[Let's Read] Dungeons the Dragoning 40,000 7th ed. v1.6

[lightningcat]

While the space combat rules seem to hit all of the common problems that space combat has, it also seems to have needed some dedicated playtesting too. Of course, my own attempts at making space combat have ranged from useless garbage to broken mess, so maybe I don't have any room to talk.

[The Glyphstone]

How to build a spaceship.
1: Build a giant tube with a cone on the top, some chairs in the cone, and a valve on the bottom.
2: Fill the giant tube with a lot of really volatile chemicals under really high pressure.
3: Put some people in the chairs.
4: Point it up.
5: Light a fire under the valve.
6: Have someone go in and turn the valve to 'open'.
7: Did you do lots of complicated math, engineering, and chemistry?
7a: Yes? The people in the chairs might go to space today.
7b: No? The people in the chairs are having a very bad day.
7c: Either way you're going to have to find another shmuck to open the valve on the next one.

The operating instructions for Up Goer Five, it appears.

[Telok]

While the space combat rules seem to hit all of the common problems that space combat has, it also seems to have needed some dedicated playtesting too. Of course, my own attempts at making space combat have ranged from useless garbage to broken mess, so maybe I don't have any room to talk.

I think the closest I've done is rewrite the Traveller space combat to be more friendly and intuitive to people who have only ever played d20 type games.

The operating instructions for Up Goer Five, it appears.

I love that book.

Let's see, DC 10 + (2 * bp) as a wealth test to buy ship components. That means DC 12 per micro torpedo, DC 16 for cruise or high accuracy, and DC 20 for rifts. Otherwise it's DC... well bp 5 = 20, bp 10 = 30, bp 15 = 40. Hm, wealth 5 has about a 45% chance to hit DC 30, then you'll roll for wealth strain. Looks like you're getting your shield and weapon upgrades as loot. Better work on those boarding actions to try and capture enemy ships. Also, of course, there's nothing about selling or trading stuff either. On to the consoles.

Arcana consoles:
* ancient spelljamming helm, 10 bp, halves the ships' travel times but adds +2 to the warp encounter rolls. Will never be used unless you solve the "throw 18 crew at the piloting check" issue.
* bioneural gel packs, 5 bp, computery bits, reroll any one arcana test once per combat.
* cloaking device, 15 bp, +20 to silent running checks.
* enhanced sensors, 5 bp, sensors +5.
* improved shields, 10 bp, +10 max shields, only to the outermost shield for the multi-blargh shields.
* teleportaruim, 15 bp, make boarding actions at 5 vu distance if the target's shields are down, also like a Star Trek teleporter and it has all the narrative issues that thing has too. The "not through shields/shielding" is something to keep in mind, also something for people who live in a universe with teleportaruims to keep in mind. Whether or not you can zorp through your own ship's shields is up to the DM (I do "no, but you can flicker your shields for 30 seconds in sync with your teleporter to get in/out" which only leaves you vulnerable to other people who know you're using the teleporter and are watching you in order to do their own teleporting shenanigans).
* warpbane hull, 10 bp, -2 on warp encounter rolls. Makes travel pretty boring.

Command consoles:
* advanced bridge design, 10 bp, fancy command and control setups, +1k1 on command actions. Plus seat belts and fire extinguishers. In my game the bridges don't have seat belts or fire suppression unless you take this one. And if you blow up the bridge too much (rockets, fireballs, and a warp vortex) you can lose it until you re-buy the console. Why yes, that happened, why do you ask? There were holes to the other decks above and below across half the bridge and all the computers were blown up.
* destiny knot, 15 bp, quote "A mysterious and extremely rare device, the Destiny Knot is a tangle of wires and cords that wind themselves throughout the ship, using arcane and bizarre methods to improve nearly every system on the ship in subtle ways." The captain and bridge officers can use hero points to reroll ship actions and stuff. Anyone's hero points for any action.
* diplomatic quarters, 5 bp, +1k0 on socials with people who aren't immediately hostile. You need to actually invite them over for tea and orgies to get the bonus.
* library computer, 5 bp, as long as you can consult the computer for a few minutes you can try untrained lore checks and get +1k1 on all lore tests.
* self destruct, 5 bp, probably really just an npc option, use a command action to set a delay from 'now' to 'sometime tomorrow', deals 4k4 to everything within 5 vu. Nothing about what happens if you'l landed or crashed the ship and then set it off.
* tenebro-maze, 10 bp, on any crit result where the attacker get to choose a console you choose instead.

Engineering consoles:
* ablative armor, 10 bp, ignore the first hit on your hull every fight. No damage, no crit, nothing.
* damage control station, 10 bp, +2k0 to emergency repair rolls. DMs option if it applies to anything else.
* eps conduits, 10 bp, "electro plasma systems" conduits, technobabble that provides +10 on all successful divert power checks. Gotta hit that DC 15 before you get the bonus.
* hardened armor, 5 bp, +10 hull points, explicitly may be taken multiple times.
* large engine core, 15 bp, +2 speed and +5 acceleration.
* reinforced bulkheads, 10 bp, -3 on all crit rolls. Really good for npc ships that are probably going to get shot up.
* thrust vectoring, 10 bp, +5 maneuverability.

Tactical consoles:
* arsenal, 5 bp, space for 10 more torpedoes. Literally a bigger magazine that can feed any of your torpedo tubes.
* assault shuttles, 5 bp, do boarding actions from 3 vu, shields are not an impediment.
* grappler arms, 15 bp, may choose to grapple instead of ram, only the larger ship (or the grappling ship of they're equal size) can move and both ships move when it does. Really calls for crashing and modifying crashing rules. I guess you can use it to ram other ships?
* murder servitors, 5 bp, the ship has a bunch of skull faced killing machines, +2k1 when defending from boarding actions. Plus you apparently have access to a bunch of murder-bots to play with. The combat servitor stats from the end of book 1 work ok, even if they aren't that impressive against PCs.
* ramming prow, 10 bp, when ramming do an extra 1k1 damage and +2 crit roll to the enemy and you don't take a crit roll yourself.
* targeting computer, 15 bp, +5 all shooting checks.
* weapon capacitor, 10 bp, your energy weapons do +1k0 damage.

Universal consoles (these can go anywhere):
* advanced sickbay, 15 bp, may recover all the crew lost since your last turn in combat. Without this you're limited to half. Plus it probably counts as a full-on hospital.
* cargo bays, 5 bp, enough room for stuff that you can go trading, implies but doesn't say that you can take this more than once. Too bad there isn't anything about trading in this book. Well, you can crib off of Traveller, that game did lots of work on that end.
* expanded shuttle bay, 5 bp, you get upgraded from 2 shuttles to 4. Yeah, um, about those missing shuttle stats? I suppose you could use this as the basis to replace your shuttles when they get blown up.
* extended supply vaults, 10 bp, go twice as long between resupplying (no rules!) and make two extended repair checks between resupply instead of just one.
* hidden cargo bays, 10 bp, smaller but hidden cargo bays that can't be scanned or found from outside the ship. No other rules/info attached.
* partial wing, 10 bp, wings or anti-grav or whatever, the ship can maneuver in atmosphere and land on planets.
* rating quarters, 10 bp, +2 crew. "Hey you! You get to sleep in the engine room now."

And that gets us to the end of the spaceship chapter. Not in order, but we've hit all of it. Definitely a not thoroughly tested system.
In case it matters I did work up a sort of general shuttle. The unarmed version holds a balance between 32 passenger to 30 cubic meters of cargo and can do surface to orbit twice. The armed version has two passengers, a feature to let them help with weapon controls (sort of fudging since that would technically be a copilot thing), space for armor and weapons, and can get to orbit once. The armed version also fits 4 PCs.

Spoiler

Show

Shuttle, 350 vp or holdings 3, kind of fudging on speed since the rules as presented won't get anything over about 5520 kph, a bit better than 14% Earth escape velocity (and that last 720 kph is a s2 engine generating warp rolls at +30).
accel 1, size 30, speed 15, maneuver -10, vtol 6x, scramjet 20x, variable drive, micronized afterburners, environmental seals, micronized advanced sensors +10 & 20km, micronized Cockpit + copilot & standard equipment, XL engine 5, Feature – modular, feedback, fragile, hanger queen, inefficient controls, unstable, really fragile(junker).

Civilian version: micronized passenger space or cargo space or a mix up to 6 slots of size. 2x afterburners. If you drop one of the afterburner charges or degrade the sensors you can get up to 64 people in there, maybe 128.

Assault version: 2 micronized passenger space + assistant gunnery feature instead of the modular feature. 1x afterburners. Leaves 40 vp & 6 slots available. Faffing around with the 10ap and 5ap armors in various normal and micronized configurations results in 1 to 5 slots left and 15 to 35 vp left, or you can fool around with others stuff to try sticking in a weak void shield. Given that the thing has a 30 resilience and 22 hp I'd be willing to go with the lighter armor or none at all for most situations.

[Telok]

Pfoo. I found my write-ups of SW speeder bikes, snow speeders, at-at, and at-st. But the research site I get naval deckplans from has a bunch of new ships on it too. Just not enough time to do everything.

Well, alignments. A bugaboo of some systems (D&D), appendix of others (forgotten and unused unless it ruptures, Palladium), and completely ignored by yet more systems (Paranoia, Pendragon). We're in the "appendix" section mostly. If you have a chosen exalt you'll want to use this chapter though. It's actually decent, plus the DM can mine it for setting stuff or organizations.

There's no introduction or anything, it just dumps right into the alignments. The pattern is: Title, Blurb, two organizations/cults, and a 1 - 10 list of morality. The morals list is pretty much your 'cross this line and make an alignment test' stuff. As with VtM & Co. the more debased you are the harder it is to get worse. Sometimes.

New to this is the general alignments and unaligned. Where the character goes in for a whole pantheon/ethos instead of a specific godling. Starting with Chaos Undivided.
Blurb: chaos as a whole, natural leaders, aren't enemies to anyone except Malal.
Cults: The Black Legion, goal of uniting chaos which is like herding angry cats and a dragon, ended up more like consultants or a workers union than a religion. Word bearers, cult of fanatics dedicated to converting populations by force.
Morality: 2 - showing overt disrespect for the forces of chaos. 6 - failing to undermine the existing order in favor of chaos. 9 - refusing to aid another follower of chaos.
Sum: Does not actually get to be a lol-random dweeb without any restraints.

Khorn. Blurb: battle, blood, and honor, skull throne stuff, doesn't care for the blood of the innocent or weak, no glory without a challenge.
Cults: Dethkvlt, ritual murder, fair fights, more like a big game hunting club, no glory in an easy hunt, some limit who they prey on. Outer Heaven, destroyed space station founded by ill-treated elite mercenaries, picked up Khorne worship, got destroyed but philosophy for honor and respect warriors continued.
Extra: It notes that Khorne hates magic and that could make an exalt or something impossible to use. So a Khorny who gets to gain a rank in a magic school through a exalt or racial ability can take a rank in a sword school instead.
Morality: 1 - casting a spell. 6 - using stealth or trickery to avoid a fight. 9 - allowing another to kill an innocent.
Sum: Mixed glory, honor, murder, slaughter.

Nurgle. Blurb: Rot is part of the cycle of life, beautiful in all forms, be kind to the "brief blossoming" of life.
Cults: Vectors, run around infecting people, in mass or disguised as a caregiver. Hospitallers, run hospices that care for the dying, not grim or morbid, gregarious & sentimental, known occasional remission into asymptomatic carriers.
Morality: 2 - bring another back from the dead. 6 - attempting to change your own fate. 10 - refusing to comfort the sick or dying.
Sum: At least they went beyond the ick & goo version you usually see.

Slaanesh. Blurb: enjoy yourself, don't listen to advice, no social mores, anything taken to excess can work.
Cults: Noise Marines, Disaster Area (Douglas Adams reference) writ large. The S Academy, elite learning place & Slanny temple, devoid of distractions, place to pursue perfection.
Morality: 2 - doing less than your best at an important task. 6 - refusing to do something you enjoy. 10 - refusing a new, dangerous, experience ("Why no, now that you mention it I've never attempted [censored] with a modron pentadrone.").
Sum: It seems that this could make a high level chosen easy to manipulate.

Tzeentch. Blurb: trickery, plotting, magic, chess master, all pawns.
Cults: Player's Club, sets up situations & bets on them, wars, plagues, contests, etc. Illuminati, an ancient conspiracy except where it isn't, most 'chapters' less than 10 - 100 years old, general conspiracy within conspiracy stuff.
Morality: 1 - failing to pursue arcane knowledge, 6 - refusing to take advantage of a situation. 9 - failing to kill for the sake of knowledge.
Sum: Get knowledge, plan stuff, adapt to changes.

Malal. Blurb: Still the god of teamkilling ****-tards.
Cults: Random street gangs. Single champions. Not really anything organized in any way.
Morality: 2 - failing to take advantage of another's weakness. 6 - needlessly preventing a death. 8 - keeping your word when it would help another.
Sum: Teamkilling ****-tard.

Tiamat, the antithesis of Bahumut finally gets recognized as a religion, or at least as a bunch of rando cultists running around. Blurb: Ally of Bahamut in life, supposedly still kicking in death, will return.
Cults: Cult of the Dragon Reborn, does community centers and actual churches, tends to brainwash & strongarm members a bit. Council of Wyrms, cabal of ancient dragons who don't like Bahamut, getting into upper management requires handing over a bit of Tiamat corpse.
Morality: 1 - accepting an equal or less powerful person as a superior. 5 - failing to pursue evidence of Tiamat when there is little risk. 9 - failing to pursue any means necessary to gain more power.
Sum: Get stronk, raise Tiamat.

Well that was chaos, now we get the Blessed Order, the "good guys". Probably really more like the ones with actual organization. Blurb: Concerned with finding patters and meaning in life, everything for a reason, all happens for good.
Cults: Conspiracy theorists, not really a cult. Voidheart, give up all desires, secluded monasteries, make good mediators, self policing.
Morality: 2 - breaking your word of honor. 6 - breaking the law except to help someone in great need. 9 - failing to try to convert people to order.
Sum: Considering player's views on docking fees, being walking armories everywhere, and taxes... Not going to see too much of this one.

Cuthbert. Blurb: Law law law law law.
Cults: Judges, not really a cult but more a job the worshippers tend to gravitate to. Lynchmen, vigilantes enforcing law in lawless or corrupt areas as a religion.
Morality: 1 - breaking your word of honor. 5 - failing to pursue evidence of a major crime. 10 - breaking the law for any reason.
Sum: Pushing the rectally broomsticked paladin archetype here.

Sigmar. Blurb: Conquer everything for civilization and pave the wilderness.
Cults: The Inquisition, not Spanish (usually), no limit anti-chaos, infiltrates a lot of organizations. City Watch, a nosy neighborhood watch group as a religion, not actually the police.
Morality: 2 - attempting to destroy a civilization (my PCs succeeded, on accident). 7 - eating raw food (no sushi for you!). 9 - travelling with a known worshipper of chaos.
Sum: Less Cuthbert, more civilization promotion.

Bahamut. Blurb: ascended dragon-god, power in all forms, justice pusher.
Cults: The Final Word of Kings, assassins of dictators, tyrants, and other abuse of powers, not law - assassination. Platinum Knights, vast fortress monasteries, prioritize minions of Tiamat, fight evil in army vs. army settings.
morality: 1 - assisting in the resurrection of Tiamat. 6 - taking orders from an inferior. 10 - not treating your subordinates appropriately.
Sum: Versus Tiamat and abuse of power, enforces social hierarchy, seeks power.

Moradin. Blurb: Squat god, leave indelible mark, don't destroy another's legacy, respect family and ancestors.
Cults: Ancestor cults, family shrines, family feuds. Stonecutters, worship of ancient architecture.
Morality: 3 - telling a deliberate lie. 6 - not drinking at least one tankard of ale a day. 8 - shaving.
Sum: Dwarfy. Also, don't show emotion, help family, revenge insults, build stuff.

Pelor. Blurb: Nice guy, popular, followers are kind (generally).
Cults: Children of the Sun, brotherhood, universal peace, vegan, donate all money, generally all happy happy no matter what. Solar Skimmers, rich sporting yacht club with a veneer of religion.
Morality: 1 - torture anyone for any reason. 5 - failing to do a good deed every day. 9 - failing to spend at least an hour a day in sunlight unless physically impossible.

Omnissiah, a WH40k import, technology worship. Blurb: tech & machine spirits, treat machines like people (or better), purpose & efficency.
Cults: Tech-Priests, the class as (most of them) a cult, placate machine spirits, weird tech support but it works. Transhumanists, replace all your bits with machine, upgrade as much as possible.
Morality: 1 - willfully destroy ancient or advanced technology. 5 - failing to show respect to a machine when using it. 10 - speaking a language other than binary (you're a tech, make a translator).
Sum: WH40k tech-priests and cyborg fetishists.

Unaligned, another overall grouping for those who just can't choose. Blurb: Refuse to pick sides, no protection but no active haters.
Cults: Uninterested, don't care, not really a 'cult', often have to deal with proselytizers. Militant Atheists, hate gods, all just daemons and sorcerers faking it, only some go in for military hardware usage.
Morality: 2 - participating in a religious ceremony. 5 - discrimination based on religion (includes Malal). 9 - failing to help someone in genuine need.
Sum: Can't escape the system just because you write 'none' on the character sheet.

Raven Queen. Blurb: Death just is, natural cycle, enforce the natural cycle.
Cults: Cannibals, weird, secretive, mainly just a different burial rite, not generally appreciated by the public. Undead Hunters, kill all the undead, no exceptions.
Morality: 1 - creating an undead. 5 - unnecessary desecration of a corpse. 9 - healing anyone's wounds faster than natural.
Sum: Generic non-undead death god.

Vectron. Blurb: best god, not of anything, accepts worship from anyone for any reason, 9 out of 10 fictional doctors agree Vectron is real.
Cults: Third Reformation of the United Vectron Church, still having schisms, daily services, just sign up to shout whatever from the pulpit, as much entertainment as anything. Vectron's Witnesses, brainwashing, extortion, tithing, missionary stuff.
Morality: 3 - failing to praise Vectron by name every day. 7 - attempting to discredit anyone acting like a prophet of Vectron. 10 - failing to praise Vectron by name in every conversation.
Sum: Possibly the easiest an least work of any of the religions. Also, should be First Universal Third Reformation of the United Orthodox Vectron Association of Churches.

Corellon. Blurb: Elves and eldarin are perfect, snob, perfect, followers may tend to 'alternate fact' histories.
Cults: Elvpax, mostly just terrorist thugs, elves first, extremely annoying fascists. Elfaboos, less a cult that a minor self delusion movement, what it says on the tin.
Morality: 1 - failing at any task when your reputation is on the line. 4 - not shaving. 8 - eating meat form an animal that you didn't personally kill.
Sum: Snob & showoff with a coating of elf. You'll need to actually be good at stuff.

Luna. Blurb: "Goddess of being a fickle bitch.", change, independence, wilderness.
Cults: Therians, people with a belief they have animal souls, all walks of life, generally creep out werewolves. Anarchists, blow up civilization, not really a cult.
Morality: 1 - spending a month without going into the wild unless physically impossible. 5 - refusing to change when needed. 9 - shaving.
Sum: Mostly about change and respect nature stuff, definite Atkins diet/hunter-survivalist vibe.

Acerath. Blurb: Mortal wizard who traded bits of self for secrets and became a god, worshipped as all knowing but won't tell.
Cults: Confessionals, public service-ish, trades cash for secrets, told secrets are actually almost perfectly safe, liars get disappeared & don't ask. Librarians, collect all information and send to super secret library.
Morality: 1 - destroying unique knowledge. 4 - revealing your alignment. 9 - failing to pursue new knowledge at least one hour a day (random wikipedia link clicking!).
Sum: Easy enough, just go for knowledge and don't tell secrets. Well, easy for some.

Lolth. Blurb: Daemon ascended to godhood by worship of dark eldarin, saved dark endarin from something, annoyed chaos and order.
Cults: I'll be honest, it's moslty a satire of the stereotyped low end of the D&D Loth society stuff, pretty bashy for everyone involved. The names are literally 'rabid feminists' and 'black widows'. You can fill in the rest.
Morality: 1 - killing a spider of any kind. 6 - showing respect for a male. 10 - not causing harm to a friend when it would benefit you.
Sum: Better on NPCs. Annoy them by squishing spiders. Troll them by offering them money to shoot their friends and allies.

Next up is equipment. Given that you really could drop the whole alignment thing if you didn't use the chosen... A thought. Keep the names, swap in the Palladium alignment system for the 10 step program here, put a little spin on some stuff to match the fluff... It would work. Of course stripping out all the technology and rewrite some fluff, and this game would result in a rather over-the-top version of D&D Spelljammer too.

[Telok]

MOAR STUFF! The equipment chapter. We start with weapon creation, drugs and addiction for your needy needler ammo needs, more bionics (no artifact versions though). That's it. With this chapter we'll be done with book 2.

Weapon creation. Very beta rules here, I have the feeling they weren't really tried out on anyone before being published. You can use them to duplicate some of the published weapons, some I don't think you can duplicate, others I think come out better.

1) Choose a template. 2) Choose a type. 3) Apply mods. 4) Determine price.

Choose a template, sets the base stats. Options (everything does impact damage and is single shot at this step):
* pistol, 2k2 damage, penetration 0, 30m, clip 6, reload 1 full action.
* basic, 3k2 damage, penetration 0, 40m, clip 12, reload 1 full action.
* heavy rifle, 2k2 damage, penetration 2, 60m, clip 40, reload 1 full action.
* cannon, 3k3 damage, penetration 4, 60m, clip 4, reload 2 full actions.
* melee, 1k2 damage, 0 penetration.

Choose a type, the type of weapon matches the categories in the first book and of the vehicle weapons (yay consistency!). It changes some stats and defines which mods a weapon can take. Not all weapons can get all the mods.
Guns
* Ordinary, -1 final rarity (cheaper).
* Las, energy damage, reliable, double ammo.
* Plasma, energy damage, +2 penetration, double reload time.
* Melta, energy damage, +4 penetration, half range.
* Bolter, explosive damage, +1k0 damage, +2 penetration.
* Syrneth, energy or rending damage, 1 extra mod.
* Exotic, any damage type, 1 extra mod.
* Flamer, energy damage.
Melee
* Ordinary, rending or impact damage, -1 final rarity (cheaper).
* Parrying, rending or impact damage.
* Cavalry, rending damage.
* Flail, flexible, +1 final rarity (more expensive).
* Fencing, rending damage, balanced.
* Two handed, two hands, +1k1 damage.
* Syrenth, any damage type, +3 penetration, 1 extra mod.
* Chain, rending damage, tearing.
* Shield, defensive.
* Unarmed, rending or impact damage, brawling.

Choose two mods. Syrenth and exotics get three. You can't double up on mods but there are some with I & II and the same effect, so faux doubling up. Ranged and melee have different mod tables. The weapon type restricts which mods it can take. Each mod adjusts the rarity/cost either -1 (flaw), +0 (just two melee mods), +1, or +2. There is also absolutely no way I'm listing all those buggers. I'l pick a few of the interesting ones.

Melee (22 mods), all the specials found on the melee weapon in the first book plus a few new ones.
* Defensive, +0, ordinary parrying cavalry fencing syrneth, gains defensive.
* Extra damage and extra pen I & II, +1s, all types, these are the double-ups, +1k0 damage and +2 pen.
* Incendiary, +2, parrying two-handed syrneth, sets people on fire.
* Orgone Array, +1, syrenth, hit targets roll on the warp crap tables.
* Power Field, +2, any, gains power field.
* Toxic, +2, parrying fencing syrneth, gets toxic.
* Volatile, +1, fencing syrneth chain, damage dice explode on 9 & 10.

