some tables need to be done differently:
Special Weapons
Weapon NameDamageAPModeAmmoSkillStrengthAvailabilityCost
Aquadyne Harpoon Gun5-SS6 (cy)Archery (Crossbow)
Longarms (Shotgun)
36R600¥
Ares S-III Super SquirtChemical-SA20 (c)Pistols (Revolver)14¥500
Ares Screech Sonic Rifle4NspecialSS10 (battery)
external power source
Longarms (Shotgun)3168000¥
Bow(¾ Str)-SS1 (ml)Archery (Bow)X2100¥/R
Cavalier SafeGuard2N (e)-halfSA6 (m)Pistols (Taser)1-275¥
Crossbow, Light2-SS1 (ml)Archery (Crossbow)
Longarms (Shotgun)
12300¥
Crossbow, Medium4-SS1 (ml)Archery (Crossbow)
Longarms (Shotgun)
34R500¥
Crossbow, Heavy6-SA6 (cy)Archery (Crossbow)
Longarms (Shotgun)
78R750¥
Crossbow, Pistol2-SS1 (ml)Archery (Crossbow)
Pistols (Revolver)
34R250¥
Defiance EX Shocker4N (e)-halfSS4 (m)Pistols (Taser)2-150¥
Defiance Protector3N (e)-halfSA3 (m)Pistols (Taser)14150¥
FN-AAL Gyrojet Pistol5-SA10 (c)Pistols (Revolver)112F1000¥
Jupiter Taser Club3N (e)-halfSS1 (m)Pistols (Taser)
Clubs (Batons)
281200¥
Slinghot(Str/2)N-SS1 (ml)Archery (Slingshot)
Throwing (Lobbed)
special-5¥/R
Yamaha Pulsar3N (e)-halfSA4 (m)Pistols (Taser)1-150¥

Blades
NameReachDamageAPSkillStrengthAvailabilityCost
Ceramic Knife-(Str/2)-2Blades (Knives)-475¥
Claymore2(Str/2)+2-1Blades (Sword)48R900¥
Combat Ax2(Str/2)+2-2Blades (Ax)58R600¥
Centurion Laser Axe2(Str/2)+2-4Blades (Ax)412F3000¥
Cougar Fineblade Knife-(Str/2)+1-2Blades (Knives)-5R550¥
Cougar Fineblade Sword1(Str/2)+1-2Blades (Sword)27R900¥
Halberd3(Str/2)+3-Blades (Ax)58R1200¥
Katana1(Str/2)+1-1Blades (Sword)34R1000¥
Katar-(Str/2)-2Blades (Knives)29R750¥
Knife-(Str/2)-Blades (Knives)--20¥
Kris-(Str/2)+1-Blades (Knives)
Blades (Sword)
110R1000¥
Macahuitl1(Str/2)+1-Blades (Sword)
Clubs (Batons)
314R3000¥
Monofilament Sword1(Str/2)+2-2Blades (Sword)37R750¥
Nodachi2(Str/2)+2-1Blades (Sword)412R2500¥
Rapier1(Str/2)+1-Blades (Sword)24R550¥
Sai-(Str/2)
(Str/2)N
-Blades (Knives)-475¥
Spear3(Str/2)-1Blades (Ax)
Clubs (Staff)
34R150¥
Survival Knife-(Str/2)+1-Blades (Knives)1-50¥
Sword1(Str/2)+1-Blades (Sword)24R350¥
Tomahawk1(Str/2)+1-Blades (Ax)34150¥
Vibro Knife-(Str/2)+1-3Blades (Knives)16R1000¥
Vibro Sword1(Str/2)+2-4Blades (Sword)28F2000¥
Victorinox Memory Blade1(Str/2)+1-1Blades (Sword)214F1250¥
Clubs & Chains
NameReachDamageAPSkillStrengthAvailabilityCost
AZ-150 Stun Baton14N (e)-halfClubs (Baton)24R800¥
Claw Hammer-(Str/2)+1-1Clubs (Hammer)1-15¥
Club1(Str/2)-Clubs (Baton)1-30¥
Extendable Baton1(Str/2)-Clubs (Baton)1-50¥
Heavy Chain1(Str/2)+1-Clubs (Sap)4-20¥
Jack Hammer26-4Clubs (Hammer)767500¥
Jupiter Taser Club13N (e)-halfClubs (Baton)
Pistols (Taser)
28R1200¥
Kusari Gama2(Str/2)+1-Clubs (Sap)
Blades (Ax)
38F150¥
Mace1(Str/2)+1-2Clubs (Baton)
Clubs (Hammer)
34120¥
Monofilament Whip26x2Clubs (Sap)
Blades (Ax)
-12F3000¥
Nunchaku-(Str/2)+1-Clubs (Sap)16R75¥
Sap-(Str/2)+1N-Clubs (Sap)1-30¥
Sledge Hammer1(Str/2)+2-Clubs (Hammer)4350¥
Staff2(Str/2)+1-Clubs (Staff)3-50¥
Stun Baton13N (e)-halfClubs (Baton)24R400¥
Stun Staff23N (e)-halfClubs (Staff)36R650¥
Telescopic Staff2(Str/2)+1-Clubs (Staff)3-100¥
Tonfa1(Str/2)-Clubs (Baton)1450¥
Warhammer1(Str/2)+2-2Clubs (Hammer)
Blades (Ax)
410R1500¥
Body Weaponry
NameReachDamageAPSkillStrengthAvailabilityCost
Bone Density/Lacing-(Str/2)+1-Unarmed Combat---
Fangs/Horns-(Str/2)-Unarmed Combat---
Hardliner Gloves-(Str/2)-Unarmed Combat-4100¥
Hand Blade-(Str/2)+1-Unarmed Combat
Blades (Cyber Implant)
---
Hand Razors-(Str/2)-1Unarmed Combat
Blades (Cyber Implant)
---
Spurs1(Str/2)+1-2Unarmed Combat
Blades (Cyber Implant)
---
Oral Slasher-4-Unarmed Combat---
Shock Hand-3N (e)-halfUnarmed Combat---

