Runequest vs Call of Cthulhu

[simonh]

On the other hand, if you have a bunch of guys 30 yards away, and you want to kill as many of them as possible, then automatic fire seems like the better option. That seems more in line with what I've read about World Wars I and II, and my experience in Squad Leader when I took a platoon across the street and it didn't make it. As explained by the guy who was teaching me the game, he explained that maybe two or three guys would have made it across the street.

Well in that case you're talking about a whole squad firing at another whole squad and resolving that, over a period of maybe a minute per turn. It's a very different situation to RPGs where you're resolving the actions of a single character over a period of a few seconds.

Bear in mind that the actual recoil of an automatic rifle firing real bullets is a shocking surprise to everyone who experiences it the first time. Stability is the main issue. If you've got a bipod or pintel mount, or perhaps even a solid support like a wall or tree to steady you're weapon against - and I men press on to it with you're whole body weight to keep it as stable as possible, all but the first handfull of rounds are going to go skywards.

 

[Utgardloki]

Bear in mind that the actual recoil of an automatic rifle firing real bullets is a shocking surprise to everyone who experiences it the first time. Stability is the main issue. If you've got a bipod or pintel mount, or perhaps even a solid support like a wall or tree to steady you're weapon against - and I men press on to it with you're whole body weight to keep it as stable as possible, all but the first handfull of rounds are going to go skywards.

The D20 system has a concept of proficiency, which effectively keeps characters who are not trained in a weapon type from using weapons of that type.

For Runequest (or Cthulhu), it should be easy enough to put a minimum skill level required. Perhaps rules such as the following:

* Firing this type of weapon is a Very Simple task. No roll is necessary if your skill level is 20% or higher. If your skill level is less than 20%, then a success at +80% is needed to get this weapon to fire.

* Area of Effect fire requires at least 35% skill in the weapon being used. Otherwise, you can only make one attack per combat action, regardless of whether firing in single shot, controlled burst, or automatic mode. You still use up the full number of bullets if firing in controlled burst or automatic mode. Setting the gun to fire in the desired mode is a Very Simple task (+80%; no roll necessary if you have at least 20% skill in this weapon).

That should keep the untrained user from effectively using automatic weapons.

 

[simonh]

Well, full automatic can be very useful at close quarters. How's this.

An automatic weapon can fire up to a certain number of round in a 'controlled burst', depending on it's recoil and hence controllability. For each round after the frist, give a +5% bonus to hit. An M16 can fire 3 round bursts (+10%), an MP5 6 round bursts (+25%). On a hit, you roll the appropriate die to indicate the number of hits (1D2, 1D3, 1D4, 1D6 or 1D10).

When firing at groups of targets you can double the number of rounds you can fire, and hence increase the potential bonus considerably, but you still roll the same die for the number of rounds that hit. Thus firing an M16 at a groups of targets at medium range you can fire 6 rounds for +25%, but you only roll 1D3 to decide how many hit. Hits are allocated randomly among targets in the group.

At close ranges up to you're DEX in metres you can fire up to 10 rounds in full automatic mode with any automatic weapon (+45%). When firing at a group at this range you can fire up to 20 rounds, but only get +5% for every 2 extra rounds fired, and roll for half the number of hits (up to 1D10).

If you have a fixed, or opther very stable mount for you're weapon you can double you're DEX for determining close range.

 

[Richard]

I did this a decade or so ago. Wrote a detailed early human colonisation of 'near' space campaign and reworked the RQ3 rules (Although was very familiar with BRP from CoC and took some damage/contemporary stuff from this if I remember). It worked extremely well. I adapted the RQ3 sorcery rules for psionics. For space combat one of the RQ3 features for personal combat proved ideal. Spaceships had two hit location charts Similar to the melee and missile charts used in RQ3). The first was for their hull configuration (Needle, sphere, saucer, dispersed etc) which determined which outer feature was damaged (Sensors, superstructure, shields or weapons) and a second for allocation of any interior damage which breached the hull (Engines, fuel, cargo, bridge etc) based on the proportion of the ship these would take up depending on it's function (Subluminary or FTL Trader, battleship, transport etc). RQ3/CoC model was great for doing futuristic professions. Just made a list of appropriate skills for each PC profession and use CoC mechanism of EDUx15% of skills divided among professional package and INTx2 in any others as background. 100+ pages of one of me old hardback campaign books. But all pen + paper I'm afraid. Rumoured BRP deluxe release next year covering main RPG genres similar to their old Worlds Of Wonder package. Go for it, but BRP/CoC/RQ3 rather than MRQ is your best bet.

 

[simonh]

Yep, I went through a phase where all of my games used a combination of Call of Cthulhu and Elric game mechanics. I ran a few one-off Star Trek games, a short Traveller campaign and a Glorantha game all using the same basic BRP mashup rule set. It worked great and for an orriginal setting or one where I don't like the 'official' published rules I'd do it again.

I like variations of HeroQuest and Amber Diceless for some things, but for 'gritty realism' games BRP is the way to go for me as it's so much simpler and IMHO more natural and accessible that GURPS, but I use it for the same sorts of things other people user GURPS for.

 

[Richard]

I agree on the BRP front. Just about to start a, probably lengthy Traveller campaign. Using GURPs (My girlfriend got it for me years ago and I thought I'd better give it a shot before I got old..well older). Work on a new campaign takes ages but the prep did seem a bit longer using GURPs. Some useful web stuff though. Those advantages/disadvantages can seem a bit arbitary and the full combat system looks a wee bit time consuming for my tastes. If I go with a simple 'roll under target on 3d' approach and don't fret too much over detail hopefully it'll all come together. May get easier with practice. Still looking forward to multi-genre BRP release (If it happens!).