Ranged (46 mods), all the gun special effects form the first book plus a couple new ones.
* Arm mounted, +1, all, leaves the hand free (pistol fine, but cannon? both arms or only one?).
* Beam, +1, las, new property.
* Blast shield, +1, all, gains armored (+2 armor on that arm).
* Breacher, +1 melta, +1k0 damage at short range or less.
* CombiWeapon, +1, all, new property.
* Compact, +1, not bolter or flamer, new property.
* Cone, +1, flamer, gains the flame property (dex save instead of to-hit roll).
You know, that could go really long. Ok, quickly, stuff like half reload-range-ammo, double reload-range-ammo, blast 3, blast 5, treat targets as one size smaller, damage & penetration boosts, full-auto RoF options, as a spear or chainsword in melee, damage dice don't explode, they explode on 9 & 10, reroll 1s & 2s on damage, no darkness penalties, gain quickdraw, on hit roll 1d10, on 1 half damage and on 10 double damage. Lots of stuff.

You can make a half range, half ammo, overheating exotic (-3 total mods) to a syrneth proven (reroll 1s & 2s damage), volatile (damage explode 9 & 10), blast 5 (+6 total mods). Melee min/max would be ordinary, unbalanced, throwing (-2 total mods) to a power field, toxic, shocking, syrneth (+6 mods).

Mods determine rarity for buying purposes. Everything starts a +0 mods with common (DC 10) rarity. -3 is 'worthless' and DC 0, or you can go up to 'fabulous max' +6 for DC 40. Which does imply that a 2k2, pen 2, s/-, 30m, clip 20, heavy rifle (2 hands, must brace) that may overheat is basically free (drop the overheating to get to a DC 2 wealth test to buy one). On the other hand you can't make a melta gun (basic, 4k3 E, pen 12, s/-, 20m, clip 5, 2 full, rare) using these rules, which was a complaint by some players.

Frankly I've found it works OK for creating the occasional variant or signature weapon, buzz-saw tridents or an advanced sniper rifle for example. It is abusable, full-auto-burst beam las heavy rifle (DC 20 or 25, keep shooting full auto bursts using previous round to-hit roll) or half ammo armored hands free ordinary cannon (DC 10, only 2 shots each but +2 armor each arm and hands free). And, of course, I have no idea how some things are supposed to work, like full auto blast 5 weapons or the fact that you can make a "flame" version of a las gun. The last one is mechanically simple, basic + flame + reliable + double ammo, I just don't know what it's doing in the fiction.

Well, here are the new weapon qualities for ya.
* Beam - like a laser pointer, when you make attacks in subsequent rounds you can reuse last round's to hit roll.
* CombiWeapon - like an underbarrel grenade launcher, Attach the weapon to something the same size or larger, half the ammo and double the reload time.
* Compact - +10to the DC to find them if they are concealed (uh, no rules or suggestions were ever given for that), and it makes basic weapons one handed (no penalty for one hand use).
* Incendiary - sets stuff it hits on fire. The book 1 flamer effect was split into cone + incendiary for the purpose of mods, cone is the dex save instead of to-hit roll and incendiary is the set on fire part. Although this one apparently just automatically set stuff alight instead of having to fail an additional dex vs. DC 15 save.
* Proven - reroll damage dice below the proven number. The only one in the official list is 'proven 3', so reroll 1s & 2s.
* Razor sharp - if you hit by at least +10 double the weapon armor penetration.
* Storm - when firing full auto it gets +2k0 to damage per raise instead of +1k0 to damage per raise. The number of raises for the damage boost is still only limited by RoF. So your s/6 gun can got from a +30 over the DC doing +6k0 to that same +30 over the DC doing +12k0 -> +10k1.
* Twin linked - when firing a single shot +1k0 to hit and if you hit by +10 or more +2k0 to damage. (accurate + twin + red dot on syrneth or exotic, DC 30 to buy, +4k0 to hit on a half action aim, +3k1 on the first +10 over, +1k1 for every other +10 over).

Drugs. Buy 10 doses at once, +5 wealth test DC to double (double doubling allowed?), comes in 3 styles: needler ammo (does no damage but delivers the drug), social form (pill, powder, patch), or hyposprays that you can use with a melee attack (undefined type, brawling I presume). Every time you take one check willpower against the 'addictivity' or be addicted, this ranges from zero to 25. Keep checking once you're addicted because you move up a track. The addiction track is minor -> moderate -> major and the withdrawal symptoms are cumulative, major addiction gets al three levels of suckage. Minor: -1k0 all rolls. Moderate: your dice don't explode. Major: another -1k2 plus minor = -2k2 all rolls. To cure suck down the withdrawal for a week and make the addiction willpower check again. Success and you go down by one level of addiction, major -> moderate -> minor -> kicked the habit.

Oh, the "addictivity" sets the time before the first withdrawal symptoms kick in. Non = DC 0 = N/A, low = DC 10 = 1 week, med = DC 15 = 3 days, high = DC 20 = 1 day, extreme = DC 25 = as soon as the drug wears off.

16 drugs. Alpha, +1k1 vs. fear and for offensive social attacks, one scene, low addict. Bio-foam, stops bleeding, instant, non-addic (should this even work as needler ammo? super sharp paintball maybe?). Comfort, ignore your minor derangements and take 1 less insanity, unknown duration, low addi. Detox, ends all other drug effects and lowers withdrawal by 1 level, instant and unknown duration, non-add. Drive, +1 all mental characteristics & autofail perception checks, one scene, moderate ad. Flight, roll on the mental shock table & extra doses that day get another +1 cumulative to the roll, undefined duration (a day?), moderate. Frenzon, get the benefit of the frenzy feat & -1 to intelligence wisdom and fellowship, one scene, moderate. Hither, +2k1 to charm skill checks & -10 to willpower or wisdom to resist temptation, unknown duration, low. Null, -1k1 all spell casting checks & -1 caster level, 1 day duration, non (caster blaster). Obscura, 1d10 hours of mild & pleasant hallucinations, 1d10 hours, moderate. Polymorhpine, near perfect disguise of a scene or minor cosmetic surgery changes permanent, 1 scene or permanent, high. Slaught, +1 dexterity & +10 perception checks but +2 fatigue levels when it wears off, 1 scene, moderate. Spook, reverse mechanics of Null & all casting invokes warp crap, 1 scene, high. Stimm, ignore (but still take I presume) crit damage except for death causing ones & ignore all pain effects, 1 scene then suffer all of the ignored effects, moderate (this is the cyber-yeti bodyguard combat drug).

Well, pleasantly useable drugging. I'm assuming that all the stuff with undefined durations is basically a "one scene" thing. Nothing with extreme addiction though. Could be fun to TWF needler pistols loaded with slaught & detox for fast, fatigue based, take-downs.

Bionics. We're down to the last two pages before I have to think about reworking spells, sword schools, and gun katas. Or turning more of my helper app into web page versions. Or... Too dang much to do.

* Cortex implants, rare, cyber-brain stuff, poor: corpse -> "cyber-zombie" at -1 intelligence and fellowship, normal: just restores normal function to damaged brains, good: +5 to lore checks, best: as god & +1 intelligence.
* Implanted equipment, varies, implant stuff in yourself at +1 wealth rarity.
* Injector rig, uncommon, auto-drugging with personal OR remote controls as a half action, poor: 3 doses of 1 type of drug, normal: 3 doses of any drugs, good: 5 doses of any drugs, best: as good but you can use it as a reaction.
* Machinator array, very rare, implanted exoskeleton, base effect: +1 strength, -1 dexterity, +1 resilience, 3x your mass and no more swimming allowed. Poor: no more running or dodging, good: somewhat concealed and may look like armor, best: completely concealed. You can tell when a player has actually read the books by this showing up in almost any character build that doesn't need max dexterity and can wear concealing clothing.
* Voidskin, rare, built in space suit under your skin, poor: you have 3 rounds of air, normal: one minute of air, good: as normal plus 2 points of armor (no stacking), best: as good but 5 minutes of air and can't be detected without a decent medical scan.
* Mechadendrites, very rare, 5 types, no quality variations, only tech-prests can get them because they have the feat for the anchoring bionic bits and then they can only have a number of them up to their constitution. Ballistic: has a las pistol that can be fired once a round normally or as a reaction. Manipulator: a big claw with +2 strength for purposes of sustained force like griping or pulling, can lock around an anchor point as a free action to tether the tech-priest, can be used as a club with the +2 strength bonus, no fine manipulation. Medicae: +2k0 to medic checks, automatic stop blood loss as a half action, injector can hold one drug dose, small "chain-scalpel" as a 1k1 rending damage damage 0 penetration melee weapon, also adds +2k0 to interrogation checks. Optical: Camera, microscope, telescope, flashlight, all of that also in infrared (negates regular darkness penalties), and a +2k0 all perception checks. Utility: 2m of combi-tool, almost any normal tool you want to attach, and does fine & precision work.

That's it we're done. What next?

[Telok]

I am not dead yet
I can dance and I can sing
I am not dead yet
I can do the highland fling
I am not dead yet
No need to go to bed
No need to call the doctor
'Cos I'm not yet dead

I'm working on typing up a reword of the spell lists, I think I'm on the healing school at the moment. But it may well be a few more days before I get to post it.

In the mean time I also have some preliminary work done on the sword schools and gun katas. I did the same sort of thing, cut them down to a reduced format and put them in a spreadsheet for easy comparison. First step was to srandardize the gun katas with the sword schools. So the first rank is an action and weapon type you can use special moves with. Second rank is a -2 drawback of some sort. Third rank is a -1 skill check attack. Fourth rank is a permanent character bonus. Fifth rank is one item that tries to be awesome. The sword schools all fit the pattern but the gun katas were all over the place.

I'm not satisfied. Critique.

These are the schools/katas, format is "name - weapon type - action type". Question marks are the changes I've made. This is basically "what you get for that first dot".
desert - syrneth - called shot
devoted - flail - aid another
diamond - fence - feint
iron - ordinary - aim
sun - unarmed - fight defensive
shadow - parry - delay action
stone -2-handed - multi-attack
tiger - chain - all out attack
white - calvary - charge
-----
clay - pistols - called shot
crisis - heavy - suppressing fire
elem - primitive - multi-attack
point - basic? - full-auto burst
silent - las? or accurate? - aim
tin - ordinary? - delay action?

Then the second dot, restrictions then boosts, this is a short version used in a spreadsheet. Ideally there wouldn't be any duplicates.
-2 no damage
-2 no react til start next
-2 only OA
-2 defense @ -10 to next turn
-2 only in grapple
-2 only on unaware/helpless
-2 gain fatigue
-2 prone on not hit
-2 targ must move
------
-2 no damage ??
-2 defense @ -10 to next turn
-2 gain fatigue ??
-2 only in melee
-2 only on unaware/helpless ??
-2 only @ 1/2 hp or less

+1 -1k0 round/raise on hit
+1/+3 heal adj ally 1 or 2
+1 parry @ +5
+2 tearing
+2* fatigue
+1 delay dmg 1 min
+3 dex v. atk = immobile (snare)
+2 hit by +10 double pen
+1* ally +1k0 hit targ until you start next turn
------
+3 disarm on dex v. 20 ??
+1 allies use same hit loc
+1 reroll atk if miss
+2* fatigue ??
+2 tearing ??
+2 free action reload after shot ??

Third dot, the skill checks are all fine. I'd like to not double up on athelete (point blank), perception (silent snipe), or scrutiny (tin star), but it isn't too bad. The boosts are where I did the most work here.
+1 E type dmg ??
+2 double exploding dice
+3* extra attack
+2 pick a type damage
+2 targ -1k0 all until you start next turn ??
+1* range +5m
+1* +3 armor until you start next turn
+2 dmg -> roll 10s double & roll 1s halve ??
+2 movement with no AoO
------
+1 auto knockdown
+2 on hit targ lose 1/2 action
+3* no dmg roll does 1 wound ??
+1 force movement targ up to speed
+2 accurate
+1 ignore penalties from environment, crit injuries, & allies

Fourth dot, permanent character boosts, again I'd like to not double up. Again with the boosts I'd like to not double up, plus some of the rank 3 and rank 4 boosts are pretty similar. I mostly question those with question marks, but any feedback.
++ charge not in straight lines
++ HP +4
++ any atk type after feint
++ dodge/parry @ -1k0
++ init +5 ??
++ draw wp & atk = +2k1 to hit
++ resilence +1 on ground
++ react after all out attacks @ -2k2
++ melee @ -1k0 hit allies ??
------
++ parry with ballistics & wp OK ??
++ no bracing needed any wp
++ any dmg type with ranged attacks ??
++ no in-melee penalties for ranged
++ no range penalty ??
++ init +5 ??

+1 TP 5m before or after
+1* adj ally +2 def
+2 disarm save dex v.20 ??
+4 as power wp
+2 shocking ??
+2 toxic ??
+6 resilence -2
+4 dmg explode 9&10 ??
+3 on hit no parry/dodge til start next
------
+1 does not use ammo
+2 burst damage raises 1k0->2k0
+2 all 1s halve dmg & all 10s double dmg rolls ??
+2 also make standard unarmed atk
+1 make stealth after atk
+4 dmg explode 9&10 ??

Fifth dot, these need to be awesome. Fifth level characters building moves with these are expected to be punking greater daemons and going toe-to-toe with casters reliably throwing down the Energy Meteors, Dragon Form, and Necromutation spells.
+4 3k2 E dmg all in 2m of move path ??
+5 dmg +(devotion)k0 ?? split devotion as rolled dice between damage & to-hit ??
+1* on hit -1 resource
+5 no dodge/parry ??
+2 use targ wpn dmg as your wp dmg ??
+5 no dodge/parry ??
+1* blast(1)++
+5 ignore armor & cover & -1 resilence ??
+5 target provoke AoO on hit
+2 ignore cover & conceal ??
+4 RoF -> blast radius instead of more shots
+4 bleeding
+4 burst dmg raises @ point blank 1k0->1k1 ??
+1* study 1 rnd = +1k0 dmg ??
+4 dmg +(dex)k0

[Cluedrew]

I'm not satisfied. Critique.

I gave it a shot but will all I know about the system the only really feedback I have is Silent Scope feels like it should use accurate weapons and not lasers. Yes lasers don't make noise but still. Also I generally liked Silent Scope and Clay Pigeon but the others feel a bit harder to pin down what they are going for (especially Tin Star, I have no idea what is up with Tin Star) so it is hard to say. What would you say the theme of each school is? Is it back in the original descriptions? I should go re-read those.

[Telok]

I gave it a shot but will all I know about the system the only really feedback I have is Silent Scope feels like it should use accurate weapons and not lasers. Yes lasers don't make noise but still. Also I generally liked Silent Scope and Clay Pigeon but the others feel a bit harder to pin down what they are going for (especially Tin Star, I have no idea what is up with Tin Star) so it is hard to say. What would you say the theme of each school is? Is it back in the original descriptions? I should go re-read those.

Tin star is trying for the old spaghetti western hero/sheriff motif. So the Lone Ranger's trick shots (I should look some of those up, presumably there should be online clips), the stand-off quick-draw duels, stuff like that.

Right, point blank is a question on it's weapon limitation. I thought the basic weapons as two schools already have the pistols and heavy. Tin star maybe should be pistols but then I want to change clay pidgeon. Silent using accurate weapons is fine by me, probably better thematically since the m.p. lascannon and pulse rifle are in the las group.

Edit: tvtropes a d wikipedia to the rescue. There's actually a cowboy sport shooting competition league. If we ID the sources of all the schools/katas it should make this easier.

[Telok]

Second verse, same as the first!

Lets see if I got the table code right. Rembering that the ++boost at 4th becomes inherent to your character and affects everything. The asterisk (*) after the modifiers indicates the ability to stack it, "adj" is adjacent/within reach, "ally" includes yourself unless specified. A 3k3 constitution/dexterity has about a 66% chance of making the DC 15 saves on fire, toxic, and shocking.

name-weapon-action	2st penalty	2st	3nd penalty	3nd	4th boost	4th	5th
desert - syrneth - called	-2 no damage	+1* -1k0 end of your next turn w/+1round/raise on hit (dazzle)	-1 athlete+str	+3 E type dmg & target on fire	++ charge not in straight lines	+2* teleport 5m (any dist split) before, after, or during atk	+4 4k2 magic E dmg all in 2m of move path & they are on fire
devoted - flail - aid	-2 no react til start next	+1/+3 heal adj ally 1 or 2hp	-1 medic + wis	+1* adj ally(not self) +3 def to start of your next turn or not adj	++ HP +4	+2 double explode dice, choose one	+6 dmg +(devotion)k0 & heal 1/2 wounds done self or adj ally, min 3hp
diamond - fence - feint	-2 only as OA	+1* parry @ +5 to start of next turn	-1 scrutiny+composure	+3 disarm target	++ any atk type after feint	+3* extra attack	+2* on hit -2 resource or +1k1 damage, any combo choose per atk, neg/no resource -> dmg @ -2=1k1
iron - ordinary - aim	-2 defense @ -10 to next turn	+1 tearing	-1 perception+wis	+1 any damage type	++ enemy dodge/parry @ -1k1	+4 as power wp	+5 no dodge/parry
sun - unarmed - defensive	-2 only in grapple	+1/+2* fatigue	-1 deceive+cha	+2 on hit target -1k1 all rolls to end your next turn	++ dodge/parry=redirect melee atk to adj	+2 use targ wpn dmg as your wp dmg	+5 normal dmg then fling targ as (jump dist - size) meters (use jump rules), auto prone, & ballistic thrown atk w/(size)k1 dmg to both
shadow - parry - delay	-2 only on unaware/helpless	+1 delay dmg 1 min	-1 stealth+dex	+1* range +5m	++ draw wp & atk = +2k1 to hit	+2 toxic & shocking	+4 bleeding & immedate bleed check
stone -2hand - multi	-2 gain fatigue	+2 dex v. atk = immobile (snare)	-1 intimidate+cha	+1* +3 armor til next turn	++ resilence +1	+6 target resilence -2, min 1	+4 gain reach, attack all, save snare to end your next turn, same save prone
tiger - chain - all out	-2 prone on not hit	+2 hit by +10 double pen	-1 acrobat+dex	+2 ignore all TWF penalties, if feats +1 extra atk	++ react after all out @ -2k2	+4 dmg explode 9&10	+5 ignore armor & cover & -1 resilence
white - calvary - charge	-2 targ must move	+1* ally +1k0 hit until start next	-1 command+cha	+2 your moves no AoO until start next round	++ enemy in melee @ -1k1 hit	+3 on hit no parry/dodge util start your next round	+5 provoke free melee AoO on hit from everyone (includes you)
clay - pistols - called	-2 no damage	+2 ricochet off appropriate surface to deny dodge	-1 perform+cha	+1 auto knockdown	++ parry ranged by shooting the bullets/blasts	+1 does not use ammo	+2 ignore conceal & lack of visibility/targeting
crisis - heavy - overwatch&suppress	-2 defense @ -10 to start your next turn	+1*/+2* +1 or +3 RoF	-1 tech+int	+2 on hit targ lose 1/2 action	++ no bracing needed any weap	+2 burst raise 1k0->2k0	+3 RoF -> blast R & allocate bullets to targets within
elem - primitive - multiattack	-2 gain fatigue	+1 reroll attacks that miss during this action	-1 arcana+int	+1 any damage type	++ parry with ballistics & wp is OK	+3* targ -1 resilence, min 2	+3 bleeding
point - basic - full auto	-2 only in melee	+1 allies use same hit loc	-1 athlete+str	+1 force mv targ speed	++ no in-melee penalties for ranged	+2 also make standard unarmed atk	+4 choose hit location
silent - accurate - aim	-2 only on unaware/helpless	+1* study 1 rnd = +1k0 dmg, rounds up to this bought	-1 perception+wis	+2 gains accurate	++ no range penalty for accurate weapons	+1 stealth roll after atk, prevents being spotted	+5 double rolled dmg dice
tin - ordinary - delay	-2 only @ 1/2 hp or less	+1 delay a full action shot	-1 scrutiny+composure	+3 disarm target	++ init +5	+3 ignore all external imposed to-hit penalty (any penalty not from action type & your feats/options)	+4 dmg explode 9&10

[Cluedrew]

Yeah I think switching Tin Star and Clay Pigion's weapons might work. It is subjective but I feel like I have seen a lot of rifle based trick shooting and although I have seen westerns with things that are not revolvers that is definitively iconic. Also Crisis has two actions? I don't know exactly how they are implemented but overwatch sounds like it could replace delay for Tin Star (and suppress seems more inline with Crisis generally). Do with that thought what you will.

Yeah those are the are the actionable ideas I have. For the sources of the schools/katas and any thematic thoughts I have on them:

• All Sword Schools: Path of War - I mean I never actually used it so maybe not but that is the impression I got.
• Clay Pigeon: Target Shooting - Clay pigeons are the things you shoot at right? So accuracy and various cool tricks. Some of the higher level abilities don't really match that, but I suppose you have to get out of the firing range eventually.
• Crisis Zone: Big Guns as Strategic Tools - Yeah the name suggests sending people in to some situation but (peaking at the implementation) it seems to be personifying a machine gun emplacement. Still does that part quite well.*
• Elemental Gearbolt: Modified/Improvised Weapons? - This seems to be about big powerful individual shoots but I'm not sure where that is coming from thematically because I'm pretty sure you aren't live modifying the weapons. Is this bullet alchemy?
• Point Blank: Guns in Close Quarters - Lots of places have portrayed that as a good idea but I have no particular source for it. Still effectively using guns in close quarters lends itself to being turned into abilities. Can you parry with a gun?
• Silent Scope: Snipers - It is about shooting accurately and not being noticed (at least until it is too late). I'm not sure what to say about it.
• Tin Star: Westerns Definitely - Not sure how to turn that into abilities other than quick draw. Other than that it overlaps with clay pigeon a lot; individual shots fired accurately.

* I would enjoy splitting off... Tactical Surge Gun Kata that is movement and shooting based off of what I thought that was going to be but I don't know enough about this game to do that.

[lightningcat]

Yeah I think switching Tin Star and Clay Pigion's weapons might work. It is subjective but I feel like I have seen a lot of rifle based trick shooting and although I have seen westerns with things that are not revolvers that is definitively iconic. Also Crisis has two actions? I don't know exactly how they are implemented but overwatch sounds like it could replace delay for Tin Star (and suppress seems more inline with Crisis generally). Do with that thought what you will.

Yeah those are the are the actionable ideas I have. For the sources of the schools/katas and any thematic thoughts I have on them:

• All Sword Schools: Path of War - I mean I never actually used it so maybe not but that is the impression I got.
• Clay Pigeon: Target Shooting - Clay pigeons are the things you shoot at right? So accuracy and various cool tricks. Some of the higher level abilities don't really match that, but I suppose you have to get out of the firing range eventually.
• Crisis Zone: Big Guns as Strategic Tools - Yeah the name suggests sending people in to some situation but (peaking at the implementation) it seems to be personifying a machine gun emplacement. Still does that part quite well.*
• Elemental Gearbolt: Modified/Improvised Weapons? - This seems to be about big powerful individual shoots but I'm not sure where that is coming from thematically because I'm pretty sure you aren't live modifying the weapons. Is this bullet alchemy?
• Point Blank: Guns in Close Quarters - Lots of places have portrayed that as a good idea but I have no particular source for it. Still effectively using guns in close quarters lends itself to being turned into abilities. Can you parry with a gun?
• Silent Scope: Snipers - It is about shooting accurately and not being noticed (at least until it is too late). I'm not sure what to say about it.
• Tin Star: Westerns Definitely - Not sure how to turn that into abilities other than quick draw. Other than that it overlaps with clay pigeon a lot; individual shots fired accurately.

* I would enjoy splitting off... Tactical Surge Gun Kata that is movement and shooting based off of what I thought that was going to be but I don't know enough about this game to do that.

The Sword Schools are directly taken from the Path of War predecessor, The Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords. Possibly the most over titled book in D&D history. I think WotC was thinking of doing a series of Tome of Battle books before 3.5 ended, but that did not happen.

Personally, I would use Ordinary weapons for Clay Pigeon, as those are the primary weapons used for target shooting. And yes, clay pigeons are a type of target, usually for shotguns, but I have shot them with others. But the style itself seems like it was based on the old Roy Rogers era westerns asmuch as anything else.

I believe Crisis Zone is based on characters like Blain (Jesse Ventura) from Predator. TVTropes has a page on the basic idea called Gatling Good. Although, considering the game's sources, it might be for Space Marine Terminators and Dreadnaughts. :)

Calling Elemental Gearbolt "bullet alchemy" is probably the best discription I have seen for it.

