Some House Rules, revisions

[thormagni]

I just made these feats up to simulate the guy who takes out a room full of opponents with a blaze from his six-shooter or a fellow with the lever action rifle that sweeps the street.They are based on Cleave and Great Cleave, but with a firearm.

Clearin’ the Room
You can sweep a room, takin’ out many of your opponents in a blaze of gunfire.
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot.
Benefit: If you deal an opponent enough damage with a ranged weapon to make it drop (typically by dropping it to below 0 hit points, causing massive damage that kills it, etc.) you get an immediate, extra ranged attack against another opponent within your first range increment. The extra attack is with the same weapon and with the same bonus as the first attack. Having to switch weapons or running out of ammunition means the Clearin’ the Room is over. This is a full attack action and a character can do nothing else except take a 5-foot step or other free actions.
Note: This is a ranged version of Cleave.

Greater Clearin’ the Room
You are especially fast with a gun, takin’ out a roomful of your opponents in a blaze of gunfire.
Prerequisites: Dex 15+, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Clearin’ the Room, Base Attack Bonus +4
Benefit: The same as Clearin’ the Room except you can attack more than one opponent after the first. Again, having to switch weapons or running out of ammunition means the Greater Clearin’ the Room is over. This is a full attack action and a character can do nothing else except take a 5-foot step or other free actions.

 

[thormagni]

The Showdown/Draw Pardner

Sidewinder and Deadlands D20 have a slightly different take on how a showdown should work. So, I’m mashin’ em together to come up with something tasty. I won’t be using the Fast Draw skill from Sidewinder, so here’s the final version:

The Staredown: In a showdown, two hombres have called each other out. They are facin’ off trying to get the the drop on each other, waitin’ for someone to twitch and someone to get smoked. The contest starts off with an opposed Intimidation check. The loser of the check gets a Morale penalty to his upcoming Initiative roll equal to half the amount he lost the staredown by.

Example: Johnny Gunn, a steely eyed lawman, and Bad Bart, a snake, are about to throw down. They commence to starin’ deep into each other’s eyes but Bart blinks first. They roll their Intimidate check, Johnny gets an 18 and Bart only rolls a 10. When it comes to the upcoming Initiative roll, Bart gets a –4 to his roll.

Now, folks with The Stare feat (from Deadlands) can try to intimidate a whole room full of low-lifes.

Fast Draw Rounds
After The Staredown segment of a showdown or whenever a whole room full of pistol-packin’ gunslingers decide to start throwing lead, you get into the actual Fast Draw round.

In a Fast Draw Round, everybody rolls Initiative, adding their Dex bonus and any other modifiers normally to see who gets their smokewagons clear of the holsters first. Folks who’ve already got their guns drawn, or who have can get ‘em out as a free action (such as with the Quick Draw feat) get a +4 to the Inititative check – you can outdraw a man who has got the drop on ya, but it ain’t easy.

The shooting then goes in initiative order, but note that folks who haven’t had their initiative yet are caught flat-footed, meaning they don’t get their Dex bonus to their AC, only their Sidestep Bonus. And if you get hit with a firearm while you are flatfooted, it counts as an automatic Critical hit (as per Sidewinder rules.) Bein’ slow in the Weird West can be deadly.

Any long arm, such as a rifle or shotgun, or a pistol with a lengthened barrel gets a –2 penalty to Initiative on the Fast Draw round only, unless it is already drawn at the start of the round. Pulling your shotgun outta your coat is slower than hip-shootin' a hog iron. Any Fast Draw bonuses for a weapon, such as for having a shortened barrel, apply only in the Fast Draw round. Tiny firearms such as derringers, get a +2 bonus to Initiative in Fast Draw rounds (as if they were a pistol with a shortened barrel.) Any skill or feat that gives a benefit to Sidewinder’s Fast Draw skill applies directly to the Initiative in the Fast Draw round only.

After the initial flurry of drawin’ and shootin’ in the Fast Draw round, folks bonuses all settle back down to normal when regular combat begins.

 

[thormagni]

Reloading

There’s a little bit of conflict between Deadlands skills and feats and Sidewinder as far as reloading your weapon goes. So this is to clear that up. It supercedes info in the Sidewinder combat and Quick Load feat and Deadlands Speed Load skill and equipment writeups.

Altered Sidewinder feat
QUICK LOAD [General]
You can load a weapon quicker than normal.
Benefit: You can reload a weapon at twice the normal rate for slower weapons or as a move equivalent action for faster firearms. For example, if a weapon normally takes four standard actions to reload one round, you can do it in two standard actions. If a gun normally takes one standard action to reload one round, you can do it as a move equivalent action and still get a shot off in the same round.

Altered Deadlands D20 skill
Speed Load
There's nothing more embarrasing than running out of ammo in the middle of a shootout. With this skill, your hero can get bullets back in the shooting iron faster.
Check: Reloading a single bullet into a pistol, rifle or shotgun while under fire takes an amount of time and roll against a DC depending on its reload rate. You can improve this rate by taking the Quick Load feat.
Special: An unskilled Speed Load check is actually just a Dexterity check.

