Anyone interested in an online game of Palladium's After the Bomb? Any GMs interested in running it? The rules have been sitting on my bookshelf for awhile now, staring at me like only an inanimate object can. I'd be more interested in random creation than picking species, but at this point I'm open to anything a GM is floating.
The combat question is a good one, as trying to run it 'by the book' would result in really long, slow combats...If anyone isn't posting every single day reliably in response to everyone else it could easily slow down to a week per combat round.
Or a month or more for a serious fight.
If there's a good answer to that, some simple hack to the system or combat proceedings, then I'd definitely be interested.
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I have an answer, it sort of sucks, because part of Palladium's charm is active defense.
There was a rule in 3.5 where you could go to active defense gaming by dropping your defense by 10, and using that as an active d20 roll.
AC of 23 = +13 to defend vs attacker's roll
I suggest you do the opposite and have players put in spoiler how they'll generally respond to certain things
+12 to parry becomes defense of 22 that the attacker must beat.
Then have the player set the precedent....
"If an enemy with a low caliber gun shoots me, I hope my armor takes it. Anything above rifle rounds I attempt to dodge instead." So a dodge defense of 22 or whatever, but it costs an attack.
The only issue with this is that natural armor doesn't do much UNLESS you go for the natural roll of the die. It makes natural armor VERY dangerous, and should be used with discretion.
example:
Joebob shoots at frank 13+3 to hit, Frank dodges poorly (no bonuses -5 according to standard rules) Frank is struck, however he has a natural armor of 14 Since the natural die roll was below that, he incurs no damage unless it was area effect like explosive rounds or such.
I actually brought up the question of how to modify combat for PbP with Michael Talley 759, who had this fairly straightforward suggestion that I think meshes well with your own:
I'd keep it fairly simple. people have to state if they're using more than one attack in an action otherwise all their extra attacks would be used for defense. Then just keep it to the d20 rolls with bonuses. It would be alot of record keeping, but that can be kept on the profile system.
Of course, the problem really seems to be finding a GM and a bit more player interest than 'how to resolve combat'.
Rules questions are the easy part...
I've never played ATB myself, almost any other setting I might actually at least consider running something, but alas.
Depending on where you set it, it can be living on the edge of post-apocalyptic fascist hell (The Empire of Man), or it can be extremely straightforward and nondescript "Mad Max/Road Warrior" type stuff.
I tried making a Borderlands style game using Rifts New West, I always suspected ATB might work better for that concept
Is that a hint that we might be able to entice you to GM? Because that sounds absolutely awesome.
I might run this.
I really don't want to start up for a month or two though. I'm pretty busy, but this thread keeps drawing me to it. I'd need time to build whatever it was I was going to be running.
Also, I don't have the recent "After the Bomb" book, but I have 1e, Road Hogs, and TNMT and Other Strangeness.
Not to mention BTS, Heroes Unlimited (I think, somewhere;), Nightbane, Palladium fantasy RPG,
and......
way too many RIFTS books to mention.
So I think I could handle characters made from ATB new edition pretty well.
Regarding Palladium rules/pbp/......
I guess we could try a few combats some time, mix it up, and see what works, what doesn't work, and what makes us all happy.
Finally, I really can not post at work, so anything from me would have to be on the weekend (when I'm not on call/working) or past 6 or 7 pm U.S. central time.
Finally, I really can not post at work, so anything from me would have to be on the weekend (when I'm not on call/working) or past 6 or 7 pm U.S. central time.
My schedule is also rather chaotic, and would necessitate a PbP rather than skype, chat or browser/table type game.
Yeah; I don't Skype or any of that other stuff.
I'll be cobbling something together in the next few days/whatever.
For an ATB, I like to start with a small isolated valley and a village or two, and then the rest of the world is terra incognito. Couple small farming villages,.....all animal head mutants, character creation anything goes;
random generation's cool by me.
Also, if anybody wants to put forth world details that interest them, I'm usually open to weaving that stuff into the tapestry as it were.
Hot damn! Standing by!
I'll be putting forth a randomly generated character, because, what the heck. I'm also happy to dry run combat to see how to make it work best.
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I may or may not consider playing, after all I don't have the book, but I can think of about fifty things that could probably be answered.
here's a few.
Die rolls for stats 3d6 w/bonus on 16+?
penalty to dodge gunfire?
will called shots do extra damage to the head with either melee or ranged?
will called and aimed shots take 2 actions, like in the newer books?
will attacks be all at the same post, meaning if I have 6 attacks, do I do them all or do I have to wait for everyone? Also considering most won't have autododge, using all your attacks is generally unwise.
"Die rolls for stats 3d6 w/bonus on 16+?" yes.
"penalty to dodge gunfire?" need to look; probably not.
"will called shots do extra damage to the head with either melee or ranged?" yes, as per the rules iirc(it's been a while)
"will called and aimed shots take 2 actions, like in the newer books?" sounds good.
"will attacks be all at the same post, meaning if I have 6 attacks, do I do them all or do I have to wait for everyone? Also considering most won't have autododge, using all your attacks is generally unwise."
yeah; that's how I played it back in the day.
If you have something from Rifts you'd want to do, that'd work too; just no glitterboys or dragons or nothing.
Hot damn! Standing by!
I'll be putting forth a randomly generated character, because, what the heck. I'm also happy to dry run combat to see how to make it work best.
I meant I was just gonna get the game going, and I'd mix up combat if I or somebody else thought of a different/possibly better way to run it.
Not too familiar with it; sorry...
I'm stepping out due to lack of interest.
No worries, and thanks for the consideration!
Anyone else want to take a whack at running a Palladium game full of mutant animals?
Right on.