Point Blank wants to be for submachine guns, but those don't really exist in the rules. Basic weapons are the closest, and that covers a lot of other things too. I think it was aiming for somewhere between Equilibrium and the lobby scene in Matrix.

Tin Star is based on the iconic gunslinger and his pistol, so have it get the Pistol weapons.

[Telok]

Ok, lets see. I finally got back to my home computer and got to finish the spells post. Addressing this...
Right, tin star gets pistols, clay pigeon gets ordinary weapons.

Overwatch and suppressing fire are nearly the same thing. Both require setting up a kill zone and covering it with a full auto weapon. Suppressing fire sprays ammo into the area, make a DC 20 shooty check and everyone in there has to make a pinning test or stick to cover, up to 1+raises people get hit if they don't find cover immediately. There's no to-hit roll on that, just that many bullets hit people (only one hit per person). Overwatch is basically a D&D style readied action, if <thing> happens you spray the first person in the kill zone with a full auto burst or just spray the whole zone with suppressing fire.

I thought of giving crisis zone the two actions because they're both fairly specific in purpose and a bit uncommon. I put all the basic weapons in point blank because you can already use pistols in melee (the rule bit for that is a bit hidden somewhere in the equipment section if I recall correctly) and it crisis zone already had the heavies.

There isn't anything prohibiting parrying a melee attack with a firearm, but I've sort of frowned on it. I allow it but I'll roll a d10, on a 1 the weapon breaks, on a 2 it's just damaged and won't work (or it will work but I roll the boom die) until some repairs are done. Also, change the point blank 2nd level booster to "+1 character does not provoke until start of next turn ". Interestingly the pulse rifle has a little note that using it one handed only has a -1k0 penalty, generally the basic firearms have a -2k0 to use with one hand. Hmm, it's still an issue that, rule-wise, only pistols can be used in close combat.

Next for these of course would be naming everything and writing it up nicely. Stuff. The first run on the spells is done and I want to get that up.

Spoiler: Spells, all the spells.

Show

So, lets try a little re-write of the spells. Some are fine, some are kinda trash, and others just lack needed information. I threw them all, in an abbreviated format, into a spreadsheet so that I could try to compare spells within levels and across the schools. I ended up moving some spells up or down a level, adding or changing bits of some, and just wholesale replacing a few.
For abjuration it goes 1: Shield, Armoring Aura, and Endure Elements. 2: Knock, Dispel, Voidskin. 3: Mage Armor, Glyph, Ruby Ray. 4: Exploding Runes, Disjunction, Globe of Invulnerability. 5: Contingency, Wall of Force. With the main issues being the relative uselessness of endure elements, knock, and voidskin. Plus a lack of definition in ranges and wall of force.

Reworked - casting DCs are as in the book unless the spell level changed, then they are 10+(5 * level) unless specifically mentioned.
1:
* Shield - no change.
* Voidskin - expanded use into acting as a diving suit, Dune-esque still-suit, and pretty much any sort of extreme environment survival suit.
* Knock - expanded use - can magically lock a door and unlocks a magically lock door on an opposed casting check.
2:
* Armoring Aura - no change in function.
* Mage Armor - no change.
* Endure Elements - expanded use into halving damage from appropriate energy sources (fire, laser, cold, electric, etc.)
3:
* Dispel - add a 200m range limit.
* Glyph - no change.
* Exploding Runes - clarification that the spell detonates at the object it was cast on.
4:
* Ruby Ray - add a 200m range limit.
* Globe of Invulnerability - no change.
* Force Wall - clarification of 5x5m per abjuration dot plus another 5x5m per two raises & any orientation (wall, flat, angled, etc.).
5:
* Contingency - no change.
* Disjunction - add a 500m range limit and the 'no casting' by the victim is until the end of your next turn plus 1/turn per raise and it lasts until the end of the scene if you get 5 or more raises.

Conjuration goes 1: Invisible Servant, Blink, Web. 2: Lesser Servant, Call Item, Obscuring Fog. 3: Jaunt, Porte, Cloudkill. 4: Greater Servant, Teleport, Incendiary Cloud. 5: Gate, Black Blade of Disaster. The major issues here are blink being way too good for a 1st level spell, and the damaging clouds being terribly weak. It will be important to remember that overcasting and a couple other things actually cause you to have more ranks in the spell school for casting a spell.

Reworked - casting DCs are as in the book unless the spell level changed, then they are 10+(5 * level) unless specifically mentioned.
1:
* Invisible Servant - duration increased to 24 hours and the casting DC goes up by 5 for every servant you have out.
* Obscuring Cloud - 2/level 5x5x5m clouds of fog that start adjacent or around you and last 5 minutes +1 minute per raise.
* Web - clarifications, you can move half your speed as a full action with a strength+athletics check against the casting roll every round, if there are vertical/overhead anchors you can have it affect the vertical as well, it can/does block line of sight beyond 1m but won't be more than about 5cm high without a vertical/overhead anchor, casting it in the air creates a sort of dandelion puff ball of webs that fliers can evade with an arcana+dexterity save as a reaction and will drift/float downwards at half speed but collapses into a plummeting glob of 1m diameter when it hits terminal velocity, it floats on top of water and can be cast for normal effect underwater.
2:
* Blink - no changes beyond the level change upping the casting DC to 20.
* Call Item - no changes.
* Lesser Servant - no changes.
3:
* Jaunt - no changes.
* Porte - duration is 1 hour per level.
* Cloudkill - as Obscuring Fog but nasty colored, does (level+conjuration)k(level) acid (energy) damage at the beginning of the caster's turn, breathing in it requires a constitution save vs 15 or take one wound, the cloud lasts 3 minutes +1 minute per raise.
4:
* Greater Servant - no change.
* Teleport - the caster can bring along other creatures of 1 size per raise, treating equipment or cybernetics that increase resilience (but not size) as increasing size by the same amount.
* Black Blade of Disaster - the blade does +1k0 damage per raise on the casting roll, has the power balanced shocking and toxic qualities, and is reduced by aura but not by armor, the caster is automatically proficient with the blade and may use their dots in the arcana skill in place of the weaponry skill.
5:
* Gate - cast as a non combat spell it has targeting and range as the Teleport spell and the duration is 1 day per level, cast as a full action combat spell it is as the Porte spell but creates both portals at once and the duration is an hour per level.
* Incendiary Cloud - as Obscuring Fog but fiery colored and you get 5 cubes per conjuration dot, it does (level+conjuration)k(conjuration) fire (energy) damage at the start of the caster's turn and sets everything on fire (even if it can't burn and is unaffected by being on fire it is still on fire), duration is 1 minute + 1 minute per raise.

Divination goes 1: Augury, Whisper, Detect Thoughts. 2: Foresee, Luck, Arcane Eye. 3: Scry, Precognition, Legend Lore. 4: Mind Net, Unluck, Foresee. 5: Commune, Hindsight. The main problems being that several spells are weakly defined or simply uncompetitive in their level, there are two foresee spells, and hindsight is just trash for a 5th level spell.

Reworked - casting DCs are as in the book unless the spell level changed, then they are 10+(5 * level) unless specifically mentioned.
1:
* Augury - DC is still 20 but you can try once an hour, the casting DC goes up by 5 every time you do this and then reduces at the rate on 5 every 2 hours.
* Message - communication is 2-way and lasts for 1 minute/level or 1 message each way + 1 message/raise, whichever comes first.
* Read Thoughts - the duration is 1 scene.
2:
* Forsee - no change.
* Luck - no change.
* Arcane Eye - clarifications, it lasts an hour per level + 1 hour per raise, moves (flying) at 2 * (arcana+intelligence), and is invisible (but still a physical flying eyeball) with a general stealth check equal to your casting roll, and it has both size & visual acuity/abilities according to the species of eyeball used, cybernetic eyeballs are unsuitable and do not work, the eyeball is used up in casting the spell (yes there's a little ick & nuisance factor in collecting and counting really good eyeballs).
3:
* Scry - no change.
* Precognition - no change.
* Legend Lore - if you get 3 or more raises this can act as the level 5 Hindsight spell instead.
4:
* Mind Net - 100m line of sight range limit, it can affect up to your level in people with each casting, when cast on allies this lasts 24 hours, when cast on anyone else there is an arcana+wisdom save and it lasts one scene, different castings are different 'channels', the person must specifically send thoughts/images/etc. through the link, it cannot be used to eavesdrop on a person's thoughts.
* Unluck - no changes.
* Foresee - the name changes to Foresight, you may only have one of these in effect at a time, if the triggering event is combat then you cannot be surprised and automatically win initiative in addition to the usual effects.
5:
* Commune - no changes.
* New spell: True Knowledge - VSF, full action casting, DC 35, duration: one scene, any roll using a social or mental skill or attribute rolls additional +(divination)k0 dice and you count as having at least one dot in the skill or attribute. For all other rolls you may roll twice and take either roll. The focus is a very large unabridged encyclopedia, one loaded on a data slate is suggested and one linked through a communications network will suffice as long as the connection is stable, fast, completely uninterrupted, and doesn't have false information injected by a hack while the spell is in effect.

On divination and the new spell: Level 5 gives you the ability to call up Bahamut, Acerak, or The Lady of Pain for advice, or 5-8 fireballs, or any contingent spell, or turning into a dragon. There was just no way that a holographic history documentary on a specific place was in that league. I tried balancing the 5th level spells around the Meteor Storm / Commune / Resurrection / Necromutation level of power. I've tried to make spell selection a hard choice at each level.

Enchantment goes 1: Charm Person, Command, Shock and Awe. 2: Stun, Attraction, Confusion. 3: Dominate, Awe, Suggestion. 4: Encore, Blindness, Demand. 5: Geas, Amnesia. The main issues with this school are of course players & mind control, plus a lack of ranges and general weakness in several spells.

Reworked - casting DCs are as in the book unless the spell level changed, then they are 10+(5 * level) unless specifically mentioned.
On mind control: If a character fails the save against direct mind control (Command, Dominate, Geas, Suggestion, etc.) by two checks (-10 or more under the casting roll) then they absolutely have to follow the spirit of the command. If they fail to save against the spell by less than two checks they may spend a Resolve point to subvert it and obey only the letter of the command. However subversion does not include outright and intentional misunderstanding unless a Hero Point is also used. For example: A character on a cliff is Commanded to "disarm" and the caster gets a 25 on the casting check. If the victim gets a 15 or less on the saving throw the have disarm themselves of any weapons that they have. If they fail the saving throw by only 9 points, with a 16, they may spend a Resolve point to attempt to disarm the closest person to them. If the victim also spends a hero point they may attempt to disarm the caster, including trying to blow his arms off if they're fairly certain they can get that crit in one shot. If a control effect is ongoing, like Dominate, the victim must spend a Resolve/Hero point every time they wish to subvert a command.

1:
* Charm Person - no changes.
* Command - see 'On mind control' above.
* Shock and Awe - the range of the spell as 20m.
2:
* Stun - the effect is that the target is stunned as per the condition, the save is arcana+composure, once they are not stunned if they had a check on the save then they also lose an additional half action, if they had two checks then they lose two half actions, they cannot take reactions until after the stunning and loss of actions is resolved.
* Attraction - no change.
* Confusion - the range is 'hearing' which is generally about 20m talking in a quiet area, 100m shouting in a quiet area, and 20m shouting in battlefield conditions, all of those assume normal human voices and hearing (call it a DC 10 perception with an additional +10 per doubling of the distance, also applicable is DC 5 at 15m and +10 per doubling).
3:
* Dominate - see 'On mind control' above, when situations calling for the saving throw adjustments come up you re-roll the save with the adjustment added in.
* Awe - the effect and save are the same as Stun, otherwise unchanged (range, area, etc.).
* Blindness - the name changes to Blindness/Deafness, components are VS, range is 20m, it inflicts blindness or deafness for 24 hours, both if the victim gets 2 or more checks on the saving throw.
4:
* Encore - range is 20m, the effect is not 'expended'.
* Suggestion - range is 'hearing'.
* Demand - the range is 20m, the caster may maintain the spell with a half action every round that they use to talk to the target, the target must expend another Resolve each round that the spell is maintained.
5:
* Geas - see 'On mind control', the command can be a short sentence or have modifiers instead of just being a single word, "Protect me from your allies if they appear" is allowable.
* Amnesia - optional: change the name to Mind Rape, if the target gets a check on their save the caster can rewrite minor aspects of their personality, if they get two checks on the save the caster can rewrite their alignment, if there are three checks on the save the changes cannot be undone without another Amnesia spell that has a higher casting roll, as an alternate use the caster can add or remove traumatic events, the caster can add traumatic events causing 1d5 +1/raise insanity up to their own insanity, the caster can remove 1d5 +1/raise insanity as long as the target's insanity is higher than the caster's - in this case the save that the target makes is to allow the editing to have the desired effect, a fails saving throw will not allow the caster to reduce insanity.

Evocation goes 1: Magic Missile, Energy Burst, Battering Ram. 2: Energy Grasp, Energy Ray, Defenestration. 3: Energy Ball, Energy Aura, Energy Prismatic Ray. 4: Energy Wall, Energy Bits, Lightning Ring. 5: Energy Meteors, "Go-Bugger-Yourself"... I mean Reality Maelstrom. Problems here are low damage for a few spells and of course that spell.

Reworked - casting DCs are as in the book unless the spell level changed, then they are 10+(5 * level) unless specifically mentioned.
1:
* Magic Missile - the maximum number of duplicates is the number of ranks the caster has in evocation.
* Energy Burst - no change.
* Battering Ram - the push distance is 2m +2m/check on the save, it explicitly can move the target any direction but without enough force to cause impact damage on its own.
2:
* Energy Grasp - charges up your hand/limb to be used before the end of your next turn.
* Energy Ray - no changes.
* Defenestration - no changes.
3:
* Energy Ball - no changes.
* Energy Aura - damage is increased to 3k1 +3/level, and recall that it's resisted by aura instead of armor.
* Lightning Ring - the casting DC is 25 and the caster may use arcana+dexterity for the shooting part of the spell.
4:
* Energy Wall - shapeable wall 5m high by 10m + 5m/raise long, damage increases to 4k2 +3/level, it offers +10 static defence / -10 perception from concealment & distortions.
* Energy Bits - you can launch a maximum number of bits equal to your level but and remove the '2 per target' restriction.
* New spell: Telekinesis - VS, half action cast & reaction to maintain, 60m range, everything within a 10m radius of the point of origin saves arcana+size or is pushed in any direction by 4m + 4m/check on the save, if it is pushed more than 60m from the point of origin it is freed from the effect until it returns to within 60m, the spell lasts a minimum number of rounds equal to the caster's level or as long as they maintain the spell, the caster may change the direction of the spell as a half action, pulling people up and then pushing them down adds 1k1 damage per 4m of "speed" to the falling damage, the spell automatically overcomes and negates the local gravity field when pushing people up (don't bother trying to deal with falling vs. pushing, just push them up).
5:
* Energy Meteors - no change.
* Reality Maelstrom - range is 50m, everyone within a 20m radius of the point of origin rolls on the Psychic Phenomena / Perils of the Warp tables with a +5/raise on the casting roll plus make another roll on the tables at no bonus and apply it to everyone and everything in the area, or you can summon a warp vortex at the point of origin, it then begins to move randomly at 2 to 20 meters per round, dealing 10k7 magic energy damage to all in its path (Dodge v 35 to evade). The vortex lasts for 1d10+5 rounds and then vanishes.

Yeah, I dropped prismatic ray. It was just so random and competed with other decent spells. The telekinesis spell can be reverse gravity, mass levitate/feather fall, or a sort of pushing force barrier. If you want to try launching arrows with it you can do your own math (but of you do, post it, and I'll include it in the spell).

Healing goes 1: Cure Light Wounds, Boon, Shield Other. 2: Regeneration, Boost, Death Ward. 3: Cure Moderate Wounds, Rebuke, Atonement. 4: Consecrate, Holy Weapon, Heal. 5: Resurrection, Divine Power.

Reworked - casting DCs are as in the book unless the spell level changed, then they are 10+(5 * level) unless specifically mentioned.
1:
* Cure Light Wounds - spend one resource point and make the casting roll to heal 1+1/2 raises hit points.
* Boon - allies get a rolled die plus another rolled die per two raises on the casting roll that they can add to any check using a skill within the next minute, as with the Luck spell the ally can spend any number of dice up to their level on any one roll. Expended dice are not reusable.
* Shield Other - no change.
2: No changes - Regeneration, Boost, Death Ward.
3:
* Cure Moderate Wounds - spend a number of resource points up to your level and make the casting roll to heal that many wounds, plus 1 wound and 1 fatigue per 2 raises on the casting roll.
* Rebuke - the target saves with Devotion vs. the casting roll or lose one hero point, they also take 1d10 wounds -1 wound per raise on the saving throw and +1 wound per check on the saving throw.
* Holy Weapon - the additional damage applies to people who worship gods other than yours, the enchantment lasts 24 hours.
4:
* Consecrate - clarification that is affects all of the caster's allies and applies to damage rolls, "all rolls" means all.
* Heal - spend any number of resource points and make the casting roll to heal wounds equal to the resource points spent plus 1d5 wounds and fatigue per raise on the casting roll, you can forgo the additional healing and remove one disease, poison, toxic/drug effect, or one level of addiction per raise on the casting roll.
* Atonement - as an alternate use change the casting time to a week worth of rituals and the DC to the target's insanity score in order to remove 1 point of insanity.
5:
* Resurrection - clarification that you need most of the body mostly intact and there is a time limit of days equal to the combined devotion of the caster and the target after which the resurrection will not work.
* Divine Power - you gain +2 size, +2 strength, +4 static defence, +1 resilience, 1 HP of regeneration, aura equal to your ranks in Healing, and +1 reaction every turn. You only have to make the alignment check if something happens to the focus holy symbol and the spell ends early. Note: the +2 size equals another +1 resilience and the +4 static defence offsets the size penalty, this keeps you from having to recalculate anything.

Illusion goes 1: Image, Disguise, Blur. 2: Invisibility, Ghost Sounds, Illusionary Script. 3: Silence, Mirror Image, Dream. 4: Improved Invisibility, Programmed Image, Mislead. 5: Permanent Image, Screen. The main issue being how vague some of the advanced images are and the fact that they all inherit from the level 1 base image spell thus inheriting serious, nearly crippling, limits. Plus a couple spells are just crap.

1:
* Image - full action casting, half or full action to maintain concentration, functionally a real looking static hologram, you can animate the image and move it 10m with a full action maintain concentration.
* Disguise - no changes.
* Blur - +4 static defence and another +2/raise on the casting roll.
2:
* Invisibility - no changes.
* Ghost Sounds - reaction to maintain concentration, you can change the sounds and move the origin point 10m when you maintain concentration.
* Illusionary Script - change the name to Illusionary Object - SM, creates a single seemingly solid object that is apparently real to all senses. A book, a gun, a shoe, a corpse. Things with senses will treat the object as real, it appears on live video feeds, robots treat it as real, etc. Things without senses don't care and you can't fool the physical laws of the universe, bullets will fall through an illusionary gun if you try to load them, you can't set things down on a illusionary table, illusionary parachutes don't help, etc. It takes as long to cast the spell as it takes to paint, color, of draw in the object. Minutes for a basic hand held item, a book that can't be opened, or a simple desk. Hours for a large or complicated item, a corpse with wounds, a motorcycle, an ornate filigree jewellery box. The casting must be uninterrupted, test constitution vs. 10+hours every hour after the fourth hour of casting, failure ends the casting (the illusion may be left partially complete). Close examination of the object may reveal the illusionary nature of it, use the appropriate skill+wisdom or arcana+wisdom versus the lowest of the casting roll and a craft+intelligence check. If the item took more than 4 hours to complete make a number of crafting checks equal to the number of constitution checks and use the lowest one. Impossible physical interactions will reveal the illusionary nature instantly, such as being pushed through an illusion of a wall. Using an illusionary item to harm someone reveals it as an illusion but does deal one level of fatigue of it would have done at least two wounds. Once the illusion is created it will last for as long as someone perceives it. Undead, golems, and robots are useful for maximizing the duration of the illusion.
3:
* Silence - no changes.
* Mirror Image - no changes.
* New spell: Improved Image - S, full action to cast, half action to maintain concentration, range 10m, similar to Image but with an area 5x5x5 meters and has sound up to and including speech, can be animated and moved up to 20m/round within 200m of the caster during the half action concentration. It lasts until the caster fails to concentrate on it during their turn.
4:
* Improved Invisibility - no changes.
* Programmed Image - the image is within an area of, and/or up to a size of, 7x7x7 meters with an additional 2x2x2 meters per raise on the casting roll. It appears animated if the caster wishes it to be so, and includes sounds up to and including speech. The number of programmed activities is unchanged.
* Mislead - the caster may use a reaction to have the illusion move, react, or speak, as though it was them. The duplicate exists in all senses and is possessed of mild animation and programming sufficient to fool all but close and detailed examination. The spell lasts for one round per level of the caster or until the caster does not maintain concentration for an entire round, whichever is longer.
5:
* Permanent Image - the effect of the spell is as Improved Image (adding the senses of touch, scent, and taste) with an area of up to 10x10x10 meters plus 5x5x5 meters per raise on the casting roll. If the caster ceases concentration it simply becomes inactive and fades out or stops being animated until the next time the caster spends a half action concentrating on it, the caster chooses either the fade or the pause when the decide to stop concentrating.
* New Spell: Weird - S, full action casting, reaction to maintain concentration, range 200m. Terrible hallucinations, tremendous noise, alternating flashing light and darkness, offensive scents, and disturbing tactile sensations fill an area 20m in radius around the point of origin. Everyone within saves arcana+composure. On success they have to make a fear 3 test (DC 25) at +5 per raise on the save, visibility is reduced to 5m, it is nearly impossible to make out any sound quieter than a large jet engine, the results of all perception checks are halved, and all checks are made at -5. On failure the victim rolls on the shock table at +2 per check on the save, is considered blind and deaf while in the area of effect, is still deafened for 15 minutes afterwards, and all checks are made at -10. The fear result on a successful save is considered mind affecting. The light and noise carry a fair bit, everyone within at least 2 km and perhaps as far as 5 km will be able to see and hear this. This spell lasts 1d5 rounds after the caster ceases concentrating on it.

Necromancy goes 1: Flush Of Life, Rot, False Life. 2: Speak With Dead, Draining Touch, Burning Blood. 3: Torment, Raise Dead, Horrid Wilting. 4: Corrupted Earth, Consume Soul, Avasculate. 5: Necromutation, Zombie Plague. Our issues here are some unaddressed questions as to how a few spells work, a couple trash spells, and the general worthlessness of zombies.

