Combat and Damage

Now for the totally revamped combat and damage system. This system was developed with some very helpful brainstorming sessions with RabidHystrix on Reddit. As such, I’m calling this damage system the Hystrix System. Instead of going with the Cortex Plus Stress system for direct physical damage, it will be a body hit location system. All characters no matter how experienced they are have the same durability. Damage has been reworked, Trion Drain has been reworked, as well as how Shield is handled.

Hit locations

Where a character is hit during an attack is determined by the margin of success. However much higher than the defender you rolled determines which zone is hit. Each zone has a different amount of hit boxes associated with it. The total durability of a Trion body is 150 hit boxes. Each box represents 1 point of damage taken in that area. If one area has taken all their hitboxes worth of damage, it is considered gone, severed, blown off, etc.

For example, if Zone 3 on the upper left arm takes a full 10 points damage, the arm is considered severed at that point. It also means that zone 1 and 2 of the left arm are no longer there to take damage. This is one way in which critical hits doing more damage is represented. Here is a quick picture I sketched with the basic idea:

The hit location zones:

• Zone 1: Hands/Feet – rolled 1 higher than defender
• Zone 2: Calves/Forearms – rolled 3 higher than defender
• Zone 3: Thighs/Upper arms – rolled 5 higher than defender
• Zone 4: Lower Torso – rolled 7 higher than defender
• Zone 5: Upper Torso – rolled 9 higher than defender
• Zone 6: Head – rolled 11 higher than defender
• Zone 7: Direct hit on Trion Relay or Trion Supply – rolled 13 higher than defender

The idea of going this route is that with every attack it is assumed that everyone is aiming for Zone 7, and the defender is doing everything they can to keep Zone 7 away from the attacker. Rolling 1 higher means the defender was also almost successful in completely dodging, so only the extremities will likely take damage.

Trion Drain

When a character is hit, there is trion drain from the Trion Body. A character’s Trion Drain Value is equal to 10 times the Trion Parameter. A Trion Parameter value of 5 has a Drain Value of 50. Hit location determines the total amount of Trion Drain for being hit in that location.

The Hit location’s Zone is how many Action rounds a character suffers Trion Drain due to that wound. If a character with a Trion Parameter value of 5 was hit in zone 3 upper left arm and it got severed off, for 3 rounds the character would subtract 50 Trion from their capacity. Considering a Trion Parameter value of 5 has 594 to 788 total Trion, 150 less Trion is about 19 – 25 % of their total Trion. After those three rounds, the wound is considered sealed and no more leakage will occur from there.

Shield Value

A character’s Shield value is determined by their Trion parameter + Defense Parameter. In the case of Raygust in defense mode, it is based off of Shield technology but is considered stronger than shield. It’s base durability of SS gives it a value of 12 + Trion + Defense if used in the place of Shield. This is the base value, and this value can be modified. For each time a character uses Shield, or Raygust to deflect an attack, the trigger skill dice is rolled and added, representing a situational variability element.

The base Shield size covers 4 Zones. Usually these are zones 4 – 7. Each zone covered by the shield, or Raygust will absorb damage equal to it’s shield value plus the trigger skill dice roll. Changing the size of the shield to cover more zones, or less zones in the case of a focused shield, will change the shield Value. For each zone extra covered, subtract 2 from the shield value. For each zone less covered, add 2 to the shield value. A focused shield on zone 6, the head, will have a total of 4 added to the shield value. Even in the case of focused or expanded shielding, each zone covered can absorb the shield value in damage.

Going Full guard with 2 shields will double the Shield Value.

Damage

The attack parameter now directly affects the damage that a character can inflict, which more accurately represents the way this parameter is supposed to be. Each Trigger type has a base damage. The total damage that is done by an attack is calculated by: base value + attack parameter + trigger skill dice roll. The Trigger skill adds a random situational element, but is not the majority of the damage calculation.

Trigger base damage values:

• Kogetsu (A): 8
• Scorpion (A): 8
• Raygust (B): 6
• Egret (B): 6
• Lightning (C): 4
• Ibis (SS): 12
• Asteroid (D): 2
• Hound (E): 0
• Viper (E): 0
• Meteora (E): 0

Some may think it strange that the Shooter/Gunner triggers have very low base damage, but remember that multiple bullets can be fired.

In the case of Gunners, the gun type of their trigger determines how many bullets are fired. Semi-automatic fires 2 bullets per action. Burst fire can do 2 bursts per action, with 3 bullets per burst. Full Auto can fire up to 12 bullets per action. Each additional bullet fired does less damage than the first, subtracting 2 per bullet.

A character with a 7 Attack firing an Asteroid SMG with 2 bursts would do 9 damage on the first, 7 damage on the second, 5 damage on the third, 3 damage on the fourth, 1 damage on the fifth, and the sixth would be 0. Total damage would be 25 plus the dice assignment for that trigger skill. The plus 2 per bullet on Asteroid really shines here. If Hound were instead used, it would be 7 damage for the first, 5 damage for the second, 3 damage for the third, 1 damage for the fourth, and 0 for the other two bullets. The total damage would be 16 plus the dice assignment for that trigger skill.

In the case of shooters, the dice assignment for the Trigger skill determines how many bullets of the many they split up were able to hit on target. Similar to gunners, each extra bullet subtracts 2 per bullet.