House Rule regarding damage and damage resistance

[MrNexx]

So, I swear I read this house rule somewhere, but I cannot recall where.

D6 Space changed damage for Strength-based attacks to being one-half your Lift die code... so someone with a 6D Lift would do 3D with a punch, or 3D+Weapon Damage with a weapon.

However, I could've sworn that there was a similar rule, somewhere, changing Damage Resistance to being based on your Stamina die code... so one could increase your damage resistance by improving a skill. The version I recall also reduced Damage Resistance to half of your Stamina code.

Anyone know the source of this? Or is it just something we came up with and later ascribed to having read it somewhere?
_________________
"I've Seen Your Daily Routine. You Are Not Busy!"
“We're going to win this war, not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.�
http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/

[Whill]

Welcome to the Pit, MrNexx!

[MrNexx]

This was part of why you cut the DR in half... so, your bullet-proof wookie with 8D Stamina only has 4D Damage Resistance.
_________________
"I've Seen Your Daily Routine. You Are Not Busy!"
“We're going to win this war, not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.�
http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/

[Whill]

[MrNexx]

A few reasons:

1) It directly addresses the blaster-proof wookie. That 6D Strength Wookie has only a 3D damage resistance... he still needs to worry about a blaster pistol.
2) With halved strength damage for melee weapons, halved strength for damage resistance keeps them dangerous.
3) It encourages characters to either wear armor, seek cover, or both, since damage is so much more dangerous.
4) By basing it on Stamina, it provides an alternate, cheaper way of increasing damage resistance... somewhat important when you've reduced it.

Essentially, it addresses the problems that happen at the upper end of damage resistance, and encourages options that reduce the likelihood of being hit/increase damage resistance. A starting wookie CAN still become blaster-proof, on average, by boosting their Stamina to 8D, but it's a more expensive route.

(I do use a slightly different form of halving; the D6 Space uses "Drop pips, cut in half"; I include the pips, count each die at 3 pips, and divide from there. So a 6D+2 is [{6*3}+2] is 20 pips, cut in half to 10 pips, which becomes 3D+1... exactly half.)
_________________
"I've Seen Your Daily Routine. You Are Not Busy!"
“We're going to win this war, not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.�
http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/

[shootingwomprats]

The easiest way to get around the bulletproof wookiee is limit damage soak to 4D or 5D. After that only armor modifiers. As with most things, heavier armor comes with some nasty negative mods to DEX, so it helps even things out as well. Besides, a cap makes it nice and easy. No need for math or special formulas =)
_________________
Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[Whill]

MrNexx, now I understand that you already do this, but couldn't remember where you got the idea from and in the OP you were looking to see if anyone knew. You're the first person I've ever heard of that does that, so sorry I can't answer your original question and have no idea where you got that idea from.

[MrNexx]

[Whill]

[Dredwulf60]

How I handle damage from various sources:

Resisting the hit
Roll to resist damage rolls from attacks, this is often called ‘soak’ damage.


Vs Brawl:
When taking damage from brawl attacks, roll Toughness (skill) to resist, (or default to Strength attribute at half rolled result.)
Physical armor dice will assist.

Vs Blunt:
When taking damage from blunt melee weapons, roll toughness (skill) to resist (or default to Strength attribute at half rolled result.)
Physical armor dice will assist.

Vs Edged or ballistics:
When taking damage from edged melee weapons, or firearms.
you cannot use toughness (skill).
You must default to Strength attribute to resist at half rolled result.)
Physical armor dice will assist.

Vs Blasters and Energy and explosives:
When taking damage from blasters or other energy weapons, the die code rolled is based on the species size:

Small: 1D (Jawa, Ewok, Dug, Ugnaut)
Med: 2D (Human, Rodian, Twi’lek, Duros)
Large: 3D (Wookiee, Gamorrean, Whiphid)
Huge: 4D (Herglic, Hutt)

Energy armor dice will assist.

A character can never roll less than 1D to soak any damage.


Applying damage:
If the total of the damage dice is greater than the total of the ‘soak’ dice, the character will be hurt.

Brawl damage or blunt melee is applied to Stun track.

Firearms or Blaster damage is applied to physical track

Explosives damage is applied to Both tracks.


----

For attacking, I have a 'hitting power' skill associated to Strength attribute that is used for basing brawling and melee weapon damage.


With this, I have a very robust cover and dodge house rule system, which is covered elsewhere. On the whole, with the above system, it makes seeking cover very attractive and useful when blaster bolts are flying.

[Matthias777]

I figured I'd throw this out there in case someone finds it a better alternative for their game:

My house rule for resisting damage is that all species have a Durability die code, which cannot be altered. Characters get to add their number before the "D" from the Strength attribute, in the form of pips. If you're using stock damage die codes for blasters and such, I'd make the Durability die code 2D for 99% of all sentient species. So say you've got a Wookiee with 5D Strength. Since the number before the "D" in their Strength attribute is 5, they'd get to add 5 pips (converts to 1D+2) to their Durability (2D) to resist damage, so they'd roll 3D+2 when resisting damage. I have increased damage for ranged weapons in my game, though (it gives me more freedom when statting melee weapons, but that's another story), so my default Durability is 3D. Making Durability a standalone stat also lets you give durasteel-chassis droids a relatively high Durability while still having just 1D in Strength. For species (or droids) with natural armor, you can give them a special ability to increase their resistance to a certain type (or types) of damage, or simply give them a higher Durability stat.
_________________
Arek | Kage

[Dredwulf60]

[atgxtg]

I think a skill based Damage Resistance rule, like what D6 Space uses for melee damage would actually make the "Blaster-proof Wookiee" problem worse!

Now yes, initially implementing such a rule would reduce the soak dice for a STR 6D Wookiee from 6D down to 3D, but once the players realize how it works they are going to start raising Stamina. So down the road, not only will you see the Wookiee rolling 6D again, but you might see 7D or 8D! Especially if someone takes "Damage Resistance" as a skill specialty (and why wouldn't they?).

Worse still, all of the Wookiee's wimpy friends can now do the same, so you might start to see Human, Ewoks and Jawas with resistances above 4D.



Another possible solution to the "Blaster-proof Wookiee" problem might be to give characters a fixed soak total, Maybe something like STR pips.


Or you could bring back the old Stun rule from first edition. back then if the damage total was more than half the soak total the character took a stun result. That way the Wookiee might not get hurt, but he will get stunned into unconsciousness after a few hits.

[MrNexx]

[Matthias777]