Rules changes - A little

[mercedogre]

3. Duplicate Skills: What happens when you end up with a duplicate skill? Do you take the highest version or do you get some special bonus?

if someone gets a skill as a RCC skill and then again as an OCC skill, i just give the skill base with both bonuses, works ok

[kaid]

Have the damage from mega-damage meele weapons (rune weapons, virbro-blades, and the like) stack with MD punch damage. It has never made sense to me how a 3d6 MD sword does the same ammount of damage in the hands of someone with a supernatural PS of 12 as it does in the hands of someone with a supernatural PS of 50.

This one bugs me as well because there are some rare weapons like xiticix ones that DO stack. Take the bone jaguars from the latests vampire source book they can make all sorts of neat bone weapons but only the largest of them are actually more damaging than their normal melee attacks which begs the question what is the point of the smaller ones if they don't stack with MD punch damage in some fashion.

[Zer0 Kay]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

Differentiate between rail and coilguns.
Rail greater power to damage and range efficiency
Coil faster firing
I play that anything that gives damage for bursts is a coil and single fire only like the boomgun are rail. Both are EM both are not magnetic. A coilgun uses gauss fields a rail gun uses lorentz forces. A railgun should not be able to fire underwater because of the exposed electrical rails while a coilgun can have all its electronics insulated with the round only touching the a not ferrous barrel (probably some sort of plastic).

[The Beast]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

Differentiate between rail and coilguns.
Rail greater power to damage and range efficiency
Coil faster firing
I play that anything that gives damage for bursts is a coil and single fire only like the boomgun are rail. Both are EM both are not magnetic. A coilgun uses gauss fields a rail gun uses lorentz forces. A railgun should not be able to fire underwater because of the exposed electrical rails while a coilgun can have all its electronics insulated with the round only touching the a not ferrous barrel (probably some sort of plastic).

That's something I don't think anyone I've played with ever thought about...

[Killer Cyborg]

Have the damage from mega-damage meele weapons (rune weapons, virbro-blades, and the like) stack with MD punch damage. It has never made sense to me how a 3d6 MD sword does the same ammount of damage in the hands of someone with a supernatural PS of 12 as it does in the hands of someone with a supernatural PS of 50.

This one bugs me as well because there are some rare weapons like xiticix ones that DO stack. Take the bone jaguars from the latests vampire source book they can make all sorts of neat bone weapons but only the largest of them are actually more damaging than their normal melee attacks which begs the question what is the point of the smaller ones if they don't stack with MD punch damage in some fashion.

WP bonuses?

[drewkitty ~..~]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

...snip

This is already canon in NB and HU.

[The Beast]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

...snip

This is already canon in NB and HU.

And 1st Ed BTS, and most likely in N&S as well.

[Zer0 Kay]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

...snip

This is already canon in NB and HU.

Yup, but not Rifts or RT for some reason.

[Zer0 Kay]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

Differentiate between rail and coilguns.
Rail greater power to damage and range efficiency
Coil faster firing
I play that anything that gives damage for bursts is a coil and single fire only like the boomgun are rail. Both are EM both are not magnetic. A coilgun uses gauss fields a rail gun uses lorentz forces. A railgun should not be able to fire underwater because of the exposed electrical rails while a coilgun can have all its electronics insulated with the round only touching the a not ferrous barrel (probably some sort of plastic).

That's something I don't think anyone I've played with ever thought about...

Yup and watching someone realize why I'm giving them damage when their underwater is probably more interesting the facepalm I do when I hear that a player can dodge a laser at long distance because they can see the light coming at them.
1. They assume the laser light is in the visible spectrum.
2. They don't get that if they can see it the laser beam is ALREADY there.

[Zer0 Kay]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

...snip

This is already canon in NB and HU.

And 1st Ed BTS, and most likely in N&S as well.

Hmm... I think it all started with the PB from the original Mechanoids. Or was the first in BTS? Hmm...

[Zer0 Kay]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

Differentiate between rail and coilguns.
Rail greater power to damage and range efficiency
Coil faster firing
I play that anything that gives damage for bursts is a coil and single fire only like the boomgun are rail. Both are EM both are not magnetic. A coilgun uses gauss fields a rail gun uses lorentz forces. A railgun should not be able to fire underwater because of the exposed electrical rails while a coilgun can have all its electronics insulated with the round only touching the a not ferrous barrel (probably some sort of plastic).

That's something I don't think anyone I've played with ever thought about...

Alternate... rail gun design. Rails extend beyond the end of the "barrel" and are shaped like bayonets. The rails may be used to stab or otherwise strike an opponent and a pull of the trigger sends a massive charge into them resulting in heavy electrical damage or stunning kaiju.

Railguns would present a far smaller spike on a magnetometer than a coilgun would.
Railgun ammunition doesn't have to be ferrous, the armature just has to be conductive and durable. What's that mean? A piece of MDC tree can be used. Anything can be put in front of a conductive armature.

[The Beast]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

...snip

This is already canon in NB and HU.

Yup, but not Rifts or RT for some reason.

Yeah, I always figured that PB decided MD-level societies knew enough about particle beams weapons that they over came that problem.

As for which setting had that rule first, my copy of HU1 is a 2nd printing from '88. My BTS1 copy is a 5th printing from '95. I'm not really sure which one had it first, though I'm leaning toward HU1 due to the fact it had the old magic system and BTS1 has the PPE system.

[jaymz]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

...snip

This is already canon in NB and HU.

Yup, but not Rifts or RT for some reason.

In Robotech they can cause knock down effects which do not happen in other games.

[Zer0 Kay]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

...snip

This is already canon in NB and HU.

Yup, but not Rifts or RT for some reason.

Yeah, I always figured that PB decided MD-level societies knew enough about particle beams weapons that they over came that problem.

As for which setting had that rule first, my copy of HU1 is a 2nd printing from '88. My BTS1 copy is a 5th printing from '95. I'm not really sure which one had it first, though I'm leaning toward HU1 due to the fact it had the old magic system and BTS1 has the PPE system.

Yeah but it could be original Mechanoids as that predates everything else. So MD level societies are able to keep a cohesive particle beam but cant overcome the range barrier? Short range and core deflection are both caused by the same thing. The fix is creating an ionized tunnel by using a laser to clear the path of particles allowing the particle beam to keep more of its core for longer. But unless their using magnetic containment, which other techs would suggest is not the case, then the beam itself is its own enemy for core deflection with particles with each other.

[Zer0 Kay]

Have special effects and "reasons" to select various weapons.
Example:
- ion does additional damage to shields/electronics
- plasma has splash damage
- particle beam has a periphery that allows for partial damage on new misses

...snip

This is already canon in NB and HU.

Yup, but not Rifts or RT for some reason.

In Robotech they can cause knock down effects which do not happen in other games.

Which is funny since a shell of equal barrel diameter doesn't.

[drewkitty ~..~]

In relation to the Ninja and Superspies setting,
.....In the IRL gaming group that got me into RPGs they had a house rule concerning the modern WPs. That within the skill programs that any duplicate WPs would raise the level of that WP by one level. Thus when the character ended up with 5 auto-pistol WPs they would start with that WP at level 5 proficiency.

[The Beast]

This isn't a rule change, but I would go through all the MD settings and either rename or get rid of all the nuclear missiles, with the exception of the city-busting ones in the CS Navy book.

[Jefffar]

2 Year Necropost