Making Melee viable vs future weapons.

[sabanknight]

So, I was looking for a semi-realistic way for melee to be viable in a futuristic game(tl9-11). In my future game there are strong martial arts overtones. There are no mainstream force weapons perse, but I wanted to let melee relatively keep up with future guns damage wise. Anyone know if anything rulewise like this is listed anywhere.

Id prefer it to be based on the prowess of the user and less the weapon (IE Virbo/High Density/ect) without the user having Striking ST 30+! The other addition is of course targeted strikes hitting a head neck ect but still against non human targets I still need a little more...

I was considering somthing like Higher skill levels to show tremendous artful skll with the bladed weapon. Maybe for every multiple giving the user a dmg bonus, or sacrifice some relative skill level for additional damage. Anyone know of any rules that are predone that I could use, I try not to use house rules if I can find a plausible set of rules I can tweak or point to for reference.

To reitterate: I DO NOT want it to be equipment reliant, yes yes ive read UT melee options, I do not want these, I am looking for answers on the technique/skill/martial arts end of things.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by sabanknight

So, I was looking for a semi-realistic way for melee to be viable in a futuristic game(tl9-11). In my future game there are strong martial arts overtones. There are no mainstream force weapons perse, but I wanted to let melee relatively keep up with future guns damage wise. Anyone know if anything rulewise like this is listed anywhere.

Id prefer it to be based on the prowess of the user and less the weapon (IE Virbo/High Density/ect) without the user having Striking ST 30+! The other addition is of course targeted strikes hitting a head neck ect but still against non human targets I still need a little more...

I was considering somthing like Higher skill levels to show tremendous artful skll with the bladed weapon. Maybe for every multiple giving the user a dmg bonus, or sacrifice some relative skill level for additional damage. Anyone know of any rules that are predone that I could use, I try not to use house rules if I can find a plausible set of rules I can tweak or point to for reference.

Among the options are crime, ritual fighting, and odd tactical convolutions("what we didn't expect to see them HERE"). But it would be awfully hard to arrange.

Then too armor can be gotten to the point where often the only way to penetrate it is with hyperdense, hypersharp material. And that is to expensive to put in a bullet.

[DanHoward]

A modern example is kevlar - there was at least one Darwin award given to someone who removed himself from the gene pool by getting his mate to stab his anti-ballistic vest with a knife (while he was wearing it). In the Dune universe their personal shields only worked against fast moving attacks so melee combat was the only way to penetrate them. Any flexible armour that "shock-hardens" could also potentially be compromised by hand weapons.

[Mathulhu]

Stab people.

Most armour in Ultratech has one third of the damage reduction against not piercing or cutting.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Mathulhu

Stab people.

Most armour in Ultratech has one third of the damage reduction against not piercing or cutting.

To retain the usefulness of cutting attacks, have most of the armor be Ablative or Bioplastic, neither of which are protective against cut/imp. You could even introduce heavier, military-grade Bioplastic armor (ie, Tactical Vest & Tacsuit, x1.5 times the DR of standard Bioplas).

[Anders Gabrielsson]

If ranged weapons are mainly energy and the best defense against that are force fields you could have a situation where people wear little or no armor against melee weapons. Though you'll need to do something about projectile weapons.

Maybe making useful, full-cover personal armor just isn't cost-effective?

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Anders Gabrielsson

If ranged weapons are mainly energy and the best defense against that are force fields you could have a situation where people wear little or no armor against melee weapons. Though you'll need to do something about projectile weapons.

Maybe making useful, full-cover personal armor just isn't cost-effective?

Set the setting on a Space Station and Projectile weapons aren't use, becuase even the most anti-social villain thinks you got to be insane to risk a hull breach from a missed shot.

Coupled with you fact that effective energy weapon armor doesn't not provide effect imp/cut protect and visa versa, and the even one type of armor is just on the edge of bulky to be considered in a hostile situation, stacking them is out of the question. People will go with the one the prevent insti-death more often than not 8)

[Sam Baughn]

Some ideas:

Make active camouflage cheap, effective and widely available. Encourages people to train for close range combat, because it's easy to avoid at long range.

Make good virtual tutors or skill chips for melee skills widely available, but the equivalent for firearms is either banned or full of unrealistic and impractical nonsense for entertainment purposes.

Have some kind of widespead surveillance device which can easily identify the sound of firearms networked to a rapid responce system. Civilians get the police called on them, military get an artillery strike.

[vicky_molokh]

Here's my idea of a solution.

[sabanknight]

I already have measures in place to make melee 'viable' from most of the standpoints listed.

Spaceships are cramped and full of exposed/weak armor and you wouldn't want to be sucked into vacuum.

And I mentioned I didnt want to make the weapon(or armor) better, but have a way to make the players do more damage with them without raising ST to insane levels