Wise Turtle Publishing

I have been trying to come up with a guide line for just how powerful a given Level in the Attack Ability ought to be. I thought I would post my benchmarks here and see if I get any feedback or differences of opinion.

Attack Level 0, DX=½: Some purposely build practice weapons, padded clubs and the like.

Attack Level 0, DX=1: Unarmed Combat – punching with bare fists, kicking (bare footed or regular foot ware), biting (normal human), thrown rocks and sticks. Some small improvised weapons. Many practice weapons (shinai, blunted weapons, etc.)

Attack Level 1, DX=2: Small Melee Weapons, knives, daggers, tantnō, brass knuckles, saps, small clubs, etc. Most improvised weapons. Light missile weapons, thrown knives, hatchets, slingshots, low to medium powered pistols, light rifles (.22 long rifle), small arrows or bolts (like from a hand crossbow).

Attack Level 2, DX=3: Substantial Melee Weapons, most swords, wakizashi, katana, maces, large clubs, war hammers, battle axe, spears, axes, etc. Large caliber handguns and most rifles, C-60 Maser Anti-Personnel setting, arrows and bolts, sling bullets, hand grenades (remember they will be Area Effect), 40mm and smaller grenades (which may be Area Effect and/or Multiple Target).

Attack Level 3, DX=4: Big Melee weapons, Two-handed swords and axes, Ōdachi, cavalry lances, etc. Heavy Machineguns (.50-cal or larger), Very powerful rifles (elephant guns or very powerful sniper rifles), C-60 Maser Anti-Entity setting, some light low tech cannons.

Attack Level 4, DX=5: Really Big Melee weapons (Usually those too large for people with normal strength to use), Goliath’s sword (he was about 10-feet tall). Light cannons and Light anti-tank weapons, the C-90 “Dragon” Heavy Maser, man-portable rockets and the like.

Attack Level 5, DX=6: The largest, most destructive weapons that a lone, normal, human can utilize. Powerful man-portable anti-tank weapons, small recoilless rifles, High-tech wonder weapons, etc.

Larger: Larger weapons should use the scale factor to reflect their size since these weapons are generally not meant for use against individual, human-sized targets. For instance a 57mm anti- tank gun might be Attack Level 2 but with the Scale Factor, so against a human unlucky enough to be hit it would effectively be Attack Level 2+5 for a DX of 8!

I haven't even addressed the fact that the Perk Effective and the Flaw Ineffective also can modify the DX of the weapons above, but I mainly consider those to be used when making a suite of attacks whose effectiveness needs to vary. Keep in mind that there are many options for improving a weapon beyond its DX value. For instance a Light saber might be built as Attack Level 3 (it is a technological wonder so better than a normal sword of the same size), Armor Piercing x2 (+10), Weapon (-5), Cancel verses Barriers (-5).

Pretty useful list, something that'll be useful for one who is constructing attacks for either characters or as gears.

Though I don't see anything too dramatic that would be game breaking, though the highest DX being 6 might be a bit iffy. Then again, this was largely due to the design of my weapons in my Mobile Suit thread that could one-shot a mecha (of course, my highest was DX 8 *shrugs*) and Clay suggested a 1-5 scale with DX 6 being used rarely. Come to think of it, it pretty much is similar to what I came up with (more or less).

This is a great scale! Mind if I steal it and throw it at my friends?

Chris Brady wrote:This is a great scale! Mind if I steal it and throw it at my friends?

Feel free.

Sabersonic wrote:Pretty useful list, something that'll be useful for one who is constructing attacks for either characters or as gears.

Though I don't see anything too dramatic that would be game breaking, though the highest DX being 6 might be a bit iffy. Then again, this was largely due to the design of my weapons in my Mobile Suit thread that could one-shot a mecha (of course, my highest was DX 8 *shrugs*) and Clay suggested a 1-5 scale with DX 6 being used rarely. Come to think of it, it pretty much is similar to what I came up with (more or less).

The reason I put this together was to give myself a frame of reference for my Shadows Angelus campaign. Yeah the DX can be higher if you throw some levels of the Effective Perk in there. What has been posing a bit of a conundrum for me are the Mecha in this game. Most are about 12' tall and that means I either give the scale (making them cheap) or no scale (then they need expensive high Levels in Attack and such). It'd be a lot more clear cut if they were towering 40' behemoths. As it is they are just really big powered armor. The stuff in Duex Ex Machna is a good example.

Given your scale, most power armour would be in the 4-5 scale in general. Most foes would be anti-tank level tops. So Scaling isn't really necessary.

I'm not sure if increased DX (via Effective) is really the way to go when it comes to scale advantage. For starters, there's always the Armor Piercing to lower the possible Armored Ability Levels a character could possess.

The question about scale is usually less about size and more about what you expect from your story. If you want characters to go toe-to-toe with your twelve foot mecha, then scale is likely not warranted. On the other hand if you want your mecha to outclass “human” PCs entirely, then go for scale. Once you answer that question, it becomes clearer whether you should scale or just give them really good Abilities.

Weapon list looks great though! Pretty close to what I pictured the Levels to represent.