1:
* Flush of Life - this is a full and effective disguise plus the ability to convincingly fake any necessary biological functions. It takes a medicae+intelligence check of 15 + the casting roll plus some form of deep scan or dissection to discern the truth. The spell lasts for a scene or one hour per level plus one hour per raise on the casting roll, whichever is greater.
* Rot - no changes.
* False Life - no changes.
2:
* Speak With Dead - once a day, for one scene, the corpse will answer one question plus an additional question per raise on the casting roll. The corpse must be sufficiently intact to communicate, a loose head will require lip reading or some sort of tracheal air pumping.
* Draining Touch - the damage increases to 2k2 plus another 1k0 per raise on the casting roll. The spell lasts until the end of your next turn or until you use it to make an attack, whichever comes first.
* Burning Blood - the range is 10m per level of the caster, the attack roll is replaced by an arcana+constitution save, bloodless creatures (some undead, robots, most promethians) are unaffected.
3:
* Torment - no changes.
* Animate Dead - suggest that zombies in numbers of more than 3 or 4 be organized into threat 2 & damage 2 minion squads. These undead respond to verbal commands from their creator (in person, no recordings) up to two or three basic sentences in length or (usually reliably) up to two simple if-then statements. New instructions completely replace old instructions.
* Horrid Wilting - no change.
4:
* Corrupted Earth - changes to be the same as the Consecrate spell in Healing, except that it affects everyone who is not the caster's ally and inflicts a -1k0 on all rolls.
* Consume Soul - Zombie Plague & suggest that zombies in numbers of more than 3 or 4 be organized into threat 2 & damage 2 minion squads. They are commanded like the level 3 Animate Dead but will only remember instructions for days equal to the caster's necromancy dots, then they go feral and start shambling around looking for things to kill. Their creator can re-command them in person at any time.
* Avasculate - no changes.
5:
* Necromutation - the duration of the immunity to damage is 1d5 rounds plus your dots in necromancy plus 1 round per raise on the casting roll. And for the rest of the scene you can use the effect of the Draining Touch spell at the 2k2 damage, up to once per round and you regain one resource point whenever you deal at least one wound this way.
* New Spell: Create Greater Undead - non-combat, VSM, full action casting, touch range, create an improved version of a skeleton or zombie from a corpse. The new undead loses any ability to cast spells, possess or use resource or hero points, naturally heal or regenerate, and any purely biological functions like reproduction and producing venom. It also loses all ranged weapon proficiencies, all non-combat & non-armor feats, and it's scores in charisma, fellowship, composure, and intelligence. It's dexterity score is reduced by 1 dot. It gains the mindless & undead & unnatural toughness traits, it's level as bonus dots in strength, a 1k1 brawling rending attack, and 2 dots or +1 dot in the brawling skill whichever results in a higher brawling skill. It's perception skill becomes 2. It keeps it's weaponry & ballistics skills, and it's armor proficiencies. For every number of raises on the casting of the spell equal to the level or the creature (i.e.: 3 raises for a level 3 creature being animated) you may add +1 to your choice of strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, or willpower. If the new undead has an intelligence score it loses the mindless trait and gains the dark sight trait. Intelligent undead can only be commanded with a command + charisma check against their willpower, in person, by their creator. But social combat will work on intelligent undead. Intelligent undead are not fearless unless the base species is naturally fearless, the Fearless feat is one of the non-combat feats lost in the conversion top unlife.

So we're ditching consume soul as a PC-type adventuring spell that's on the default list. It was a freaking plot device any ways, just call it a L4 ritual that anyone can do on an forbidden lore+intelligence & arcana+casting stat vs. something roll. Animate dead got a clearer definition of C&C, and a way to get better undead minions/enemies.

Transmutation goes 1: Swift Change, Treesong, Bloodwind. 2: Dedication, Animal Power, Enlarge Person. 3: Magic Fang, Polymorph, Stone Tell. 4: Primal Power, Earthsong, Control Weather. 5: Dragon Form, Iron Body. The work here is to boost trash spells and put clearer bounds on some of the others.

1:
* Swift Change - no changes.
* Treesong - wood & living plants as if they were sculpting clay. 1 cubic meter + 1/raise. Permanent effect, use craft checks for moving parts/complex forms (suggest 20 for a mechanical clock?).
* Bloodwind - no changes.
2:
* Dedication - no changes.
* Animal Power - no changes.
* Enlarge person - replace with Magic Fang.
3:
* Magic Fang - replace with Enlarge/Shrink Person. It's two different spells, you learn one or the other. The target gets +/- 2 size +/- 2 size per 2 raises. This is to make things easier, each increase of 2 size a +1 resilience & -4 static defence, reverse the +/- for shrinking. The minimum size is 1 and the maximum is 4+ (2x transmutation dots).
* Polymorph - the wolf form also adds the quadruped quality from the Antagonists chapter (doubles land speed). The subject can explicitly change back and forth and the ability works rather like the werewolf power. The spell may be cast on unwilling subjects, in that case they get the opportunity attack for your casting within melee reach, you have to land a brawling attack, and they get an arcana+constitution saving throw. With their failure of the saving throw they are locked into that form for the rest of the scene unless they also have some form of shape-shifting (a casting of Swift Change will suffice even if the victim has no other alternate forms). Also a suggestion to allow the caster to learn a form per rank in transmutation, changing the size by +/-1, one attribute by +2, gaining keen senses in one sense, and choosing one of the movement qualities form the Antagonists chapter.
* Stone Tell - ditch it. New spell: Call Forth Spirit: The spell changes local materials or animals/insects/etc. into a material shell that envelops a friendly local spirit. Full action casting, reaction or half action to maintain concentration, F & VSM, the focus is some small representation of the shell OR the spirit (a clay figure for an earth elemental, bucket of water, jar of a noble gas, lit blowtorch, totems, bones, vodun paraphernalia etc.), you get an elemental form the Antagonists chapter OR a spirit that is functionally a ghost which will possess plants or animals & act through them. The being is generally helpful but the caster must spend a half action instead of a reaction on maintaining concentration on the spell in order to get the being to fight for you. It can communicate with at least the caster if not everyone present, and may be engaged in social combat. The spell lasts until the caster stops maintaining it.
4:
* Primal Power - no changes.
* Earthsong - as per Treesong but it also affects earth, stone, pure metals, shell/chitin, bone (not in a living creature), leather (not skin), and wood. It will not affect plastics or alloys.
* Control Weather - the 'area' centres on and radiates out from the point of spell casting and reaches to the horizon. It will last for the greater of one day or as long as such weather would normally last in that area.
5:
* Dragon Form - You'll want to work out your dragon stats ahead of time and write them down. The stat changes are +4 size, +3 strength, +2 constitution, +1 charisma, -1 dexterity, -2 fellowship (the side effects of these changes are: -11 static defence, +2 resilience, +2 HP, +2 speed). Gain the Iron Jaw feat if you didn't already have it. Gain 8 armor that doesn't stack with anything, the 2k2 claw & bite attacks, the breath as a flamer weapon attack, the x2 flying speed, and the ability to see in the dark if you didn't already have it.
* Iron Body - ditch it, two transforms at this level is excessive and this one was trash. New Spell: Primal Anumus - non-combat, one hour casting, VSM, 'touch' range, you transform local materials into a loyal elemental. Use the ones form the book, give them a +1 dot in any attribute per raise, for every three raises increase size by one point, for every six raises increase their threat level and skills by one. You can only have a number of loyal & dependable elementals equal to the sum of your social attributes at any one time. They do communicate and you can use social combat on them. If there are enough of them (more than 15 or so) they may unionise and agitate for better conditions, it's apparently something inherent in being an elemental spirit.

Tightened up and put in more guidance for a few spells and just replaced the two bad trash spells. Do note that Call Forth Spirit can be used as Stone Tell and now you know it's perception and intelligence levels.

[Telok]

Holy criminy, I think I found the fix to most of the space issues. Nearly everything starts to work out if you just limit it to assigning a max of 10 crew to stuff. The biggest issue was the ability of big ships to throw like 20 crew on a check and crush it.

[lightningcat]

I think I would limit it to half the max crew instead of just 10. It restricts the little ships, but they have less space for lots of people to be working on the same thing. While only the biggest ships can break that 10 limit. The Bismark, Belle, and Bounty are the only default ships with more than 20 crew. While the Steamboat would be limited to 6 crew per action, with everyone else in between.

[Telok]

I think I would limit it to half the max crew instead of just 10. It restricts the little ships, but they have less space for lots of people to be working on the same thing. While only the biggest ships can break that 10 limit. The Bismark, Belle, and Bounty are the only default ships with more than 20 crew. While the Steamboat would be limited to 6 crew per action, with everyone else in between.

While that would also be a simple and appropriate fix it causes issues if you start going bigger or smaller than the default ships. I ended up, for my home game, writing up a crew 8 fast courier, a crew 30 ancient syrne wreck, and a 36? crew modron "borg cube/death star thing". The half crew version really harshes the small ship and still doesn't completely cover the big ones.

Keep in mind that, by the book, the crews top out about 1200 bodies. The US Iowa class battleships ran 2700 down to 1800 with a 1980s automation upgrade. Plus I tend to stat space stations & planetary defense fortresses as multiple immobile ships. Those wouldn't have the same sort of crew limits as they are all one "place".

Also, never underestimate the capabilities of the characters (the players are another story). Mine managed to salvage and fix up that 30 crew ship. Mind they loosed 5 or more things that can/will destroy all civilization, and or life, in the universe while doing so. But they did salvage that sucker even though they got banned form Sigil, did shadow apocalypses on two planets, released a demigod level daemon lord, released Athasian defiling and the big bad of Athas into the universe, gave clockwork horrors spelljamming tech, and gave the aboleth/illithid civilization the shadow apocalypse weapon.

The half crew limit certainly works for the ships from the book. But anyone running the game is going to be doing lots of homebrew. I think the 10 limit works better beyond the 12-24 range in the books, although I am still open to other considerations.

[lightningcat]

Alas, my game never made it past character creation, so I never kicked into homebrewing mode for the game, and thus only have the books for examples. While you have the actual experience, but I will still try help you solve these problems. But in this case there is only the hard cap, or a sliding scale. The only other option is to cap off the sliding scale, but that seems overly gamey.

Although, if you go with a cap of 10, you might be able to increase (or even decrease) that cap using build points. But otherwise, your cap might just be the best, and simplist solution.

[Telok]

Hey, no worries. Honestly it felt like back when the D&Ds 3 & 4 came out, running into bumps partially because we didn't have a great grasp of the rules and not always knowing if the issue was the system or us. Even after playing that much it still took this read for me to pick up on some issues and figure out what was caused be my rulings or by the base rules.

At this point I'm just going to try to get stuff written up and posted so it's easier to find than pieces of paper or loose text files.

I think possibly the best thing, short of playing, is to build a few characters, vehicles, ships, and run some scenarios. That said, my take on vehicle add-on rules/options:

Spoiler

Show

Vehicle rules: As previously discussed increased crashing damage & getting some crash avoidance stuff in.

Vehicle, & in general, static defense cannot go negative. The game just seems to work a little better that way.

Vehicles don't have to have a movement system. These are good for things like gun emplacements, shield generators, etc. They don't have to pay for acceleration, speed, or maneuverability.

Vehicle movement: In chase/vehicle only situations you can consider the movement to be simultaneous if it makes sense. Just move/check distance for everyone at the start or end of the round. Alternately you can do 1/2 movement at the start/end of the round and the other half on the pilot/driver maintain control action.

For people/vehicle interactions it's usually ok for the vehicle to move on the pilot's turn. If there is the possibility that you could swap pilots or share piloting (copilot, remote control) then give the vehicle its own initative score, set to the original pilot's initative. The vehicle initative will change only when the vehicle is at momentum 0 at the end of a round. At that point the vehicle will take as it's new initative the initative of whomever takes the controls first. The vehicle moves on it's initative (or with the pilot if it is equal), using the pilot's most recent maintain control or maneuver action. If the pilot and vehicle are not sharing the same initative and something happens due to the vehicle's movement that warrants a control test the pilot (or copilot, or someone, ANYONE, within reach of the controls) needs to spend their reaction to make the test. Failure to do so has the same effect as rolling zero for the control test, that is, it fails by the largest margin possible.

Optional movement: You can have all vehicles move half their movement at the start/end of the round and complete the other half of their movement (if any) during the pilot's turn. Another possibility is to have the vehicle move 1/3 it's movement at the start/end of the round, then 1/3 at the start of the pilot's turn, then 1/3 at the end of the pilot's turn. Another possibility is to have the pilot decide at the beginning of the scene (or whenever they start the vehicle moving up from momentum 0) if they are going to take their control action as their first or last action on their turn. That decision will then be locked in and that is when the vehicle will move.

I think my preference wil be that the vehicle takes the initial pilot's initative and moves half at the beginning of that turn, then half again when the control action is taken (or at the end of the turn if no control action was taken). For vehicles going over momentum 7 or more than half the current map each turn, the movement is split in thirds; one at the start/end of the round, one on the pilot's control action or the start of the vehicle's turn if no control is happening, and one at the end of the vehicle's turn.

Controls: All vehicles need some form of control. Ok, that's technically not true, but for our purposes you need a control setup if you want to bloody well do anything with it. Control options are internal, external, remote, or autonomous.

Internal: You have to have the cockpit module. Look, you can 1 slot & 20 vp it, this is where the pilot goes. The coffin and mobile trace modules can be part of the cockpit. You can add up all your sizes and costs for the cockpit before micronizing/macronizing them or keep them separate, the basic equipment package cannot be macro/micro and is not considered in these calculations. Note that without the basic equipment package there are no environmental controls, no radios/comms, the windows don't roll down, no seat belts, no headlights, no emergency interior lighting, and especially no cup holders. It's like a WWI biplane with a sealed cockpit. Just suck it up and pay the 3 vp unless you're statting out a WWI biplane or something.

External: If you chose not to have cockpit then the controls are on the outside of the vehicle, sort of like the walk-behind forklifts. The vehicle is automatically open topped, at least for the pilot. You have to choose one of the alternate control systems, or the coffin system to use this option.

Remote: It comes with a control setup that's 1/10th the size of the vehicle, rounded down. This means that size 10+ vehicles need to have another "vehicle" as the remote location. If the controls are just a set of free standing control consoles then it's basically like a bunch of arcade game machines and about as easily transported. You can build them into another vehicle without paying any increased costs, they just use up slots. Jamming will screw you over.

Autonomous: The beserker system turns a vehicle into a killer robot. It is suggested to also install a remote control system so that you can turn the bugger off without haivng to blow it up. As a 'feature' you can add a perception filter to the beserker system, this removes things from the ability of the beserker to sense them. Normally this is a biometric full body scan combined with a uniform overlay option. That prevents the system from sensing normal people in a particular uniform. You can replace the uniform with any sort of widely visible/sensable badge or marker. Beware though, the system will need to match both the body scan and the badge. If you only have a visible badge on the front the beserker will shoot you from behind. Other options include just specific badges, unforms, IFF transponders, or even things like colors and temperature ranges. Note that the beserker system will literally not perceive these things and may try to shoot through/past them. They don't even register as terrain, just a sort of blank spot moving around.

The other autonomous system is the AIs. These can normally ony use a single half action on any turn, up to the rating of their RAM array (max 5). To get two half actions each turn you need two AIs each spending their own actions, to get a full action both AIs have to be identical and each spends one of their half actions. There is, technically, no limit to the number of AIs acting at once. But each AI has to use a different vehicle system and only one of them can be making control tests during the vehicle's turn. You can chain AIs if you want to have more than 5 actions available in a scene, get a "feature" of AI linking and each AI has to act after the previous one has used up it's actions. These secondary AIs are half cost and half size but none of their abilities can exceed the primary AI's abilities. Bundle the secondary AIs into one "item" to apply the halved size and cost. Linked AIs have to be microed/macroed at their combined values.

The basic function of AIs is to aid (+5) one roll each round. With multiple AIs they cannot aid another AI if they are spending actions, any test by the pilot and/or copilot(s) can only be aided by a maximum of 2 AIs, and any other test can only be aided by one AI at a time. With linked AIs only the currently active one can aid rolls, the others are inactive.

If you have 2 sets of identical linked identical AIs of at least size 4 and with at least rounds of 12 actions that, with all the AIs added up, combine to take up more than half of the size and cost of the vehicle... Just run it as a robot vehicle with the normal set of actions available. But keep the spreadsheet handy for when upgrade time comes around. If it falls below half the size and cost of the vehicle then it can't maintain the smooth operational flow and defaults back to being just a set of helpers.

Vehicle upgrades & trade-ins: You know they'll ask. The formula for buying new parts is 15+(vp/10), a 100vp part is a 25 wealth test. That's quite doable with a character that intends to follow this path. They have to keep their build spreadsheet handy. It represents the user manuals and blueprints that you need to successfully modify customized vehicles. Once the vehicle makes it into holdings territory (250vp or more) they need to have the appropriate background resources to take care of it. Otherwise they'll need to make both tech & craft checks of DC (vp/10)+(5 per previous successful check) to keep it running. Every time they fail add another flaw to the vehicle. If there are no more flaws to add, one of them gets worse. Each of these 'wear and tear' flaws can only be removed by gaining the appropriate backgrounds or making a pair of tech & craft checks at double the maintainence difficulty.

Ok, so they can handle the maintainence issues. What about trade-ins. Any vehicle or part is only worth 1/10th of it's vp (used, funky smell, blood stains, could have been stolen, etc.), maybe 1/5th if they work hard at finding the perfect deal. Subtract that from the vp of the thing they're buying before calculating the DC of the wealth test to buy the new part or vehicle. Of course that only works for trading in one item, if they want to trade in more stuff keep cutting the vp the parts are worth in half for each one. Mind, if they're something like the generals of a planetary military force with 10 million troops they should just requsition a battleship or whatever they need. This is mostly for murder-hobos trying to buy a tank from a shady arms dealer. And, frankly, if they're trying to get 20+ passenger cars to offset the cost of a double miniatureized wave motion cannon... Just sit them down, have a talk about their life goals, and blow up the city or something. They're supposed to be heroes, not smarmy used car hucksters. There's nothing better than a massive world-wide daemon invasion to get people up and moving.

[Telok]

Not dead. Got a spreadsheet with the rebalanced vehicle and spaceship weapons.

Discovered something interesting. When adding another rolled die to a check: If the kept dice are 1 or 2 each added rolled die is an average of +1 on the result. If the kept dice are 3 to 5 each added rolled die averages +2. At 6 kept additional rolled are +3, and for 7 to 9 kept they are +4. For all values of rolled dice adding another kept die is an average of +4. Works best in the 3 to 8 rolled/kept die ranges but didn't go off by more than 5 on the low end and 10 on the high end. Shifts of up to 5 dice at a time worked well, more than that started going off target but still mostly by less than 10. If changing both rolled and kept at the same time do the kept dice changes first and then do the rolled dice change based on the new number of kept dice. 4k3 -> 5k2 : ~22 -4+1=18, chart says ~18. 4k4 -> 9k4 : about 23 -> about 36 by chart, 23+10=33, off by 3. Allows you to guess about how useful adding/losing dice can be.

[Telok]

Vehicle weapons systems.
* Ammo: Option & experimental ammo rules

Personal weapons use their regular ammo amounts. They can either be reloaded from inside the vehicle or they can have 3x the normal clip size. Reloading involves down-time or just hauling in more ammo by hand.

Ballistic weapons can fire a number of times equal to double the size of the vehicle minus the size of the weapon. For weapons capable of both burst fire and single shots multiply that by the rate of fire to determine the actual number of individual rounds. Reloading requires down-time for any weapon with more than a +10 to it's damage rating, the smaller calibres can be reloaded in the field if sufficient supplies are available. You won't be able to load more than a couple rounds each minute any ways.

Missile weapons can fire once per size of the vehicle, except the Arrow-4 system that has half that much ammunition. Only SRM missiles can be reloaded in the field, all others require restocking at base. The SRMs can, assuming there are stray missiles laying around, be reloaded by hand at a rate of about one a minute.

Energy weapons use a combined pool of "ammunition" generated by the vehicle's power plant/engine. They can fire a number of times equal to the size of the vehicle plus the size of the vehicle multiplied by the number of slots spent on speed (don't bother fooling around with burst vs. single shot, it's too much trouble, each burst is a "shot"). This does mean that a sufficiently large XL engine can supply effectively unlimited ammunition. Once this store of energy is used up the vehicle requires either refuelling or some down-time to re-energize. Refuelling normally takes about the size of the vehicle in minutes.

* Homing: The missing weapon property for missiles is most easily adjudicated as follows - Reduce the RoF of the launcher to 1, the weapon is counted as being both accurate AND having been aimed as a full action. Active ECM or stealth will reduce the aim bonus to that of a half action. Active ECM AND stealth defeats the homing property. In addition, as long as there is no active ECM the missiles take no penalties for long range, one third of the penalty for extreme range, and the extreme range penalty beyond that. Homing weapons can be fired past extreme range, up to 40x the base range. Beyond extreme range they require an additional combat round to travel to their target for every "extreme range" distance they have to cover, and they need to make another attack roll (use the same rolled & kept but adjust for range as necessary).

By the numbers: Full round aim is +2k0, half action aim is +1k0, accurate adds +1k0 to aimed shots, long range is -5 to hit, extreme range is -15 to hit.

Example: A homing Arrow 4 missile has a 500m base range, it cannot fire at targets closer than 250m. From 250m to 1000m it adds +3k0 to attack, +2k0 if ECM or stealth are being employed by the target, and no bonus of both ECM and stealth are employed by the target. From 1000m to 2000m it takes a -5 penalty to the attack roll unless both ECM and stealth are being used by the target, in which case the penalty is -15. From 2000m to 20,000m the missile can be launched only if the target is not using both ECM and stealth. At 20,000m it would take the missile 9 rounds of attack rolls at the -15 extreme range penalty, and one final attack roll at the reduced -5 extreme range penalty.

Note: It is understood that these ranges do not accurately reflect real-world long range and cruise missiles. If you want greater accuracy you can go fond the appropriate GURPS supplement and do the conversions yourself.

* Turrets: Optional & experimental rules

Each weapon attached to a vehicle has an "arc" of fire. These are pretty general, forward, backward, left side, right side, above, below. Any weapon noted as being mounted on an arm (for vehicles that have arms) is not restricted to firing in an arc. A narrow turret can be added to the weapon that extends it's range of fire into any two adjacent arcs (ex: forward, left, and above) for a cost of 1 slot and 5 vp. A wide turret can be added that extends the range of fire of the weapon into all but one arc (ex: everywhere except below the vehicle) for a cost of 2 slots and 10 vp.

* Vehicle Armor: New costs
Hardened: Heavy(20) = 4s & 50vp, Medium(10) = 2s & 24vp, Light(5) = 1s & 16vp.
Ferro: Heavy(20) = 8s & 25vp, Medium(10) = 6s & 6vp, Light(5) = 3s & 4vp.
Standard: Medium(10) = 4s & 12vp, Light(5) = 2s & 8vp, Thick Paint(2) = 1s & 2vp.

This means there isn't a 'best' armor when you're micronizing. In this system armor 5 costs 1s & 16vp, armor 10 costs 1s & 48vp, and armor 20 costs 2s & 100vp or 1s & 200vp. With the default values the FF armor is always best in the heavy class, hardened is always best in the light class, and with medium armor it depends on how you do the rounding.

* Micronizing/Macronizing: Shrinking component sizes

There are components with odd numbered costs and slots, when you halve an odd number there are some options: round up, round down, track the fractions, track some of the fractions. Rounding up is restrictive, it makes some things just not easily resized. Rounding down is permissive, it lets you pack more stuff into the vehicles. Tracking fractions is math, but this is a vehicle design system so you sort of signed up for that any ways. When partially tracking fractions you keep track of the halves, the 0.5s, and round everything else up or down to the nearest integer. Example: With the default armor values heavy ferro-fibrous armor is 7 slots and 20 vp, heavy hardened armor is 4 slots and 50 vp. Microed down to 1 slots gets you hardened armor at 1 slot and 200 vp, compared to the following for ferro-fibrous: Round up = 7->4->2->1 slot & 20->40->80->160 vp. Round down = 7->3->1 slot 20->40->80 vp. Track fractions = 7->3.5->1.75->0.875 slot. Track halves = 7->3.5->2->1 slot.

Sub-components: You can decide if you want sub-components to be required or optionally micro/macro along with the main item. The options are yes, no, user choice, and zero slot components. The cockpit is 4 slots and 5 vp, basic amenities are 0 slots and 3 vp, an alternate control set-up is 1 slot and 10 vp. If you take all three they're 5 slots and 18 vp. If you require the sub-components to be included then you get 1s & 72vp. With user choice you can micro the cockpit and leave the other parts out for 2s & 33vp, but you won't be able to micro the alternate controls. If you just leave the zero slot component out you can get to 1s & 63vp.

Please do keep a hard cap on a minimum of 1 slot when micronizing and not allowing zero slot items to be macronized. It will save you trouble in the long run.

* Passengers and cargo:

Passenger and cargo space can be micronized or macronized once. This is to keep the cargo space generally within the volume of the vehicle. Otherwise it is possible (with some effort) to get 52 m^3 into a 7m by 3m by 3m vehicle (63m^3), plus a fully functional cockpit, drive, and two short range missile launchers or a hurricane bolter. Which is OK for a ship or a cargo truck, probably, but getting a bit silly for some of the other drive types. Keep it sane, one iteration of size change for these systems.

