Post by Stefan [GM] on May 5, 2011 8:28:01 GMT -7
To speed up combat against a large number of foes, the bad guys will be split up into groups of grunts, henchman, meatshields, etc.
A group needs at least 2 active members to be considered 'grouped'.
Each group gets a Mob Rating for their to determine their strength, which will be the base dice pool for all their action.
For the main purpose of the group (ie combat, social interaction (picture an angry mob or a party of high-class snobs at a dinner table), hackers, etc), the Mob Rating is doubled. They also gain a positive modifier equal to the number of active members of the group. The result is their final dice pool to roll with for their main purpose.
A group might have a secondary purpose (ie a combat mob might be able to do some on-field medical assist, hack on the fly, etc), they only get their base Mob Rating + Members of group as their final dicepool.
In melee combat, the number of active members modifier already includes the "friends in melee" modifier, thus they won't get any extra dice. However, the defender still gets his negative "foes in melee" modifier (max -4) as per normal rules. Their base damage in melee is half their Mob Rating (round down) + weapon damage + 1 for every 2 active members.
Mob Initiative equals twice their Mob Rating + active Members (max 4). They have 1 initiative pass, unless all members are boosted in some way. If only one member is boosted, he should be handled by himself and not be considered part of the group.
Their melee defense equals twice their group rating + active members. The entire group can go into full defense, using twice their rating + twice their active members.
In range defense, they only get their normal mob rating + active members (twice if in full defense).
They resist damage with their Mob Rating + their Armor (assume all members wear the same armor).
Mob Damage Track equals their Mob Rating x active Members. However, instead of applying a wound modifier, every time the damage reaches the Mob Rating, one of the members will be considered as dead or unconcious. So it is possible to take out more than one targe with one single attack, allowing for a more dramatic gameplay.
Physical and Stun damage count equal towards this damage track, and it's up to the GM (and damage used by the players) to determine if anybody survived at the end of combat.
All members of a mob attack as one unit for combat purpose, rolling their dice pool according to their purpose (see above). The base damage equals the damage of their weapons (they usually all wield the same weapon within a group) + 1 for every 2 active members of the group (+2 any other modifiers for burst damage, ammo type, etc).
A mob usually only attacks once per turn.
The mob rating also determines the composure, willingness to fight, morale of the group.
I like to call this "Mob Moral", and it's equal to the mob rating + active members. Whenever the GM decides that the group might question the situation they are in (ie their mates are dying around them), their Moral will be rolled against a threshold defined by the GM (ie number of members taken out by a single attack). If they fail, the groupn will panic, maybe even try to flee the scene, surrender, or simply reduce their mob rating by 1 (more of glitched).
In some situations, there might be a single NPC that is the leader of the entire mob (ie Gang leader). He can use a complex action to roll Leadership + Charisma (same treshold) to boost the morale of his troups again, thus negating the effects of the failed composure roll.
The group has an Edge attribute equal to the active members of the group (max Mob Rating).
Note: These rules are for nameless groups of grunts, not for professional operations. If a group is made of professional Mages, Gunners, weapon experts, riggers and hackers, they should be handled seperatly and offer a real challenge for the players.
Use the Mob rules for dramatic, action filled combat to give the players a sense of satisfaction againt grunts.
Example: A mob of gangers attacks the players. The gangers are split up into two groups: Melee, with a Mob Rating of 3, and Ranged, with a Mob Rating of 2. Each group has 3 active members, which gives the melee group a Damage Track of 9, and the ranged group gets 6.
The melee group has an initiatve of 3x2 + 3 (members), or 9. They roll 3 hits, which gives them an initiatve of 12 for this round.
The ranged group gets 2x2 + 3, or 7. With a lucky 4 hits, they'll get an initiative of 11 this time around.
The player character, however, acts first with his initiative of 15. He decides to take out the ranged mob first, before the melee group closes in. He fires a burst of bullets into the group, and scored 4 hits for his attack. The mob rolls their defense of 5 (2 Rating + 3 Members) and only scors 1 hit. So the final damage results into 10P (5 Base, 2 Burst, 3 net hits). The group resist with 7 dice (2 for Rating, 6 for their vests, -1 for AP), and scores 4 hits. The final damage is 6 damage. Since the Mob Rating is 2, the group will lose one member for every 2 damage taken, which is enough to take out the entire group at once.
The GM determines that one guy got hit right into his head by a bullet, while another one got hit just below his shoulder. The bullet then traveld through the body and came out the other end, hitting the third grunt in the stomach. The might not be all dead, but they are knocked out and might bleed to death before the fight is over.
Then it's the melee groups turn. They close in and attack the player with their clubs (+2P). They roll their Rating x 2 + 3 for their members + 1 Reach, or a total of 10 dice to attack, with 3 hits. The player rolls his defense (-3 for foes in combat) and only scores one lonely hit.
