Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes.

Right in the servo!

What you see above is the Called Shots diagram that we used the last time we played Exodus.

I wanted my players to have that authentic Fallout 3 V.A.T.S (Vault-Tec Assisted Targetting System) feeling, even if none of their characters were wearing a pip-boy device, and felt that this did a pretty fair job of balancing the hindrance of making the shot with the benefits of disabling/confusing the target.

Derived from page 206 of the Exodus mainbook, I'm pretty sure this little gem isn't O.G.L. licensed material, and therefore, all rights reserved Glutton Creeper Games.

The trick to such a table is the limitations:
- The shooter must have Intelligence 6 or higher.
- This is a full round action.


But, here's the rub with this table.
The Game Master can use it too.

This means that your party of 4 to 6 wasteland adventurers with AC 14 coming up against a group of a dozen level 1 human raiders armed with everything from AtlAtls to Zipguns can roll a d20, add a +1 base attack bonus, and hit our heroes 25% of the time.

That's 3 hits every round on average dice if there's no cover to take advantage of.

What if my dozen raiders decide to aim at the eyes?
They're at -10... there's just no way they'll be hitting, because they need a 14, and the best they can generate is d20 +1 -9 = 11.
Oh, wait... a natural 20 auto hits... so each of them has a 5% chance to hit. Granted, with a dozen rolls of the dice, if there's a perfect distribution, you'll end up with 1 natural 20 in a little less than 2 rounds.

How bad can it get?

If the raider with a slingshot wails you in the eye with a rock... he rolls 1d2, doubles that because of the table above, and maxes out at 4 damage. If he manages to confirm that crit with another perfect 20 on the dice (odds of 2.5 out of 100) then he'll give you a 50% miss chance, and do some stat damage that makes you a non factor for the rest of the combat.

If the raider with the hand cannon that plants 2d8 gets an average damage roll of 9, that's doubled to 18. If you have 18 hit points to spare, that's great, you don't sweat that bullet that is lodged in your head. If he rolls max damage, that's 16x2 = 32 damage.

Yeouch... Hope you're a few levels higher than these guys, because 32 damage is no joke.  A level 3 aggressive hero gets d8 hit points per level. that means you're likely to be at least  level 5 before you can survive a single 32 point hit. There are ways to get over 32 HP, by that level, but it involves having a high CON score.

Speaking of Con scores... if yours is 16 or under, that means this raider has forced you to take a massive damage threshold test on average damage dice. So you roll a d20, add your fortitude bonus, and try to get 15 or higher. If you fail, your hit points immediately drop to -1. That's classified as "Dying", and means you'll be taking no actions, and losing 1 more hit point each round until you hit -10 (and die completely) or someone passes a treat injury check to stop the bleeding.

This effectively takes you out of the fight.
Keep in mind that once every 2 rounds this group of raiders will, probably, do this to one of the 4 party members. Even if you're killing 4 of them a round, they're likely to hurt the heros really badly.


So, how do we keep this sort of rule out of the hands of dastardly game masters?

I guess I could get all Wheaton about it and use his rule:
-Don't be a dick.

Or I could link it to an attribute that only heroes have
-Karma points?

Or I could try to limit it the way that the Fallout Games do
-the AP(not to be confused with D20 action points, which are renamed Karma Points in this game) stat.

Of these three, I can always use good judgement, but I'd like a little better way of handling the whole situation.

Karma points are built into the character classes, with every character getting  3 + (current level/2) each time they add a level.

• This means that if I build Level 1 raiders, they each have 2 karma points to spend. Since they're likely to level up by pulling off this raid against the heroes, they're very likely to maximize their chances by burning through 36 of them in 3 rounds. 

Of course, I could just declare that raiders don't have Karma points because they're NPCs... But what happens when the players want to make a called shot?

• Characters at first level get 3 Karma Points as well... so that means until you get to second level, you've got 3 called shots to make if you don't use your points on anything else (like boosting dice, or burning them up using special talents that take them away).
• Then at second level you could get 4 more called shots...
• By the time you reach 10th level, you've got 8 called shots before you reach 11th level, and suddenly you're wondering why you can't just make called shots all day long. 

This is pretty clearly the wrong thing to tie called shots to. VATS AP seems to be a function of the Agility skill in Fallout, which most closely matches to the Dexterity stat in the D20 system. It's also used up at varying rates by different weapons.

Back in ye olden D&D days, weapons were listed with a speed stat, which was ignored by most of my dungeon masters, but apparently had to do with when you went in the initiative order, or maybe rate of fire... or... something. Such a thing doesn't exist in d20 modern or exodus.

So, do I tie the number of called shots you can make to the dexterity? Something like
"If your total VATS FATIGUE exceeds your DEX score, you may not make a called shot this round.

