SLA House Rules

[Dog Pants]

It's only a problem in massive combats, no big deal.

I was thinking the same thing for ID, but it might be a bit of a nightmare to track.

[Dog Pants]

Advanced Science Friction equipment, available at ability 12 (advanced) and 20 (artisan). Items placed on the Deathsuit will replace the standard ones (ie, only one at a time).


horse Ebb Kinetic (Blast)

Advanced: Rifle
A carbine sized matchlock rifle made of Science Friction material and dense, black wood. The Rifle doubles the range of Blast abilities.

Artisan: Cannon
This stubby and ornate weapon resembles a large bore rifle with the barrel sawn off, and is covered in tiny glyphs. The cannon doubles the blast radius of Bomb abilities.

Glacial Ebb (Blue Thermal)

Advanced: Frozen Charge
The Frozen charge is a small cylinder that may be attached wherever the Ebon likes on the Deathsuit. It has a matte, rubber-like texture, and due to its low surface temperature causes it to be covered with a light layer of frost. The Charge holds up to double Ebon's CONC in flux, to be used with Blue Thermal abilities.

Artisan: Frost Plates
Frost plates are sturdy metallic plates that attach to the Deathsuit's upper arms. Small vents in them emit tendrils of icy mist. The Frost Plates double the effects of Create Cold/Resist heat abilities.

Voice of the Ebb (Communication)

Advanced: Timer
The Timer is a small black Science Friction pocket watch which can either be tucked into part of the Deathsuit or mounted on the chestplate. The Timer doubles the duration of any Communication ability.

Artisan: Grim Mask
The Mask is worn over the face of the Ebon, and when using the Possession ability will pull the Ebon back to their own body should their host be killed. Masks are made to resemble whatever the owner wishes, and vary from stony semblances of the wearer, to demonic visages.

Ebb Awareness (Detect)

Advanced: Monitor
The Monitor looks very similar to the Pathfinder, but is slightly larger. A slightly convex obsidian screen that mounts on the back of the Ebon's hand. The Monitor doubles the duration of any Detect ability.

Artisan: Cowl
The Cowl is a hood made from thin Science Friction material. Specific appearance varies, from dark and monk-like, to semi-transparent and ornate. The Cowl allows a wearer using the Death seek ability to feel as though they are actually experiencing moments within the dead's last few hours, rather than just seeing the images. It also adds an additional sense to other appropriate Detect abilities.

Augmentation (Enhancement)

Advanced: Ebb Blade
The Ebb blade usually resembles a black, organic sabre, although they can be made to resemble any bladed weapon. Alone the blade has the same stats as a powered weapon of the same type, but when used in conjunction with the Claws abilities it adds abilitie's stats onto blade's stats. The weapon still requires the appropriate weapon skill to use.

Artisan: Demon Projections
Demon Projections take the form of studs or spikes on the shoulders of the Deathsuit, giving the Ebon a brutal appearance. They allow the combination of two Enhancement abilities.

Art of Healing

Advanced: Casket
A small case of Science Friction material which can be carried or mounted on the waist. The casket can store a rank 12 Heal to be used on the Ebon, in the same way as precognative healing. The owner is required to place a pound of their own flesh in the casket before charging it.

Artisan: Spririt Bridle
The Spirit Bridle resembles a thin black choker. It is used to create a guide from the subject's psyche to assist in the Soul Caging ability.

Ebb Illumination

Advanced: Storm Net
The storm net is a fine lattice of silver wire which covers the surface of the Deathsuit. It grants the wearer immunity to electrical damage, including stun effects from the Charge ability, Jolt Gloves and Hotline rounds, and allows the effects of the Charge ability to be added to melee weapons.

Artisan: Glyph Forge
The Glyph Forge is a realtively large piece of Science Friction equipment, not designed to be protable. Used in the creation of Glyphs, it resembles a wide, glossy, anvil. Used as a focus instead of the Ebon creating a Glyph, it allows the Glyph to be bound to another individual. The Ebon who recieves the Glyph item must be present for the duration of the process, and as the Forge acts as a third party in the process it increases flux the cost by 10%.

Ebb Manipulation (Reality Folding)

Advanced: Beacon
The Beacon is a fist-sized egg shaped piece of Science Friction material with a hairline band around the centre which gently glows the colour of the owner's eyes. It is used as a target for an Ebon using Port abilities, so that they don't necessarily need to know the area which they are porting to. Other restrictions, such as range, still apply, but the Beacon can be carried and placed by anybody.

Artisan: Fleet Beacon
The Fleet Beacon resembles a smaller, flattened version of the Beacon. It allows a Foldship Navigator to coordinate a jump with one or more other navigators for formation manoeuvres.