Grenades
NameDamageAPUnitAvailabilityCost
Flash--Grenade6R30¥
Flash-Bang4N-Grenade6R30¥
Flash-Pak--Grenade4200¥
Fragmentation5-Grenade10F35¥
GasChemical-Grenade4+Chemical20¥+Chemical
High Explosive4-4Grenade7F45¥
IncendiarySpecial-1Grenade8R50¥
Ink--Grenade635¥
Smoke--Grenade4R30¥
SplashChemical-Grenade4+Chemical20¥+Chemical
Thermal Smoke--Grenade6R35¥
White Phosphorous4-halfGrenade20F360¥
Missiles & Rockets
NameDamageAPUnitAvailabilityCost
LAW Rocket9/4-6/-2Small Rocket16F1000¥
Frag Rocket6-1Small Rocket16F500¥
High Explosive Rocket5-4Small Rocket20F650¥
Inferno Rocket6-halfSmall Rocket24F1500¥
Jabberwocky Jammer Rocket2-4Small Rocket12F1600¥
Designator SeekerAs RocketAs RocketAs Rocket+2R+500¥
SAMAs RocketAs RocketSmall Rocket+8F+1500¥
Zapper Rocket2/ 6N (e)-4/-halfSmall Rocket12F1600¥
Mortars
NameDamageAPUnitAvailabilityCost
Anti-Bunker8/4-6/-2Shell18F210¥
Fragmentation6-1Shell15F105¥
Gas/SlashChemical-Shell6F+Chemical60¥+Chemical
High Explosive5-4Shell12F135¥
IncendiarySpecial-Shell12F150¥
SeekerMortarMortarShell+2F+500¥
Smoke--Shell8R90¥
Solar--Shell8R120¥
Thermal Smoke--Shell10R105¥
White Phosphorous5halfShell20F360¥

RiotGearEpsilon
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Post by RiotGearEpsilon »

Oh god, jackhammers. You can totally play a troll construction worker who kills people with a jackhammer. <3
Username17
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Post by Username17 »

The long awaited DOT rules are in.

Special Weapon Systems and Damage Rules

Lasers
While photopressure exists, from a practical standpoint a laser weapon is recoilless. The Strength requirement of a laser weapon does not increase when it is fired on automatic firing modes. These are beam weapons, so there aren't literally dozens of little pellets of light. The firing modes of FA and HV actually refer to your ability to move the beam into and across targets. Laser weapons are not considered “normal weapons” and creatures with Immunity to Normal Weapons have no special resistance. Laser beams travel from the weapon to the target at the speed of light, and their “time of flight” is essentially zero at any distance combat takes place in that is not in space. Lasers use sniper rifle range, but extreme range is line of sight. Laser weapons are at a disadvantage in areas of fog, smoke, or other light-obscuring medium. In light fog/rain/mist/smoke, reduce the damage of the laser by 1 for each range increment beyond short. In heavy fog/rain/mist/smoke, reduce the damage of the laser by 2 for each range increment beyond short. If the base damage is reduced to zero in this way, the laser is ineffective.

