RangerWickett
Legend
I'm planning to some time run a short game in the Halo universe, where the PCs are space marines. We discussed as a group how we thought the D&D rules might need to be tweaked to handle the game, and we pretty much uniformly decided we think D20 Modern is lame when it comes to combat. Here are the tentative rules so far. I'd like to hear your comments and suggestions.
(Note: The attached version is better formatted.)
Rules
This game will use the basic D&D rules, allowing the barbarian, fighter, marshall, and rogue classes, as well as the ranger class to a maximum of 3rd level. As you’re all bad-ass space marines in the UNSC, you’ll start at 4th level, and you have to have one level of fighter (which will grant you all the necessary proficiencies). A lot of feats from d20 Modern will be available. Of course, some rules are modified for the sake of setting and style.
Initiative and Timing: Each round is three seconds, and people will choose in initiative order whether to move, and if so to where. Once everyone has moved, people will choose in initiative order whether to attack, and if so, whom. Damage has no effect until the end of the round. Having a higher initiative means basically that you have a slightly better chance to get to a given location than anyone else.
Though we’re attempting to capture the feel of Halo, we’re going to trade realism for some ease of play. For maximum realism, if you have multiple attacks with a machine gun, you would move 5 ft and make the attack that occurs while you’re in that square, then let your opponent move 5 ft and make any attacks he wants, and then you’d move 5 more ft and repeat. This would take forever and be tedious, so we’re simplifying some stuff.
Since true simultaneity in a tabletop game is impossible to recreate accurately, I feel this version is better than the core D&D initiative.
Actions: Each round you move first (if you want) then attack (if you want).
Move – You can move up to your base speed. You can also perform other standard D&D ‘move actions,’ like getting out some sort of gear from a pouch, standing up, reloading, and so on. Small actions like switching weapons, or flipping a switch will generally count as half your turn’s movement.
If you move more than 5 ft. in a round, attacks you make that round have a -2 penalty, and you gain a +2 dodge bonus to Defense.
Attack – You can attack a number of times that is determined by your weapon’s rate of fire. If you take any small movement actions (like opening a door), your rate of fire is reduced by half.
Attack of Opportunity – Sometimes a foe will dart from cover to cover (like when a jackal flees a grenade), or will briefly expose itself (like when a hunter goes for its melee attack). You can make an attack of opportunity once per round, in reaction to anything. This uses up one of your normal attacks for the round, and you suffer a -2 penalty to the attack roll. If you’ve already made your full complement of attacks this round, you give up one of your attacks in the next round.
Armor and Defense: Armor does not make you harder to hit. Instead it gives you damage reduction. For this reason, you don’t have an Armor Class (AC); you have a Defense rating. Your Defense is 10 + Dex + any dodge or cover bonuses you have.
Armor – Human armor provides DR 6 and reduces your speed to 20 ft. If you make a called shot to an arm or leg (a -4 penalty to attack), the target has only half (DR 3). If you make a called shot to the head (a -8 penalty to attack), the target has DR 1 if it has a helmet, or no DR otherwise.
Grunts have DR 2. Jackals have DR 1, but their shields provide a +6 cover bonus to Defense (if you hit the shield with an energy weapon or shotgun, you can destroy it with 15 damage). Hunters have a +4 cover bonus to Defense from their shields, and DR 8 unless you make a called shot.
Elites have DR 6 once their shields are down, and their energy shields provide 40 temporary hit points. If the shield has not taken damage for two entire rounds, it recharges 20 points each round until full.
Move Defensively – You move erratically, trying to throw off your enemies’ aim. You can couple this with moving or attacking or moving and attacking. You gain a +2 dodge bonus to Defense. If you make any attacks, however, you take a -4 penalty to your attacks. This is in addition to the normal attack and Defense modifiers for movement.
Weapons
There are six human weapons and five Covenant weapons. Much of the game is designed on the assumption that you, as a 4th level character, have about 30-40 hit points. A shot in Halo that would kill thus needs to, on a crit, be capable of doing 30+ damage regularly.
Zooming: Some weapons have scopes that allow you to zoom, either at x2 or x10. You can toggle zoom to any particular setting once per round as a free action.