Inferno Ebb (Red Thermal)

Advanced: Burners
Burners are narrow tubes which emerge from the forearm of the deathsuit and terminate in narrow nozzles on the back of the arm or hand. When an Ebon uses their Thermal Ball or Burn abilities, the nozzles focus the blast onto the target, providing an extra 4 PEN and 2 DAM.

Artisan: Heatsink
The Heatsink is a thin layer which sits under the Deathsuit and causes it to smoulder in any indented area. It reduces the flux cost of all Red Thermal abilities by 25% (rounded up).

Sense Perception (Senses)

Advanced: Sepia Lens
The Sepia Lens is a dark, red tinged piece of obsidian-like Science Friction material that sits over one or both of the eyes of the wearer. It doubles the duration of the Super Sense and Projection abilities.

Artisan: Dissipator
The Dissipator sits under the surface of the Deathsuit's helmet, visible only by thin gold, brass, or copper coloured grooves that run from brow to nape. It is a passive device which hides flux used by the wearer on themself from other Ebons.

horse Focus (Telekinesis)

Advanced: Refractor
The Refractor is formed by a number of long, thin crystalline ridges which are embedded into the deathsuit at the major joints. It adds the effect of refracting and weakening energy, including kinetic, to the Shield abilities. The Refractor adds an extra 25% (rounded up) ID and PV to shields, and protects against energy attacks (explosions, fire, laser etc). It also causes a small flash of light when the shield is struck as the energy dissipates.

Artisan: Fulcrum
The Fulcrum is a set of black, bone-like projections which fit over the back of the hands and forearms like an exoskeleton. When used with a Manipulation ability, they add 25% (rounded up) DAM, PEN and range.

[punkchuck]

With all the rule changes and me getting massively confused.. and honestly not even SEEING that this thread existed.. mittens.. I will probably need help to see where my character is at as far as stats. Maybe someone can help me with that when you have a moment. I have everything logged that happened to me. I would greatly appreciate it.

Yours truly, chuck.

[Dog Pants]

That combat was particularly tricky, even I got confused. As far as your stats go, Deject and Dirk sorted out any injuries, and for the sake of simplicity everyone can consider themselves healed up between BPNs unless they need hospital treatment. Armour repairs (5c per ID) are really all that needs sorting. Still, if you need any help feel free to ask here/PM/Xfire me.

[Dog Pants]

I've a couple of thoughts on automatic weapons. It seems to me that you should be able to trigger-lock and spray-and-pray. This would effectively have you firing on every phase. However, how would you penalist those who don't act on every phase? Two ideas;

On phases they don't act, the firer gets to shoot but as though they were unskilled (no skill or aims, -3 penalty).

On phases they don't act, the firer gets to shoot but can only make wild shots.

In both cases the weapon needs a RoF of at least 5, and they must declare trigger-locking on the phase they can act.

Anyone any thoughts or alternatives? I'm not quite happy with the options so far, but I think it's an option people should have.

[deject]

I think the first one is the better choice. Even making a wild shot requires an action, and if you can't act you shouldn't be able to take actions.

[Joose]

I think the first one is the better choice. Even making a wild shot requires an action, and if you can't act you shouldn't be able to take actions.

Also, im still a little concerned over the new PEN rules. Just had a look at the pen for different ammo sizes/types, and basically the only thing that does more than bruising to me at the moment is 17mm. And although my armour is pretty awesome, theres a few suits that are even *more* awesome.

Not that I mind being a walking tank, im just imagining what might happen if I upgrade my armour, then we meet some baddie in equally awesome armour. I can see us emptying both our guns into each other without doing significant damage, and then just standing about wondering what to do next.

[Grimmie]

Isn't that just similar to auto/support and supressive fire rules?

[Dog Pants]

Also, im still a little concerned over the new PEN rules. Just had a look at the pen for different ammo sizes/types, and basically the only thing that does more than bruising to me at the moment is 17mm. And although my armour is pretty awesome, theres a few suits that are even *more* awesome.

Not that I mind being a walking tank, im just imagining what might happen if I upgrade my armour, then we meet some baddie in equally awesome armour. I can see us emptying both our guns into each other without doing significant damage, and then just standing about wondering what to do next.

Very good point. I haven't run through it all the way up to high calibre/armour, but I did notice that the 11.35mm Warmonger was having little effect, when it should have been causing a lot of damage.

There's three ways of dealing with this:
Go back to the old vanilla rules, which aren't brilliant but do work.
Adjust the stats for ammo to make them a bit beefier.
Rejig the PEN rules to make them a bit more dangerous.