Flame Weapons
Flame throwers project and ignite fuel (usually in liquid or powdered form). This generally comes out of an adjustable nozzle, and can come out as a cone or a stream. This is treated as Full Auto, but the adjustment of the nozzle determines which Full Auto option is used. So a user must use a change firing mode action to use a wide burst if their last attack was a walking fire action. Flame thrower streams expand to fill available space, and essentially ignore cover entirely. Literally seeing the target is not especially necessary, and the penalties for obscured visibility are halved when using a flame weapon. Flamethrower fuel used in the 2070s is pretty sticky, and anyone hit by it will catch on fire. The scenery around the flame thrower operator and target can be expected to catch fire too.

Electrical Weapons
Tasers and other shock weaponry have the ability to temporarily scramble things which require organized electrical impulses to function properly. That includes most machines and living creatures with a functional nervous system. Which means it includes metahumans and their drones, but not spirits or trees. Electrical weapons do Normal damage (which is not very effective against non-living targets), but a susceptible target must resist damage a second time, with the second soak causing no actual damage but paralyzing the target for a number of rounds equal to the amount of wound boxes that would have been filled in. The second soak test has a base damage 2 more than the base damage of the electrical weapon, but is not increased by net hits from the attack roll. The target also gets to add their Willpower to the soak test's dicepool. Note that drones don't have any Willpower and are often reset for several rounds by heavy shocks.

Explosives
Explosions from things like grenades and plastique are different from bullets in ways that make them difficult to model as instantaneous attacks of fixed strength. An explosion is not dependent upon an attack roll by any specific person. A highly agile demolitionist does not inflict any more damage than a clumsy one once the explosion goes off. Explosions also do not “miss” characters in their blast radius, and there are no defense rolls permitted. Each explosion rolls 4 dice as an “attack roll” against everything within their blast radius, with each hit raising the damage before soak. However, 0 hits is not a miss, it is simply adding 0 to the base damage. Explosions attenuate with distance, with every doubling of the distance from the target to the explosion reducing the base damage by 1.5 (round reduction down), with the initial damage being good out to 2 meters. If the base damage is reduced to 0 or less, the explosion does nothing at all and does not stage itself up. Explosives can also be stacked virtually limitlessly. If you use three times as many explosives (such as using a burst of grenades or mortar shells), the base damage is increased by 1 (and the blast radius expanded appropriately).
DistanceDamage
0-2mBase
2-4m-1
4-8m-3
8-16m-4
16-32m-6
32-64m-7
64-128m-9
......

Cover is very effective against explosives. The cover modifier is subtracted from the dice the explosion rolls to stage itself up, and an equal number of dice is added to the target's soak roll. If characters are aware of the danger and in heavy cover, they may make a Defense Roll, with the hits being added directly to their soak roll (the explosion still does not “miss”). Modern armor is also very effective at dealing with blasts, and the Coverage of the armor is added to armor rating of the armor (up to a maximum of doubling the armor's protective value). If the armor is Hardened, the increase from the armor's Coverage is also Hardened.
  • Example: Simba is caught with his figurative (but not literal) pants down as a frag grenade lands 10 meters away from his position. The fragmentation grenade has a base damage of 5, but at 10 meters out the base damage is reduced to 1. The grenade rolls 4 dice and scores 2 hits, so Simba must soak 3 damage. Fortunately Simba is wearing armor clothing. That has an armor of 3 and a coverage of 2 so it provides a total of 5 soak dice. Combined with his own 5 soak dice from his own strength, he rolls 10 dice, and gets 3 hits. The unsoaked damage is 0 and Simba is not wounded. The guard dog closer to the center was less lucky – being within 2 meters of the blast, the dog was confronted with 7 damage, and with no pants to save it, the dog is chunky salsa.
Explosives against vehicles and fixed positions are more effective unless those vehicles or fixed positions are coated in reactive armor. Explosions ignore Mass values of 2 or less, and can make called shots that ignore the Mass of a vehicle or object while targeting parts of the vehicle that are the size of a large motorcycle (or, for example, most doors). Armor values of vehicles and buildings and such are not increased for “coverage” against explosions.

