Topic: Called Shots

[Gladius]

Hi all,

I'm new to the boards, so forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I've been toying with the idea of working called shots into RMC.  First, I love the crit-system so I'd like it preserved but with called shots the charts might need to be changed. For the sake of illustration I'll limit the body parts to leg, arm, chest, head,. I'm thinking of something like this:

Within each crit type (A,B,C etc) each body part cycles through and as crit roll increase the damage increases. For example 1-2 =leg, 3-4=arm, 5-6=chest, 7 Head all with a similar level of damage, then the cycle repeats 8-9=leg, 10-11=arm, 12-13=chest, 14=head but the damage has increased. The cycle repeats until you get to 100, each time the damage is worse.  A player could then make a called shot, let's say chest. So our player attacks and gets a "B puncture" with a sadly low crit roll of 11. The player can then move the crit from 11 (arm) to 12 (chest) changing the location but not the "cycle" so the damage remains relatively the same.

There would need to be an ob penalty or perhaps a new skill or combat style (per combatant's guide) that allows a player to make a called shot.

I hope this made some kind of sense. It's early here.

[croakerdogboy]

I myself have worked with having different hit locations, allowing for called shots as well as different armor protection on different positions. Similar to what Aftermath had. The main thing though is I like the crit tables. I don't want the crit tables to be made generic so they are applicable to every hit area. So the only solution is to make a crit table for every location. That would to me be extremely cool (and a big book of tables). I like the idea of rolling a hit to the hand, then rolling concussion, then the crit on a table focused on the hand with the type of damage. Kinda like:

Slash crit
1-10 Lose tip of one finger, roll d10/2 for which one. +2Hp Bleed 1 h per round.

Krush crit
1 - 10 Smash tip of one finger roll d10/2 for which. +4Hp

..... You get the idea.

Lots of tables though. But then I like tables. 

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Rolemaster criticals have 2 main parts to them.

1) Flavor Text

2) Damage

The flavor text is what actually gives the location.  You can quite easily adjust it however you want, although some of the damage is sometimes based on that flavor text.

The problem with called shots is that you are in melee and while you are aiming for a specific location, you won't always achieve it.

In HARP, in the product Martial Law, Called Shots are handled by having the attack roll determine where the strike lands (one die determined rough location, the other determines which side, left or right), and you take an OB penalty for each 1 point adjustment on the location (you decide adjustment before you roll). You might want to possibly check into it. Martial Law also contains crit tables divided into 5 base hit locations.

It may contain something that you can convert to RM.

[Arioch]

Rolemaster criticals have 2 main parts to them.

1) Flavor Text

2) Damage

Right! The important part of the crit tables is the damage, flavor text is just flavor and you can change it according to your tastes 

A part from this, IMHO rolemaster already handles called shot very well, there's no reason to add new rules for them!
Just think why the character is performing a called shot: reasons are many, but basically they can be reduced to:

- He's trying to kill his foe hitting a "weak spot" (vitals, unprotected area,...): he is already doing this. Every attack in RM assumes that you're trying to kill your foe in the most efficient way possible.
- He's trying to hit something on the opponent or in his hands (weapon, shield, belt, potion, scroll, ...): use Disarm.
- He's trying to incapacitate the foe without killing him: use subdual criticals.
- He's trying to hit the only weak point of the enemy (the case of the invulnerable golem animated by a sigil): just give the enemy a very high DB and only the HPs that its "weak point" may sustain. This works also if the character is trying to hit a part of his enemy that can be treated as a separate entity (for example: the eyes of a beholder).

Change the flavor text of the crits as you wish.

[Gladius]

Arioch, those are some great suggestions and are easy to impliment on the fly.

What I'd like to see in the future as ICE brings the systems together is all the cool crit charts from the RM systems and the hit locations from HARP in an official way.  For now though, I can work with the suggestions. I don't own HARP. When I got back into ICE products I picked the game that seemed to have new stuff coming out for it AND was one I loved from the past, so I got RMC. I'm hearing great things about HARP but my budget prevents me from getting both systems, at least for now. I'm looking forward to the day when all things merge. Anyway, I'm not trying to change the topic here, just putting in my 2 cents for lots o' tables and crits AND hit locations for future additions.

[Fornitus]

 My group has tried called shots in different ways over the years and they always came out feeling hoaky. So, our answer was to stick with the regular crit charts and just alow anyone wanting to do a called shot to reduce their crit roll up to their number of skill ranks until the crit is closer to what they want. Notice, for this I  said "reduce" only.
 With both side of combat moving continously a called shot is realy hard since the opponent may turn or something just as your attack is coming at them.
 If the attacker has suprise, thats another case. target probaly wont move mutch. Here we just take the normal crit and arbitraraly (that words not right) change the location but keep the damage and beeds and such.
 If something works, let us know. Always looking for the little details that add the right flavor to the game.

[Marc R]

My main problem with called shots comes down to armor.

Target is wearing rigid metal armor that covers their torso, abdomen, upper legs and upper arms so AT 18.

They are wearing heavy knee high boots of rigid leather, soft leather gloves and a metal pot style helmet that covers the whole head, but no face or neck protection.

