House Rules for Combat
Ammunition
In general, you can consider yourself to have unlimited 'standard' or 'gel' ammo for your gun at no cost. This does not apply to special weapons like dart guns, or to any weapon where the ammo is significantly expensive. It applies only to basic 'guns', not to missile launchers or anything like that. And it only applies 'within reason' — i.e. no, you can't consider yourself to have 10,000 rounds that you can then empty the gunpowder out of to build a high explosive. It's subject to reasonability rules as to how much you could carry, as well.
In short, this is intended to reflect that standard and gel ammo is cheap and easily available. It's not worth keeping track of on a round-by-round basis. When in doubt, ask an admin.
In addition, the actual clips are ignored in the game at present, and are virtualized. Do not worry about how many empty clips you have, etc. It's not important (especially at 5 =Y= a pop).
Armor
We would be using the errata's rules on armor penalties, but they're a real bitch. We're using a slight tweak on them.
For every two points by which the sum of your Ballistic and Impact ratings are above two times your Quickness, you lose a die of Combat Pool.
Layering Penalties
If you are layering armor, find the total of all the Ballistic and Impact Armor you're wearing. For every two points this is above two times your quickness, you suffer a +1 TN penalty to all Quickness related tasks. Note that some armor does not count as 'layering'.
Called Shots (Book Rules Clarification)
Calling a shot means that the character is aiming at a vulnerable portion of the target. A character can only make a called shot with weapons that fire in single-shot, semi-automatic, and burst-fire modes.
- When a shot is called, either:
- A. increase the Damage Code by one level,
- B. The character may hit a specific sub-target on something vehicle-sized or larger. Do not change the Damage Code of the attack; the standard effect of staging up a Called Shot is negated by the vehicles Damage Level reduction. The power of the attack is not halved, subtract armor normally. Certain components, such as external fuel tanks or runflat tires, may have separate Body and/or Armor Ratings.
- C. A character can intentionally target a non-armored body part with a drugged weapon. A successful called shot negates any Impact armor worn FOR THE DRUG ONLY. If the weapon used also causes damage, the damage from it is still staged as per normal armor rules. Furthermore, calling a shot does not defeat chemsealing, just the impact armor. Chemseal always counts at it's full rating against chemical weapons, unless the weapon itself notes that it does not.
Helmets - Armor Clarification
Two options exist for characters looking for head protection, the Ares HD-2 and the Rapid Transit Helmet. These are the only options that may be worn with 'normal' clothing. Security- and Military-Grade helmets are not compatible with any sort of armor other than their appropriate armour type, as they are an integral part of said armour, draw power from said armor, interlock for stability with said armor, and seal with said armor to provide any air or sealed system benefits.
Vision mag - Require a free action to use.
In order to use a any vision magnification, be it cyberware, magical in nature, or a scope, you must expend a free action before you may gain benefits.
Shock Weapons
Weapons such as Shock Gloves, Stun Batons, and Tasers use electricity to cause damage to characters. At Denver, the following rules apply:
When a character takes damage from an electrical effect, he does not have to roll for damage on each and every system in his entire body. If it was a called shot to a location (or indeed, to an obvious cyber system), that system may have to resist the effects at the GMs discretion. (It just takes too much time to do all the rolls.)
Melee Weapons such as Shock Gloves and Stun Batons do both a physical blow and the electrical stun. The physical blow's damage is staged up with successes - the electrical stun damage is not. Combat pool may be applied to both rolls.
Tasers and other electrical projectiles do stage up however, but they do not do any physical damage.
Surprise and reaction
Anyone against whom a character achieves either form of surprise may not act against anyone who surprised them. Nor may they use any pools except karma pool to respond to those actions or defend against them.
Infact, when you are surprised, the only rolls on which you may use combat pool (or other pools) to defend yourself are damage resistance rolls. You may *always* use your combat pool to resist damage if you are able to move and react at all.
Note that it is perfectly possible, especially with standard surprise, to be surprised by one opponent and not another. Once again, you may not take offensive action toward any character who surprised you during the surprise round, nor may you use any pools except karma pool to defend (except for damage resistance tests), just as above.
Two Weapon Combat Styles
There are three basic penalties commonly associated with fighting with two weapons that apply to all such tests and attack rolls:
* +2TN for wielding two weapons
* +2TN for wielding a weapon in your off hand
* +2TN/per for attacking more than one target in a single combat phase
These penalties apply individually and seperately even if previous ones do not, such as wielding a single weapon in your off-hand for some reason, or attacking two targets in a row in one combat phase with two shots from your only weapon.
Melee
Melee Attacks treat off-hand weapons as complementary dice on a single roll, instead of an entirely separate attack. This means that the off-hand dice cannot be rolled unless at least one success is rolled on the primary attack, and that it takes two successes on the off-hand roll to grant one 'effective' success on the primary attack roll.
Combat Pool dice may be spent on the complementary off-hand roll, separately allocated and in addition to those spent on the primary attack roll.
Use all weapon characteristics of the primary hand, and only the primary hand, for determining damage, secondary effects, etc. You may switch primary hand with a Ready Weapon action.
Cyber-implant melee weapons use the above rules, instead of and fully replacing those found beginning on SR3 p121.
Ambidexterity
Linked to Quickness, this skill is not modified by Enhanced Articulation or Reflex Recorders, only the Cerebellum Synchronizer can raise it. It reduces specific penalties at -1TN per 2 points in this skill, applied in the following order even if that penalty doesn't affect a given attack or roll:
| Skill Rating | Effect |
|---|---|
| 0- 1 | No Effect |
| 2- 3 | Using Two Weapons Penalty reduced to +1 |
| 4- 5 | Using Two Weapons Penalty removed |
| 6- 7 | Off Hand Penalty reduced to +1 |
| 8- 9 | Off Hand Penalty removed |
| 10-11 | 2nd Target Penalty reduced to +1 |
| 12-13 | 2nd Target Penalty removed |
| 14-15 | 3rd Target Penalty reduced to +1 |
| 16-17 | 3rd Target Penalty removed |
Unarmed Combat and starting maneuvers
In chargen, you don't have to pay 2 active skill points for getting your first martial art maneuver per two levels of the skill. On the other hand, you can't buy a second maneuver per two levels, either.
Vision Magnification and Smartlink
While a character may be simultaneously equipped with a smartlink system and an imaging scope or cyberware/vision mag adept power, the modifiers from both may not be used at the same time.
So a samurai could use vision magnification to reduce the target number when shooting a target at long range, and then switch to using a smartlink to reduce the target number against a target at short range - but he couldn't use both the smartlink and vision mag modifiers on the same target.