Shaped Charges
Some explosives have a special shaping that channels the blast in a certain direction. This causes a tremendous amount of force to be focused in a small area next to the explosion. What this means in game terms is that these explosives do a lot more damage if they “hit” than if they “miss”. Shaped Charges are written with two damage numbers (and sometimes two AP numbers). The number before the slash is used for anything the charge was set against (generally whatever was actually hit with a missile, but for demolition charges it's whatever it was taped to), and the number after the slash used to determine the explosive radius and damage to everything around that immediate target. The explosive attack roll of shaped charges does not apply to the direct target damage, but shaped charges do get to increase their damage with the net hits from the attack roll (or Demolitions skill test) used to place them.

Damage Over Time (Fire, Acid, Etc.)
When a character is soaked in acid, freezing to death, on fire, or otherwise subjected to a damaging situation that is ongoing, we call this DOT or Damage Over Time. While it could be modeled as a series of tiny attacks that had a remote chance of doing damage each second, that is far fiddlier than the people actually playing the game need to deal with. DOT damage is added one wound box at a time. A DOT effect has a “delay” number, and that number determines how much time passes between filling in one wound box and the next. When a character is afflicted with a DOT, they are allowed to resist it, which is usually the same kind of resistance roll they might make against immediate damage (so a damage soak roll against “being on fire” or a poison resistance roll against “having swallowed poison”), save that the character's hits are added to the DOT's delay number rather than subtracted from the damage done. Being on fire is still a problem if you are wearing turnout gear, it's just a problem that you can respond to in the near future. DOT's will continue filling in a wound box on schedule until they end. For external sources of damage, that generally means removing the noxious stimulus, while something like an injected poison usually has an amount of time it will persist based on how much was injected (this time could be cut shorter with things like antidotes or diuretics).
Delay NumberTime Between Damage Boxes
01 second (IPs 2, 3, and 4)
11 Round
22 Rounds
35 Rounds
41 Minute
52 Minutes
65 Minutes
715 Minutes
830 Minutes
91 Hour
102 Hours
11+Double Time Each Additional Delay Number
(4 Hours, 8 hours, 16 Hours, etc...)

JesterZero
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Location: San Diego

Post by JesterZero »

I realize it's been almost a year since anyone posted to this thread, but I actually only stumbled upon it recently. Couple of things:
  • Frank, this is really great stuff. I know it didn't end well from your perspective (or at least so I gather from your comments), but this was a huge help to some of my own efforts to refine the Shadowrun rules.
  • I made a .pdf version of the sections of this thread that pertain to game mechanics. It's not a perfect document, (the TOC got slightly odd in the .docx to .pdf conversion) but it made it easier for me to present and distribute your rules to our group. If anyone is interested, I've thrown it up on a bunch of mirrors here: http://mir.cr/0P2CFKGL
Thanks again.
JesterZero
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Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:50 pm
Location: San Diego

Post by JesterZero »

Apparently 2012 me didn't have Dropbox or something. I don't even.

It's a bit ugly in places, and I'll try to clean it up someday if I have time, but if you're looking for a collection of the mechanics of alt.War, here's a PDF.
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OgreBattle
King
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Post by OgreBattle »

Alt.War's [special weapons] section covers the effects of flamethrowers, tasers, and lasers. Are those weapon effects also meant to cover magic elemental effects?

With Street Magic the elements are:
-Fire
-Lightning
-Acid
-Water
-Ice
-Smoke
-Blast (wind, sorta)
-Metal (flechettes)
-Sound
-Light (lasers)
-Sand
Korwin
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Location: Linz / Austria

Post by Korwin »

Should cyber- and bioware be changed for alt.WAR?

To my mind comes:
  • Blood Circuit Control System
  • Platelet Factories
  • Trauma Damper
Red_Rob wrote: I mean, I'm pretty sure the Mayans had a prophecy about what would happen if Frank and PL ever agreed on something. PL will argue with Frank that the sky is blue or grass is green, so when they both separately piss on your idea that is definitely something to think about.
Username17
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Post by Username17 »

The box modifying devices have always been extremely problematic. They don't actually fit with the system. They could be converted to an automatic hit on soak tests, which would be powerful but not the end of the world.

-Username17
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