The base damage of the weapon is (Rating in place of strength/2 + 2 + 2 Net hits + 1 (3 members)) 6P.
Lucky for the player, he gets another pass. He drops is weapon and starts beating on the group with his bare fists. And with 5 hits on his attack, he might just get even more lucky.
The group is defending themselves with their Rating x 2 + 3 for their members, only scoring 1 hit. The base damage of the players attack is now at 6S, and the group doesn't score a single hit on their damage resistense, so they take the full damge of 6 Stun.
Since the group has a rating of 3, they now lose 2 people.
The GM tells the players that he rapidly hits through the defense of the group, blocking a couple of hits from the side, and breaks the jaw of one guy, while kicking another one in the groin, causing both to collapse. The last standing grunt starts to lose his faith, seeing how is mates and the ranged support have been taking out so quickly by just a single runner. The GM rolls his composure of 4 (3 Rating + 1 remaing active member) against a treshold of 2 (members fallen). He only scores one hit and determines that the last grunt goes on his knees and is holding his hands in front of his face, whining like a little girl. The character's fist is still up in the air, ready to strike again, and it's up to the player to decide, whether his character wants to go through with it or not.
Mob Dice Pools:
Main Role: Mob Rating x 2, + active members
Secondary Role: Mob Rating, + active members
Defense:
-Melee, Mob Rating x 2, + active members (x2 if in full defense)
-Ranged, Mob Rating, + active members (x2 if in full defense)
Damage: Base of weapon, + active members/2 (round down)
Damage Resist: Mob Rating + Armor
Damage Track: Mob Rating x active members (lose one member for ever [Mob Rating] damage taken)
Mob Moral: Mob Rating, + active Members
Mob Edge: active members (max Mob Rating)
As mentioned above, this concept can also be use outside of combat, for example in a social situation.
The face of the team, for example, could try to convince a mob of gangers to rebell against their cruel leader, by using her Charisma + Leadership (if supporting evidence is present) or Charisma + Con (to make up reaons for rebellion) as an extended test against the Mob Rating x 2 + active Members, with an interval depending on the situation. The group can resist this attempt by rolling Mob Rating (twice if social interactions is main role of the group, or they are 100% loyal, etc) + Active members, deducting hits directly from the player (making it harder to archive the threshold). If the player of the face can come up with convincing arguements, has hard evidence, or similar means to underline his point, she might be entitled to postive modifers. All other social modifiers (Street Cred, Notoriety, etc) apply as normal.
A group needs at least 2 active members to be considered 'grouped'.
Each group gets a Mob Rating for their to determine their strength, which will be the base dice pool for all their action.
For the main purpose of the group (ie combat, social interaction (picture an angry mob or a party of high-class snobs at a dinner table), hackers, etc), the Mob Rating is doubled. They also gain a positive modifier equal to the number of active members of the group. The result is their final dice pool to roll with for their main purpose.
A group might have a secondary purpose (ie a combat mob might be able to do some on-field medical assist, hack on the fly, etc), they only get their base Mob Rating + Members of group as their final dicepool.
In melee combat, the number of active members modifier already includes the "friends in melee" modifier, thus they won't get any extra dice. However, the defender still gets his negative "foes in melee" modifier (max -4) as per normal rules. Their base damage in melee is half their Mob Rating (round down) + weapon damage + 1 for every 2 active members.
Mob Initiative equals twice their Mob Rating + active Members (max 4). They have 1 initiative pass, unless all members are boosted in some way. If only one member is boosted, he should be handled by himself and not be considered part of the group.
Their melee defense equals twice their group rating + active members. The entire group can go into full defense, using twice their rating + twice their active members.
In range defense, they only get their normal mob rating + active members (twice if in full defense).
They resist damage with their Mob Rating + their Armor (assume all members wear the same armor).
Mob Damage Track equals their Mob Rating x active Members. However, instead of applying a wound modifier, every time the damage reaches the Mob Rating, one of the members will be considered as dead or unconcious. So it is possible to take out more than one targe with one single attack, allowing for a more dramatic gameplay.
Physical and Stun damage count equal towards this damage track, and it's up to the GM (and damage used by the players) to determine if anybody survived at the end of combat.
All members of a mob attack as one unit for combat purpose, rolling their dice pool according to their purpose (see above). The base damage equals the damage of their weapons (they usually all wield the same weapon within a group) + 1 for every 2 active members of the group (+2 any other modifiers for burst damage, ammo type, etc).
A mob usually only attacks once per turn.
The mob rating also determines the composure, willingness to fight, morale of the group.
I like to call this "Mob Moral", and it's equal to the mob rating + active members. Whenever the GM decides that the group might question the situation they are in (ie their mates are dying around them), their Moral will be rolled against a threshold defined by the GM (ie number of members taken out by a single attack). If they fail, the groupn will panic, maybe even try to flee the scene, surrender, or simply reduce their mob rating by 1 (more of glitched).
