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[Aigre Excalibur]

I have a running idea centred around strikes and strikebreakers, but i'm thinking of importing it into a modernish setting.

"once upon a time we needed the unwashed masses to harvest our food, mine our coal and fight our wars... because who else is going to do it, us?"

"but now, we're taking an evolutionary leap forward. Everything the unwashed masses used to do can now be done more efficiently and more hygienically by machines... It is time to do away with those who failed to evolve..."

I'm also thinking about the Pittsburg strikes, the major deployments of tanks in civil unrest like Glasgow, 1918, Hungary 1945, and wondering how the narrative would change today with mass communications and social networking.

I'm also further thinking around the concept of labour unrest and how the pace of automation in the 21st century can push it to extremes. And how violence can be fostered and stoked.

Right now in December 2018 we have things like the yellow vest movement in France, an insurrection in Armenia that nobody cares about and a resurgence in populist politics across the world. But how can all that tension be directed at old concepts like class struggles and extreme inequality? Are such topics still relevant, or do they need to be reframed?

[Yoink]

Well, it sounds interesting. I'm pretty sure the topics you mentioned still apply, but people don't really care so much as long as they have smartphones.

...an insurrection in Armenia that nobody cares about...

You got any information on this? Or links? Googling "Armenian insurrection" turned up nothing that didn't occur a century ago.   

[Aigre Excalibur]

My mistake, Armenia just has a "revolutionary" election, but no violence. https://www.thenation.com/article/armenia-revolution-elections/

You think bread and games will keep the masses from violencing the ultra-rich who control the means of production? They say 42 people now own half the world as of 2018. And the financial machine still surges on while technology makes human labour more and more irrelevant for producing wealth.

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2018/jan/22/inequality-gap-widens-as-42-people-hold-same-wealth-as-37bn-poorest

https://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/an-economy-for-the-99-its-time-to-build-a-human-economy-that-benefits-everyone-620170

[Aigre Excalibur]

My attempt to convert ammo tables into a simple not over-engineered roll to dodge system

Based on the D6

Roll To hit:

1 Critfail
2 Miss
3 Glancing Blow
4 on target
5 Crit Hit, Automatic weapons score additional hits. Defenders get penalties to dodge.
6 Overkill for comedy

EDIT: for better text flow, roll cover saves first: 5+ for concealment, 4+ for hastily prepared, etc...

If hit, actor might Roll to Dodge to evade:

1 Critfail
2 Fail
3 Partial Fail
4 Glance
5 Evaded
6 Friendly Fire

On Failure to dodge:

Roll on Endurance and Armor to determine Effect

Effect of Weapons of different Calibres converted for D6 RTD
Where "Lethality" determines magnitude of damage, to be offset by armor/endurance stats. (Value is derived geometrically from converting muzzle energies rather than arithmatically)

Standard Pistols - Lethality 1 (Using 9x19mm +p as a baseline)
Heavy Pistols - Lethality 2
Magnum Pistols - Lethality 3
Super Magnums - Lethality 4

9mm Carbine - Lethality 2
Assault Rifle - Lethality 3
Battle Rifle - Lethality 4
Sniper Rifle - Lethality 5
Anti-Material Rifle - Lethality  6

12 Gauge Shotgun - Lethality 4
10 Gauge Shotgun - Lethality 5

Fragmentation Grenade: Lethality 1
60mm Mortar/RPG Rocket: Lethality 2
81 mm Mortar: Lethality 3
120 mm Mortar: Lethality 4
155 mm Artilery Shell: Lethality 5

Concealed Armor: Protection 1
Standard Soft Armor: Protection 2
Standard Rifle Plate: Protection 3
Heavy Rifle Plate: Protection 4
Light Tanks/ IFVs: Protection 5

Possible way of handling armor: Lethality - Protection gives you an damage effect value. Add the effect value as a bonus or penalty to a D6 and RTD for chunky salsa/injuries.

Example Rolls

Shooter A shoots with a standard pistol
Victim B is Wearing Rifle Plate
IF hit on a 3, 4, 5, 6 (Whereby a 3 incurs more penalties to demage effect, a 5 incurs penalties to dodge, bonuses to damage effect and a 6 might generate comedy)
Victim Dodges on a 4, 5, 6

If failure to dodge.
Assuming Target in the open
Damage effect value = 1-3 = -2
RTD with a -2 penalty to determine chunky salsa/injury magnitude



Melee System Draft:

Roll to hit -> Roll to dodge -> Determine Effect

Bare-Handed: Lethality -1
Improvised (Chair legs, trash cans, wooden farming implements, broken glass): Lethality 0
Simple: (Converted tools - Axes, metal farming implements, shovels, cooking implements, hunting bows?): Lethality 1
Martial: (Purpose built: Swords, Battleaxes, Maces, Warhammers, Polearms, longbows?) : Lethality 2
Exotic: (Masterwork damascus blades, folded steel Katanas, flamberge? Piston Driven Weapons?) Lethality 3

[Aigre Excalibur]

Test rolls:

[1] You miss. Your weapon explodes in your face. Your gun is useless without repairs.

