Chapter 6 - Rules ================= The major part of the game mechanisms of WFRP (Tests, Movement, etc.) are quite sound for the WH40K universe. The most drastic modifications, obviously, regard the combat: new rules are necessary in the RPG to simulate the extremely more advanced available weapons. * You can overwatch, performing no action when your character, according to the normal I order, should act. (Actually, this has always been in WFRP, it just wasn't given a name!) At any moment in the round you can declare your character fires; if this happens while an opponent is shooting at you, you have to make an I test to determine if you shoot before (if you succeed) or simultaneously (if you fail). * Sustained Fire: Weapons with Sustained Fire are indicated by a number in the "S.F." column in the equipment tables. If you fire at a single target with a Sustained Fire weapon, the attacker has a +10 bonus to BS; besides this the attack behaves as normal. In the case of multiple close targets, first you roll the dice to determine the number of shots (and possible jam - dud shots, malfunction, overheating, etc.), then you distribute the available shots among the targets, making an unmodified To Hit roll for each target. In the case of a jam, the character can make a Dex test each round to unjam the weapon. To determine the number of shots a Sustained Fire weapon makes, and the number of jams, roll a number of D4's equal to the number of sustained fire dice indicated in the Wargear tables. The number of hits is equal to the sum of all rolls 1-3, while the number of jams is indicated by the number of times a 4 is rolled on any of the dice. Up to one jam is automatically cleared by the weapons own systems, and the weapon is ready for use again next round. Further jams indicate more significant problems and the user must roll on Dex as described above to clear each one before the weapon can be used again. * Area Weapons: For the area weapons (the effect radius is indicated in the column "Blast", following the criterium 1" = 2 yards) the rule is very simple: you make a single unmodified To Hit roll and all the targets within the area suffer the full effects of the weapon. Each half inch can be taken as one yard. If there're doubtful situations on the inclusion within the area of effect, you can always halve the effect of the weapon on the target, to simulate the incompleteness of the shot. The Area Weapons and those with Sustained Fire are also more difficult to dodge (see Dodge and Hide, following). When a weapon with an area of effect misses the target, use the normal rules on the shot dispersion (see WFRP or the WH40K rulebook, p.36-37). In the case of Flamers, if the To Hit roll fails, the targets within the area of effect automatically have a chance to Dodge, even if they do not have the skill. * Armour and Damage: The damage inflicted by the weapons was obtained calculating 1d6 for each point of damage inflicted on average from the weapon in WH40K (for example: Las Cannon, damage 2d6, average 7, therefore in the RPG damage is 7d6), adding the strength and finally the Save Modifier. Since a character has, on average, from 6 to 10 wounds, and since a Boltgun causes, on average, 8.5 damage, you immediately understand how lethal the weapons are. As in WFRP, armour no longer gives a Saving Throw, but they absorb damage. The field forces instead still give a Saving Throw, expressed in percentage terms, minus the total damage inflicted by the weapon. If the roll succeeds, the damage is completely absorbed. The psychic aurae give a number of additional Armour Points equal to the level of the aura. In the case a character wears more than one kind of protection, the order in which they offer resistance to the shot is the following: force fields, armour, then psychic aurae. Light armour, such as Mesh and Flak, can be worn under heavier armour, such as Carpace or Power Armour (never under Terminator Armour), with penalties of -10 to BS, WS and I and -1 to M. In this case the protections of the two armours add to each other. Remember also that, in the case characters find armour during an adventure, this armour will have a precise size, which must not diverge too much from the size of the character who would wear it. The different proportions of the races are, for example, insurmountable limits: see also the Smith skill and the Repair (weapons and armours) skill. * Dodge and Hide: Since the ranged weapons of WH40K are much more lethal, with respect to the bows and crossbows of WFRP, it has been necessary to introduce a proper skill which allows to dodge also the shot of lasers, plasma weapons, etc. (see Dodge Ranged Weapons in the skill section). Moreover, each character can choose to throw himself down (at the time determined by his I) without doing anything else during that round, to defend himself from the enemy fire which follows his I; if he has cover at hand (such as a wall) behind which he can hide, he can't be hit, otherwise he's considered as protected (-20 to the BS of the attacker). In the following round the character will have a -10 modification to the I if he wants to get up (see also the paragraph Prone and Static Targets, in WFRP, p.0, for more penalties of a prone character). * Parry: A character involved in a melee combat can also parry, wasting one of his Attacks, as in WFRP. The weapons with which you can parry are indicated with a number in the column "Parry", while you can't parry with the ones indicated with a "No". Any melee weapon absorbs, parrying, 1d6 damages. If the attack damage exceeds the parried damage, the weapon which has parried has a chance to be damaged equal to 5% for each exceeding damage point. The damaged weapons are useless until they are repaired; if the exceeding damage is more than 20, the weapon is utterly destroyed. * Heavy Weapons: For what concerns the Heavy Weapons, to simulate the encumbrance and also to limit the extreme fire power, we apply, as a base, a -20 penalty to the BS, if the weapon is used at short range; if used without Suspensors, apply an additional -10 to the BS and halve the Movement of the carrying character. The Slow factor, for the weapons difficult to load, is simulated with a penalty to the I. If a character, using a weapon, drops to zero or less of I, he can fire only once every other round, at his normal I. Additionally, a number of heavy weapons are subject to M penalties for characters carrying them.