Something for all of the Juicer talk: Special Juicer Rules

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Something for all of the Juicer talk: Special Juicer Rules

Unread post by Jason Richards »

Okay, so the other old thread that got dragged up reminded me of a game mod that I wrote. Someone in the other thread mentioned playing a game where all of the characters were Juicers. Awesome idea. If you do that and want a really cinematic, high-flying game experience, take a look at this.

I playtested this at a con years ago and it was a lot of fun. The object here is to portray Juicers (or other super-humans) as way above and beyond the average person. This is like anime ninja gaming. Juicers in this setting are so far above normal soldiers that they can take them on a squad at a time.

Here are the rules:

---

Juicer Mod Rules

1. Juicers are strong. Juicers deal M.D.C. damage in hand-to-hand. As long as they have an M.D.C. weapon, are wearing M.D.C. armor, or are in some way using M.D.C. material to deliver the damage, the Juicer gets his or her P.S. bonus in M.D.C. So, a normal Juicer with a P.S. of 30 does 15 points of damage to M.D.C. targets. A Titan Juicer (or any Juicer with supernatural P.S.) with a P.S. of 30 does 4D6+15 M.D.C. damage on a punch (normal punch damage, plus damage bonus). No distinction between punch and kick damage is made; it's all the same.

Against "soft" S.D.C. targets like unarmored humans, convert the M.D.C. damage to S.D.C. by multiplying by 10 instead of 100. So, that 15 M.D.C. punch would do 150 S.D.C. of damage to an unarmored person. Splat.

M.D.C. hand-held weapons such as vibro-blades add their damage to hand-to-hand damage. So, 3D6 vibro-claws in the hands of a normal Juicer (with a P.S. of 30) do 3D6+15, or the Titan Juicer does 7D6+15. Inflicting three times the maximum damage of the weapon will break it. So, if the total damage roll for a vibro-knife (1D6 regular damage) including damage bonus is 18, it breaks after dealing the damage. This leads Juicers to use weapons that are a bit stouter, like vibro-claws.

Juicers can also break things with their superior strength. Doing half of the remaining M.D.C. on a physical, hand-to-hand attack will break an object. So, if a vault door had 30 M.D.C., a Juicer (or anyone else) could break it by doing 15 points of damage in a single physical attack. Damage done with energy weapons doesn't count, but explosives do.

A further example: If the door had 50 M.D.C. and the Juicer did 15 points of damage, the door would be reduced to 35 M.D.C. and remain intact. Another 15 points reduces it to 20 M.D.C. and it remains intact. Another 10 M.D.C. will break the door. Alternately, a single power punch doing 30 M.D.C. would break the door off on the first hit. Such is the advantage of doing massive damage (and finally a good reason to use a power punch).

If armor is broken, damage is done to the person inside it. So, a power punch doing 30 M.D.C. will break through old-style light Dead Boy armor (50 M.D.C.) with its first 25 points and the remaining 5 go to the wearer (in addition to the armor). Again, converting the 5 M.D.C. points to S.D.C. is done at x10 instead of x100 because the brunt of the impact is taken by the armor and what gets through is greatly reduced. In this case the person wearing the armor would take 50 S.D.C. points of damage, probably enough to kill or severely injure whoever is inside.

2. Juicers are fast. Juicers get full dodge bonuses to auto-dodge, effectively making every attempted dodge an automatic dodge. Juicers are subject to the -10 rule, but get their full dodge bonuses as well. All Juicers, with the exception of the slower Titan Juicers, can also completely negate the -10 rule by forfeiting all attacks for a melee round and doing nothing but dodging, evading, and running. One dodge roll is made, with bonuses, that applies to every attack defended for the round. Keep in mind that the base requirement to hit a moving target is 8 (maybe 12, depending on range and conditions) and the shooters must beat that even if the Juicer's dodge roll is low.

Juicer acceleration is basically instantaneous, so movement can be at full speed within one attack. This means the slowest Juicer alive can clear an American football field, endzone to endzone, in one melee round. This is often done while attempting a "full dodge" as described above to close distance with an attacker to nullify the advantage of ranged combat.

3. Juicers are tough. Juicers are totally immune to all pain and exhaustion during combat or other intense situations. They are also completely impervious to Horror Factor. No matter how scary that monster is, the Juicer’s Bio-Comp will prevent certain chemicals from being produced and not allow him or her to experience fear.

---

One rule that's not in there is that I modified initiative a bit. For one, remove "two attacks for living" from every character (Juicers included). This means that HtH: Basic, Expert, and Martial Arts all begin with TWO attacks, not FOUR. While removing attacks seems contradictary with making Juicers the ultimate badasses, it actually helps a lot. Under these rules the average 1st level Juicer will have 5 attacks (2 from HTH, 2 from augmentation, plus Boxing) while the average combatant will have only 2 or maybe 3. This allows the Juicers a 2:1 attack advantage. Including the additional two attacks, the average Juicer will start with 7 attacks, but the average combatant will have 4 or 5, greatly reducing the Juicer advantage.

Since Juicers have so many attacks, I allow them to take them whenever they want, pretty much. If the Juicer has 5 attacks and the combatant has 2, I tell the Juicer to take two normal actions (matching his opponent) and then 3 bonus attacks/actions throughout the melee. These can be spread around to different targets, used at the beginning to try and knock out the target early, saved until the end, used for dodging, etc.




