Infantry Combat Rules

Introduction

I have found myself time and time again being frustrated by the standard Palladium rules regarding ground combat. I have always felt it lacks a certain level of realism compared to some other games systems. Whilst we know that the Palladium system isn't perfect, (but we love it anyway =) I was loathe to scrap the entire system, and instead looked at expanding upon it to add the realism that it lacks. After all, would you prefer to take 12 points of damage and still be running around ok even though you know that in real life you would be seriously injured ?? Or would you prefer to know that you got hit in the arm, (right arm to be precise,) and firing back at your attacker is going to be more difficult as now have a penalty to contend with ???

These rules are of course purely optional as they do mean additional rolling and keeping track of SDC and HP, but I hope that you will have fun with them and give them a try to see if they work for you. If anyone has any questions or comments regarding this new system please email me and let me know.

New & Modified Rules

Weapon Skills

One of the large number of changes that I've proposed in these heavily modified rules is a scrapping of the way that the WP, (modern weapons,) skills work. A PC or NPC that attempts to use a weapon that they have no skill in will find themselves at a -4 disadvantage. This will hopefully better reflect that although we may have all seen Arnold Schwarzenegger using heavy machineguns and missile launchers, none of us actually know how to use them, let alone have had any formal training in them. Without this training your more likely to kill yourself than the enemy. In addition to the alteration of the rules regarding using a weapon with no WP skill in it, I have also scrapped the Aimed Shot bonus as it should be assumed that all shots are aimed and with the primary hand on the shooter, a modifier for shooting with the off hand is also noted below, (once again we are not capable of firing at a target 100 metres behind us over our shoulder with our left hand, if right handed, and expect to hit between the eyes.) Below are the new rules for WP skills.

No WP Skill in Weapon : -4 to hit
Firing with off hand : -2 to hit
Wild Firing (no aiming) : -2 to hit
Burst Fire (3 round burst) : +1 to hit
Called Shot (Specific Body Location) : 12+ plus modifiers

Damage Types

There are two main types of damage that can be sustained in any combat situation. Bludgeoning damage, and piercing damage. Bludgeoning damage is either a fist or a foot, or perhaps a club or other non-piercing weapon. A piercing weapon would be a knife, sword, bullet or shrapnel from a grenade. Explosive damage is something altogether different but Im treating it as though it were piercing. Noted below are the types of damage that each do. All halved damage if a fraction is rounded down, the lowest being a minimum of 1.

Bludgeoning Weapons and punches and kicks : Take from SDC until reaches 0, then take from HP
Sharp weapons, bullets & explosives : Take full amount from SDC, and half from HP

Explosives
Explosives although grouped together with bullets are something altogether different. Wheras a bullet will only affect one person an explosion can affect many. Also at point blank range an explosive device does double damage, rapidly losing effectiveness as it increases outwards. Also note, both players and GM's, that if your character jumps heroicly onto a live grenade you are dead. Even if wearing kevlar. A person jumping onto a grenade confines the explosion which causes it to force its way out through whatever is blocking it. In this case its our hero or heroine. As the explosive detonates the kevlar armour is punched through by the explosion, the hero/heroines rib cage is smashed and their internal organs crushed and fried at the same time, and the only thing stopping their spine frm ripping their way out of the body is the second layer of kevlar. Of course a large enough device will also punch through this as well, (probably showering the hero/heroines friends in blood, flesh and liquified internal organs,) but our example grenade is content to just kill the hero/heroine. Some GM's may feel like being generous and have the player receive massive injuries, but ensure they are SEVERE. The safest bet is to send the player off to write up a new character whilst they listen to their friends saying how heroic they were. (Your friends might want to buy you a point or two down the pub if your old enough. Otherwise get them to pay for your share of the pizza.)

Head Shots
Its noted on the charts below but Im going to explain it here as well. Any shot to the head automatically causes double damage. This is simply due to the fact that the human head is both vital to an individuals continued existence and rather fragile when it comes to small fast moving pieces of metal. Also the head is grouped under the main body instead of a separate heading, thus giving the player a better chance of avoiding getting a tiny splinter in the head that will kill them.

Shock

In combat involving modern weapons one of the largest killers is not the 5.56mm NATO round ripping through your body, but the traumatic shock effect that the person feels. People have been shot in the foot by a small calibre weapon to later die of shock from what was really only a flesh wound. It is not the bullet but the mind of the person that causes this effect as well and how it reacts to damage. This is why I have included a shock roll, (a simplified version,) if a player or NPC loses 50% or more of their main body hitpoints. The player must roll under their shock value, (PE + ME divided by 2,) to avoid falling unconcious for 3D6 minutes.

Bleeding

Bleeding is the most common cause of death in combat. Bullets may be small but they can rupture internal organs, and sever arteries and veins causing massive amounts of blood loss that will kill a healthy human male in minutes. As a base rule a player who has been shot will lose 1 SDC point, (1 Hit point if no SDC points remain,) every 4 melees until their wounds are bandaged or the bleeding stopped in some other fashion. The blood loss increases as they lose more hit points. Below details the rates. If an injured player or NPC is below 20% of their normal Hitpoints only a trained Paramedic or Doctor will be able to stabilise them, (First Aid skill is not sufficient.)