The first way kind of leaves us back at square one, with HEAP outgunning everything through pure damage. The second means we have to refer to custom ammo tables rather than the one in the book, which is confusing. The third might be tricky to do and make life more complicated. I'll have a look sometime soon, but as always I'm open to suggestions. I like to keep the rules organic, and even the game's developers seem to encourage that.

Isn't that just similar to auto/support and supressive fire rules?

It is, very similar. At the moment it only applies to suppressive fire, hosing an area, but I don't see a reason why someone couldn't trigger-lock on a target.

[Grimmie]

I think I mentioned to Joose that one way of balancing it out is for you to put more people into fights, rather than tougher people.

[Dog Pants]

I don't really like that, because it horses me to deviate from what I think is realistic within the scope of the BPN. I could have put 20 crap vets in, but realistically how many vets could disappear without anyone noticing? Also, lots of crap targets will prolong combat too, and generally be of little real threat.

[HereComesPete]

As I see it from a fairly neutral observance, HEAP should do way more damage regardless of calibre if it stands for high explosive armour piercing. If it doesn't then ah well.

Perhaps lessen it's frequency to elite combat units or a single lieutenant/leader type in a fight and make it cost a bit more for players too. Instead up the mm a bit in terms of weaponry but decrease the incidence of heap until everyone has better armour maybe?

I might be completely wrong here because I haven't read about all the variations but maybe more ammo types in all calibres? 10mm heap will still damage any armour to a degree, even walking tank stuff will get busted if enough heap hits it in joints and such. But even up to say ~13mm in hollowpoint will be less use against any armour, even the crappy plastic stuff that deject is wearing. And it'll be no use against the tank stuff.

Of course this would change per ammo type and calibre and the armour it is attacking. Rather complicated but would offer a far more accurate system and shorten fights whilst making them more violent.

It does require the player to pick and choose their target better and for you to offer up more information so that might make it a non-starter.

Just an idea.

[deject]

I like the ammo stats change idea, it'd rebalance them and if we put the new stats into a file then it would be rather simple to look up and possibly easier to look up than they are now. As it is they're spread out on multiple pages.

[Dog Pants]

I'm open to that if everyone finds it easier. It might need a bit of tweaking, but even something as simple upping the PEN by 50% could do it.

[HereComesPete]

Well I could spazz out a few more ideas on it if you're busy. Happy to help!

I've got the rulebook around and a head full of rpg/rl gun wankery to assist if you need a hand doggers.

[Grimmie]

Please don't make it more expensive.
Having a sniper rifle loaded with heap is already expensive enough a dream as it is!

[Joose]

I'm open to that if everyone finds it easier. It might need a bit of tweaking, but even something as simple upping the PEN by 50% could do it.

Thinking about it, I think all it would need is upping the PEN of the higher end stuff, and keeping the PEN the same on the lower end stuff. If we just up the PEN of everything then we have made the armour *and* the PEN better, and are therefore surely back where we started?

Having higher PEN at the top end makes the PEN useful, but the armour still awesome against lower end stuff. Plus it introduces more scary-tiem, which is always fun

"If he is packing standard ammo, it'll bounce off me. If he has HEAP, I'm a dead man. Worried!"

[deject]

Actually, how about we just modify AP ammo to actually be useful, modify HEAP to match and make it even more ridiculously expensive? Maybe increase pistol AP DMG by 50% (rounded up) and rifle AP DMG by 20% (rounded up), with the exception of 12.7mm Rifle, 17mm Pistol, and 17mm Rifle? HEAP could cost either 50% more or double while maintaining the same DMG and matching the AP in PEN. HP could get a price drop on certain calibers as well I think.

That way, there's a reason to buy AP ammo, and at the same time not making HEAP worthless.

[Dog Pants]

I'll have to go through some maths when I have time, all seem fairly viable. Incidentally, I created the HIVE rounds in the Hardware catalogue as an effective replacement for AP.

[deject]

I'll have to go through some maths when I have time, all seem fairly viable. Incidentally, I created the HIVE rounds in the Hardware catalogue as an effective replacement for AP.

I guess HIVE makes sense with your revised bullet penetration rules, but it's hard to justify buying those when up until now we really haven't encountered much that requires anything approaching that much penetration, so most of the time you're wasting the more expensive ammo. It's especially useless with 10mm, as it still wouldn't penetrate the really hard targets, and it has such small damage outputs that it wouldn't even bruise. That and it's more expensive than HEAP.

I don't know, I just feel like we need more powerful weapons to combat the new, tougher enemies we're facing and I don't even have money to buy decent armor, let alone buy a better gun.

Maybe if we start using the deteriorating armor rules then we could probably leave the rest of it alone, because like real armor, it will be great for stopping bullets at the start but once you start catching more than a couple, it loses a lot of its effectiveness.