In some situations, there might be a single NPC that is the leader of the entire mob (ie Gang leader). He can use a complex action to roll Leadership + Charisma (same treshold) to boost the morale of his troups again, thus negating the effects of the failed composure roll.
The group has an Edge attribute equal to the active members of the group (max Mob Rating).
Note: These rules are for nameless groups of grunts, not for professional operations. If a group is made of professional Mages, Gunners, weapon experts, riggers and hackers, they should be handled seperatly and offer a real challenge for the players.
Use the Mob rules for dramatic, action filled combat to give the players a sense of satisfaction againt grunts.
Example: A mob of gangers attacks the players. The gangers are split up into two groups: Melee, with a Mob Rating of 3, and Ranged, with a Mob Rating of 2. Each group has 3 active members, which gives the melee group a Damage Track of 9, and the ranged group gets 6.
The melee group has an initiatve of 3x2 + 3 (members), or 9. They roll 3 hits, which gives them an initiatve of 12 for this round.
The ranged group gets 2x2 + 3, or 7. With a lucky 4 hits, they'll get an initiative of 11 this time around.
The player character, however, acts first with his initiative of 15. He decides to take out the ranged mob first, before the melee group closes in. He fires a burst of bullets into the group, and scored 4 hits for his attack. The mob rolls their defense of 5 (2 Rating + 3 Members) and only scors 1 hit. So the final damage results into 10P (5 Base, 2 Burst, 3 net hits). The group resist with 7 dice (2 for Rating, 6 for their vests, -1 for AP), and scores 4 hits. The final damage is 6 damage. Since the Mob Rating is 2, the group will lose one member for every 2 damage taken, which is enough to take out the entire group at once.
The GM determines that one guy got hit right into his head by a bullet, while another one got hit just below his shoulder. The bullet then traveld through the body and came out the other end, hitting the third grunt in the stomach. The might not be all dead, but they are knocked out and might bleed to death before the fight is over.
Then it's the melee groups turn. They close in and attack the player with their clubs (+2P). They roll their Rating x 2 + 3 for their members + 1 Reach, or a total of 10 dice to attack, with 3 hits. The player rolls his defense (-3 for foes in combat) and only scores one lonely hit.
The base damage of the weapon is (Rating in place of strength/2 + 2 + 2 Net hits + 1 (3 members)) 6P.
Lucky for the player, he gets another pass. He drops is weapon and starts beating on the group with his bare fists. And with 5 hits on his attack, he might just get even more lucky.
The group is defending themselves with their Rating x 2 + 3 for their members, only scoring 1 hit. The base damage of the players attack is now at 6S, and the group doesn't score a single hit on their damage resistense, so they take the full damge of 6 Stun.
Since the group has a rating of 3, they now lose 2 people.
The GM tells the players that he rapidly hits through the defense of the group, blocking a couple of hits from the side, and breaks the jaw of one guy, while kicking another one in the groin, causing both to collapse. The last standing grunt starts to lose his faith, seeing how is mates and the ranged support have been taking out so quickly by just a single runner. The GM rolls his composure of 4 (3 Rating + 1 remaing active member) against a treshold of 2 (members fallen). He only scores one hit and determines that the last grunt goes on his knees and is holding his hands in front of his face, whining like a little girl. The character's fist is still up in the air, ready to strike again, and it's up to the player to decide, whether his character wants to go through with it or not.
Mob Dice Pools:
Main Role: Mob Rating x 2, + active members
Secondary Role: Mob Rating, + active members
Defense:
-Melee, Mob Rating x 2, + active members (x2 if in full defense)
-Ranged, Mob Rating, + active members (x2 if in full defense)
Damage: Base of weapon, + active members/2 (round down)
Damage Resist: Mob Rating + Armor
Damage Track: Mob Rating x active members (lose one member for ever [Mob Rating] damage taken)
Mob Moral: Mob Rating, + active Members
Mob Edge: active members (max Mob Rating)
As mentioned above, this concept can also be use outside of combat, for example in a social situation.
The face of the team, for example, could try to convince a mob of gangers to rebell against their cruel leader, by using her Charisma + Leadership (if supporting evidence is present) or Charisma + Con (to make up reaons for rebellion) as an extended test against the Mob Rating x 2 + active Members, with an interval depending on the situation. The group can resist this attempt by rolling Mob Rating (twice if social interactions is main role of the group, or they are 100% loyal, etc) + Active members, deducting hits directly from the player (making it harder to archive the threshold). If the player of the face can come up with convincing arguements, has hard evidence, or similar means to underline his point, she might be entitled to postive modifers. All other social modifiers (Street Cred, Notoriety, etc) apply as normal.