PBBWAR: Medieval Version

By: Marcus J. la Grone (lagrone@osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu)
and M. Scot Alexander (malexan@a.cs.okstate.edu)

This combat system was created to do battles with large numbers of people very quickly. You will notice that there are no hit points, and only one roll per person per round (except for archers). Should a person be hit, they are either wounded (mark by reversing head) or they are dead. If they are wounded and are wounded again, they are dead. All of the arms and armors we have encountered are listed herein, plus some other easily improvised ones. Scale for archery is a close as we could figure it, given a fair amount of research into the subject, and the weapon damage is actually more forgiving than it might at first seem (trust me, a good sword will slash through 1/2 an inch of leather like it's not even there). Everything we could think of was squished into as few numbers as possible, so things like dexterity, high stamina, strength, etc. can be used to modify defense and attack modifiers (like the training levels).

Seige weapons, castles, etc. are included in the advances rules, should we ever get around to writing them.

Armor:

  Armor  toHit   Discription 
   none    >5     Peasants etc.
   light   >6     Men-at-Arms, people with ensignia but no visable armor
   medium  >7     Scale armor
   heavy   >8     Plate is painted onto the person
   plate   >9     Add-on plate armor, Black Knight et al.

  Shields     DefMod   Discreption
   Improvised   +1      Lids to barrels and the likes 
   Standard     +2      The standard kite style shields
   Tower        +3      Tower shields, the tall suckers 

  note: In normal melee, the shield can only be used against one person

     example:   The "Black Knight": Armor--Plate, Shield--Tower
                In normal melee one would need greater than a
                12 (9 for armor, 3 for shield) on 2d6 to hit.
                If there were two attackers, the one on the shield 
                side would need >12 while the other would only need
                >9.

Hit Modifiers:

   Skill       AtkMod    DefMod  
   Untrained    -1        -1
   Green        -1         0
   Line          0         0
   Crack         1         0
   Shock         1(3)      1(-1)    (number in parentheses for berserking--
                                        i.e. stoned, drunk or bloody crazy)
   Attack from behind: +2 atk
   Attack unexpectedly: +3 atk
   note: these two DO compound!!  For example:  Attacking an unexpecting 
         guard from behind IS a +5!!

Attack/Damage modifiers

Add modifiers to rolls. These account for speed, precision and the ability of the weapons to penetrate armor and people.
   Weapons  Normal  Braced  Charge++  Range*           

  +WarHammer  1       0       3         1         The pick axe in town sets
   Hand Axe   0      ---      1        1/2        The hand axe in town sets 
   Sword      0       0       1         1
   Spear      1       2       3         2
     Thrown   0      ---      1        ---
  +Pike      1(0)**   2       4        4(1)**
  +BattleAxe  2      ---      3         2
  +Halberd    2       2       3         3
  +PitchFork  0***    1       1         2
   Club       -1     ---      1        1/2 

        * Range is not in any units; It simply states who strikes first.
       ** A pike used from behind a row of people gets only a +1 to hit
          and has a "range" of 1 relative to the person he is standing
          behind.
      *** These are wooden pitch forks and cannot "kill" under normal 
          strikes.  If the idiot wants to whack someone charging them on a 
          horse, then yep they can kill 'em.
       ++ Charge means either the person charging or the person being 
          charged (20" per turn closure speed--add both speeds, double if
          over 40" per turn).  If two unarmored people with lances (same 
          as braced pikes) are charging at full tilt, the modifier for the 
          weapon is:  2 (braced) + 4*2 (100" per turn, doubled charge) 
          - 2 (charging opponent) = +8 (shish-kekbab!)
        + Two handed weapon.  If the figure is using a two handed weapon, 
          they can't have a shield. (Shield bearers--yes, but not them.)

Melee:

Attacks are made by rolling 2d6 (a pair of six sided dice) adding the attack modifiers and subtracting the defense modifiers.

EXAMPLE!

"A" has "light" armor and a halberd. Skill: "line"
"B" has "plate" armor, tower shield, and a sword. Skill: "crack"

"A"'s Attack is +2 (halberd), Defense is 6 ("light" armor).
"B"'s Attack is +1 (0 for sword, +1 for skill) his defense is 12 (9 for "plate", +3 tower shield.
If "A" attacks, he will need to roll better than a 10 on 2d6 in order to hit.
If "B" attacks, he will need to roll better than a 5 on 2d6.
-- "A" is in deep shit.

Damage:

   Amount Over     Condition
       0           Stunned, loss of next attack
       1           Wounded
       2           Wounded and if mounted, dismounted
       3+          Dead, toast.
Two wounds make a dead. Corny but simple and fast.

Movement:

     Armor     Base     Run    Sprint       
     none      6"/0    12"/1    30"/3
     light     6"/0    12"/1    24"/4
     medium    5"/0    10"/2    12"/5
     heavy     4"/0     8"/3    10"/9
     plate     2"/1     4"/5    6"/12
         the first number is movement in inches 
         the second number is the fatigue value

Fatigue:

Fatigue can get a bit messy; far large numbers you might want to only permit sprinting for two turns and forget trying to keep track of each person's fatigue.
        activity   fatigue 
        no combat    -1        
        archery       0
        attacks       1        attacking from behind own lines. i.e. pikes
        melee         2        normal combat

        note: if one is walking with a 0 fatigue and does no combat, he 
              recovers 1 level of fatigue each round.  Full plate, walking
              no combat just breaks even.

