Modern House Rules... what are yours?

[ledded]

Here's a few we use...

1) We use a WP/VP system. All hits go to VP before WP, except criticals go straight to WP. If you take WP damage, you have to save DC 5 + total damage taken that round or go unconscious. Non-lethal is not an issue at all; you take VP damage until you go into WP, then take no WP damage from successive non-lethal attacks but have to save as if you did to avoid going unconscious. This way, you can have the crap beat out of you but still be able to recover in a few hours (VP return 1 per level per hour, WP 1 per day). Crits go directly to WP, and armor provides a small amount of DR as well as Defense. This way, knockout punch can still, well, knock someone out in the first round. Ordinaries do not get VP, so can be deadly at higher levels but still go down like stormtroopers (it's not uncommon to meet NPC's and mooks that have ordinary levels with a couple heroic levels, so they are competent but not overly tough).

2) Falling damage. If you fall less than or equal to 60' you take d6 per 10', save for half. If you fall *greater* than 60' feet, any damage over 60' applies *directly* to WP (save for half). This is loosely based on RL statistics for survivability of an actual fall from that distance. Nobody blows off falling out of helicopter or off of tall buildings anymore .

3) A few small weapon rule modifications, such as shotguns take a -2 to damage per range increment but suffer no penalty to attack. I've thought about proposing a change to autofire like some of the above mentioned.

4) Critical failures/hits. A critical failure on an attack forces you to roll again, potentially causing you to drop your weapon, break it, hurt yourself, or a combination of the above (most of the time it's just a miss). Rolling a crit when confirming a potential crit causes you to roll for a body part hit and then a condition applies for a serious injury (reduced movement, blindness, etc)

5) We use Trip/Grapple/Disarm/Sunder rules and feats from 3.5.

6) A completely re-worked fx/spells system that is based solely off of feats, skills, and pain... er, spellcasting costs . Some spells may resemble d20 spells, but there are quite a few that do not.

 

[Peterson]

4) Critical failures/hits. A critical failure on an attack forces you to roll again, potentially causing you to drop your weapon, break it, hurt yourself, or a combination of the above (most of the time it's just a miss). Rolling a crit when confirming a potential crit causes you to roll for a body part hit and then a condition applies for a serious injury (reduced movement, blindness, etc)

Or shoot yourself in the foot/leg.

Repeatedly.

Peterson

 

[ledded]

Ha.


Ha. Ha.

Yeah, it does have a down side. I mean, when you are trying to be the cool 2nd level guy with the really big gun, it takes all the 'umph' out of your character to shoot yourself in the left foot for far more VP than you have at the time.

That, and trying to convince the other players that I didnt just shoot myself in the left foot, does make it interesting though.

The other times, somebody else did it for me. d20 Modern, first session, first scene, first combat... 3 rounds in, some jerk buries a bowie knife in my left thigh, to the hilt (crit). Not a fun day.

So having a fully featured crit/fumble system can be fun, but be prepared to have those bad fumbles and play with the pain. Personally, I wouldnt have had it any other way, even though my modern character spends a lot of his time limping and complaining about the pain in his left leg.