Starcraft&Metroid Campaign Setting: Online
Fall 2005, Author: Kaz.
These rules modifications fall under “fair use” laws, and should not be sold. I
give permission for any reader to redistribute these documents without
restriction.
Other Rules: Setting Rules, Setting Flavor, Feats Revisions, Skills
Revisions, Races Description,
Footlocker, Star Garage,
Classes, Professions,
Advanced Classes.
Changes to D&D Rules
Vitality and Wounds
Critical Hits
Multiclassing
Ambidexterity
Sealed Environment
Weapon Jam
Favored Profession
Firing Guns and Using Scopes
Missile Lock
Damage Types
Energy Reactors
The system will use core 3.0 D&D rulebooks as a basis for
all game functions and adjudications. The following rules are changes that
supersede these core books. Rules changes are meant to reflect some of the
fundamental differences between a campaign set in fantasy Great Britain and in
science fiction. Some rules are added based on new experiences. Some rules are
added frivolously, and are binding just the same.
Instead of tracking hit points, characters will track vitality and wounds. The character’s vitality score is equal to what that character would have in hit points. The character’s wounds score is equal to that character’s Constitution score. Vitality represents the battle wearing a person down. Wounds represents a person taking a bullet. Critical hits from monsters apply base damage directly to wounds. Both Vitality and Wounds recover at the rate hit points do normally. When a character’s Vitality reaches 0, he becomes fatigued and further damage spills over into wounds. When a character’s Wounds reaches 0, he is unconscious and dying. Some effects will damage a character’s wounds directly, in this case Vitality remains unchanged. This is roughly the system described in d20 modern books and Unearthed Arcana.
Critical hits are determined in the usual way. Critical damage is calculated by taking the maximum roll of normal damage, and adding the roll of critical dice. A 2x critical would be once over the full weapon damage and once over the roll of that same damage. These are rules for PCs only; monster critical hits deal damage to PC wounds directly instead of being multiplied by anything.
Multiclassing
There is no longer any “favored classes” or penalties for multiclassing.
All PCs are somewhat heroic, and thus above having a handedness. Penalties for two-weapon fighting still follow the published table, only you will always count as being ambidextrous for this. You may roleplay a handedness if you wish.
Almost all planets that the players will be visiting will have normal gravity and breathable atmosphere. Some orbital platforms and space stations will not have any atmosphere or detectable gravity at all. Whenever a character enters vacuum, he must have armor or another mechanism that has “sealed environment” as a property. When a character takes at least one point of damage to Wounds, the sealed environment has been compromised, and the character is exposed to vacuum. Damage from vacuum is covered in DM rules, not printed for players. The basic idea is to not let this happen to you. Consequently, compromising a foe’s seal will hasten his defeat.
Some weapons have a listed number for “Jam.” Weapon Jam is the likelihood of a misfire when used. If you naturally roll an attack below the listed Jam score on the weapon, you have threatened a Jam. Roll again, and if the result would have missed your target, then your weapon misfires and is jammed. Some weapons have alternatives of listed effects for the consequences of a jam. If your weapon is jammed, you must spend a full-round action to repair it before it will fire again. There are modifications that reduce the possibility of a jam, and skills that allow a character to fix it with greater speed.
The Profession skill has changed along with many other
skills in the transformation to the S&M setting. It is important for a character
to have a profession of some kind, and those listed as a favored profession for
the character class are available as a class skill. Once a character chooses his
favored profession, it is a class skill, and any additional professions, even if
listed as available favored professions, will be purchased as cross-class. A
character’s profession determines most of his roll in society, whereas class
determines most of his abilities in general. Sponsors will judge you by your
profession and whatever record you have. Having a profession determines what
kind of equipment you will begin with, how much buying power, what rank, and
what weapons. Every character should have at least one profession, and because
of this (and other things) all character classes have a boosted number of skill
points.
When taking an advanced class, the player may choose a second favored profession
according to that class's allowed list. The character treats each as a class
skill.
Because of the relative ease of pulling a trigger compared to drawing a thong, regular attacks with projectile weapons no longer provoke attacks of opportunity against melee attackers. Long guns will have a melee-range to-hit penalty reflecting the fact that a target right close to you is hard to get with a long gun.
With a scope equipped, a character may elect to use the scope to help aim a shot. The character adds his Int bonus to damage with that shot. In addition, he makes a concentration check and adds to his damage roll however much that check beat the target’s AC if the result is positive. While scoping, character provokes attacks of opportunity. A scope target must be outside of one range increment for the weapon.
Missile Lock
When firing a missile weapon system, one can first achieve missile lock by
making a ranged touch attack against a target adding your gunnery score in place
of any other attack bonuses. This act takes the place of another attack, and if
successful, will guide missile attacks to hit without making a further attack
roll. Certain circumstances will break missile lock on a target.
Damage Types
Damage types are divided into physical and non-physical.
Rare items exist that allow a character to resist or ignore a type of damage,
and certain monsters will naturally ignore weapons that deal certain types of
damage. Some effects can dish out both physical and non-physical damage types.
In general, damage stacks. The damage types are:
Physical: slashing (s), piercing (p), explosive (x) and bludgeoning (b).
Non-physical: fire (f), cold (c), sonic (o), psi (ξ), photon (l), warp (w), poison (p) and electric (e).
Energy Reactors
Many kinds of craft and devices use energy reactors for power to perform various
functions, or simply to remain operational. Each engine has a maximum cell count
as default. Whenever a maneuver or other expenditure causes power reduction,
subtract the expenditure from the current cell count. When the count reaches 0,
there is a round (six seconds) where power expenditures for the device cannot be
activated, after which time the reactor returns at full cell count with one cell
inactive. For example, a device with reactor 10 will recharge at 9 cells after
spending the 10. After spending those 9, the cell count will recharge at 8, and
so on.