While at x2 zoom you multiply your weapon’s range increment by 1.5 (or by 10 if you have Far Shot). When you attack, you must choose a 90-degree firing arc, and you treat any foe outside that arc as invisible. Against foes within your first range increment, you gain a +2 bonus on called shots.
While at x10 zoom you multiply your weapon’s range increment by six (or by ten if you have Far Shot). You must choose a 30-degree firing arc, and you treat any foe outside of that arc as invisible. Against foes within your first range increment, you gain a +2 bonus on called shots.
Human Weapons
Covenant Weapons
All covenant energy weapons deal +4 damage to energy shields.
Stuff Left to Do
Rules for health packs and other tech. Rules for vehicles seem almost necessary, since D20 Modern's are mediocre. I need to stat Hunter weapons. I don't plan to use flood, or if I do, they'll just be zombies.
(Note: The attached version is better formatted.)
Halo
Wake the Beast
Wake the Beast
Rules
This game will use the basic D&D rules, allowing the barbarian, fighter, marshall, and rogue classes, as well as the ranger class to a maximum of 3rd level. As you’re all bad-ass space marines in the UNSC, you’ll start at 4th level, and you have to have one level of fighter (which will grant you all the necessary proficiencies). A lot of feats from d20 Modern will be available. Of course, some rules are modified for the sake of setting and style.
Initiative and Timing: Each round is three seconds, and people will choose in initiative order whether to move, and if so to where. Once everyone has moved, people will choose in initiative order whether to attack, and if so, whom. Damage has no effect until the end of the round. Having a higher initiative means basically that you have a slightly better chance to get to a given location than anyone else.
Though we’re attempting to capture the feel of Halo, we’re going to trade realism for some ease of play. For maximum realism, if you have multiple attacks with a machine gun, you would move 5 ft and make the attack that occurs while you’re in that square, then let your opponent move 5 ft and make any attacks he wants, and then you’d move 5 more ft and repeat. This would take forever and be tedious, so we’re simplifying some stuff.
Since true simultaneity in a tabletop game is impossible to recreate accurately, I feel this version is better than the core D&D initiative.
Actions: Each round you move first (if you want) then attack (if you want).
Move – You can move up to your base speed. You can also perform other standard D&D ‘move actions,’ like getting out some sort of gear from a pouch, standing up, reloading, and so on. Small actions like switching weapons, or flipping a switch will generally count as half your turn’s movement.
If you move more than 5 ft. in a round, attacks you make that round have a -2 penalty, and you gain a +2 dodge bonus to Defense.
Attack – You can attack a number of times that is determined by your weapon’s rate of fire. If you take any small movement actions (like opening a door), your rate of fire is reduced by half.
Attack of Opportunity – Sometimes a foe will dart from cover to cover (like when a jackal flees a grenade), or will briefly expose itself (like when a hunter goes for its melee attack). You can make an attack of opportunity once per round, in reaction to anything. This uses up one of your normal attacks for the round, and you suffer a -2 penalty to the attack roll. If you’ve already made your full complement of attacks this round, you give up one of your attacks in the next round.
Armor and Defense: Armor does not make you harder to hit. Instead it gives you damage reduction. For this reason, you don’t have an Armor Class (AC); you have a Defense rating. Your Defense is 10 + Dex + any dodge or cover bonuses you have.
Armor – Human armor provides DR 6 and reduces your speed to 20 ft. If you make a called shot to an arm or leg (a -4 penalty to attack), the target has only half (DR 3). If you make a called shot to the head (a -8 penalty to attack), the target has DR 1 if it has a helmet, or no DR otherwise.
Grunts have DR 2. Jackals have DR 1, but their shields provide a +6 cover bonus to Defense (if you hit the shield with an energy weapon or shotgun, you can destroy it with 15 damage). Hunters have a +4 cover bonus to Defense from their shields, and DR 8 unless you make a called shot.
Elites have DR 6 once their shields are down, and their energy shields provide 40 temporary hit points. If the shield has not taken damage for two entire rounds, it recharges 20 points each round until full.
