Products That Overwhelmed You

[Voadam]

Just my luck then! Did I dream that combat system though?

Not at all.

You attack like in D&D using a d20. You get bonuses from things like physical prowess stat and class/level things like hand to hand martial artist. You need to get a 5 or higher to hit someone. If your result is lower than the opponent's armor rating (AR) the damage goes to the armor and not the opponent. An opponent can also dodge or parry depending on combat skill in which case they make an opposed roll to match or beat your attack. Dodge and parry negate an attack. If the attack hits and is a blunt weapon attack like a punch the defender can attempt to roll with the blow which is another opposed roll to the strike with success reducing damage by half. Certain things cannot be parried. Certain things can not be rolled with.

That is similar for a lot of Palladium games across the spectrum.

 

[Undrave]

Not at all.

You attack like in D&D using a d20. You get bonuses from things like physical prowess stat and class/level things like hand to hand martial artist. You need to get a 5 or higher to hit someone. If your result is lower than the opponent's armor rating (AR) the damage goes to the armor and not the opponent. An opponent can also dodge or parry depending on combat skill in which case they make an opposed roll to match or beat your attack. Dodge and parry negate an attack. If the attack hits and is a blunt weapon attack like a punch the defender can attempt to roll with the blow which is another opposed roll to the strike with success reducing damage by half. Certain things cannot be parried. Certain things can not be rolled with.

That is similar for a lot of Palladium games across the spectrum.

It is as crazy as I remember... Why that arbitrary 5 number?!

 

[Voadam]

It is as crazy as I remember... Why that arbitrary 5 number?!

Never stated, but it means someone with no bonuses only misses a non dodging target 20% of the time.

I'm guessing the design was that missing entirely is not fun and should happen rarely but be possible.

From when I played the real determinator was the opposed rolls and how many options you got from your combat skills versus how many your opponent had. Some skill sets were just better than others, for example in fantasy the mercenary's versus the knight's, versus the paladin's hand to hand skills was pretty much an AD&D type overlapping scale with paladins at the top.

For superheroes the vast power scale differences in the system were also significant, you could be Iron man in super armor able to take and dish out massive damage from the get go, or be a masked street level vigilante hitting people with a nightstick.

 

[Ace]

GURPS 4th edition. I kept feeling like I needed to know it better and read the core books, as one can, but I never could make it through them. Also I was at a VERY busy time in my life and there were really no adventures I could just run and the prospect of creating GURPS content or printing other content was also competing for that dwindling free time. Eventually I just gave up.

I can't blame you. I've played every edition of the GURPS and 4e was a bit woah! for me.

IMO no one unless they are experienced with GURPS already should start with the core books. I'd suggest if you ever have the time and inclination to try again start with GURPS lite and work up. Its free to download and easy to manage. If I may confess, I often use mostly lite anyway. Its enough for a lot of games.

FWIW when GURPS 1e was released way back in 1986, it was a different world. Even adult gamers had less competition for time and rule heavy was very popular. Even so the best practice was to get Man to Man (just the GURPS combat system basically) and Orc Slayers (the adventure for Man to Man) and start there.

 

[aramis erak]

It is as crazy as I remember... Why that arbitrary 5 number?!

The answer derived from the rules: Because 5 represents no armor. Also note: with AR16 being the best available, that's equal chance for bypass and miss (unless parried/dodged).

For comparison, The Arcanum uses 10+ to hit, and similar weapon skill tables. Likewise, the dodge/parry works the same way. (Both games likely pilfered that from RuneQuest) Unlike Palladium, Arcanum opted for (stolen from T&T via RQ) armor reducing damage taken.

Normal flow of all non-Megadamage combats in my experience...
Guy with best initiative attacks best enemy initiative; usually hits.(at levels 6+, almost always hits), Target burns an action to dodge/parry/roll-with-PFI... Best remaining does the same ...
Note that, once it gets to Megadamage, Megadamage always takes the hit. Only Megadamage weapons damage megadamage armor...
and one point through is 100 SDC/HP...

 

[Fenris-77]

Sorry, you lost me when you mentioned Megadamage, my brain just shut right off. What are we talking about again?

 

[Voadam]

Sorry, you lost me when you mentioned Megadamage, my brain just shut right off. What are we talking about again?

In Palladium's Rifts setting there are super tech and magic weapons and armor that inflict and absorb damage on a ridiculous scale, measured in megadamage which equals 100 hp for each point of mega damage.

So a normal dagger does 1d4 hp damage. A megadamage dagger does 1d4 megadamage but if it hits a normal person it does 1d4x 100 damage. Non-megadamage weapons cannot scratch megadamage armor, and non megadamage weapons cannot parry megadamage ones. Lots of magical creatures, enhanced people, robots, power armor, supertech weapons, magic armor, magic weapons, and magic spells are on the megadamage scale. Normal humanoids and animals and normal tech weapons are on a hp scale.

 

[Undrave]

Sorry, you lost me when you mentioned Megadamage, my brain just shut right off. What are we talking about again?

Same

 

[Ghost2020]

It's a bit of a ridiculous system, and I'm one who LOVES Rifts! It's easy enough to house rule, which I've done. Not going to go over it here though.
The basic non-RIFTS system is pretty decent though. Lots of back and forth, but can make for very exciting combats.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I liked Palladium Fantasy, but it lost me as the different expansions came out. Did not hold together well once it tried to expand into different genres. It is not a universal system.