         Total Fatigue    AtkLv     DefLv      
             30+           -1         0
             60+           -2        -1
             90+           -3        -3
            120+           -4        -5
     
     Note: as earlier stated, fatigue is a mess... you may want to ignore it.

Archery:

The archery rules assume that the bows are heavy Welsh longbows and that the crossbows are on the order of #250 draw. The longbow has more velocity (due to the longer draw) and more accuracy (due to the longer arrow and higher velocity) but is a hell of a lot harder for an inexperienced person to shoot accurately.

Hit Modifiers:

   Skill       Longbow    Crossbow  
   Untrained     -4         -1
   Green         -2          0
   Line           0          0
   Crack          1          0
   Shock          2          1  
    
    "To Hit" is in terms of 2d6.

Select Fire:

               To Hit   ROF      To Hit    ROF
      Range    Longbow           Crossbow
      <30"       >5      2         >4       1
      <60"       >6      2         >6       1
      <90"       >7      1         >8      1/2

Mass Fire:

       "To Hit" represents the abilty to put an arrow into a zone 2" wide
       and 3" deep. 
               
               To Hit   ROF      To Hit    ROF
      Range    Longbow           Crossbow
      <60"       >2      2          >2      1
      <90"       >4      2          >4      1
      <120"      >8      2          >9      1
      <150"      >10     2          >12     1

      Roll 1d6 for scatter: 1-2 is 1" short, 5-6 is 2" long, slide the grid
        forward or backward the appropriate amount.
      Roll 1d6 for location inside grid:  1  2  
                                          3  4  
                                          5  6
        If no one is in the grid then no one was hit; if a friendly
        was in the grid... darn!  Next time be more careful!
 
 Damage: 3d6-"armor".    For example: 3d6-7 for medium armor.
    The effect of damage for archery is the same as it is for melee.

Cav:

  Movement:  In inches per turn.

                  Armor            
          Person         Horse     Walk   Trot   Run   Sprint
          none                      6"    12"    30"   50"
          light                     6"    12"    30"   45"
          medium/none  + barding    6"    12"    25"   40"
          heavy/light  + barding    6"    10"    20"   40"
          plate/medium + barding    5"    10"    20"   35"
                heavy  + barding    5"    8"     15"   30"
                plate  + barding    4"    6"     15"   30"

  Attack by rider:
    +1  for standing, walk or trot (height advantage, works on stairs, too)
        against people on the ground.
    By weapon for charge.

  Defense for rider:
    +1 for standing, walk or trot (again, height advantage) against people
       on the ground.
    +2 for charging (moving target, etc) against anyone.

  Attacking horse:
    >6 on 2d6 for frontal attack, no barding
    >8 for frontal attack with barding
    >5 for side attack with no barding
    >7 for side attack with barding

  Damage to Horse:
    0   Spooked horse, rider loses one attack; horse moves 1d6 inches away
        from the attacker.  
    1-2 Dismounts rider, roll for damage; horse cannot move at more than a 
        walk.
    >2  Rider wounded in dismount, in addition to damage roll; horse lame.

  Dismounting rider:
    Roll 2d6, subtract 2 if horse is moving faster than 20" per round.  If 
    value is greater than base armour class, rider is not wounded, else 
    the rider is wounded--2 wounds is dead.  Time to stand up is armour 
    value minus 1d6, as is time to remount horse (different roll).  While
    person is down or remounting, they cannot attack and are -1 on defense.

    Note:  If the horse is wearing blinders, it will not be spooked; however,
    if the rider is dismounted, there is a -2 on the damage roll to account
    for the increased chance of the rider being run down by the horse.

Dragons:

Simulating dragons in a realistic mannar is an interesting task... Just what IS a real dragon? Along that line, here are the rules for several different ways of handeling dragons.
    I) assume few enough dragons that keeping score on each isn't a pain...   
      1)  Sane dragon    50 pts damage to death 
          Location   Armor    Str/Cap
          head        10       6/12
          neck        10       6/10
          belly       9        15/40
          back        15       20/50
          arms        10       5/10
          legs        13       6/10
          tail        15       8/20
      
      2)  Real dragon    150 pts damage to death 
          Location   Armor    Str/Cap
          head        16       15/35
          neck        15       12/30
          belly       16       60/80
          back        19       90/150
          arms        15       15/30
          legs        16       25/40
          tail        18       20/60

          Str-- this refers to how many points damage they take before the
             body part is noticably damaged.  If the head or neck gets to  
             this point the dragon will genrerally retreat.
          Cap-- this refers to how many points damage they take before the
             body part is severed.  If the head or neck is cut off the 
             dragon dies (well duh!).
     
     Real dragons (and cute ones too) can use weapons as well!

Comments on Testing:

The system was play tested with batles of aprox. 30 vs 25 several times. Save for a few games with only 10 total people, we never used fatigue. As a point of curiousity (and in an attempt to confirm the values for the different weapons and armor) we ran computer simulations of 200+ people. A pain of a program, but it gave us a good feel for the combat system as a whole.

Closure:

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