When you take a called shot against a target, you add a number of VATS FATIGUE equal to the d# on the weapon you are shooting with to your VATS FATIGUE total.  (example: a pistol with a damage of 2d8 imparts 8 VATS FATIGUE when it is used to make a called shot, whereas a slingshot with a damage of 1d2 imparts 2 VATS FATIGUE.)  Reloading a weapon imparts VATS FATIGUE equal to the number of damage dice equal to the number of damage dice. (example: Reloading a pistol with a damage of 2d8 imparts 2 VATS Fatigue. Reloading a slingshot with a damage of 1d2 imparts 1 VATS FATIGUE.)

 VATS FATIGUE is diminished over time at the rate of 1 point at the end of every combat round (6 seconds). "

Kinda wordy, but not entirely awful.
Someone with a Dex of 16 (not uncommon for it to be this high in characters who specialize in gunplay) could fire a 2d8 pistol with a called shot like so:
round 1) Full Round Action +8 VATSFatigue, -1 at the end of the round. VF7
round 2) Full Round Action +8 VATS Fatigue -1 at the end of the round VF14
round 3) Full Round Action +8 VF -1 at the end of the round VF21
round 4) VF too high, can't make a called shot VF 20
round 5) VF too high, can't make a called shot VF 19
~blahblahblah~
round 9) Full Round Action +8 VATS Fatigue -1 at the end of the round VF23
round 10) VF too high, can't make a called shot VF22
~blahblahblah~
round 17)Full Round Action +8 VATS Fatigue -1 at the end of the round VF23

I was worried for a minute about "rapid fire" and "burst fire", but those are full round actions on their own, and wouldn't happen inside of VATS anyway because you can't take a full round action Burst Fire and a full round action Called Shot in the same round.

I also wonder about my reloading scheme.
Why would you bother making a called shot action to reload? You'd just not take a full round action, move to a better position, and reload without incurring any VF, then allow it to decrease by 1.
It's doubly useless to reload in my pseudo-VATS thing, because most weapons only have 1 or 2 dice worth of damage, so at best you break even, and at worst, your VF goes up by one. If you reload the venerable ROCKWELL LAUNCHER, you take 10 VF reloading it, and 6 firing it.

You'd have to be a dumbass to use this system to reload... so I may as well take it out. I'm trying to add a reasonable limit, not build a pit trap into the rules to catch the unwitting.

So, you get 3 rounds of called shots in a row with a 2d8 handgun before you're forced to do something else. Less if your DEX is lower. Someone with a slingshot and an 18 DEX could whip 18 called shot rocks in a row, and from there on out, one ever other round. That is, if you want to use a slingshot. They could target arms and legs all day at flat dice, or dice +2, and just hope they cripple something on a critical hit. Granted... the whole time they're whipping 1d2 rocks, the enemy is probably closing in with a baseball bat.

So, what was the point of this whole exercise? Is all this faffing about likely to make a change in my own game?

~IF~ every single player in my group started out by playing without the called shots table... and then I introduced it... I would introduce it with the VF rules. Seeing as half of my prospective players have used it without limit, and half not at all, I'm going to see if Whedon's Law gets broken before I leap to new legislation.

~OR~ maybe I'll give it a shot in a mock combat and see how it goes. With combat rounds being 6 seconds long, and battles being fought in close quarters where the guy you try to shoot could be standing on your chest inside of 3 rounds, this kind of limitation might not matter so much.

Thanks for sticking with this ramble until the end.

When you can't run... walk (30ft unencumbered).

It's been a chaotic time since my last post regarding WarMaHordes.

My very sincere sounding promises have been met with dubious resolve, and so far, this is the progress I can boast.

•  Primed, monochrome shaded, and did skin for 10 Pyg Burrowers
• Painted 6 strong squad of Trollkin Scouts and one Skinner (One scout fully painted, the rest have skintone and pants painted. Pants Matter!)
• -A lot of cleaning and reassembling and priming and basecoating that amounted to models being net-gain-zero as far as being completely painted.

All the while I was slugging along with a Grim Angus force list that never seemed to crest the ever-so-high hill of actually defeating Steve's Asphyxious list. If this seems like a bunch of jargle to you, lemme sum up.

"No matter what I painted, or how sharp I made my tactics, some skeletal doink with a polearm wrecked my plan."

 Following our last pair of games on Thursday night, I asked my esteemed opponent "Do you even feel challenged?" to which he graciously replied "Uh, well, I stuck my caster right out in the middle, and you couldn't kill him...".

There was a pause.
"So... No, then." I asked.
"Better switch to Khador" was the reply.

So, I painted up a secondhand "Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince"  as seen here:

 Nothing too far from the over the counter recommended color scheme, but classy enough to be playable.

But, just as it seemed I was going to be able to throw a load of time into my Khador force... I had a podcast to record. The gory details can be heard for the low low cost of a pint and 30 minutes of your wasted time, but suffice it to say that in a week's time, you'll be treated to an action hero throw-down over at http://vspodcast.blogspot.com that will tickle your aural senses explosively.

