From: ward1@husc8.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives
Subject: Shadowrun FAQ: Combat
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: 14 Sep 1992 08:36:49 -0400
Organization: UUNET Communications
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net

                   ****************************************
                   *              SHADOWRUN               *
                   *      Frequently Asked Questions      *
                   *               Combat                 *
                   ****************************************

Post Name: ShadowFAQ -- Combat
As of: July 1, 1992
Version: 0.4
Compiled by: Wordman (ward1@husc.harvard.edu)

This post contains FAQ (frequently asked questions) and standard house 
rules about the Combat portion of the Shadowrun gaming system.  Posted 
simultaneously with this post is a post titled 'Shadowrun: FAQ General' 
which contains more information on what the point of this list is, where 
it came from, et cetera.

As mentioned in the General post, many house rules are effective when 
used together. This is especially true of this section.

Armor rules are included in their own post.

OUTLINE
I.   Reaction and Initiative
II.  Speedier/Deadlier Combat
        A. Pools
III. Damage locations
IV.  Grenades

*******
C1: How do I stop magicians with Increase Reaction Spell Locks from 
riding circles around cybered people?
*******
VANILLA:  Since you are limited to a maximum of four actions, characters 
with very high initiative scores will likely run out of actions, dodge 
dice and defence dice very early on in combat, leaving them open to 
multiple attacks resisted without aid.

PSEUDO-VANILLA:  While not actually in the rulebooks, the following has 
been mentioned by Paul Hume and Tom Dowd: when "stacking" spells over 
cyberware, only the highest rating holds.  Reaction enhancements are not 
cumulative.

HOUSE 1:  Disallow Increase Reaction spells.

HOUSE 2:  Change Increase Reaction spells to only gain one die for every 
TWO levels of the spell.  Thus Inc. Reac. 2 is equivalent to Wired 1, 
Inc. Reac. 4 is equiv to Wired 2.

HOUSE 3:  Change the number of phases between a character's actions from 
7 to a variable number, based on cyberware/spells.  Everyone gets only 
one die for Initiative.  The value of the roll is added to Reaction 
(cyber/spell adjusted).  Normal characters get an action every 7 phases, 
other characters by this table:
              wired      boosted     Increase   Physical
_level_______reflexes____reflexes____Reaction____Adepts__
   1            4           5           6          4
   2            3           4           5          3
   3            2           3           4          2
   4            -           -           3          1
   VARIANT 1:   This same idea, but limiting the Reaction bonuses of the 
types of cyberware and/or spells (+1 per level of wired, for example, in 
stead of +2).
   VARIANT 2:   This same idea, but limiting the maximum number of 
actions to four.

HOUSE 4:  Roll initiative normally.  You get only ONE 'dice' action 
(shooting, spellcasting, etc), which can occur on or after your 
initiative number.  You get a number of 'non-dice' actions (reloading, 
aiming, movement, drawing weapon, etc) equal to 1 + levels of any 
reaction enhancements.

*******
Does the rule of 6 apply to initiative?
*******
VANILLA: No.  Initiative is not a test and the rule of 6 applies only to
tests. [This can be found in the eratta sheets].

HOUSE 1: Yes.

HOUSE 2: Yes, but only to the natural die (the 'free' die that everyone
gets for initiative; extra dice from cyber are as normal.)

*******
C2: How do you speed up combat and/or make it more deadly?
*******
VANILLA:  Use the new combat rules from the Rigger Sourcebook.

HOUSE 1:  Change the armor rules you use, to make combat more deadly.  
See the FAQ Armor post for these.

HOUSE 2:  Eliminate the dodge and combat pools.  Use a Combat Pool 
instead, equal to your reaction.  Dice from it may be used to help dodge 
(up to Quickness in extra dice) or help a combat skill (up to present 
level of skill in dice).
   VARIANT 1: Set the combat pool = (Quk+Int+Will)/2 (round down). [This 
is what Shadowrun II will use.]

HOUSE 3:  Dodge pool is no longer used to resist damage, but to avoid 
being hit.  The target number for the dodge is 4 for melee attacks and 
thrown weapons, 5 for projectiles, and 6 for bullets and explosions.  
Dodge successes cancel with attacker successes.  Getting more successes 
than the attacker means a clean miss.
   VARIANT 1:  As above, but the successes reduce damage.  (Yes, these 
two are different.  This variant allows some of the attackers successes 
to sometimes be wasted by incomplete staging.)
   VARIANT 2:  As above, but the target number is the skill level of the 
attacker.

HOUSE 4:  Only dodge pool OR defense pool may be used between actions.

HOUSE 5:  If a character elects to dodge, one dodge roll is made with 
all dice and holds for all attacks on him until his pool refreshes.

HOUSE 6:  Attacks stage up at set values by type of attack, but stage 
down normally.
   VARIANT 1: Melee attacks stage up at 1, down normally.
   VARIANT 2: Gun/missile attacks stage up at 2, down normally.
   VARIANT 3: Heavy weapons stage up at 4, down normally.

*******
C3:  Shouldn't there be a hit location system?
*******
VANILLA:  The amount of damage done by shooting someone in SR is based 
on a skill roll.  The more skill you have, the more damage you are 
likely to do.  Since the amount of skill you possess does not change how 
hard the bullet hits, the only way to explain this is by saying that the 
more skill someone has, the more likely they are to shoot someone in a 
vital and/or exposed location.

HOUSE 1: Use DMZ-like hit location system.  Mark two damage tracks (one 
mental, one physical) as follows:
              +1          +2       +3    +4
     12 11 10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1  0  D
When a character is injured, roll 2d6 to determine where on the track
the damage is applied.  Wounds do the same number of "boxes" as in
Shadowrun.  For example, a Moderate wound with a 2d6 roll of 6 fills in
boxes 6, 5 and 4, giving a +2 modifier to all the character's die rolls
thereafter.  Skip any boxes that are already filled in.  At 0 the
character is just unconscious; at D, comatose (mental) or dead 
(physical).  Additional boxes on the Mental track wrap onto the Physical 
track.

*******
C4: Why are grenades so wimpy?
*******
VANILLA: Good question.

HOUSE 1: Increase the base damage of grenades to D.

*******
C5: What are all the modifiers to ranged combat?
*******
Recoil (Rigger Black Book, pg. 131-32)
 Burst  +2 per burst
 Full auto  +1/round
 Heavy Weapon  2*uncompensated recoil
 compensation  -1/rating
Reactive trigger  extra shot for sngl shot wpns (Street Sam pg18,20)
Blind Fire  +8 (SR. page 65)
Cover, Partial  +2
Cover, Full  +4
Target Running  +1
Attacker in Melee Combat  +1/Opponent (see ALSO, pg65, col 2, para 5)
Attacker Running  cannot shoot
Attacker Moving  +1
Attacker Moving on difficult ground  +2
Visibility  norm    LL   Therm
 Full Dark   +4     +2      0
 Glare       +2     +4     +4
 Mist        +2     +2      0
 Reduced Lgt +2      0      0
 Smoke/Fog   +4     +4     +2
Ultrasound Sight negates visiblity mods (Street Sam, pg 36)
Smartgun  +2 (SR. pg 136)
Smart Goggles +1
Image Magnification (SR. pg 65, col 1, 2nd paragraph)
Target standing still  -1
Laser sight  -1 (SR. pg 136)
Wounds
 Light  +1
 Medium  +2
 Serious  +3

Xref: sparky rec.games.frp:25101 rec.games.frp.misc:5094