Variant Aimed Shots Rule

[Skarg]

This is a variant I like to use to adjust the Aimed Shots optional rule in ITL.

I like it because otherwise I think hitting people in the hand, head, leg, wing, etc is a bit too easy and automatic for people with high adjDX (or an Aid spell on them, etc) - victims feel a bit too helpless to me regardless of their ability level.

It also ends up addressing the main problem I also have with the various entangling weapons - again, that there is no way to avoid them - although I would also add some other adjustments for some of those, so you can't just lasso a dragon as easily as a goat.


Variant Aimed Shots Rule

As on ITL p.120, roll to hit body locations as listed, but note the amount the roll was made by.

Since these are small targets that are often moving a lot more than entire bodies, if the attacker makes his roll to hit the small target, the target gets a DX roll to avoid the hit. The roll is 3d versus adjDX, but they need to make their roll by as much as the attacker made their roll, to avoid being hit.

Example A: Kyle (DX 15) tries to hit Jeremy (DX 12) from the side. Kyle tries to hit Jeremy in the head. +2 for a side attack, -6 for the head, so Kyle needs to roll an 11 or less. He rolls an 8, making his roll by 3. Jeremy gets to try to duck the attack, but he needs to make his roll by 3 to do so, so he needs to roll a 9 or less.


Optional detail:

If either the attack roll or the defender's roll is exactly their needed roll, the attack hits the body (but not as an aimed shot).

Example 1: Bob (adjDX 13) rolls to hit Sam (adjDX 12) in the weapon arm (-4 to hit), and rolls a 9, making his roll exactly. The attack is a hit, but not as an Aimed shot, so Sam gets no roll to avoid it, but it is only a normal hit, not to the arm.

Example 2: Bob (adjDX 13) rolls to hit Sam (adjDX 12) in the weapon arm (-4 to hit), and rolls an 8, making his roll by 1. Sam needs to roll under his adjDX by 1. He rolls an 11, which which is just what he needed to avoid being hit in the arm... but only barely, so he gets hit in the body instead.

[JimmyPlenty]

I kind of like that idea towards a defense roll in general.

[Jeff Lord]

We've been playing with the first example applying to all attacks (in 6 on 6 or under) for decades now. Above @6 on 6 or so it becomes slightly cumbersome, although YMMV. We do also use a cumulative -2DX defense penalty for each successive attack after the first on a figure in a turn (i.e. if a figure is attacked by, say, three other figures during a turn, his first defense roll is normal, the second is -2DX, and the third is -4DX).

I like the optional detail as applies to aimed shots.

[JimmyPlenty]

Jeff, I like how that would help low dx characters ganging up on someone. Of course, they generally have the heavier weapons. So in general the light hits get stopped but the later ones have a better chance.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lord

We've been playing with the first example applying to all attacks (in 6 on 6 or under) for decades now. Above @6 on 6 or so it becomes slightly cumbersome, although YMMV. We do also use a cumulative -2DX defense penalty for each successive attack after the first on a figure in a turn (i.e. if a figure is attacked by, say, three other figures during a turn, his first defense roll is normal, the second is -2DX, and the third is -4DX).

Nice. Your house rule is quite similar to how active defenses work in GURPS (except there are more details in skill levels and calculating what the defense rolls are etc).