Cargo uses the following formula: 1 slot & 2 vp per unit. Size 1-10 units are 2 m^3, size 11-20 units are 4 m^3, size 21-30 units are 20 m^3. This was based on real world jumbo jets, which are generally size 25ish, using roughly 1/3 of their slots for cargo. There is, technically, no upper limit to cargo space beyond the vehicle size.

Passengers have no changes to the slots or costs, but the vehicle is limited to 1/3 it's size in passenger slots. This puts a hard cap of 512 people on a size 30 vehicle.

A new item is the modular passenger and cargo space. It is 1 slot and 5 vp per unit. A vehicle can have up to 2/5 it's size in modular space (4/10, 8/20, 12/30), although this precludes the use of regular passenger and cargo space. Calculate the maximum passenger and cargo space using the formulas and divide the cargo space and number of passengers by the number of slots used. This gives you your conversion ratio. Example: Using 8/20 slots for modular space costs 40vp, allowing for 32m^ cargo (8*4m^3) or 128 passengers (7 doubling after the first passenger). This gives a ratio of 4m^3 or 16 passengers per slot. The vehicle can accommodate any combination of cargo and passengers in 4/16 "per slot" increments. 16m^3 & 64 passengers for a 4/4 split, 8m^3 & 96 passengers for 2/6, 28m^3 & 16 passengers for 7/1, and so on. As with the other passenger and cargo systems this can be macronized or micronized once. Real world airlines have already done this.

* Weapons: google docs spreadsheet for playing with your own numbers

Weapons, frankly, needed to be re-balanced. So, each weapon got a score derived from it's stats (obviously a spreadsheet was involved) and I tried to sort of even them out. The calculation is as follows:

Spoiler

Show

For damage each rolled damage die is a +1, each kept damage die is a +2, each +5 of added damage is a +2 (generally equal to a kept die), 5 penetration is +0 with each 5 over that being a +1 and zero penetration being a -1, if burst fire then + 1/2 the RoF rounding down.

A range modifier of 0.8 + (the lesser of range/500 or 0.45), rounded to two decimal places. 40m range is 0.88, 100m range is 1, 150m range is 1.1, 200m range is 1.2, everything over that is 1.25. Basically there's an upper limit to how useful range is.

Cost is calculated as the lesser of size + (vehicle point cost/5) OR 1/2 size (round up) + (2x (vehicle point cost/5)), the final value is rounded to the nearest whole number. Effectively the 'cheaper' of regular size & cost or one level of miniaturization.

Specials are as follows: Flame, blast radius 5 & 10, twin linked, accurate/homing, indirect, and full auto burst are +1s. Blast radius 25 is +2. No short range shots are a -1. Recharge is a -3. Reliable is ignored. Shocking, scatter, and overheating have been removed.

The overall value is calculated as (damage x range modifier) + specials, which is divided by the cost and rounded to one decimal place. This ends up ranging from 1.7 to 2.6, mostly clustered around 2.1 to 2.3 values. The 1.7 is the bombast laser in weak fire mode, it's blast mode kicks up to 2.4, the primitive ballista gets 1.9, then everything else is 2.1 to 2.5 (except the flamer at 2.6 but that's because it's still pretty cheap). Well, that was the range once I did the balancing. The original values were from 0.8 to 5.5, just an amazing spread. They were the HAG and the area blast Arrow-4 at 0.8, with the multilas at 5.5, the SRM at 5,

Also calculated out was an average damage value, assuming that accurate weapons got +2k2 damage, the twin linked laser got it's two raises, burst weapons hit with up to 5 of their rounds, and the target had 10 armor. Recharge weapon obviously got their 'damage' halved.

A final 'awesome' value was calculated as the overall value times the average damage value divided by 20. This one ranges from 0.9 to 8.5, as a sort of final "it's this awesome to shoot you with" number. The 0.9 is, again, the ballista and the 8.5 is the Arrow-4 victim-seeking cruise missile. With the original numbers it went from 0.7 (Arrow-4 area blast), to 7.4 (multilas), with the SRM at 6.8 and the railgun & PPC over 5.

I think that the overall value may still put more weight on high range and low costs than perhaps it should, but it seems to be offset by the 'awesome' value seriously valuing higher damage.

I'll get the spreadsheet up later. Stand-outs:
ac/20 ultra configuration, 7k4+15, pen 15, rof 3, 100m, 5s & 35vp, 2.2 value, 52 avg dmg, 5.7 awesome
multilas, 3k2+5, pen 0, rof 3, 80m, 2s & 10vp, 2.3 value, 13 avg dmg, 1.5 awesome
wave motion cannon, 7k4+30, pen 20, rof 1, 500m, 10s & 30vp, recharge + accurate + blast(5), 2.5 value, 62/31 avg dmg, 3.9 awesome
flamer, 4k2+10, pen 0, rof 1, 40m, 2s & 10vp, flame, 2.6 value, 17 avg dmg, 2.2 awesome
ballista, 3k1+10, pen 0, rof 1, 100m, 3s & 5vp, 1.9 value, 9 avg dmg, 0.9 awesome
arrow-4 homing missile, 7k4+30, pen 20, rof 1, 500m, 10s & 30vp, no short range shots, 2.2 value, 77 avg dmg, 8.5 awesome

Under the original numbers the ac/20s were trash because of low pen, low range, just OK damage, and high costs. The multilas and flamer were top of the charts because of their really, really, low costs and decent performance. The SRM was freaking amazing because it was OK damage & range, burst fire, and really cheap. Likewise the railgun and PPC were high because of the damage/cost/range analysis. Stuff like the arrow-4, ac/5, and HAG were rated really low.

* Spaceships: Because I'm sure you'll be shooting at them with your light machine guns, and one of you is going to throw a spear or something.

Spaceships are assumed to have rating 20 void shields, 45 points of armor, and 50 size. They cannot take more than 1 point of damage from a vehicle weapon and never take critical damage unless your doing something like firing a WMC or A4 right into a window from point blank range (at that point it's on you to determine what happens). Arrow-4 and the wave motion cannon will do a point of damage about 13% of the time. A hyper-velocity ac/20 can manage it about 1% of the time, and the D-wave gun has maybe a 1/1,000,000 chance. That's with my updated weapon sets. With the originals the wave motion gun has a 3% chance and the mega ppc has a 1% chance.

What next, spaceships, feats, more vehicle stuff...

[Lord Haart]

Hi! Just wanted to chime in and thank you.

While the silence might seem deafening, this thread is, in fact, very appreciated. I think i'm not the only one who, in the past few months, went from "that's a nice Let's Read, gotta check it as it goes on" to "Holy ****, i need to re-read all of that thoroughly while cross-referencing with the books".

And likewise, my opinion of Dungeons the Dragoning went from "Yeah, heard of that, downloaded a .pdf once just for laughs; some joke jumble of a system, but of course too unwieldy and chimerical for any actual use" to "Holy ****, it's actually playable and lets me DM things other systems can't deliver! Now i want to pitch it to my friend and family and run a game (as soon as my daughters grow up enough for DMing to be a possibility once again)!"


Last week, i've pitched the game to my wife, who is generally quite reluctant to learn any new systems or settings. After ten minutes of explanations, she said: "I'm playing One-Punch Man, and shame on you if you don't deliver."

(I don't see a problem with One-Punch Man, aside from the general "combat monkey will feel useless at times" issue, which she understands and is OK with. It's not like there are no ways to optimize for More Damage Than You Need, anyways; also, Setting Sun at 2 dots can let you stack enough Fatigue damage to non-lethally KO anything non-immune, and Shadow Blade at 2 dots has the previously discussed "appear to do nothing for a minute, then deal ALL THE DAMAGES" trick. So just saying "Ok, you can hit as hard as you want" is just a matter of trade-offs and not being able to stack one-punchiness with, say, magic schools or strong social combat. Some of Khorne's mechanics, in particular, seem quite fitting here.

Besides, it would be UTTERLY AGAINST THE VERY SPIRIT OF THE GAME to bar something on basis of it being too awesome.

Truth be told, my first thought at hearing "One-Punch Man" really was: "Well, that would be too OP, i need to tell her so and then we'll discuss the appropriate non-OP approximation…". Then, my second thought was: "wait, isn't that me missing THE WHOLE BLOODY POINT? I've just told her of cyber-werewolf space pirates raiding the Daleks, and now i'm about to backpedal on the first awesome thing that came to my wife's mind? Shame on me for having such a stupid reflex!")

So now i'd better run the game eventually, or else.


I think i won't use all of your houserules and fixes at first (need to get some feel for the base system first), and i'll definitely also houserule a lot on my own (both in spirit of saying "BLOODY HELL YES, AND ALSO" to the players, and because the game itself is positioned as a toolbox of rules rather than a hard official ruleset, anyways), but it'll be also great to have your fixes to fall back on. So your non-review work is also appreciated!

All in all, thank you for a great thread.

(As an aside: do you happen to know why the DtD community seems to hate MLP? I regard Gen 4 MLP as an over-the-top setting full of over-the-top badasses and world-ending threats, and MLP fanfiction is full of crossovers with more overtly violent settings such as WH40k and Fallout, so it felt natural to add some ponies to the setting; however, there were none in the Book of Brew, and the only equine-related race homebrew on the DtD homebrew forums, assuming i found the right forum, got instantly derided and accused of being "in bad faith".)

[Telok]

Hi! Just wanted to chime in and thank you.

While the silence might seem deafening, this thread is, in fact, very appreciated....

I've just told her of cyber-werewolf space pirates raiding the Daleks, ...

I think i won't use all of your houserules and fixes at first (need to get some feel for the base system first), and i'll definitely also houserule a lot on my own (both in spirit of saying "BLOODY HELL YES, AND ALSO" to the players, and because the game itself is positioned as a toolbox of rules rather than a hard official ruleset, anyways), but it'll be also great to have your fixes to fall back on. So your non-review work is also appreciated!

All in all, thank you for a great thread.

Thanks for the noise, it's nice to know that people are finding this useful.

Daleks, modrons. Yeah, that can work. Use the modrons or make your own daleks. Just remember the thrusters/antigrav.

The only things I'd really suggest are the sword school, gun kata, and spell changes. Some stuff was too good for the cost, some was useless, some was just overpriced. Make your own decisions of course, but I tried to even things out. Oh, and give a good hard think about werewolf resource recovery. It did become a problem for the character.

As for the ponies, I don't know. I took a gander at the brew book and their forums. There are, you know, reasons... that I didn't use that stuff and that this read is posted here. My thought on it would be that DtD40k7e came out in 2011 and I don't recall the pony thing really showing up on my radar untill the last 5 - 7 years. Since the game doesn't have any advertising presence it fell through all the cracks after it's first year or two. The only real activity now is us odds and ends who picked it up on a lark and found out that it actually works (mostly). Probably you're seeing a combination of low activity, no advertising, and those few who are active not riding the pony.

I have a run over the feats done, and I'm writing on the classes, no big changes there, but thats a couple pages that need typing up. No idea when I can get to that.

[Telok]

Still doing. Still doing. Semi-random splats of stuff I got to work on during lunch hours and such. Sorry about the formatting but small wiggly screamy-if-ignored children were involved.

Spoiler: more vehicle bits

Show

Vehicle ramming.

So the original version is a free action that automatically succeeds when you roll over/into something and does (size/2, max 10)k(momentum/3, round up) to the vehicle and the target. Ergo a size 20, speed 1, tracked x3, tank going 30m/round (18 kph) does 10k4. That's the same as a size 30, speed 46 (XL engine & active S2 engine & afterburner), scramjet x20, SSTO going 9.2km/round (5520 kph). A passenger car going 150 kph will only do 4k4 or about 23 damage, a civilian nobody might break a hand or foot.

What do we need. Some sort of attack roll, some sort of dodge roll, some sort of str+size=stop stunt/roll, and better damage. And keeping in mind that this gets used to do crashing damage too.

Ok, ramming 'attack'. Intentional is a skill+attribute with +maneuver+speed (car: drive+dex +5 -> 6k3+5, SSTO: pilot+dex +0+46 -> 6k3+46) against the static defense of the target. Dodge is as normal in that case. Unintentional is an auto-hit but the acrobatics+dexterity target number is speed+momentum+drive (5+10+5 = 20 for the 150kph car, 46+10+20 = 76 for the SSTO). I think that's OK. The SSTO is nasty but it's also basically a mach-4 space shuttle that starts out 1-9 km away for the attack run.

Damage. [size]k[momentum]+(speed*drive), no caps. Lets see, passenger car is 8k10+(5*5) -> 8k8+25 = ~72, SSTO is 30k10+(46*20) -> 10k20+920 -> 10k10+970 = 60+970 = 1030. The car is going to kill any normal person and seriously injure most exalts. The 800+ tonnes of machine going mach-4 will obliterate just about anything, although it only does about 34 HP damage to itself (since it's only got 30 anyways that's fine). Hmmm, even at momentum 1 on a runway the SSTO is running 30k1+400->10 k 10+405 = 465.

Ug, wait. Vehicles as missiles. You can build a size 1, remote control scramjet with an overcharged reactor to... 1k10+(5*20) -> 100+1d10 damage @ pilot+dex+20+5 for 46vp. Ah, drive or size, whichever is lower. So, [size]k[momentum]+(speed* the lesser of drive or size). Cuts that sucker down to 1k1+5, although size increases get us... w/speed 9 & a flaw -> 2k2+18, 3k3+27, 4k4+36. A 2m long missile/drone as an uncommon DC 10 purchase that can do ~58 damage within 1800m and rolls at piloting+10 to hit. Hmm... SRMs are 4k2+10 pen 5 100m-400m range, about 30 damage versus armor 5+, similar to the 2k2+18... I'm almost OK with that. We have some fair low expense guided missiles here. Throw in a perception check and distance penalty, the nuisance of carting them around, susceptible to jamming, shooting them down. Ok, shooting them down is difficult to hit but easy to kill, the size 2 will have 43 defense but 1 hp and 2 resilience, even the size 4 will only be 41 defense and 3 hp with 4 resilience and any hit will invoke the falling rules.

Stoppage. I'd like a power armor, size 5, strength 4, power fist wielding hero to be able to stop a speeding car with brute strength or by punching to a stop about 60% of the time or so. Our example car at size 8, speed 5, wheels x5, 25m/round/momentum -> 15 kph/momentum (93 mph max, pushing it can get a bit more but it's OK for a cheap economy car), rams at 6k3+5 intentional or 20 dodge check accidental for ~72 damage (or 8k1+25=~37 and 8k5+25=~65). Hmm. Strength+Size and a 2 die stunt is 10k6 averages 45 @ 65% and 50 @ 47%, damage however is only going to run about 30 to 35 points.

Ok, how about if you can beat the damage with [athletics+strength]k[size] you can bring the vehicle to a stop without damage to either of you, but it pushes you back half it's remaining movement distance (and hitting something else is also a ramming of course).

For punching, if you do more hp damage than it's momentum through blunt force trauma you can stop a vehicle up to your size+constitution before it hits you. If you punch something bigger than that it loses half the hp damage in momentum. So punch a size 12 vehicle, do 2-3 hp, slow it by 1 momentum, then it loses 2 more from ramming. Punch a size 8 car for about 4 wounds, and it stops for up to momentum 4. Up to momentum 6 is still hits you but for much less damage and still stops after that. Of course if it runs out of hit points it crashes and stops. And 2+ hp of damage still causes a critical roll that could slow it down more or roll on the out of control chart which could deflect ot stop it.

----------------------------------------------------------------

name roll keep bonus pen ROF rng size cost note
ac/5 4 2 5 0 1 250 2 15
ac/10 5 2 10 5 1 200 3 20
ac/15 6 3 10 10 1 150 4 25
ac/20 7 4 15 15 1 100 5 30
ac5+hv 4 2 5 5 1 450 2 20
ac10+hv 5 2 10 10 1 350 3 25
ac15+hv 6 3 10 15 1 250 4 30
ac20+hv 7 4 15 20 1 150 5 35
ac/5+u 4 2 5 0 3 250 2 20 burst
ac/10+u 5 2 10 5 3 200 3 25 burst
ac/15+u 6 3 10 10 3 150 4 30 burst
ac/20+u 7 4 15 15 3 100 5 35 burst
pun lt 3 2 5 0 8 100 2 15 burst
pun hv 4 3 10 0 8 80 3 20 burst
RG 4 3 10 10 1 500 4 25 accurate + reliable
HRG 6 4 10 10 1 300 5 30 accurate
HAG 4 3 10 10 8 100 4 25 burst
mlas 3 2 5 0 3 80 2 10 burst + reliable
blazer 4 3 5 5 1 100 3 15 twin + reliable
bombast 4 3 5 5 1 100 4 15 bi-modal + reliable
bombast 6 4 5 10 1 150 4 15 bi-modal + recharge
plasmaD 4 3 15 15 1 100 4 15 recharge & removed overheat
mMelta 5 3 15 15 1 50 4 20
VMbolt 6 2 10 10 6 120 4 25 burst & tearing
Hbolter 4 2 5 5 10 100 3 20 burst & tearing
WMcann 7 4 30 20 1 500 10 30 recharge, accurate, blast 5
Dcannon 4 2 5 20 3 40 2 20 burst
PPC 5 2 10 5 1 200 3 20 ???
MPPC 7 4 20 15 1 250 7 25 recharge
flamer 4 2 10 0 1 40 2 10 burning
cat 4 1 10 0 1 50 4 5 ADD INDIRECT
ball 3 1 10 0 1 100 3 5 reliable
lrm 3 2 10 5 1 500 3 15 HOMING (accurate+) & no Short range shots
lrm-S 4 3 10 5 1 500 4 20 blast 10 & no Short range shots
srm 4 2 10 5 1 100 2 15
srm-TC 3 3 10 10 1 100 3 20 tandem-charge (vehicle crits roll)
A4M 7 4 30 20 1 500 10 30 no Short range shots
A4m-cl 10 5 15 10 1 500 10 30 blast 25 & no Short range shots
A4M-hm 7 4 30 20 1 500 11 35 HOMING (accurate+) & no Short range shots

Spoiler: class and feat bits

Show

Class changes

Cleric: Change Powerful Charge to an optional feat at Priest (1st level) and add Spell Specialization (Healing) as an optional feat at Bishop (5th level).

Fighter: Change Combat Master to be an optional feat at Fighter (4th level).

Mage: Add Charm to the skill list.

Guardsman: Add Tech-Use to the skill list.

Paladin: Change Powerful Charge to be an optional feat at Gallant (1st level).

Scholar, Peasant, Mercenary: Add Drive to the skill list.

Initiate: Add Perform and Politics to the skill list.

Rat Catcher: Add Acrobatics to the skill list.

Courtier: Add Combat Insight as a required feat at Diplomat (3rd level), add Jaded and Foresight as required feats at Legate (4th level), and add Danger Sense as a required feat at Emissary (5th level).

Tech-Priest: Change Jaded to be an optional feat at Mech-Wright (1st level).

Swordmage: Add Charm and Deceive to the skill list. Change Armor Proficiency (Medium) to be a required feat at Runeblade (3rd level).

Monk: Add Medicae to the skill list, change Wall of Steel to be a required feat at Immaculate Master (4th level), and add Lightning Attack as an optional feat at Grand Master of Flowers (5th level).

Druid: Add Disguise to the skill list, change Spell Specialization to (Any) and make it required at Druid (3rd level). Add Bear Hug as a required feat at ArchDruid (4th level). Add Meditation and Wholeness of Body as required feats at Patriarch (5th level). Change Beastmaster to a required feat at Patriarch (5th level).

Gunmage: Add Pilot and Larceny to the skill list, change Obtain Familiar to an optional feat at Gunmage (3rd level), add Armor Proficiency (Medium) as an optional feat at BulletWizard (4th level), and add Spell Focus (Any) as an optional feat at Witch-Sniper (5th level).

Sheriff: Add Politics, Drive, and Persuade to the skill list. Add Air of Authority as a required feat at Judge (5th level).

Sniper: Add perform to the skill list, change Trance to an optional feat at Hunter (1st level), and change Skill Focus (Stealth) to a required feat at Quickscope (4th level).

Heavy Weapons Guy: Add Drive, Pilot, Perception, and Persuasion to the skill list. Change Iron Curtain to a required feat at Living Fortress (5th level).

-----------------------------------------------------------------

General armor & armor proficiency table.

Armor static defense penalty. Proficient/non-proficient.
light: 0/ap
medium: 0/ap
heavy: 3/ap
extreme: 4/ap
power: 7/ap+2

Channel Energy (change): Make a brawling attack and spend resource up to your level. Heal or inflict one hit point per resource on a hit.

Combat Insight (clarification): When attempting to dodge you may roll Intelligence+Acrobatics and by using Intelligence may thus avoid the armor maximum Dex limit. Aimed atacks may be Int+Skill instead of Level+Skill.

Danger Sense (suggestion): As DM write down the initiative modifiers of all characters. Ask the players to roll a d10, but don't tell them that it's a combat initiative roll. If the character(s) with Danger Sense act before the surprise situation occurs (i.e. they win initiative over the ambushers) tell then that their danger sense activates and ask them what they do, but don't officially declare combat and initiative if there is the chance that combat may not ensue due to the PC's (re)actions.

Divine Bond (addition): Use the Ferocious Creature stat block in the Antagonists section, increasing it's size to 150% of the character's size if necessary. Allow the character to buy armor, weapons, drugs, cybernetics, etc., for the creature (keep in mind that it doesn't have hands, although elephantine trunks are not an impossibility). Every time the character gains a level assign one additional armor or weapon feat, one additional feat from the allowed feat list, and two additional skill points to the steed. The steeds level is equal to the higher of your level minus one, or it's normal level. Allowed feats: Blind Fighting, Catfall, Defensive Mobility, Evasion, Heightened Senses, Light Sleeper, Sound Constitution, Weapon Focus, Combat Mastery.

Divine Grace (clarification): The phrase "enemy or environmental effects" should include the following: Supernatural fear auras, spells resisted by Arcana+Willpower saves, and the Purge the Unclean feat. It does not include the results of drug addiction, shock, insanity, and mental trauma.

Divine Ministration (change): The person with this feat can only use this on any particular person once per day.

Fearless (fix): This feat is split into two versions: "Cool" and "Angry". Both version confer immunity to fear. The angry version confers immunity to pinning and requires a TN 15 Willpower check to disengage from combat or back down from a fight. Use the following lists to determine which version a class.species has access to. "Cool": Stubjack, Bishop, Swashbuckler. "Angry": Chevalier, Grenadier, Fighter, Barbarian, Assimar, Living Fortress.

Frenzy (clarification): When entering frenzy you gain +1 Constitution, this adds +2 Hit Points/wound capacity to a player character. These are bonus HPs and an increase in the character's maximum wound capacity. When the frenzy wears off the character's Constitution and wound capacity return to normal, extra HPs above the maximum are lost. But the character does not, under any circumstances, take additional wounds/HP loss when the frenzy wears off.

Obtain Familiar (addition): Choose (or the DM builds/designates) a level 1 creature, robot, zombie, animal, spirit, elemental, etc., from the Antagonists section that is size 1 or 2. It's level is 1/3 of your level, rounded to the nearest whole number. Every time your level increases after you gain the familiar it increases one attribute or skill by one point. It cannot increase the same attribute or skill twice in a row. If the familiar dies any replacement familiar does not have the increased abilities. Fleshy and constructed familiars may have cyberwear.

Wizard Traditions (changes): Hidden Flame - The dazzle lasts until the end of your next turn. Iron Sigil - No changes. Golden Wyvern - After you successfully cast a divination spell the next skill roll before the end of your next turn gains a bonus equal to your ranks in Divination magic. Emerald Frost - Ignore Aura equal to your ranks in Evocation magic, this is effectively magic 'armor' penetration. Serpent Eye - Removed. Stormwalker - Removed. Speed Dial - When you attempt to cast a full action conjuration spell, the next full action conjuration spell that you attempt to cast before the end of your next turn takes only a half-action. Chill of the Grave - When you attempt to cast a necromancy spell, the next necromancy spell that you successfully cast before the end of the scene gains a free raise.