And then there's the role playing games. You know...the ones I'm not actually playing. After returning from a small con in Binghamton N.Y. and having allies return from GenCon 2012, we're all hopped up to roll dice and tell tall tales.This results in a lot of "Well I"m GONNA...." and then what follows is an unstoppable torrent of how great it will be when the speaker comes up with his magical plotline and all the awesome NPCs and the world that was built by extrapolating the universe from a single bit of fairy cake.

In short, it's the Department of Transportation breaking ground on that new highway to hell. Your good intentions at work..

So, once again I find myself trying to put together a game with limited time which will be competing with podcast research, painting, and all the very real responsibilities that nobody wants to hear me whine about. What's an aspiring GameMaster to do?

A little each day. That's what.

In the effort to reacquaint myself with the game system, I'll be building some NPC's and posting them up here. I plan to use the d20 modern OGL based Exodus system by Glutton Creeper Games. I had an entertaining game of this going on for a while with most of the story taking place in a handwavy area of Southern Oregon. Seeing as they've just recently released their pdf-only Wasteland Guide: Texas, I want to make up characters that would make sense in a 200 mile radius of Clovis, Texas.

Go ahead, look it up... Or don't. I'll wait.

You see, the way I figure it, that gives me the following locations to play around in.
-Lubbock, Amarillo, and Dumas TX
-Roswell, Albaquerque, and Las Vegas NM
-The Oklahoma Panhandle OK (OK?!)
- The Commanche Grasslands

Before any of you fancy cartographers start shouting about how Las Vegas is in Nevada, and I'm a dope, keep in mind that there can be more than ~one~ Las Vegas, and in this case, there is, and it's in New Mexico.

So, as I was promising... Something each day for Exodus D20. It may be and NPC done up in the D20 modern ruleset. It may be cranked out by hand out of the books. It may be some hacked over mess from a previous game that I think will fit into this campaign. If I manage to get 2 dozen NPCs that I actually use out of this, I'll be pleased as punch. If anyone else in the world gets any use out of it, they can please punch someone else. It may be as simple as resource or inspirational material I can use for a plot point in the game.

The following article was pointed out to me by a friend, and I'm hard pressed to deny its greatness. Albeit a sad state of affairs for the brave primates who gave all to put man into space, it is the kind of stranger-than-fiction element that just screams "Put me into your post apocalyptic landscape, crazyman!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkeys_in_space
http://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/animals.html

~Time Machine Noise Of Your Choice~

And I'm back.
In an effort to reacquaint myself with filling in a character sheet, I've harkened to page 77 of the Exodus Wasteland Bestiary, and looked up "Monkey".

Seeing as our original pal "Albert" was a Rhesus Monkey, I've tried to transpose his vital statistics onto a character sheet, with results as follows.

You may notice that this character sheet seems small. That's because I filled out a full on player character sheet with all the pertinent info, and it was far too unwieldy to use in-game. I instead used the lovely "Initiative Cards v2.0 (Fantasy) by JD Wiker" which are available from "The Game Mechanics Inc". 

How can you get them? Simply click on this convenient link which will take you to DriveThruRPG.com and get yourself a copy. 

Are they designed for d20 Modern?

-No, but Albert-X is a monkey, and as such he's very similar to fantasy monkeys, future monkeys, and present monkeys. 

"But, you just copied stats onto a card! That's hardly interesting"

Au contraire, mis petit singe!

You see, in looking at the entry on page 77 of the Wasteland Bestiary, I noticed a few things

1) This monkey is TINY.
As in, categorized as tiny.That means he is:
Pretty God Awful in a grapple at -8 for his size and -2 for his strength
Pretty Good at avoiding being hit, and hitting larger targets, gaining a +2 size bonus for being tiny
Up Close And Personal. He has to be standing in the same square as his opponents to actually attack them.

2) Sometimes things go wrong.
Most of the stats on page 77 seem to be calculated as if this little simian had a Dex score of 14 (+2), when it's clearly listed at 18 (+4). I refitted the stats for Defense and Initiative to reflect the deft agility of the little beast, as well as tuning up his "hide" score to take advantage of the dexterity bonus.

3) His challenge rating is -1... that's Negative One.
So, how the heck does that work? Well, there's this notion called "Advancement" or "Evolution" where you can increase hit dice on the monster, give it a class, and/or boost its defense. It can change sizes, saving throws, and who knows what the hell else. I've chased this stat to page 299 of the d20 modern core rulebook, and I'm still pondering what this does to Challenge Rating... Does a man sized Rhesus monkey remain a Challenge Rating -1  if his strength leaps to 19/+4, his bites start doing 1d3+4 damage with a to-hit bonus of +2? He's even rock on up to 1d8+1 hit points. That's good because he'd be worse at hiding.

I guess I'll have to look into challenge rating a little more seriously tomorrow, because as much as the threat level in a game is a "needs more salt" kind of thing most of the time, I would like to start awarding proper XP in this game instead of "Meh, everyone's bored and out of Karma Points, let's level up".