Reloading in combat

Each weapon has a reload rating, based on how easy and fast it is to reload the gun under pressure. When the bullets are flyin’, it’s hard to squeeze those little lead balls into the tube all proper. To reload under fire you have to use a standard action to roll a Speed Load skill check against the appropriate DC, then you can drop in the number of rounds indicated. Blowin’ the check means you can’t get the bullets into the gun this round. Rolling a 1 means you drop your weapon.

Folks with the Quick Load feat can cut the time in half or reduce a standard action to a move equivalent action.

Reload ratings, from fastest to slowest
Weapon type Reload rate DC
Tiny pistols 1 shell per 1 action 10
Muzzle loading pistol 1 shell per 4 actions 14
Cap and ball pistol 1 shell per 2 actions 13
Cartridge pistols 2 shells per 1 action 12
Sawed off shotgun 1 shell per 1 action 15
Muzzle loading rifle 1 shell per 4 actions 15
Breech loading rifle 1 shell per 1 action 14
Buffalo rifle 1 shell per 1 action 18
Lever action rifle 2 shells per 1 action 13
Shotgun 1 shell per 1 action 15
Gatling Gun 10 shells per 1 action 15

Reloading can draw an attack of opportunity.

 

[Fyrestryke]

Sweet. That cleared up a lot of questions I had.

 

[thormagni]

Shotguns
We will use the damage rules for shotguns from Deadlands instead of Sidewinder.
Range Damage Attack bonus
Touching 4d6 0
First increment 3d6 +1
Second increment 2d6 +2
Third increment 1d6 +3

Slugs do 3d6 damage no matter the range increment and take a –2 attack bonus penalty.

Double-barreled shotguns are common in the Weird West. A shooter with a double barrel can empty both into a target, doing double damage or choosing to fire at separate targets, if they have two attacks per round.

 

[thormagni]

Proposed rule

Another house rule I made up out of scratch, but it seems appropriate for the Wild West. Thoughts?

Ranged Attacks of Opportunity
Wanderin’ into some shooter’s sights is a way to end up dead quick in the Weird West. If you ain’t payin’ attention to the man with the shootin’ iron, you could end up dead.

Deadlands characters can make attacks of opportunity at range. The reach of a firearm and its threat area is anything within its first range increment. Any actions that would normally draw an attack of opportunity within a weapon’s first range increment are eligible for getting’ a cowpoke lit up like a Christmas tree. Penalties for cover apply normally and you have to see your opponent to shoot ‘em (DC 10 Spot check, modified by cover, Hide, etc. Note that characters who are involved in combat are distracted for the purpose of the spot check and receive a –5 to their roll.) which is why so many folks get to hidin’ when the lead gets to flyin’.

Example: Johnny Gunn shoots Black Bart, wounding him in the leg. About 30 feet down the road, Ed Evil decides to come out from behind a wagon and dart into the saloon, to get a better shot at Johnny. Johnny gets a Spot check against Ed to see if he notices the movement. It’s a DC 10 check, with –8 to the roll because of the distance and because Johnny is distracted by combat. He rolls a 19, meaning he can take an attack of opportunity at Ed as the outlaw moves. Johnny waits until Ed gets into his second square of movement, in the middle of the open street and out of the half cover of the wagon and the nine-tenths cover of the saloon and shoots.

Got ‘em Covered
A cowpoke can hold real still, payin’ close attention to the streetscape, voluntarily giving up their Dex bonus to AC and waiting for somebody to make a move, so they can make a spot check without being distracted and take an Attack of Opportunity.

Note that making a ranged attack opens you up to an attack of opportunity, so when that gunslinger pokes his head up to get a shot off, you can fire back... and so can he.

Combat reflexes allow an hombre to take more than one attack of opportunity per round, depending on their Dex bonus. That’s fine, but if you run out of ammo in your six-shooter, you can’t take any more until you reload. You can’t switch weapons to take an attack of opportunity.

Any target with more than half cover is not eligible for an attack of opportunity.

 

[thormagni]

Sidestep bonuses

I don't know how to put this in chart form on here, so I hope it makes sense... I'll post all these in a Word doc in my Yahoo Briefcase.

Sidestep Bonus for Deadlands classes
Sidewinder rules give characters a Sidestep bonus to AC and each class gets a Sidestep bonus depending on level. For Deadlands basic character classes, the Sidestep bonus per level is:

Level	Brave,	             Blessed,
	Gunslinger,	     Huckster,
	Mad Scientist,	     Maverick,
	Shaman, Rowdy	     Scout
1	2	             2
2	3	             3
3	3	             3
4	3	             4
5	4	             4
6	4	             5
7	5	             5
8	5	             6
9	5	             6
10	6	             7
11	6	             7
12	7	             8
13	7	             8
14	7	             9
15	8	             9
16	8	             10
17	9	             10
18	9	             11
19	9	             11
20	10	             12

 

[BobProbst]

Try using the CODE tags (the pound symbol in the toolbar) like this:

column 1        column 2
     1               3
     2               4

 

[thormagni]

Thanks Bob, I'll give that a try. The Word file is up on my Yahoo Briefcase now, so people can grab all the house rules from there too. All fifth level characters end up with a +4 so I guess it doesn't really matter anyway though.

Try using the CODE tags (the pound symbol in the toolbar) like this:

column 1        column 2
     1               3
     2               4

 

[InzeladunMaster]

What is the side-step bonus for a 5th level Rowdy? I didn't see that class on the chart.