WOIN [WOIN] NOW Heavy Gunner

Steve Cansdale · Feb 10, 2019

So I got my group together Friday evening to run through the short intro adventure at the back of the NOW book using four of the Alpha Team pregens... Things were going well - though I need to do a cheat sheet for the Combat process! - until they started to engage the Heavy Gunner in the first combat encounter...

Please tell me that it's a typo that he has Hardy 36 (8d6)?? Max of 90hp!! If it were Hardy 3 that would still give him 7d6 (stats) plus 2d6 (Hardy) for 9d6 and an average of 27 Health (max is still 54 though!). Cannot figure out how he got to 60... and with a 12 Soak, you need a tank to take him down! Or am I missing something in the combat process?

Morrus · Feb 10, 2019

He definitely shouldn't have hardy 36, no. Definite typo!

His HEALTH, however, isn't calculated quite the same way as PC health is. See the section on creating monsters and NPCs.

He is a tough foe, though, to be sure. His big weakness is that he's super easy to hit (RD is 12) so your PCs are free to spend attack dice on extra damage. If they get a crossfire, maybe a height advantage, and aim, and spend four dice on +2d6 damage, that SOAK won't seem so bad. Focus fire, and you should take him out. Ben, for example, will be doing 5d6 damage at that point with his Walther PPK.

He needs some tactics to take down (the idea of the encounter is to face the PCs to use tactics to get them in the right mindset). If he feels too much for your group, though, you could can weaken him by giving him -1d6 to attack and damage, -4 SOAK, and 30 HEALTH. That will probably be quite easy, then.

Steve Cansdale · Feb 10, 2019

Thanks for the fast response...

Morrus said:
His HEALTH, however, isn't calculated quite the same way as PC health is. See the section on creating monsters and NPCs.

Hadn't got that far - thought I'd be using pre-built NPCs initially! ;-)

Morrus said:
He is a tough foe, though, to be sure. His big weakness is that he's super easy to hit (RD is 12) so your PCs are free to spend attack dice on extra damage. If they get a crossfire, maybe a height advantage, and aim, and spend four dice on +2d6 damage, that SOAK won't seem so bad. Focus fire, and you should take him out. Ben, for example, will be doing 5d6 damage at that point with his Walther PPK.

He needs some tactics to take down (the idea of the encounter is to face the PCs to use tactics to get them in the right mindset). If he feels too much for your group, though, you could can weaken him by giving him -1d6 to attack and damage, -4 SOAK, and 30 HEALTH. That will probably be quite easy, then.

Yes, I had mentioned that combat is very tactical and requires a good amount of thought. No just blasting away here! Oh, and the way my lot roll dice, he could be RD3 and they'd still miss him!

BTW, there seems to be a paucity of resources out there for NOW - lots for OLD and NEW though.