You are now attacking and making a critical against AT 18 (Or a derived Armor from the CC AbtP system)

You can make a called shot on say the "Left hand" hit with a penalty for aiming, get a generic crit result to the left shoulder that does X damage, and apply it to the left hand, but none of this takes into account the fact that the shoulder you hit is plate armored, and the hand you hit is soft leather armored. . .

I suspect you can get a generic method that kind of works out of the system this way, but it doesn't really work quite right in the end. (I've tried).

[pastaav]

If you get "called shots" should I get "called parry" then?

If the defender know his left hand is unprotected he would be pretty dumb to not protect it, right?

[Marc R]

That's a good counter idea. . .ala "If you parry to cover one body part, you get +20 parry DB to aimed shots on that location, but -20 parry db to all other locations, or -10 parry db to non aimed attacks".

Or something like that. . .sort of like when a boxer gets to concerned about their head and their opponant tunes up on their body.

Also, side effects matter. . .like a head shot should stun more often, and a hand shot should have more of a chance of causing a disarm, while a leg shot should cause down results more often. . .etc. etc.

[yammahoper]

This reminds me of playing Strato Matic Football.

If you "keyed" a play, and that play occured, the result was an automatic loss of two yards by the offense.

Never really liked the rule.

lynn

[Marc R]

I suspect that for many reasons, this would get way heavy and complicated, perhaps too much so to actually end up worth using.

[dutch206]

re:  Called Shots

Make mine MacAllan Single Malt Scotch, please.  Rasyr is paying, so drink up! 

[yammahoper]

Tequila.  No salt, but I will take a lime.

lynn

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Rasyr is paying, so drink up! 

Don't look at me, I'm not even there...   

[Balhirath]

Like many others I have given up trying to make a good 'Called shot' system
However I have read a called shot system in ICE book a long time ago.. I cant remember which one, but I think that it was a SpaceMaster book.

[Gladius]

I guess part of my motivation for wanting a called shot system comes from a warhammer frp game (also no called shots). I was running that system for the first time with a group of people who had never played it before. One of them was a complete newbie to rpgs. Not Dnd, not nothin.' He wanted his elf to shoot a beastman in the eye. Now at this point I made a mistake, and I admit it. I could have just winged it and made it very,very hard for him to do, or try to tell him his character was too inexperienced to pull of this kind of feat etc. But instead I said something like 'the system doesn't allow it.' I saw instantly that it was a big mistake. His eyes kind of glazed over after that, and he wasn't into the game anymore. I think he didn't play after that (the rest of the group is still gaming two years later). The thing is I've been playing RPGs for years. I don't expect cinematic Legolas craziness in the games--maybe a little bit when high-level meets low level, like the old ADnD rule for fighters that gave fighters one attack per level against zero level opponents, but not in general. The thing is I want new gamers to play, and I don't want them all playing 4x exclusively. There should be games with a little more complexity out there too, and maybe to win over more new players (and I mean maybe. I'm no industry guru.) the rules should allow things like called shots. Make them hard...insanely hard, but possible. RM/RMC and Hackmaster are my 3-4x alternatives of choice, and I'd love for these systems to draw in new players. /End Blather.

[Warl]

there was, in one of the RM2 Companions, (I will have to look for it when I get back home) a Critical table that had ALL location references removed so that, if one made a called shot to a specific location, if gave extra hits, rounds of stun or parry, and action penalties, but left out other info.

When I find it I will let ya know.

[Gladius]

Thanks a million, Warl.

[Warl]

Okay it took me a bit of research to find it.

I Didn't find it in a Companion. (doesn't mean it wasn't IN a companion, but I wasn't going to search COMP page by page, I just checked the backs where the charts were and didn't find it).

I found it in the June 1993 Volume 1 Issue 1 of Grey law. (I think I am one of the few who still have these Magazines) found on page 20 (reference given just incase you have or can get your hands on a copy) in an Article called "Strategic Targeting: Damage by location"
If anyone Knows if this article was Republished in one of the Companions. let us know.

This article had more than just a crit chart striped of locations, it also has area Modifiers to DB/OBs based on Race, additional Modifiers for Non humanoid locations, and a Chart for rolling the Location Randomly.

By using this method you also have to track a secondary Hit point system called "Structural rating(SR) which indicates how much Structural damage a location on a character can take before being rendered Inactive/useless/severed. (GM choice) The crit chart, Instead of adding additional Hits, they deliver Structural Points or SPs  and then additional results like Bleeding and Stun.

A few things I think the article Missed was Determining Penalties for injuries. How much of an Areas SR equals what Penalty to actions. It also does not include Vital Organ Hits nore very many Unconscious results.

With a little GM tweaking these things could be added in and/or Modified based on location hit. An unconscious result is less likely to happen hitting an arm or leg. In fact hitting an Arm leg or hand Might also indicate a Reduction in the stun rounds results. Some locations Might indicate a Lower rate of bleeding and such, so adding Stun and Bleed Modifiers By location might be a good way to go as well.

Anyway, If it sounds like what your looking for, or you just want to take a Gander at it, and your Not able to find a Copy of these rules anywhere else, PM me your E-mail and I will scan and send it to ya.

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

It was republished in Arms Companion -- pages 30-31, with the Crit table on page 115.