Bringing Something Back From The Dead

[Cap'n Kyth]

I have decided, after a short amount of deliberation, to (attempt) to bring my old Aftermath RPG back.

 

Now there's something.

 

The RPG itself used a primitive adaptation of the game's own stat and skill system to determine accuracy and so on... and we had a few... "catastrophic cases" very early on with a sniper rifle, burst mode, a lot of lucky rolls, and a large horde (30-40) of transgenants.

 

Oh, and it even had maps made in paint. They were groundbreaking, honest.

 

One or two of you might remember it. I won't bring it back if I don't have a reason to, though... (in other words, if you want to see it, say so, otherwise it might not happen)

[Shades of Green]

I think many parts of the Aftermath system could be easily adapted to FUDGE (which is free), or that rules you liked in FUDGE could be adapted to the Aftermath system.

[Cap'n Kyth]

Thing is, Aftermath's System is a lot easier to adapt. In fact, it was almost a direct adaptation as far as the game was concerned.

 

Lots less stress for me working with an unfamiliar system, etc. etc.

 

I'll give you an example;

 

Alex has 3 points in his Speed skill, laying it at "Good", and most actions use up one AP. Each point you have in Speed gives you an extra AP, but burst and aimed mode use up varying amounts of APs. Burst can use 1-3, whilst Aimed uses 2. Snapshot uses 1. Alex effectively has 3 APs in this case. Not many in a combat situation, but Combat Rounds are meant to be short. Outside of a Combat Round, Speed is effectively useless, though it can determine how fast you can run, which is sometimes a good thing.

 

There's a transgenant coming! Alex can do several things, but here are good examples of combat actions and how much AP they use;

 

Taking Cover: 1

Taking out, Priming, and Throwing a Grenade: 2

Shooting, Snap: 1

Shooting, Aimed: 2

Shooting 5 shots, Burst: 3

Shooting 3 shots, Burst: 2

 

Now the great thing about Burst was you could specify how many shots you wanted to fire in this game, and it was a no brainer - each shot after the first had a cumulative accuracy penalty, meaning you'd be lucky to hit the last shot in a burst of five. It wasn't normally too hard to hit (unless you have like 1 or 2 in the relevant skill) but Burst made it worse. You had a good chance of hitting at first, but that slowly declined the more shots you fired. You could only fire up to 5, as there was no "Empty Clip" type firing mode. Obviously, Burst isn't featured on all weapons, and had to be forcibly removed from Sniper Rifles. :mad:

 

In order to make things fair, however, you only had a few points (a dozen and a half or so, about 18) to spend across your 6 stats, none of which could exceed 4 points at the beginning.

[Slaughter]

There's been some roleplaying going on at the official boards as well. Maybe some of them would like to join.

[Shades of Green]

The problem is task resolution: How do you resolve an attack? A medical attempt? How do you deal with damage and wounds?

[Cap'n Kyth]

If I remember rightly, the attack was your dexterity + weapon you're firing's skill score. It was a no brainer really. I didn't want anything too complex. Medical was never needed as no-one got hurt (hell, we didn't really finish the first mission) and damage was a simple multiplication of your Health skill, if I remember rightly. You also got a damage bonus depending on your Aliens skill. Wounding again wasn't used as none of the human players got wounded at all, if significantly.

 

@Slaughter;

 

Yes, that was the spinoff with a more accurate weapon's system after my game, so actually, I brought about that system. (though indirectly - Quinch finetuned the mechanics, I provided the basic system adaptation)

 

Example;

 

Alex is firing a pistol. His agility is 3, and his skill with Pistols is also a 3. That gives him a 6 to hit on a d20. If he rolls a 1 to a 6 on a d20, he hits. 7-20, he misses. A 19-20 was a critical hit, easily out of the range of most player characters.

 

(BTW, you guys are helping me remember my system now. Keep asking questions, I might actually remember more of it if you jog my memory. )

 

Also, all ability scores were rounded normally, so a 2.75 becomes a 3, while a 2.25 becomes a 2, to prevent confusion and funny dicerolls.

 

~~

 

I think armour was possibly ablative (certain number of APs that take damage first) but it may have been reductive (reduces damage by x %) but I don't really remember.