A Simplified Combat Damage System

 As a preamble to the quick damage system. I'm going to give an overview of the standard megaTraveller/Striker combat system.

The standard combat system is lacking in a number of regards. the first and formost is with unarmed combat. I hope at some point to augment this system. For now, I will be addressing primarily the weapons combat damage.

This quick overview will touch on primarily direct fire combat using conventional weapons at standard distances up to very long distance. The following chart is a breakdown of the difficulty levels for pistol and rifle type weapons.

Type	Close	Short	Med	Long	V Long
Pistol	Sim	Rou	Dif	For	Imp
Rifle	Rou	Rou	Dif	Dif	For

Instead of using the standard system for assigning who fires when, I go by the "seat of my pants" in each situation giving a reasonable flow of events. I will use surprise by either the players of the NPCs to give advantage if it is called for. To hit a target using direct fire:

(difficulty), Weapon, Dex, Movement DM, 1 combat round (absolute).
Referee: The difficulty of this task will depend on the type of weapon and the distance to target.

The following increase difficulty by one level:

• Target under cover but still visible
• Small target (no greater than .5 meter in diameter)
• Attempting rapid (was that rabid?) fire

The following decrease the difficulty by one level:

• Large target (groundcar size or larger)
• Taking extra time to aim
• Using a targeting mechanism (laser sight, etc)

Now, once you've hit you need to determine if you've done any damage or not. To do this you will need to know the armor value of the target's armor and the penetration rating of your weapon/ammunition. The followiung chart shows some standard armor values:

Armor Type	Value
Mesh	2
Flak Jacket	3
Cloth/Kevlar	5
Vacc Suit	5-7
Combat Enviro Suit	6
Combat armor	8+
Battle Dress	10+

Other types of armor will give varying levels of protection. Next, you must determine the penetration rating at the distance fired. Each weapon has a penetration and an attenuation. The listed penetrations are for short range (1 to 5 meters). The attenuation indicates how many range bands to count before the penetration is halved. For example, if you are firing a 9mm pistol with standard ammo, your penetration will be 2 at short range and 1 at long range. Some weapons do not have an attenuation and so deliver the same damage at all ranges.

Once the armor value and the penetration are known you will compare the penetration to the armor. If the penetration value is at least twice the armor value, full damage is assessed. this is called a high penetration. If the penetration is at least equal to the armor value, half the damage is assessed. This is a low penetration. If the penetration is is less than the armor value the target will receive 10% of the damage if there are any unarmored areas. Otherwise if the target is completely armored no damage will be sustained. One addition I make to this is concussive damage for a person in body armor. A person may still be knocked down or killed by a good shot.

Another thing that will affect damage is the success of the shot. If the person only marginally hits the target (roll exactly what is needed) then the damage is halved. If there was exceptional success, then the damage will be increased as follows:

2+ -- 2 times normal damage (min of 1)
4+ -- 4 times the damage (min of 2)
8+ -- 8 times the damage (min of 3)

This also means that a weapon that normally would do no damage at a given range may inflict a minimum amount of damage even if it would normally not do any damage.

Quick Damage

To Hit resolutions are determined via the standard MegaTraveller combat rules. Once a living target has been hit, then the location of the hit should be determined. Roll 3d6 and refer to the Hit Location Chart. Once the hit location has been determined, the next step is to check the severity of the wound. Cross reference the body location of the hit with the number of die of damage determined during the To Hit roll. When a person is hit by an HE round, the severity of the wound is increased by one level. For example, if the person is hit in the center mass by 7 die of damage, an HE round would produce a major wound instead of a minor wound.

A person's Life Force is used to determine how compound wounds are treated. The first number in the Life Force is the number of minor wounds that an individual can take before those wounds are treated as a major wound. The second number indicates how many superficial wounds may be taken before they roll to a minor wound.
 
 

Combat Example

Harry and Joe start a firefight in a bar. Harry has a +2 with a 9mm pistol and is wearing no armor. Joe has a +1 with a 9mm pistol and is wearing a heavy leather jacket giving an AV of 1. Harry fires at Joe and has a modified roll of 7. Just what he needs to hit at short range. The damage is at least twice the AV, so he ends up doing 1 die of damage to Joe. He rolls a 4 for location, hitting center mass, but still only does superficial damage. Joe fires at Harry and obtains a modified roll of 12. With this roll, he will do 12 die of damage to Harry. His roll for hit location indicates upper torso. Harry takes a major wound.

Each person that is hit, has a a chance to be knocked down. The number of die of damage that a person takes will determine the difficulty of the task to stay on their feet. The Knockdown Chart shows the difficulty levels for the number of die of damage taken. For example, if a person takes 8 die of damage, it will be a difficult task for them to stay on their feet. The number of die of damage are cumulative for the round. So, if a player is hit by three different opponents in the same round, and takes 15 die of damage from the three, they will have to make a formidable task roll to remain standing.

The following is the Knockdown UTP:

To remain standing after taking damage: Variable, Str+End/2, Immediate (Uncertain)

The average of the Str and End bonus is used as a DM. If the player is knocked down, the player will be conscious unless they fail by more than 4.

Damage Chart

	Number of Die of Damage to Body Area
Damage  Level		Extremity	Outer Torso	Center Mass	Head
	Superficial	1-3	1-2	1	1
	Minor	4-8	3-7	2-5	2
	Major	9-40	8-30	6-9	3-8
	Death	41+	31+	10+	9+

 
 
 

Knockdown Chart

Die of  Damage	Difficulty  Level
1  2-3  4-8  9+	Simple  Routine  Difficult  Formidable