Dragonborn Frenzy (clarification): The bonus damage is equal to the number of levels of critical hits that you've taken. Thus three results of crit-1 on your legs plus a crit-3 on your head and a crit-2 on your torso gives you +8 to your damage rolls. The bonus is capped at +5 per body location.

Eureka! (clarification): This applies to any Skill+Attribute roll and require any appropriate actions to use the device. It is not permissible to replace such rolls as alignment, initiative, pinning, and fear tests without at least a really good stunt.

Human Perseverance (change): The bonus to to opposed rolls is +1k0. It does not apply to attacks, dodging, or parry attempts.

Outsider (change): If you would only have taken one point of critical damage then you may choose to take none. This replaces the 'minimum of one' text.

Terminator Honors (change): You may use a Hero Point to ignore damage equal to your size+level until the start of your next turn.

Warp Fire (clarification): This is a visual effect and does not benefit people who cannot see it. Magical darkness and sufficiently heavy smoke block it. It does reveal the position of things that turn invisible, but the DM is within their rights to ask how you're targeting the warp fire at a creature that is currently invisible (and possibly ask for a roll of some sort).

Driven (clarification): A 'superior enemy' includes being out numbered, seriously out gunned, and opposed rolls were the opponent has more dice rolled and kept.

Eagle Eyes (problem): Needs perception rules.

Linguist (addition): The additional language feat is always considered to be in-class for you.

Magic Resistance (change): The level of resistance is 5 plus your power attribute.

Spirit Mentor (suggestion): Draw the ghost from the PC's backstory. Use the ghost stat block in the Antagonists chapter with the addition of the appropriate skills, magics, sword schools, or gun katas, necessary to make them a useful ally. Decide if the character can call on the spirit or if the spirit gets to choose when to annoy the character. If there is no backstory or player input the DM should feel free to go all Jacob Marley/Charles Dickens with the spirit.

Tough As Nails (change): If and only if you have any hit points left before taking damage then the most critical damage that you can take is one point. If that hit would only do one point of critical damage then it does none.

Veteran O' the Wheel (suggestion): If the PC has an idea or backstory, work with that. If the PC has no background or backstory you should use the following formula -> A number of generic hindrances equal to the sum of: 1 plus a skill or attribute taken to 4 (+1) or over 4 (+2). The hindrance list is: Clueless, Enemy, Wanted, Grim Servant O' Death, Wanted. For every hindrance on that list the character already possesses use Loco, Ugly as Sin, and Geezer. If you still need more just keep upping the power and activity levels of the chosen Enemy.

Big Britches (addition): It requires a TN 15 Wisdom test to back down from or refuse a fight, challenge, or bet. You take a -1k0 penalty to all rolls using Wisdom in social combat.

Clueless (addition): Determine which pathetic backwater you came from. Attempts to impress or bluff people from places that aren't pathetic backwaters are at -1k0. Take a -1k0 penalty on the social combat Refute action.

Deathwish (removal): This hindrance no longer exists. Player characters naturally seem to have these anyways.

High-Falutin' (addition): Check Fellowship+Performance vs Wisdom+Scrutiny to hide you distaste and avoid the -1k0 penalty when dealing with your social inferiors. If you fail by 10 or more (2 checks) the penalty increases to -1k1.

Impulsive (addition): When people start planning or waiting for something to happen you need to roll the lowest of your Composure, Willpower, or Wisdom against target number 15. If there is ongoing combat that you aren't participating in the target number increases to 25. When you fail, act without regard to the plan or your level of readiness. Repeat this roll every so often if you're getting bored.

Intolerance (addition): Choose a group following the guidelines in the Peer feat and determine your particular prejudice. Gain +1k0 to social rolls to taunt, insult, and annoy that group. Take a -2k0 penalty to all other social rolls involving that group.

Kid (addition): Take a -2k0 social penalty and a -5 on wealth tests to buy stuff in all situations where being under the legal age for something might matter.

Law O' the Stars (addition): Choose one of the more principled alignments from the Palladium RPG to use as your code of honor. Make an alignment test every time you violate that code.

Night Terrors (addition): Characters that are immune to fatigue cannot take this hindrance.

Vengeful (addition): Whenever you feel the least bit insulted or wronged you need to roll the lowest of your Composure, Willpower, or Wisdom against target number 15. Failure indicates that you need to change your immediate goals to getting revenge. Success means that you can put off revenge until after your current goal is met and maybe you'll consider accepting an apology. Minor offenses, like being cut off in traffic, short changed, or not getting a toy in your Happy Meal, can still be immediately dealt with by breaking a few bones or a drive-by shooting.

Wanted (addition): Choose a group following the guidelines in the Peer feat and determine your particular crime. The reward for your death or capture is not insignificant and will usually attract more skilled bounty hunters as time goes on. The Dm should roll a d10 at the start of every session. On a roll equal to or less than your level+fame someone will try to collect the bounty.

Wimpy (change): You Constitution is considered to be half (rounded up) for the purposes of calculating hit points, fatigue, and knock-out effects.

Atlantean Asset, Zenith Caste (change): The damage reduction is equal to the character's Gnosis+motes spent and lasts until the start of the character's next turn.

Chosen Asset, Cuthbert (clarification): "Crime". If you have the feat Peer(Law Enforcement Group) use the laws that your peer group would use. Otherwise you may use one of the more principled alignments from the Palladium RPG as an honor code or come up with a "jurisdiction" in consultation with the DM. Things that would only warrant a warning or token fine may not apply.

Chosen Asset, Khorn (addition): Gain one dot in the associated sword school or gun kata.

Chosen Asset, Nurgle (change): You ignore non-killing critical effects that are less than your power attribute, to a minimum of critical 1 effects.

Daemonhost Asset, Rage (change): Replace the E-type damage text with -> You gain the Frenzy feat and may enter the frenzy as a reaction.

Paragon Asset, Legendary (addition): Buying up this attribute costs 100xp less than normal once per session.

Vampire Asset, Toreador (addition): Gain one dot in both Craft and Perform skills, to a maximum of 5 dots. Those skills are always considered to be in-class.

Werewolf Assets
Black Spiral Dancers (Addition): While in WarForm you regain one Rage whenever you kill something.

Get of Fenris (addition): The bonuses when you spend Rage also include +1 Brawling and +1 Weaponry. Whenever you personally defeat or kill a significant enemy you regain one Rage.

Iron Masters (addition): You also gain +1 dot in Tech-Use, to a maximum of 5 dots, and Tech-Use is always considered in-class. When an enemy or opponent destroys rare, expensive, or unique technology in your presence you regain 2 points of Rage.

Red Talons (addition): Choose one of your physical attributes. When you are in Wolf form you gain a +1 to this attribute. You regain 1 Rage every hour while you are in Wolf form.

Silent Strider (addition): Regain 1 Rage every time you roll Psychic Phenomena and every time you roll Perils of the Warp.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Animal Companion (change): Use either the minion rules or an actual creature. If you use the minion rules the animal companion(s) number, threat rating, and damage rating are all 1 to start with. If you use a creature you should get the stat block of one of the animalistic creatures from the Antagonists chapter of Book 1. These creatures are not amenable to cybernetic augmentation and tend to react badly to drugs. Mistreatment of companions is considered a violation of the druidic oath.

Beastmaster (change): If you are using the minion version of the Animal Companion feat increase the number, threat rating, and damage rating of your animal companion by one, to a maximum of 5 in each category. If you are using the creature version Increase one of it's physical attributes, one of it's mental attributes, and it's size, all by one point. Give it a feat, and give it an attribute from the following list: Feats(Devastating Critical, Fearless[Angry], Improved Weapon Focus, Iron Jaw, Swift Attack, True Grit, Step Aside), attributes(Armor Plating[4], Dark Sight, Unnatural Toughness, Regeneration[1]). The creature's level is equal to your level.

Combat Sense (clarification): When attempting to dodge you may roll Wisdom+Acrobatics and by using Wisdom may thus avoid the armor maximum Dex limit. Aimed attacks may be Wisdom+Skill instead of Level+Skill.

Elemental Shot I. II. and III (change/clarification): Replace 'once per session' with 'once per day'. Each 'shot' feat is it's own distinct use. If you gain an ability that allows extra uses of the shots then those extra uses are not distinct uses of a feat. Example: Bob has taken Elemental Shot I twice, once for Fire and once for Ice, and Elemental Shot II once for Aqua. Bob also has an ability that allows it to use the Elemental Shot feats two extra times each day. Bob has a total of five uses of the Elemental Shot feats each day. Bob can use each of Fire, Ice, and Aqua once a day, plus Bob has two more uses which can be any of Fire, Ice, or Aqua.

Expert Tracker (problem): No tracking rules.

Jerry Rig (change): Change the hull point bonus from +1 to +1d5.

Improved Animal Companion (change): If you are using the minion version of the animal companion increase by one point tow of the three following attributes: it's number, threat rating, or damage. No attribute can go over 5. If you are using the creature version of the the animal companion increase any one of it's physical or mental characteristics (except intelligence) by one and select one feat from the following list: Armor Proficiency, Blind Fighting, Catfall, Defensive Mobility, Evasion, Heightened Senses, Light Sleeper, Sound Constitution, Weapon Focus, Combat Mastery. The creature's level is equal to the higher of your level minus one, or it's normal level.

Iron Curtain (clarification): The resistance lasts until the stat of your next turn.

Lead Fingers (suggestion): This only works with weapons that shoot physical objects like bullets, arrows, and needles. If the penetration of the weapon is higher than the armor/barrier rating fo the object you risk damaging or destroying the thing you're shooting at. You may either roll damage and apply it to the object, or roll a d10 and any roll equal to or less than the penetration of the weapon causes the object being shot to be damaged or destroyed.

Lumen Blast (addition): If the character is immune to fatigue they may only use this feat once per scene.

Lumen Charge (addition): If the character is immune to fatigue they must spend twice as many resource points as it would cost in fatigue for them to activate this feat.

Machanus Implants (stuff): The implants have three mechanical game rule functions. 1) The vox voice alteration aids in mimicry for a +1k0 bonus to impersonate or duplicate vocalized sounds. 2) The respirator acts as a common bionic respiration system, if the character already possesses such a system it's quality improves by one step. 3) The electro-graft act as a poor quality mind impulse unit. If the character already possesses one then it's quality improves by one step.

Pinball Wizard (suggestion): Treat this as a variant of the Lead Fingers feat. I can, reasonably, work with energy weapons if you accept some level of general damage to the electronics. Shooting a lock with a heavy blaster to jam the door will have the desired effect, although since that destroys the controls it's generally irreversible.

Spell Bullet (clarification): The spell affects or emanates from whatever the bullet hits. This cannot be used with energy weapons.

Spell Shield (clarification): Since you're constantly making the warding gestures with your free hand this is both generally obvious and you aren't just doing it all the danged time whenever you're awake.

Steel Rain (change): The target(s) suffer a penalty to their dodge rolls equal to double your rate of fire.

Stunning Fist (change): You gain the stunning quality on your brawling attacks if you spend a resource point and the target number for this shocking quality is equal to your level x5.

K'vend'l (addition): This feat only works when acquiring stuff from other kobolds. Wealth tests with feral orks don't benefit from this asset.

Recluse (change): The target number to resist your personal toxins loaded into toxic weapons is 5 higher than normal. This replaces th 'roll toxic damage twice' text.

Dragonblooded Asset, Blood of Io (addition): A character can be assumed to start play with a number of these wealth bundles equal to their wealth background. Acquiring more of them needs a 15 wealth test for one, a 20 wealth test for two, or a 25 wealth test for four of them. It is generally ill-advised to attract attention to your possession of large amounts of loose, liquid, wealth, by attempting this purchase more than once in any particular metropolis.

Wraith Asset, Children of Silence (change): You may have a number of normal zombies up to your Synergy rating. After that you need to form them into minion groups. You may have a number of minion groups equal to your Synergy rating at any one time. Each group can have up to 4x your Synergy rating zombies in it. You may not mix and match regular zombies with minion groups. You may regroup your minions outside of combat.

Spoiler: spacey bits

Show

Spacey bits

Crew rolls: The maximum number of crew that can be assigned to any one roll is 10.

Adjust speed: This is a piloting crew roll adjusted by the acceleration of the ship. It can no more than double the speed of the ship.

Adjust Heading: This is a piloting crew roll adjusted by the maneuverability of the ship. With a target number 35 check you can do a bootlegger reverse/flip, where the ship moves half of it's speed forward before turning 180 degrees and moving half or none of it's speed.

Boarding party: You can attempt to destroy weapons and ship consoles instead of attacking the crew. You must have previously identified the console with an active augury and it must be something that can be damaged or disabled from a single location within the ship (so not things like ablative armor or reinforced bulkheads). When you successfully beat the defenders they still lose 2 crew. If you beat them by a number of raises equal to the cost of the console divided by 5 (i.e. get 3 raises over the defenders for a targeting computer console that costs 15 points) then the console is damaged to such an extent that it cannot be repaired during combat. If you beat the defenders but not by the required number of raises the console is only disabled until an engineering crew action against target number 15 is made.

Picard speech: The target number of the speech is 30 minus 5x the crew quality. The speech cannot raise the crew quality above 5.

Divert power to engines: On the next turn the ship's speed is 150% normal +1 per two raises.

Fighters:
Devote a number of crew to the fighters. This results in a fighter minion squad of [# of crew]k[crew quality], where their static defense is 5x crew quality, and their base damage is 5. You may deploy or retrieve only one fighter squad each turn.

When used in attack mode they attack as per the normal minion rules. Roll the number of crew, keep the crew quality, on hitting the opposing static defense they do 5 damage +5 per raise with no shield disruption and no critical bonuses. Their attack range is twice the crew quality in void units.

When used in support mode one fighter squad may reduce one enemy boarding action's rolled dice by the lesser of their number or crew quality. Each ship's turn one fighter minion may be sacrificed to negate a single weapon hit (if three lance weapons hit with a single roll only one fighter may be sacrificed and it will only block a single weapon). One supporting fighter squad may be used in an opposed roll against one attack by enemy fighters. The enemy fighters must beat both the ship's static defense and the supporting fighter squad's roll in order to do damage.

New tactical console: Fighter Bays, cost 15 or 25. You may launch and retrieve one fighter squad of up to 10 fighters each turn. This console may be taken more than once, increasing the number of fighter squads that may be launched or retrieved. The 25 build point fighter bay supports fighters that are capable of in-atmosphere operation, landings, and ground attacks. These are treated as a lance battery attack but the ship does not have to enter a low orbit in order to make the attack.

-------------------------------------
Weapons:
Heavy cannon: 6k4 dis5 acc-10 crit3 rng20 cost20 arc-narrow
Heavy beam array: 4k2 dis2 acc+0 crit1 rng15 cost15 arc-narrow
Cannon: 4k3 dis4 acc-5 crit2 rng10 cost15 arc-normal
Beam array: 3k2 dis2 acc+5 crit-1 rng10 cost10 arc-normal
Turret: 3k2 dis3 acc+0 crit0 rng5 cost10 arc-wide

Melta - +1k1 damage, +1 disruption, -5 accuracy, +1 critical, range minimal (x2/5 or 0.4), cost +5
Plasma - +1k0 damage, -2 disruption, -5 accuracy, +2 critical, range normal, cost +5
Orgone - -1k0 damage, +3 disruption, +5 accuracy, -2 critical, range normal, cost -5
Mass driver - normal damage, -2 disruption, +5 accuracy, +0 critical, range short (x4/5, 0.8), cost -5
Positron - normal damage, +2 disruption, -5 accuracy, +1 critical, range long (x8/5, 1.6), cost +5
Anti-meson - -1k0 damage, -1 disruption, +0 accuracy, +0 critical, range extreme (x2), cost -5

RANGES 20 15 10 5
minimal 8 6 4 2
short 16 12 8 4
normal 20 15 10 5
long 32 24 16 8
extreme 40 30 20 10

----------------------------------------------------

Travel:
Recall that for individual rolls (not crew actions) up to two people with the appropriate skill may help, granting +1k0 dice for each assistant. If there is no pressure, no combat, and no real time restraints you can skip directly to step 3. All ships are presumed to have someone capable of making the navigation and piloting rolls, normally with attributes and skills equal to the crew quality of the ship. PCs are encouraged to take over for novice crews whenever possible.

1) Exit the crystal sphere. Natural openings can be found (if they exist) with an active augury crew action plus the ships sensors against target number 20. You have at least a +10 on the roll if you possess a map of the crystal sphere that shows such openings (or if you entered via such an opening and it hasn't closed or moved). Transmitting nav-beacons and active Syrneth crystal sphere portals are usually automatically located by even the most basic sensors. For random dice rolling purposes they are often about 500 VU away (1d100+50 x5) Once at the edge of the crystal sphere, if there isn't a stable natural or artificial portal, you can open your own portal by adjusting your shields to emit a field that disrupts the crystal sphere instead of protecting the ship. This takes an arcana crew action against target number 15. You get +5 per mark of your shields (i.e. +5 for Mk I, +10 for Mk II, etc.) but such things as warp vortexes, astral rifts, manifest daemons, and impeded magic flow within the crystal sphere can each add +5 or more to the target number. On a success the opening in the crystal sphere will stay open for 1d5 hours +/- (your choice) an hour for each raise on the check. It is strongly suggested that you realign your shields as soon as possible. Failure by 2 or more checks means that the portal will open but it is unstable and may close at any moment. A maneuver crew action, modified by the ship's acceleration, against target number 30 will get through safely, or against 15 if you keep the shields adjusted to disrupt the crystal sphere. Failing this check means that the crystal sphere edge collapses into your ship doing 8k6 hull damage and 1d10 critical damage rolls. If you wish to try again you will need to move at least 100 VU away from your last attempt in order to minimize the disruptive instability, or wait 10 to 20 hours.

2) Assuming that you've made it out of the crystal sphere and into astral space, you will need to open a portal into the Warp. If there is a working Syrenth Warp portal available you should use it, as that is the safest option. Otherwise your navigator or astropath will make an Arcana + Intelligence check against target number 15, +5 for using an ancient spelljamming helm, -15 if they don't know Divination magic, and the target number will be higher if you're in a Sargasso or there is Modron activity within a few light years. Failure will tax the navigator to the tune of 1d10 levels of fatigue. Bleeding out of the nose and ears is normal, your navigator will recover without permanent damage. Assuming that you succeed the portal will engulf nearby space, including your ship, and you will be in the Warp.

3) The navigator must then chart a course through the Warp, using Sigil and any nearby Syrneth Warp beacons as navigational aids. The navigator rolls Arcana + Wisdom against a target number 20. The number of Arcana dice that the navigator rolls cannot be more than their skill in Divination magic. The roll is modified by the ship's sensors, +5 for the possession of a Syrenth route map, +5 for starting from a Syrenth Warp portal, +5 for going to Sigil, +5 for going somewhere with a working Syrenth Warp portal, and -5 for going where you've never gone before. For every two raises that you succeed with you get an additional +5 on the rolls in step 4. If you've failed the navigation roll you take a -10 penalty on the rolls in step 4.

Flight time table
Travel time : Target number : Proximity
1d10+5 days : 5 : Nearby, next door, less than half a sector away.
1d10 weeks : 10 : Almost nearby, the other side of the sector.
~11 weeks : 15 : The far side of the next sector.
2d5 months : 20 : Somewhere in the next sector.
~11 months : 30: Past the next sector or two.
1d5 years : 40 : More than half way across explored space.

4) Someone has to be in charge of steering the ship through the Warp. Your best pilot makes a Piloting + Wisdom roll, adjusted for the ship's acceleration, against a target number form the flight time table. Additional +5s come from using a Syrenth route map or being part of a convoy. -5s come from passing near warp vortexes, reality rifts, Sargasso, daemon spawning nebula, and not having someone else to take the helm while you get some sleep once in a while. For every two raises on a successful roll you reduce the time that the trip takes by one step, years->months->weeks->days, to a minimum of 1d10+5 days. Each time you fail the piloting roll you roll on the Warp Encounters chart at an additional +1 horribleness, have to make another piloting check at a cumulative -5 penalty, and the time that the trip takes in increased by one step. Time increases beyond the 1d5 years simply take another 1d5 years, each. Either way, at the end of your trip roll once on the Warp Encounters chart with whatever total horribleness you've accumulated along the way.

Warp Encounter Chart
less than 3 : No encounters. A nice boring trip.
3 & 4 : Whispers and dreams. Occasional unnerving hallucinations.
5 : Visitations. Ghosts, spirits, shades, the spirit of Xmas past, and other assorted nuisances haunt the ship for a while. Some of them might not be all bad, others might drink all the beer and rum.
6 : Ghost Ships. A space hulk, pirates, giant space monsters, flying daemon palaces, who knows? There's something out there on the edge of sensor range, and if you don't do anything it may get the drop on you.
7 : Do the Time Warp, again. The time the trip takes changes. It's 50/50 if the ships experienced time or the time you're gone from the real world changes. It's also 50/50 if the time increases or decreases. Move someone's perception of time by one or two (sure 50/50 again, why not) steps on the Flight Time Table.
8 : Reality Erosion. For the duration of the trip corridors don't lead to the usual places, gravity (real and artificial) is unstable, and your keys can't be found (stuff isn't usually where you thought you left it). Multiple instances of this result just make it worse and, even better, permanent. It's possible to even swap some pieces of the ship with other ships in the warp. Which could be bad if that other ship is a wrecked space hulk.
9 : Minor Incursion. A lesser daemon has slipped on board. Animalistic and cunning, it may be able to haunt the dark corners of the ship for days or weeks, preying on crew members who venture out alone. You should probably hunt it down and kill it.
10 : Warp Storm. A terrible storm in the warp messes everything up. Re-roll your navigation and piloting checks without any bonuses from maps, portals, or the rest of the convoy (where did they all go?).
11 : Major Incursion. A blip in the Geller field has allowed a greater daemon to either slip aboard or possess someone, probably the astropath or navigator but possibly the pilot or captain. Either way, things are going to get real ugly, real fast.
12+ : Geller Field Failure. The Geller field is failing, which is a bad thing. And for some reason there's a bunch of dead crew in engineering section. Get someone down there to make a Tech-Use + Wisdom roll against target number 25, and maybe wipe the Chief Engineer's guts off the consoles while you're at it. Treat this as a result of "Minor Incursion" with an additional result of 1d5+4, and repeat it every time that repair check is failed or every five-ish minutes (whichever is more often). For every repair attempt that gets two or more checks add a "Major Incursion". After 5 failed checks the Geller field collapses and you all die.

5) Oh, look, you're still alive. Once you get where you're going it's time to leave the Warp. If there is a working Syrenth Warp portal available you should use it, as that is the safest option. Otherwise your navigator or astropath will make an Arcana + Intelligence check against target number 15, +5 for using an ancient spelljamming helm, -15 if they don't know Divination magic, and the target number will be higher if you're in a Sargasso or there is Modron activity witin a few light years. Failure will drop you out of the Warp dangerously close to another object, probably flying right at it if you get a check on the roll. Get two or more checks and you're trapped in the Warp. Your navigator takes Energy damage of [number of checks]k1 to the head (no armor, no aura) and 1d10 fatigue. Try again. If you're stuck there for more than a couple hours roll another Warp encounter and keep rolling every 2d10 hours after that.

6) Welcome back to astral space, you probably want to enter a crystal sphere now. This is the same as Step 1.


-------------------------------------------------------------

Ramming:

Optional: You may want to be nice and allow the captains of the ships involved to spend a Hero point in order to roll a "Brace for Impact" command action when it isn't their turn.

Ramming Damage: Calculate damage in the following manner. Rolled dice equal to how far the ramming ship will travel this turn. Kept dice are based on the rammer's size and are equal to 2 for escorts, 3 for destroyers, 4 for cruisers, 5 for battleships, 6 for space stations, 8 for large asteroids, 10 for planets. This attack ignores shields. The rammed ship takes full damage and the ramming ship suffers half damage. Both ships roll on the critical chart at +0. If an asteroid or planet is involved roll three times on the critical chart.

Crashing: This is uncontrolled ramming, or accidental ramming. Treat this as ramming with the following changes. 1) For rolled dice, the difference in speeds is used when both objects are going the same direction, and the sum of the speeds is used when they are going in the same direction. If it's a bunch of odd angles, don't do math, just use the higher speed. If it's mid-round and one of the ships hasn't moved yet use half their speed rating or whatever speed they went last turn if you wrote it down. 2) Each object uses the other object's size as kept dice. 3) If you're crashing into a planetoid treat each m/s^2 of gravity as as speed of 1.