Let me know if anything is unclear and I'll try to explain it or give examples.

:ok:
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Unread post by Jesterzzn »

Showoff.
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Unread post by Jason Richards »

Jesterzzn wrote:Showoff.

Well, yes, but why specifically? :lol:
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Unread post by Jason Richards »

Josh Hilden wrote:
Jason Richards wrote:
Jesterzzn wrote:Showoff.

Well, yes, but why specifically? :lol:


... that sport jacket you wear?


:P


I have several sport jackets. :)
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Unread post by Jason Richards »

Josh Hilden wrote:Oh yeah ... I just printed the Mods and added them to Josh's addendum Folder.

Good Work.

:ok:


Glad to know they're perfect as-is and in no need for comment. :)
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Unread post by bigbobsr6000 »

Good stuff :D
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Unread post by Omega6 »

Why remove two attacks from everyone.

Realistically, most people can do quite a bit in 15 seconds.

Recently at a pistol shooting sesion, I started with my back to two targets. I turned, drew my pistol, fired two rounds at one target, then adjusted my aim to the other target and fire two rounds at it. All rounds fired hit their targets. This was timed, taking me only 4 seconds. Although I have been shooting since I was about three years old, this was the very first time I attempted this type of shooting. So, I wouldn't say I have a lot of experience in fast target acquistion. I was the fastest and most accurate person shooting that day. Most the other people, who attempted it were a second or two slower. Still, how many attacks would you say I used in game terms, and since I could have continued shooting for a 15 second period (I had a 15 round magazine), how many attacks per melee would you say I have?

This is just an example of why I agree with Palladium's "two attacks per melee for living" rule. I personally wouldn't have a problem if it was three or four for that matter.
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Unread post by Dustin Fireblade »

Well the two extra attacks are now "built-in" to the HtH skills of RUE.
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Unread post by Jefffar »

1 for the turn

1 for engaging target number 1 (we'll count it as a short burst, which is possible for semi auto weapons)

1 for engaging target number 2

So that's three so far.
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Unread post by Omega6 »

So, if I only used about a third of the melee, I could go for nine attacks (probably more really). Which is significantly more than most characters.

I am not saying to give the characters 8 or 9 attacks per melee, though. I am just saying don't take any attacks away.
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Unread post by Jesterzzn »

Omega6 wrote:So, if I only used about a third of the melee, I could go for nine attacks (probably more really). Which is significantly more than most characters.
Not really. Speaking in real life terms: Your arm will get tired. Your focus will begin to drift. You are not a robot. So to sustain your accuracy you would probably have to take a break. In the games terms: Everyone starts basicly fresh every melee and can do their maximum number of attacks endlessly without losing focus. It's a game, and the system is set up to be quick and fun, not realistic.
Last edited by Jesterzzn on Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread post by bigbobsr6000 »

My limit on attacks/actions per melee is 15. 1 per second. And I have had player's PCs alomost get there, I think 1 did a long while back. That's my limit, anyway.
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Unread post by Omega6 »

I am know it is game and not realistic. Like I said before, I don't expect the attacks to be realistic, I just wouldn't reduce the number of attacks from the existing rules.
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Unread post by Jesterzzn »

Omega6 wrote:I am know it is game and not realistic. Like I said before, I don't expect the attacks to be realistic, I just wouldn't reduce the number of attacks from the existing rules.
Nor would I.
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Unread post by Jefffar »

I'm consistently tempted to go with a 10-Second Melee
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Unread post by Jason Richards »

Omega6 wrote:I am know it is game and not realistic. Like I said before, I don't expect the attacks to be realistic, I just wouldn't reduce the number of attacks from the existing rules.


You might be missing the point a bit. The point is to bring Juicers up to a peak advantage over common adversaries. All non-augmented opponents are just Stormtroopers to your Jedi Knight.

You reduce the attacks instead of adding more for two reasons. First, it bring the rules back to a former canon in which Juicers had a much greater advantage than they do in today's rules. Second, it shortens the rounds and allows a melee to pass relatively quickly; Juicers will dispatch opponents so quickly under these rules that you'll be thankful when the natural breaks come faster.
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Unread post by Jason Richards »

Jefffar wrote:I'm consistently tempted to go with a 10-Second Melee


Ultimately, timing melee rounds can't be taken as a hard line, simply because some actions take much longer than others. Maybe you could fire a gun with skill 10 times in 15 seconds, but it would be far more difficult to get off that same number of reps when throwing knives, or using a grappling hook, or whatever.

A time limit is necessary for a lot of things, such as spell durations, but within a melee round there's a bit of flux there, in my opinion.

But that's off the subject. With this mod it's all about Juicers being unreal fast relative to their opponents.
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Unread post by LostOne »

Omega6 wrote:So, if I only used about a third of the melee, I could go for nine attacks (probably more really). Which is significantly more than most characters.

I am not saying to give the characters 8 or 9 attacks per melee, though. I am just saying don't take any attacks away.

That's one-sided combat, which is not realistic. You'd also need to save some attacks for dodging, and if you were getting shot at you'd likely be shooting from behind cover, popping out enough to shoot and popping back behind cover adds additional time to a single attack.
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