Move Defensively – You move erratically, trying to throw off your enemies’ aim. You can couple this with moving or attacking or moving and attacking. You gain a +2 dodge bonus to Defense. If you make any attacks, however, you take a -4 penalty to your attacks. This is in addition to the normal attack and Defense modifiers for movement.
Weapons
There are six human weapons and five Covenant weapons. Much of the game is designed on the assumption that you, as a 4th level character, have about 30-40 hit points. A shot in Halo that would kill thus needs to, on a crit, be capable of doing 30+ damage regularly.
Zooming: Some weapons have scopes that allow you to zoom, either at x2 or x10. You can toggle zoom to any particular setting once per round as a free action.
While at x2 zoom you multiply your weapon’s range increment by 1.5 (or by 10 if you have Far Shot). When you attack, you must choose a 90-degree firing arc, and you treat any foe outside that arc as invisible. Against foes within your first range increment, you gain a +2 bonus on called shots.
While at x10 zoom you multiply your weapon’s range increment by six (or by ten if you have Far Shot). You must choose a 30-degree firing arc, and you treat any foe outside of that arc as invisible. Against foes within your first range increment, you gain a +2 bonus on called shots.
Human Weapons
- M6D Pistol: Rate 5. Range 40 ft. Dmg 2d8. Crit x3. Scope x2. Clip 12. Can be used with double-tap.
- MA5B ICWS Assault Rifle: Rate 5 (either 1-round shots, 5-round bursts, or 10-round autofire). Range 30 ft. Dmg 2d6 (shot) or 4d6 (burst, -4 to attack) or 2d6 in area (autofire). Crit x2. Clip 60.
- M90 Mk.I Shotgun: Rate 3. Range 20 ft. Dmg 4d12 (make four attack rolls, each for 1d12). Crit x2 (within 10 ft., crit x3). Clip 12. Reloading refills 3 rounds as half a move, or 6 as a full move.
- SRS99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle: Rate 1. Range 120 ft. Dmg 2d12. Crit x4. Clip 4. Can be used with double tap.
- M19 SSM (SPNKr) Rocket Launcher: Rate 1. Range 150 ft (however, only travels 3 range increments per round, and so can be dodged). Dmg 40d6 to target struck, 20d6 in a 10-ft. radius, with 10d6 splash out to 20-ft. Reflex DC 15 for half. Crit n/a. Clip 2. Reloading takes full round.
- M9 HE-DP Grenade: Rate 4. Range 10 ft (but can be thrown to 10 increments). Dmg 10d6 in a 10-ft. radius, 2d6 in 20-ft. radius. Reflex DC 15 for half. Crit n/a. Clip n/a.
Covenant Weapons
All covenant energy weapons deal +4 damage to energy shields.
- Plasma pistol: Rate 4. Range 40 ft. Dmg 2d6. Crit x2. Clip 500. Can be used with double-tap.
Plasma pistol (charged): Rate 1. Range 80 ft. Dmg 4d6 or destroys shield. Crit n/a. Uses 50 charges and takes 1 round to cool down.
- Plasma rifle: Rate 4 (either 1-round shots, 3-round bursts, 5-round bursts). Range 30 ft. Dmg 2d6 (shot) or 3d6 (small burst, -2 to attack) or 4d6 (large burst, -4 to attack). Crit x2. Clip 200. Large can only be used after you fire two small bursts previously. If you fire more than 20 rounds continuously, the weapon overheats and needs 1 round to cool down.
- Needler: Rate x. Range x. Dmg x. Crit x. Clip x. NO IDEA.
- Plasma sword: Rate 1. Range melee. Dmg 4d12. Crit 17-20/x2.
- Plasma grenade: Rate 4. Range 10 ft (but can be thrown to 10 increments). At the end of the round after it is thrown, it explodes, dealing 10d6 in a 10-ft. radius. Reflex DC 15 for half. If the grenade hits a creature, it sticks, and moves with him. If you are aware of the grenade-thrower, you can make a Reflex save opposing his attack roll to dodge the grenade.
Stuff Left to Do
Rules for health packs and other tech. Rules for vehicles seem almost necessary, since D20 Modern's are mediocre. I need to stat Hunter weapons. I don't plan to use flood, or if I do, they'll just be zombies.