Crashing examples:
1) A Sultana class escort doesn't bother to put any crew towards piloting and clips a Belle class battleship. S travels 6 vu and ends up in the same spot as B. B traveled 4 vu last turn. It is a head-on collision. 6+4=10 so S takes 10k5 (average ~42), and B takes 10k2 (average ~22). Both ships roll on the critical damage chart once at +0.

2) A Belle class battleship does not have planetary landing capability and has seriously flubbed an orbital bombardment piloting roll. The pilot heroically attempts to miss the planet. A standard 1g planet has 10m/s^2 gravity thus a "speed" of 10. 10-4=6 so the ship takes 6k10 -> 6k6 damage (average ~35). Roll three times on the critical damage chart. The 'landing' area technically takes 6k5 damage and planets don't take critical hits.

3) A Sultana class escort is being crashed into a pirate base on a moon with 1.7 m/s^2 gravity. 12+2=14 so 14k10 -> 10k10+10 damage (average ~70) and three rolls on the crit chart. If the base is statted as an immobile ship it takes 14k2 -> 10k4 damage (average ~37) and three rolls on the crit chart.

--------------------------------------------------

Orbital Strikes:

Entering a low orbit:
If you fail the Maneuver test to enter low orbit by less than two calls (you get a 16-24 total) make another Maneuver test at target number 30 to avoid crashing into the planet. If you fail the second test by less than two checks (you get a 21-29 total) your piloting crew's attempt to heroically miss the planet isn't a complete failure, subtract your ship's speed from the m/s^2 gravity to find your crashing speed. If either of these failed by more than two calls add your ship's speed to the m/s^2 gravity to find the speed at which you plow face first into the ground.

Optional Weapon Range Rules: Subtract the range of the shortest ranged weapons that you will be using from 40 to determine the Maneuver test target number.

Optional Planetary Maneuvering Rules: For every doubling or halving of the planet's gravity add or subtract 5 points from the Maneuver test target number. For every navigational hazard (beanstalks, near by orbital weapon platforms, radiation belts, gravitational anomalies) add 5 to the target number. If the planetoid lacks an atmosphere subtract 5 from the target number.

Shooting the crap out of them:
Pick an 'arc' of the ship to be shooting out of (front, rear, sides). Only weapons that can point that way get to shoot.

The base target number for shooting ground targets is 25. Reduce the target number by 5 for having some sort of a homing beacon down there. Increase it by 5 for nasty or thick atmospheres & weather, attempts at camouflage or stealth. If your target is moving increase the target number by 5 plus the speed of the target in kilometers per hour of the target. And you still can't manage to target single vehicles, an armored column of 30+ tanks is about the best you can manage.

Remember that the weapon's accuracy bonus or penalty applies to the rolls.

Each weapon that hits scatters 1d10 * 100 meters, minus 100 meters for every raise on the attack roll. Each weapon that misses scatters 1k1 kilometers, plus another kilometer per call on the attack roll. If you're shooting a mixed accuracy array each weapon can hit or miss based on it's own accuracy modifier.

Stuff blows up:

Simple: If it matters consider all the damage to be energy damage.

Lance weapons and torpedoes do triple their regular damage and ignore armor (a 4k2 weapon does 12k6 -> 10k7 damage). Arrays do twice their regular damage (4k2 -> 8k4). Void shields on vehicles and stuff reduce the damage by their rating.

Heavy lance weapons put a 200m diameter crater in the ground and vaporize everything in there. They do damage for another kilometer in all direction around that. Regular lance weapons leave craters and destruction half that size.

Heavy array weapons saturate an area 4km in diameter and damage to everything within it. Regular array weapons cover an area 2km in diameter. Arrays roll damage for each weapon fired.

Torpedoes leave a crater 400m in diameter and do damage for two kilometers beyond that. Mini torpedoes have a crater and a blast radius half as big, and rift torpedoes double the blast radius.

Complicated damage models: If you want, the damage counts as both energy and explosive. In addition orgone weapons and rift torpedoes can count as magic attacks and damage.

Lance weapons do triple their regular damage and ignore armor (a 4k2 weapon does 12k6->10k7 damage). Void shields on vehicles and stuff reduce the damage by their rating.

Lance weapons utterly destroy everything they directly hit leaving a crater 50m in radius per kept die of their regular damage. Their blast radius beyond that is 200m per rolled die of their regular damage. For each the next two increments of the blast radius halve the damage.

Example: A single 4k2 cannon puts a 100m radius crater in the ground, does 10k7 = 52 for another 800m around that, the next 800m gets 26, then the last 800m gets 13 damage, and it just breaks some windows beyond that.

Sets of array weapons adds everything up, adding one for each weapon past the first. They also don't ignore armor, you figure their armor penetration by adding up all the disruptions and positive critical modifiers. Array weapons cover an area 200m in radius per rolled damage die, but each weapon adds to that radius.

Example: Two 2k2 disruption;5 crit:-3 arrays and two 4k2 disruption:0 crit:+1 arrays combine into 2+2+4+4+3=15, 2+2+2+2+3=11, 5+5+1+1+3=15, for a 15k11->10k13->10k10+15 (average ~75) strike with armor penetration 15 over an area 15*200=3000->3km in radius.

Torpedoes can be used in two modes, ground burst or air burst. In ground burst mode they work just like lance weapons, a mini-torpedo at 4k4 will leave a 200m crater and do 12k12->10k10+15 about 75/37/18 damage out to 1200m/2400m/3600m ignoring armor and being reduced by void shields. In air burst mode they work like arrays but have doubled dice, disruption, and crit modifiers instead of combined dice and stuff. They also affect an area of 300m per rolled die. An air burst rift torpedo will do 16k16->10k19->10k10+45 damage (about 105) at 8+8=16 penetration over an area 300*16=4800->4.8km in radius (plus it leaves daemons & Warp contamination all over the place).

[lightningcat]

Everything looks good, except

Divert power to engines: On the next turn the ship's speed is 150% normal +1 per two raises.

Unless you mean +1% per two raises? :)

[The Glyphstone]

Everything looks good, except


Unless you mean +1% per two raises? :)

I don't think +1% of a vehicle speed is going to do anything unless you are getting 20+ raises in a roll.

[Telok]

Goal: Language clean-up, clarity, cut down on speed stacking.

Change fighters: Range is 10x quality & speed is 5x quality. Fighter squads must be within crew quality VU to be used in support mode. Command actions only apply to fighters if within support range OR captain directs command action only to the fighters (jamming blocks this unless an arcana actions is to punch through). Instead of attacking or supporting for the turn fighter groups that are in the same spot, or perhaps adjacent to each other, may re-organize their formations to merge, split, or change squads.

changed: Adjust speed: This is a piloting crew roll adjusted by the acceleration of the ship. It can no more than double the speed of the ship.
original: piloting + accel vs. 20 => +1 && +1/raise

changed: Divert power to engines: On the next turn the ship's speed is 150% normal +1 per two raises.
original: engineering vs. 15 => extra half move along with next maneuver && +1 spd/2 raises

Default: Quality 2. #1 SP 4, accel -5, crew 24. #2 SP 12, accel +10, crew 14.
EPS, large engine, & ratings = eng+2raises, accel+10, spd+2, crew+2
96% successes
base
#1 10k2 eng: ~15 -> +2, 14k2-5 pilot: ~30 -> +3 = 9
#2 10k2 eng: ~15 -> +6, 4k2+10 pilot: ~20 -> +1 = 19
racing
#1 10k2+10 eng: ~25 -> +4, 16k2+5 pilot: ~35 -> +4 = 14
#2 10k2+10 eng: ~25 -> +8, 6k2+20 pilot: ~30 -> +3 = 25

Adjust speed: Piloting + Acceleration v 20. Cannot more than double the normal speed of the ship & +1 VU/2 raises _OR_ OK to go into reverse & -1 VU/2 raises.

Divert power to engines: Engineering v 15. Next round when you move you move extra VU equal to half the normal speed of the ship +1 VU/2 raises.

base
#1 10k2 eng: ~15 -> +2, 10k2-5 pilot: ~10 -> +0(.57) +1(.43) = ~6.5
#2 10k2 eng: ~15 -> +6, 4k2+10 pilot: ~20 -> +1 = 19
racing
#1 10k2+10 eng: ~25 -> +4, 10k2+5 pilot: ~20 -> +1 = 11
#2 10k2+10 eng: ~25 -> +8, 6k2+20 pilot: ~30 -> +3 = 25

General divert power template:
Divert to shields, engines, weapons, sensors, other.
a. For on the next round you may only make a 1/2 speed basic move&turn, weapons (except fighters) attack at -1k0 and (except for torpedoes & fighters) do -1k0 damage, shields do not regenerate, sensors tests are at -1k1.
b. On the next round
1. shields double regeneration +1d10/2 raises
2. engines +1/2 mv +1/2 raises
3. weapons damage (except for torpedoes & fighters) at +1k0 and +1k0/2 raises
4. sensors checks at +1k1 and +1k0/2 raises
5. other systems with active effects like teleportariums and/or cloaking generally ought to get increased (usually around +50%) range or +1k1 dice, with another smaller boost per 2 raises (around +15% or +1k0). Things that wouldn't believably get a boost from more energy don't work (advanced bridge design, fighter bays, ablative armor, etc.), and things that modify other rolls don't work (EPS conduits, advanced med-bay, murder-servitors).

------------------------------------

Thought: Carrier type ship. Bounty class support hull: $75, crew24, man-5, accel-5, speed4, sensors+5, 2a 1c 3e 1t 1u, 3f & 3r weap. mk4 shields $25. 4x orgone beam array $20 + 2x torp tubes [2x5 mini] $20. Consoles = (t&u)fighter bays[20f]$30, (a)imp.shields[+10]$10, (a)extended supply vaults $10, (c)rating quarters $10, (e)ablative armor & eps conduits & ref bulkheads $30. SUM: $230 = holdings 5, 26 crew (20 in fighters), +10 successful divert power, -3 crits, +10 shields, ignore first crit. Std combat: start by launching all fighters to attack, then if shields down recall fighters & flee/evade, else if shields <50% divert power to shields/evade while fighters attack &or support, else if enemy > 10vu torps OR repair/shields/medic OR evade while fighters attack, else if enemy <= 10vu shoot beams OR evade while fighters attack & support.

------------------------------------------

Sample possible space fighter for not-spaceship fighting: size 20, cost 246vp = holding1, aerospace drive, accel 0, maneuver 3, armor 10, speed 14, overcharged engine(2hp/use), 10pt void shield(micro), sensors, cockpit(micro) & copilot w/ basics, environmental seals, composite frame, multilas(micro), A4M homing missiles, feedback, hanger queen, inefficient controls, unstable. HP 6 , resil 20, 140 m/mom (87kph/mom), 25m long, def=15 @ mom=10. Optional ammo rules: A4M-H 10, mlas 80. At armor 45 & size 50 it takes 95 damage to hurt a spaceship, full aimed homing missile assuming a crew quality 2 crew for 4k2+3k1 = [email protected]:+5k5 & [email protected]:+4k4 & [email protected]:+3k3 & [email protected]:+2k2 & [email protected]:+1k1 = 7k4+30 & 20 pen -> 7k4+acc+50 v 95 -> 7k4+acc v 45 = .90*.02 + .84*.09 + .78*.27 + .56*.51 + .31*.10 = 62% chance per missile of doing 1 HP to a spaceship as a vehicle.

--------------------------------------

Vehicles Weapons: Change the vehicle heavy bolter to 4k2+0 pen6 rng120, this brings it in line with personal version. Rename multi-las to heavy-las? Add las cannon to table, 5k5+0, pen10, rng300, recharge, slots4, 20vp, actually works out in-line with rest of weapons. Note on wave motion cannon, since it now has accurate & blast roll regular damage for stuff in the blast and then roll accurate bonus damage for the target being hit. Note on missiles that their blast is relative to vehicle scale combat. If used in personal scale combat (shot at normal sized people & creatures) and they don't have a blast apply the following special blast to people/creatures only: radius as SRM=2 LRM=4 A4=6, damage as rolled but with 0 penetration and half the bonus damage, direct hits as normal. The PPC is priced as having a positive attribute but no attribute was listed, either raise the range to 350m or add Proven[1] (reroll 1s on damage). Missing the Indirect weapon attribute for the catapult, it's the ability to lob ammo over obstacles, "it's shots can pass over/around objects up to the distance from the launcher or the target, whichever is less. This can only be used with weapons that fire physical ammo (not directed energy weapons) or launch guided/homing missiles. If the ammo is not of a powered missile type then you're relying on gravity for the arc and can only shoot over things, not around them." The tandem charge attribute, when used on people & creatures that don't roll on the vehicle crit chart, causes the weapon to always cause at least 1 critical damage (type X).

Last vehicle change. Been doing math. Aerospace engines are x15, not x10, and have a minimum vehicle size of 7. Scramjets are x30, not x20, and have a minimum vehicle size of 13. This puts big engine aerospace drives into the Mach 1 - mach 1.5 range before afterburners and allows scramjets to reach almost 1/5 real escape velocity. I'm toying with the idea of adding a rocket drive that would hit escape velocity but I'm unsure of the drawbacks it should have. Of course there's whatever anti-grav is and once out of the atmosphere no drag means that top speed is limited only by the ejection speed of your reaction mass and your power supply. No, no, better idea...

Add to afterburner module => Optional rule: On a vehicle with speed 16+, using an aerospace or scramjet drive, and going momentum 10+ at very high altitudes, you can use multiple charges of the afterburners at once to achieve escape velocity from a planetary body. Up to 15 m/s gravity requires 2 afterburner charges and every additional 10 m/s gravity requires an additional afterburner charge. You only care about this rule if you really want to model a surface to orbit shuttle as a vehicle rather than as a small spaceship.

Try a vehicle missile now... Wait, wait, wait, we changed the remote controls to actually have to have a pilot/copilot station to interact with. Smallest remotes then are size 1 & $25. So accel 0(0,0), speed 9(0,1), maneuver+10(20,0), VTOL x6, remote control (25,1), overcharged reactor(10,1), ai(20,1), size 4(4,-4), subtotal = 79 vp & 4 size, external power + junker + fragile. HP 3, resil 4, cost 49, size 2m long, 360m @ mom=10, def 39 @ mom=10, function: PC speaks to AI that turns on overcharged reactor (missile takes 1 hp dmg), then makes pilot+dex (full action by remote) to hit a target up to 360m away. Damage is 4k10+(9*4)=4k4+36 ~=58 damage.

Smaller version, size 3 @ 1.5m long, trade remote piloting for better AI(5k3), add voice activated feature is 79 -1(sz) -25(rm) +20(-ai) +38(+ai) +5(va) = 71, drop maneuver to +9 (-1), external power + fragile + junker = 50. Defense goes to 40, attacks at 5k3-1 avg. ~22, 1 hp at the end of it's move (crash because no pilot & AI out of actions), does 3k3+27 damage. I'm much happier with that.

Size 7 aerospace "missile": s7(7,-7), accel 0(0,0), speed 15(0,4), maneuver+8, aerospace x15, controls+remote (25,1), overcharged engine (10,1), composite frame (5,0), ai to trigger overcharge & assist (20,1), feature encrypted remote link (5,0), subtotal $70 - junker & fragile = $50 = uncommon = buy DC 10. Size 7, resil 7, hp 3, 2250m per round, man +11, full action remote piloting @ +6 (+8man-10mom+3cf+5ai)(only @ +1 on first round) until rams or destroyed, def 52, damage 7k7+105 ~147. Rough, but it's the size of a sedan or light truck going 1350 kph. It's not like every place will have these for sale anyways, they're probably pushing... They're very similar to a manually launched guided Arrow-4 homing missile (7k4+30, pen 20, accurate, about 67+ ~7/2 raises on the hit)... well with about 16 raises on the hit.

This tells me that for individual missiles SRMs are about size 1, LRMs are about size 2, and A4s are about size 4.

Maybe set minimum speed cost as though the vehicle has 1 acceleration even if acceleration rating is 0.

----------------------------------------

Spaceships thought: Those ship's shuttles and assault shuttles. Players want to use them, that's why I initially statted up shuttle type vehicles. Obviously in spaceship combat they're effectively minions, about 1k1, def=5-10, dmg=0+raises.

For quick & dirty: VTOL & scramjets, 1/2 action to switch drive types, moves 100m/momentum on VTOL & 500m/momentum on scramjets, scramjets stall & fall at 5 momentum or less, acceleration 1 momentum/turn, static defense 1/100 meters moved, piloting checks @ -10 & -(2x momentum) in VTOL mode or -(4x momentum) in scramjet mode, size 30, resilience 30, HP 22, armor 5, pilot, copilot, power windows, cup holders, environmentally sealed (144 person-hours of air), sensor suite, 32 passengers or 64 cubic meters of cargo in any configuration, can get to orbit & back once before needing to refuel & check the heat shield (minimum 8 hours of work), the pilot has to spend a full action or a half action and a reaction on any Maintain Control & maneuver actions, if it takes critical damage roll twice on the vehicle crit chart and take the worse result, this is a Holdings 2 (or Wealth check 40 at the DM's discretion) vehicle.

To change this to an assault shuttle increase the armor to 10, reduce the passengers/cargo by half, reduce the air supply to 72 person-hours, double the refuel & repair time, any time the vehicle takes damage the pilot and copilot have to make athletics+constitution checks vs. 15 to take a level of fatigue, and add one of the weapon modules: 1) A nose mounted MP las cannon shooting anywhere ahead of the shuttle & not tracking ammo, controlled by the pilot or copilot, and 2 side mounted machine guns shooting anywhere to the sides & having 5x ammo, controlled by passengers or the copilot. 2) Two side mounted heavy bolters shooting to the sides or straight ahead controlled by the pilot & copilot, they have 5x ammo. 3) A forward facing, top mounted, LRM with 50 missiles, a nose mounted blazer that doesn't need to track ammo. 4) A rating 10 void shield and a nose mounted AC/5 autocannon (Hyper-velocity or Ultra) with 100 shots, controlled by the copilot. This is a Holdings 3 (or Wealth check 50 at the DM's discretion) vehicle.

For smaller versions reduce the size, resilience, & HP by 1/3rd, increase the static defense by 1/2, and reduce the air, passengers, & cargo by 1/2. If it's an assault shuttle you also reduce the available ammo by 2/5 (50 becomes 30) and the energy weapons that didn't track ammo now have 60 shots.

I suppose that you could ditch the VTOL drive for something else. Improve some system, add a few more people, or just change it for another type of drive (walker might be amusing). But then you're going to need that long, long runway for it to take off. A purely civilian shuttle might do that to cram in a few (+50%?) more people. But frankly I don't see the PCs wanting that at all.

--------------------------------------

You know what? While this bloody program takes 5+ minutes to compile every time I check or try to debug I'm going to go ahead and work through the first book's setting chapter. Mostly because I need to get on my home computer for a few hours in order to collect all these changes into a coherent document, and that hasn't happened for more than a week now. I just don't know when I'll have an opportunity to do that.

[Telok]

Setting stuff from the first book:

Intro blurb with a batch of nothing really.

History of the wheel... That text is in all caps except for the 'h's. It looks really odd and I can't tell if it's intentional. I have run across other instances of things not being properly capitalized though... Ok, it's intentional or the exact same mistake is made in all the headers in the book.

Setting history. Something almost no player will ever read, reference, or use, except to complain after some bit of ignorance bites them in the butt. It's 4 pages with pictures, about 3 1/2 pages too long for most people.

40k years ago the Syrne show up, be awesome, make portal relays, fight C'tan, then they all die. There's a weird note that the C'tan are powerful incorporeal beings of pure energy that exist "solely in the material universe". I have no clue what that means. Syrne created eldarin, orks, and dragons to fight. C'tan enslaved elemental creatures on pure order, putting them in geometric shells of necrometal, giving rise to the Modrons. Then it all ended mysteriously with no good records and some myths about "Great Devourers", Syrne all dead, C'tan went away, Modrons in "stasis" in Mechanus.

10k years ago... So did that first bit take 30,000 years to hash out or did it actually end relatively soon after it started and everyone just went stupid for a long time? Geh. 10k years ago eldarin are repairing portal relays and discovering Sigil & LoP. The dragons create the dragonborn and conquer everything for Bahamut. "Soon" Tiamat appears, dragons schism, civil war, all that good stuff. Tiamat is defeated on Mount Celestia after having apparently taken the fight literally to and through the gates of heaven. And... now there's no more empire for some reason. Geeze, even the Romans managed to hang on better than that after Rome got sacked, and they lost.

7000 years ago (apparently that whole thing took 3000 years? Isn't that about as long as the ancient Egyptian pharaohs lasted?) eldarin keep repairing portal relays an open Pandemonium, releasing the aboleth into the universe. It seems this caused a war for which the gods had to go create aasimar, teiflings, power armor, bolters, and chainswords. Aboleth were sealed back into Pandemonium, that portal relay was disabled, and people stopped letting the eldarin open relays. I will note here that none of the is mentioned in the Pandemonium write-up or the aboleth minster entry. I have been "doing it wrong" and I don't care, or else this is just another instance of "no professional editing".

5000 years ago the eldarin, who were apparently the unmentioned rulers of the universe since the dragon empire offed itself, sank into hedonism and started worshipping Slaanesh. Oh, wait, they worshipped hedonism and created Slaany which punched a hole in reality that created the Abyss (which is also apparently a crystal sphere with a syrne portal relay?), killed all the elf gods but Corellion, and generally got them smacked down. The eldarin did the schism thing and ended up with eldarin in giant spaceships, elves on planets, and dark eldarin worshipping the "demon spider queen" Loth while generally making a nuisance of themselves as small time pirates.

1000 years ago (either that previous bit took a long long time to play out, it happened really recently, or there's ~3500 years of nothing happening) eldarin, squats, dragonborn, and elves formed a ruling council in Sigil, split into factions, and sank into in-fighting. Assimar and tieflings are apparently hired, in mass on a racial basis, as some sort of pair of competing law enforcement organizations who mostly shoot at each other. This. This is why you can't buy fire insurance in Sigil except from the halfling mafia (ok, the halfling mafia is non-canonical, but I'm set on the arson insurance).

In current events humans showed up, using syrne ruins and recovered tech to bootstrap themselves into space and learn about portal relays. They met the eldarin and wiped out a fleet which caused the council at Sigil to welcome them as right good noobs you could lure into tourist traps and sell Sigil-brand LoP bobble-heads to. And... then everyone is exploring, plotting, scheming, or just openly at war with one another.

It is now canonical in my games that Lady-of-Pain bobble-heads are covered in razor blades and count as Raven Queen holy symbols. Flashing one about in Sigil is discouraged. It's not illegal, it just gets you skinned & deboned while alive. Very discouraging, that. Naturally the halfling mafia has cornered the LoP bobble-head smuggling market.

[Telok]

Oh, something that came up in our spaceships stuff. What sort or internal sensors / monitoring / surveillance is available? Also doors, locks, safety, and stuff. I have the feeling that these can probably equate to crew quality (well, #4 probably gets skipped in non-military & non-authoritarian ships). Different areas can, of course, have different levels. A massive space station might have #5 for the ultra rich, #3 for the workers, and #1 for a "scum & villainy" section.

1. None. Well there are probably intercoms scattered about, mostly at or near workstations. But you're dependent on your crew verbally reporting status updates to the bridge to keep up on what's happening. Most commonly found on multi-kilometer long spaceships and stations where the technology level is uneven and internal security isn't a concern for reasons (budget and incompetence, usually). You may encounter motion sensing sliding glass doors, electrified portcullises, and decorative hand carved wooden doors. Airlocks, pressure doors, and fire-proof doors may be in short supply. The ship or station may not even be compartmentalized to limit damage.