Hitpoints Lost	Blood Loss Rate
01%-25%	1 SDC or HP per 4 melees
26%-50%	1 SDC or HP per 2 melees
50%-100%	1 SDC or HP per 1 melee

Armour & SDC/Hitpoint's

I've scrapped the A.R. (Armour Rating,) value and instead borrowed something from a couple of other roleplay systems that works pretty well when it comes to armour. Throughout recorded human history mankind has armoured himself when going into battle. The Knights of nations centuries ago wore chainmail or platemail armour to protect themselves against enemy swords and arrows, or they carried shields to fend off sword or lance blows. Todays modern soldiers were flak vests and kevlar. Noted below are the Armour Points values for a kevlar vest and kevlar helmet, (worn by most western soldiers.) When calculating damage against a body location protected by armour subtract the Armour Points from the rolled damage. What is left gets through to the body location of the character. For example a UN Soldier is wearing a Kevlar vest giving 16 points of protection and is hit by a 7.62mm round doing 12 points of damage. Because the armour negates the 12 points of damage the armour has stopped any of the damage getting through. If the 7.62mm round had done 20 points of damage though the first 16 points would have been negated but the remaining 4 would have got through to the body location. The bullet doesn't neccesarily need to get through the armour to cause damage as the bruising rule below explains how kinetic energy from a bullet passes through the armour to injure the player inside.

The amount of kinetic energy behind a bullet is very high and as a result some damage will get through in bruising damage. For every 5 points of damage from a bullet, (Stopped by the armour or not,) 1 point goes through as SDC bruising damage.

Armour Type	Armour Points	Location
Kevlar Helmet	10 points	Head Only
Kevlar Vest	16 points	Main Body Only

In addition to the main body SDC and HP, I've included SDC and HP values for the arms, legs and head. Although the head comes under the main body for ease. The main body has the full SDC and HP of a standard Palladium rules character. Each leg has 75% of those values, and each arm has 50% of the main body values. This allows for greater realism for limb damage in combat. Under the Damage Locations chart you will see modifiers such as -2/-4/-6 which are noted under the Combat Modifiers as well. Any damage up to 50% of the body location causes a -2 or -20% penalty to all actions or skill rolls. Anything up to 75% causes a -4 or -40% penalty, and so on. To give an example of the new damage SDC and HP ratings for a character see below for an example.

Body Location	HP	SDC
Main Body & Head	20	40
Left Leg	15	30
Right Leg	15	30
Left Arm	10	20
Right Arm	10	20

Combat Modifiers

Noted below are the modifiers to attack and dodge rolls for both attackers and defenders. All modifiers are cumulative. Noted below are explanations.

Injuries :
Injuries to the attacker will affect their ability to attack, as will injuries to the defender affect their ability to dodge or parry.
Range :
Range relates to the range of the weapon being used. Melee weapons, (knives, swords, etc,) ignore this section and get no bonuses or modifiers for range.
Movement :
If an attacker is moving the ability to land a shot on target will be more difficult, and will increase in difficulty as they move faster.
Light Conditions :
Light and darkness affect the ability to see and thus to shoot accurately. Night Vision goggles will negate the negative modifiers of darkness however.
Intoxification :
No professional soldier would go into combat whilst drunk or under the influence of drugs but it can happen. These need to be taken into account.
Cover :
Cover denies the attacker the opportunity to either clearly see the target or denies them the ability to hit. This is a bonus for the defender.

Damage Locations

Once a hit has been determined on a target it is neccesary to determine where that hit has been made and if any armour value has to come into play. Roll a D10 to determine the location, (unless its a successful called shot,) and work out armour value, (if applicable,) and damage.

Injury Effects

None of us are the Terminator. We can't shrug off multiple rounds impacting against us, even with kevlar on. As has been noted above, there are penalties. Below however are additional effects of being hit. Everytime a character is hit whether it does damage or not roll against the appropriate table below. At some point I may well expand these tables to be more location specific or to give more options for appropriate effects. Incidentally there are no Hollywood flying backwards windmilling of the arms as that does not happen in combat. A bullet does not have the energy to do that, as its is a focused effect and liable to effect no more area on a person that large coin.

Hits to Un-armoured Head

D100 Dice Roll	Effect
01%-20%	Lucky escape. The character has escaped with a grazing blow that hurts like hell, looks awful and has them covered in blood but they are lucky to be alive. Penalties: Reduce speed by half, -30% to all skill rolls, -2 to initiative, -3 to strike/parry/dodge. Penalities last for 24 hours unless Medic patches them up before hand, (penalties last half amount of time then.)
21%-45%	Knocked unconcious. The player is knocked unconcious for 3D4 minutes. When they wake they feel awful, their covered in blood and their head feels like its going to explode. Penalties: Reduce speed by half, -30% to all skill rolls, -2 to initiative, -3 to strike/parry/dodge. Penalities last for 24 hours unless Medic patches them up before hand, (penalties last half amount of time then.)
46%-75%	Knocked Unconcious. Unconcious for 2D6 hours and requires immediate medical treatment otherwise they are likely to bleed to death before they regain conciousness. Penalties: Reduce speed by half, -40% to all skill rolls, -2 to initiative, -4 to strike/parry/dodge. Penalities last for 72 hours, and are then reduced by half for the next 72 hours, unless Medic patches them up before hand, (penalties last half amount of time then.)
76%-00%	Coma. The victim fall straight into a coma and all hit points are reduced to zero regardless of damage received. See Palladium rules for recovering from coma. Penalties upon recovering from the coma are exactly the same as 46%-75% but last twice as long, (half with professional medical attention.)

© 2005 dhenwood@hotmail.com