2. Fire suppression, air pressure, oxygen levels, hard radiation. A certain minimum of safety rules are in effect here. There are at least intercoms, fire alarm controls, and air/rad readouts at major corridor intersections. Airlocks and self sealing pressure doors are standard at all section bulkheads, if not at every compartment bulkhead. Any elevators are effectively airlocks, all stairwells have self sealing pressure doors & hatches at all points & levels. The bridge, damage control stations, and engineering/life support all have ship-wide access & readouts of the sensors.

3. Smart-home with video conferencing. Like #2, but with more stuff. The basic life support & comfort systems have active sensors and provide constant feedback. The ship's computer(s) knows which lights are on, off, and burnt out. It knows how far past the 'best by' date the yogurt in the breakroom refrigerator is. An alarm will be triggered if the sound of running water is present in the bathroom for more than a couple minutes and it isn't the shower. There are baby monitors in the nursery, security cameras in the secure areas & major corridor intersections, and basic burglar alarms on the external airlocks. All of the intercoms also have video feeds and can be activated from the security offer's station(s).

4. Alpha Complex. Color coded security areas, security monitors & badge reading restricted access doors everywhere, automated laser turrets in some places, and the urinals check to make sure that you're taking your assigned meds. The computer running it is either an AI or so close that you can't tell the difference. Very 'nanny state with guns' as long as someone is replacing broken switches and sensors. Weirdly the maintenance hallways and interstitial spaces tend to be completely unmonitored and un-automated. Likewise the exterior hull and hatches may not be monitored, or only lightly monitored with low-res cameras. This usually includes #2, at least as long as the people running things aren't bat-poop-crazy paranoid control freaks who care more about following orders and loyalty then about making sure the air purifiers don't poison everyone because ordering new filters might unfairly burden the engineering section's budget.

5. Fully secure & safe. Like #4 but run by sane & rational people, and probably not with a potentially crazy unregulated AI in charge. Every door doubles as a fire-proof automatic pressure door. Almost certainly there are no automated laser turrets, at least not outside the brig & the armory, and those have to get permission from a real person in order to start shooting. Cameras & badge readers nearly everywhere, full video & motion sensor coverage of the hull, and an actual biometric double-airlock security post at the main exterior airlocks. If privacy is a concern then at a minimum the hallway & living area video-intercoms aren't watching you by default. All the data feeds are normally put through a filter that only saves events matching safety & security triggers, things like the sound of gunfire or images of someone stabbing someone else. If the urinal is checking your hormone levels it probably just sends you an email telling you if it found something, it doesn't trigger an alert to have security goons drag you off for interrogation and/or medication.

--------------------------------------------------

The great wheel. Thousands of crystal spheres in astral space. Arranged in a spiraling wheel with Sigil at the center. Interesting, you could use a generic spiral galaxy as a map model then. Mostly unexplored.

The astral sea. Empty space, colored "bubbles" of crystal spheres. Spelljammers can crash into them & wreck with bad navigation. Frankly that's like crashing into Jupiter. If you can't see it coming in time to turn, then you have bigger problems than just something being in your path. No FTL in astral space, the fastest ships take years at a minimum even to cross between "close" crystal spheres. But it's also safe because there's nothing out there (except apparently crashing into rogue crystal spheres the size of solar systems because you didn't see it coming).

The portal network. The syrne built giant portal relays that let you get into the warp. Going through the warp cuts time from years & centuries to weeks. Unprotected stuff in the warp is torn to shreds in minutes. Sigil is a fixed point & navigation beacon in the warp. I think this is all the information that we'll get about the warp portals & crystal sphere/astral space barrier.

Spelljamming ships. A mix of sorcery & tech, ratios depending on the original builders. Make travel possible. Oh, apparently true dragons can naturally escape gravity wells, "crack a crystal sphere", and travel the warp. Ships can take decades to travel between two close crystal spheres if they don't use the warp. Also human, eldarin, and ork ships look different.

The warp. A parallel universe underlying physical universe. Infinite and composed of energy, elemental matter, random thoughts, emotions, memories, and beliefs. Source of magic, sorcerers bring bits of the warp into reality to make things happen. Make travel between crystal spheres much faster. Enter through a portal, navigate by Sigil. Looking into the warp unprotected causes people to go insane. If the ship's protective fields fail warp creatures invade to kill & corrupt everyone/everything aboard. Without a navigator only jumps of less than 5 light years can be attempted, longer jumps completely randomize the destination. Jumps take about 2 weeks by ship time, regardless of the actual distance. They normally take months up to a year in the real world. That, um, sort of makes any sort of coordination and scheduling impossible. Although I suppose it would lead to the creation of gigantic super-carriers that are just frames with drives & shields which you could attach a number of smaller ships to. Then you'd only need one really good warp navigator for a whole fleet. I hear echoes of Traveller and BattleTech, both systems implemented something like that.

The umbra, AKA shoehorning in a WW setting bit along side a WH40K setting bit via a D&D setting bit. The "shallow end" of the warp. Actually pretty much like the a combo if the original D&D ethereal plane and shadow plane, like a reflection of the real world with really dark sunglasses on. Ghosts and daemons can wreck stuff in the umbra, that gives it bad luck in the real world. Some spirits and daemons can cross back and forth.

Next up: Sigil.

[Telok]

Sigil.

Center of the cosmos, beacon for warp navigation, Lady of Pain, no gods allowed, standard import from Planescape. Free floating space platform outside of all crystal spheres (thus it's in astral space), gigantic inner-tube/torus with a packed city-scape on all of the inner walls. Uses lots of the same tech as portal relays so it's a presumed syrneth artifact. Neutral ground but not non-violent. Anything can be found/bought. Harmonium army maintains order. barely contained anarchy. Sounds like a fun place if you're rich and/or overly violent, perfect for PCs.

Sigil's factions. Political party / philosophy / union / guild / gang / whatever's, but not governments. Factions make up the Sigil council, governments (which ones? where? who?) donate military forces and equipment to the council. There used to be (3) more factions but LoP smooshed them for getting uppity. Most factions run different bits of Sigil. They don't trust each other.

In a faction. Namers are the noobs & low end task runners. Most hold regular day jobs and only do faction stuff occasionally. Next up is factotums, whose regular day job is faction stuff. They're still low end, just busier. Or not, since the next 'rank' is 'factor' that's apparently just the level below the highest rank. Uh, 'great sway' and represent the faction at public and official events. Top of the heap is factols, they just do leader type stuff. That's, um, a really flat hierarchy. You have a CEO, lots of department heads, then bunches of wage slaves and independent contractors. I feel that there's a missing middle-management layer in there somewhere that lost out because the author couldn't figure out how to make it sound sexy.

Believers of the source/Godsmen. Reincarnate and keep reincarnating and pass tests and more reincarnation to ascend to the next world, but nobody knows what the tests are. Leader named Ambar. All welcome. HQ at "Great Foundry". Settle disputes and keep peace between different religions.

Bleak cabal/Bleakers. There is no meaning or plan to the universe, and apparently no form of afterlife either. Leader named Lhar. All welcome. Runs soup kitchens, orphanages, and sanitariums. New personal canon for my games: If you show up at a Sigil pharmacy, any pharmacy anywhere, and flash a Bleaker badge they hand you a bottle of antidepressants, no questions asked, no payment required. It's easier than cleaning up after you blowing your brains out in front of the shop.

Doomguard. All die. Don't bother fixing things, they'll just break again. Don't bother breaking things, it'll happen eventually. Leader named Pentar. HQ at the Sigil armory. Quote "she makes sure weapons get to where they can do their work best." Seriously? The nihilistic downers who like to hand out weapons and mass destruction like it was tokes at Woodstock are in charge of the armory? What do you do? Go to the armory drive up in a beat-up old car, say "I know someone who needs shooting real bad.", and they just hand you a heavy bolter and some belts of ammo?

Dustmen. Quote "don't believe in life." Oh, great, there wouldn't be pain and suffering if everyone was dead. I bet they get along great with the Doomguard. Duster: "This sucks. Everyone needs to die." Doomy: "Have a rocket launcher. It's on the house." Duster: "The orphanage down the road has a wood frame. Could I get a flamer instead?" Doomy: "Have two! And here's some grenades for the road." Leader named Skall, supposedly a vampire. HQ at "the Mortuary". Apparently they mostly do burials, cremations, and assorted corpse clean-up.

Ok, we're all of 4 factions in and already 3 of them are all doom & gloom moaners. Plus one apparently just randomly ships weapons to anyone who'll use them. Let's see how much more dysfunctional this can get.

Fated/Takers. There is no luck, everyone makes their own fate, hard work works, if you didn't succeed it's your fault, if you have cancer it's your fault. They do record keeping and tax collection. Leader named Duke Rowan Darkwood. No other info except that they're pretty much universally hated.

Fraternity of order/Guvners. Laws, laws, laws, laws, use loopholes, find exceptions, knowledge is power. Leader named Haskar. They run all the courts and have all the good lawyers.

Harmonium/Hardheads. The Harmonium is always right and if they aren't they will will beat you up until they are. Excessively violent law enforcement, for a flexible and self-serving version of "law". Leader named Sarin (sarin gas?). And apparently the Doomys don't give them enough weapons that they can enforce all the orders they want to, probably because then they'd make the Doomys stop giving weapons to everyone else. I guess they mostly take guns from the people the Doomys give guns to. It must be the ammo supply keeping them in check.

Mercykillers. Justice, law, purge the evil, cleanse with fire, no crime unpunished. Hey, at least they recognize that separating the innocent from the guilty is a thing. Leader is Ailsohn Nielsia, a bloody thirsty psycho child. How the heck did that happen? Do these people have any sort of real organization and decision making structure, or are they just a bunch of vigilantes who follow the person screaming loudest?

Sign of one. You are a special flower. Ah, philosophy, since you only know what your senses report you can't really know if anyone else in the world is real or just a figment of your freakish imagination. HQ at the Hall of Speakers. Make laws, settle feuds, do treaties, bureaucracy stuff. Leader named Darius who is, amazingly, apparently a normal and decent person who can separate their work from their personal issues/opinions.

Society of sensation/Sensates. Important faction, massive membership, experience everything... These people are just a front for Slannesh aren't they? Leader named Erin. They run the "Civic Festhall", which seems to be a sort of mega-mall devoted to any and all forms of entertainment.

Transcendent order/Ciphers. Action without thought, but not like drunk action without thought, more like premeditated & thoughtful action without thought. Or just go with the flow. Leader named Ryhs, tiefling. Advisors and diplomats. That seems rather odd. Zen diplomacy? How the heck to you use this in a game?

Verdant guild. Save the wilderness or civilization is doomed! Hilarious in an artificial habitat. You have to wear an animal mask. They run the markets and do customs checks on incoming stuff. Rare and illegal plants & animals are a no-no. Is fungus OK? Leader named Strongbow, elf, unhappy and would ditch the job if he trusted anyone to do it competently. That's more than we've gotten on any of the other leaders. HQ at the Sorting House, which is a customs check with scanners and stuff.

So what do we have. A mega-city of unknown size inside a torus. Gravity, rotation, lighting, defenses, population, sewer systems, etc., are all unstated. There are apparently several different ways to settle disputes, heavily armed vigilantes running amuck, at least three rule/law making bodies, Oliver Twist style social safety nets, Judge Dredd &OR WH40K inquisition style law enforcement, the Unemployed Philosophers Guild got employment as civil servants and advisors, a Slannesh cult running the all the entertainments, and Greenpeace is running customs & food/health inspections (why do I think Sigil is unofficially & unwillingly vegan?). On top of that there's people giving out weapons based on the metric of "who will use them most". Oh, and it seems that the tax department has a really really really bad PR department. Like a "if you work in the tax department you can't buy any insurance for anything" bad PR department.

Who are the governments supporting all this? Why bother? I'm sure someone nearby could run a perfectly nice trading space station that's actually not on the edge of total self-destruction... Ok, new personal canon for my games: The four or five spheres closest to Sigil all have nice, safe, clean, reliable, rational, trading mega-stations right next to their warp portals. The taxes are a little higher, nobody is handing out weapons of mass destruction or trans-shipping mega-containers of 10,000 murder-robots, and you can buy a real meat burger at nice legal price. The PCs won't care because the people there want to buy and sell stuff like grain futures and tractor parts. The PCs will go to Sigil because that's where, even if they have to shell out $3500 at a halfling mafia illicit BBQ for an overcooked 8oz steak, they can buy all the boom-boom and combat drugs they want. I'll just set a repeating 10 minute timer and roll on the "bung-hole of the universe mega-city" lol-violent random encounter chart.

[lightningcat]

As for space stations having different security settings for different areas, that sound a lot like what Babylon 5 had. Downbelow had #2, most of the station had #3, while the diplomatic and military areas were #5.
Compare that to Star Trek's Deep Space 9 station, which originally was #4 as it was a slave labor facilty for a warlike race. When first taken over it was a mess of #1 and #2, with a few traps left over. Later on, it settled into #3, with maybe some #5 areas, but those were more often seperate ships or the docks to them.

Who are the governments supporting all this? Why bother? I'm sure someone nearby could run a perfectly nice trading space station that's actually not on the edge of total self-destruction... Ok, new personal canon for my games: The four or five spheres closest to Sigil all have nice, safe, clean, reliable, rational, trading mega-stations right next to their warp portals. The taxes are a little higher, nobody is handing out weapons of mass destruction or trans-shipping mega-containers of 10,000 murder-robots, and you can buy a real meat burger at nice legal price. The PCs won't care because the people there want to buy and sell stuff like grain futures and tractor parts. The PCs will go to Sigil because that's where, even if they have to shell out $3500 at a halfling mafia illicit BBQ for an overcooked 8oz steak, they can buy all the boom-boom and combat drugs they want. I'll just set a repeating 10 minute timer and roll on the "bung-hole of the universe mega-city" lol-violent random encounter chart.

With a group of dedicated murderhobos, would they even notice anything was off?

The factions are unlikely to have have been given any of their duties, so much as picked them up because some leader thought they could do it, and no one could stop them. In some ways the factions of Sigil remind me of the Guilds from MtG Ravnica, although in Ravnica someone spent at least a few minutes figuring the plan out ahead of time. In Sigil, the plan was made up 15 minutes after it could have been used, and has only gotten more out of date as they attempted to revise it on the go. It is imposing order on a city where successfully doing so will get you killed, possibly by the LoP. She rarely cares about anything, but she is well named for those moments she does. (And yes, I know Sigil came way before Ravina.)

[Telok]

With a group of dedicated murderhobos, would they even notice anything was off?

Lets lean into this a bit. The almost-ecoterrorists run customs, food & health inspections, and regulate (such as it is) the retail & grocery sector. It it demonstrably healthier for an ecosystem if people aren't eating lots of meat. There's a molassis cartel and the halfling mafia smuggles molassis in multi-tonne shipments, it's not a long jump to pork smuggling. (Long story involving failed piracy and a stint in a penal battalion.) The PCs are likely to hit up Sigil a lot because they like to buy heavy artillery. PC ships lose crew to combat and... command decisions... So the PCs will be hiring crew in Sigil.

Given a choice between buying a rift torpedo and resupplying with meat instead of flavored soy products we know which one they'll likely take (the boom-boom). Then they complete a 3 to 6 month cruise with combat and no real resupply. The DM mentions the crew grumbling about the steady diet of veggie burgers. They return to Sigil for repair & more boom-boom. The DM mentions some difficulty hiring quality crew and asks if they want to downgrade. The PCs immedately search for meat. This leads to the mafia BBQ speakeasy & a well timed police raid. Hilarity ensues.

They might notice. It probably depends on how surreal your combats can get, I've thrown hippo size drop-bears and daemons in need of interior decorators at my players. The last time I was involved in a running gun battle over food was a Shadowrun game some years ago.

Still, more setting stuff.----------------------------------

Crystal spheres.

Natural barriers between the planetary systems and the void of the astral sea. Theories include because of conflicting energy or friction or like pearls. No precise/canonical reason given. Physical laws within a sphere can vary. Examples include "fluidic space", different or reversed time, and matter cannot exist. Most spheres have only a single system in them, mostly with a star(s) and planets. They're generally twice the diameter of the orbit of the furthest out planetary type body. The crystal sphere barrier is "dangerous to even attempt to cross without a proper navigator and a spelljamming ship.", which is complete hooey if you're using the second book that doesn't even mention the barrier much less have a roll for it.

Notable crystal spheres.

Each sphere gets an intro blurb, and description of the local physics, a paragraph or so about the inhabitants, a list of notable places, and three or four adventure hooks. I've used several of the hooks, they work just fine as bare bones starting point ideas.

The Abyss.

Blurb: "A huge blight like a diseased eye visible from every corner of the astral sea", and therefore just as valid a navigational reference as Sigil. Largest sphere of all, uncountable numbers of worlds within, also storms of gas and vapor. "Every world is horrible, mutable, and different." Natives are servants of chaos. Translation: Everyone in here is a daemon, tiefling, or mutant. A single "fortress-world" built around the only portal relay in/out of the crystal sphere stops most ships from escaping and "chaotic currents" make non-portal exits dangerous... In the first paragraph of the first sphere we've contradicted or muddied the entire purpose, position, and form of both the portal relays and the sphere barrier/edge. Great work guys. Great work.

Physical conditions: Hostile. You'd have to be insane to want to go there. There's always someone dumb enough to think it can't be that bad. Larger inside than outside (and it's about the biggest thing outside anyways), probably infinite in interior size. The warp overlaps and intrude into real space within the sphere. Which should, come to think of it, make travel out of it much simpler since you don't have to leave the sphere or use a portal to get into the warp.

It's pretty much impossible to predict what any particular spot will be like. Physics and magic can vary wildly, sometimes within walking distance. Some places aren't obviously hostile but steal memories, cause super cancer & mutation, or just make you start worshipping a chaos power. Yay (not really) random alignment tests. Rumored places include planets made entirely of flesh eating insects, making your soul literally visible to the naked eye, and cold that freezes thoughts instead of bodies.

Interior space is mostly thick nebula in technicolor blarf, random small stars, planets orbiting a or just wandering, and really low all around visibility & sensor ranges. There's no umbra, just a straight overlap with the warp. Incorporeal creatures are corporeal here (I bet that messes with the wraith exalt type is all sorts of fun ways).

Inhabitants: Ghosts, elementals, spirits, and daemons are common fauna. No native mortal sapiens (actually it says sentients but look at the difference in definitions, I'm pretty sure they meant sapiens). No word on the flora. Most tieflings are newly made from idiots who wandered in and won't live to escape.

Locations:

Cadia: Not a world but a world sized fortress. Built on the only known safe route out of the crystal sphere. Some parts of the fortress are 10k or more years old... Checking... So that's after the syrene/c'tan war and during the dragon empire while the eldarin were repairing the portal network and 5k years before the Abyss was created. Great continuity work there numb nuts.

There's people there to give last rites to those going in and to inspect & decontaminate those coming out. It's a military outpost with civilian service infrastructure incorporated into it. It gets randomly attackd by fleets of daemon ships or something every so often. It's kind of vague on who/what exactly could be in there (and be organized enough) to try a mass break out.

Fortress of khorne: Mighty fortress. Brass citadel in the center. Mountain of skulls inside that Khorn uses as a throne. Moat of boiling blood. Random idiots wander in to challenge Khorne to combat. I think there should be someone in a little booth out front that hands everyone going in a Darwin Award.

Battlefield of malal: Daemons here take on the aspects & powers that intruders most admire. World changes to become more familiar and deceptive. The more an intruder cares for something the more dangerous to them that the thing gets. More intruders at once makes everything against them stronger. People going it alone may be able to reach "The Tumor" where broken doomsday machines and busted world destroying weapons lay around. Also, Malal might want to kill you. Frankly I think this would work better if the planet busters weren't broken.

Garden of nurgle: Clouds of flies, rotting fungus, dying trees, mud rivers, bad smells, random diseases. Rotting mansion that will never fall where Nurgle does something with an ocean sized cauldron. Does Nurgle swing a 3000km long spoon at annoying spaceships?

Palace of slaanesh: Six worlds to visit in a certain order, each does a different temptation to trap you forever, then you get to the palace and seeing Slanny instantly destroys your soul & enslaves you. So what's the point?

Maze of tzeentch: Bizarre and incomprehensible maze of magic portals through space and time. Secret entry points all over the abyss. No daemons, just illusions and insanity. Impossible fortress at the center, mortals incapable of gaining entry, powerful servants may get to a hidden library. Yeah, not going to run that, it just sounds like a nuisance. I've run 4d dungeons, they're extra work to keep from annoying the players too much and way, way, too much work to explain to people who can't visualize a hypercube or such-like.

Adventure seeds: People are smuggling our artifacts made of solidified warp energy. Cultists kidnapped someone and are hauling them to off to sacrifice directly to their god which might cause a mass breakout attempt. A second inactive and undefended portal relay is discovered near by. Cadia has giant black pylons that suppress the warp and magic near them, nobody knows what they are or how they work.

Summary: Well we now have all sorts of contradictory stuff about how crystal spheres, warp portals, and spelljamming work. The abyss has lots of nice atmospheric prose, but not a lot that I feel I can use as a DM. Cadia might be useful if this gave me a feel for how they think the portals are supposed to work, but it just adds confusion.

Look. There's inside a crystal sphere, and there's outside the sphere. Portals are either a Babylon5 style gate into the warp or they're keeping a safe hole/passage open in the crystal sphere. Cadia then is either a fortress built on the surface of a crystal sphere that is otherwise nearly impregnable, or it's a Death Star type station with a warp gate instead of a super-laser. I suppose they could be both, but then we don't really need the astral sea as we have no way to get to it. It also opens the question of ships entering the warp from within crystal spheres.

Fine. Personally for my games, and it's reflected in the ship/travel stuff I posted, you access the warp from outside a crystal sphere. From within a crystal sphere you can only get to the umbra, unless something is very wrong and/or someone is playing with dangerous energies. This is how you know that you're near a crystal sphere when you're in the warp, there's a "shallow" spot that you can't warp/fly through. The portals then are entry/exit points to the crystal sphere, but they also have a strong warp presence that acts like a (much) lesser version of the Sigil navigation beacon. An active portals' presence makes getting in/out of the warp easier/safer, and it acts as a sort of lighthouse that helps with safe navigation. Thus an active portal means a no risk exit from the sphere, easier entry into the warp, better navigation for starting from a known & mapped point, better navigation for going to a beacon point in the warp (once you're close enough), and easier time exiting the warp at a safe & convenient distance from the sphere. I should note that for my games a crystal sphere wall blocks all communications (barring a few high level spells), since the DtD40k7e books don't say anything about it.

That makes Cadia work. The 'planet sized' is an exaggeration, but it's a bloody big fortress on the crystal sphere that controls entry/exit. The sphere wall itself is still an impenetrable barrier in the warp and nearly impossible to breach from regular space. Because inside the Abyss is the warp ships need their Geller fields up to not be randomly ripped to shreds. Since it's a manipulation of ship shields and Geller fields that punch holes in a crystal sphere you can get into the Abyss without going through Cadia (although it is riskier than usual) but you can't get out of the Abyss without going through Cadia. Unless you had someone one the outside opening a hole for you but wibbly-wobbly time in the warp, and thus in the Abyss, causes issues with rendezvous and just finding the right spot could be really difficult anyways.

To make the rest of the Abyss work... Frankly it has to have existed for more than 5000 years. So it's always been there, a crystal sphere where the interior mixes real space and the warp. Maybe it was a normal sphere until the warp get let loose in there, but it was more then 40k years ago (or maybe the syrne done clucked up something real early on and no records exist any more). The infinite or near infinite interior size is fine, in fact make it really really big and ever increasing. The exterior size doesn't increase, just to annoy people. Assume that all the 'stars' are some form of elemental/s and spirit/s, their power and size making them 'shine'. Planets are just spots that change relatively slowly and have therefore accreted matter/stuff. The chaos gods cause stability by simply having too much spiritual inertia to quickly change their natures and they sort of drag an area of that type of stability along with them. The 'nebulas' are vast clouds of things. Some are gas, some are dust, some may be insects, plants, small furry animals, loose eyeballs, spirits, free floating daemon mouths, corpses, spirits, bottles of whiskey, midiclorians and other assorted intestinal parasites, clones of the ship's crew, time-warped corpses of the ship's crew... Just, you know, stuff. Floating out in space.