[2] You miss cleanly. (Yawn.)

[5] You hit the thing dead centre... It tries to Dodge... [3] It Dives but fails to avoid the bullet... [4] But is saved by its foxhole?

[6] You hit the thing and its friend and its third cousin... [3-1] It tries to dodge but fails. [3-1] Its foxhole can't save it. [4] Its guts spill out of its belly

[1] Your barrel explodes. It's ruined. Your arms are also on fire.

[4] You hit. [5] It dodges

[4] You Hit [2] [1] No dodging or cover for this guy, [5] Target explodes getting brains all over its friends. They scream.

With a damage effect modifier of +2

[2] You miss

[1] Your rifle jams. And then your magazine falls to pieces.

[5] You hit [1][6-1] But the Foxhole saves them.

[5] You hit. [5-1] They narrowly dodge the bullet.

[3] You glance them. [2] They Fail to Dodge. (Assuming no cover.) [1+2-1] The bullet buries itself in their arm, but they shake it off and keep fighing.

[Aigre Excalibur]

Vehicle Combat System Scaled to D6 - Where each increments is an order of geometric magnitude.

Note: Muzzle energy stops making sense when it comes to anti-vehicle/anti-tank weapons. RHA penetration equivalents might be a better scale.

Baseline: 50 Cal - Lethality 6
20mm Autocannon - Lethality 7
25mm Autocannon - Lethality 8
Light Launchers - Lethality 9 in Anti Tank Role, Lethality 2 for High Explosives
Heavy Launchers - Lethality 10 in Anti Tank Role, Lethality 3 for High Explosives
120mm Main Battle Tank Gun - Lethality 10 in Anti Tank Role, Lethality 4 for High Explosives
155mm Howitzer - Lethality 4 Blast
50-100kg+ HE- Lethality 5 Blast
1 ton conventional explosives - Lethality 6 Blast
1/10 Kiloton Nuclear Artillery - Lethality 7 Blast
1 Kiloton Tactical Nuke - Lethality 8 Blast
Little Boy - Lethality 9 Blast
Fat Man/Nuclear Bunker Buster - Lethality 10
W5 High Yield Fission Bomb - Lethality 11
Megaton Thermonuclear Bombs - Lethality 12?

Protection:
Baseline: Heavy Rifle Plate - Protection 4
Ultra-Light Composite Armor (Humvee Kits) - Protection 5
Light Armor (Cougar MRAP, AMX-13, Sheridan, LAV-25, Bradley, BTR-Series, attack helicopters and aircraft?) - Protection 6
Medium Armor (T54/55/62, GEN1 MBTs ~100mm RHA) - Protection 7
Heavy Armor (Patton, IS-Series, T72 GEN2 MBTs, ~200mm RHA) - Protection 8
Heavy Composites (Abrams, T-80, Challenger 2 ~ 500mm+++ RHA) - Protection 9+++?
A bank Vault, Nuclear blast doors, 4m of steel reinforced concrete - Protection 10?

Notes:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Modern Tank Composites can probably survive KE Penetrators
GEN 3 MBTs are rated with 500-800 equivalent RHA protection.
Modern APSFDS is rated with a penetration of around 700mm RHA penetration
M72 LAW is rated at 300mm RHA penetration
Javelin Tandem Warheads are rated at 800mmRHA

50 Cal 20KJ
20mm AP 55KJ
25m APSFDS 115KJ
120mm APSFDS 12MJ

1 KT TNT - 4.184TJ

http://www.russianarmor.info/
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/armor-composite.htm

[Aigre Excalibur]

Even more test rolling.

Mass Combat Test using AnyDice dot com:
Team A 30 Shooters. Skill +1 to shoot and dodge. Assault Rifles. 3+ Trenches. Protection 3 Armor

Team B 30 Shooters Skill +1 to shoot and dodge. Assault Rifles. 4+ Foxholes Protection 3 Armor.

Firing by turns:
Team A Fires
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 30d6] = 23 Hits
Foxhole Saves:
output [count {4,5,6} in 23d6] = 13 Saves. 23-13 = 10 hits
Dodge Saves:
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 10d6] = 6 Saves. 10-6 = 4 Hits

Damage Effect Output 1d6 x4 = 1, 5, 2, 3
Victim 1 suffers a richochet.
Victim 2 is hit in the neck, which starts to gush in a fountain of blood. He is also too distracted with his own body to return fire
Victim 3 Catches the round in his rifle plate. it has a marked dent where the impact is.
Victim 4 Is hit in the rifle plate. It starts to crack and deform.

29 Shooters from Team B shoot at team A

Team B Fires:
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 29d6] = 22 Hits
Trench Saves
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 22d6] = 16 Saves. 22-16 = 6 hits.
Dodge Saves
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 6d6] =2 Saves. 6-2 = 4 hits.

Damage Effect Output 1d6 x4 = 2, 6, 5, 4
Victim 1 Catches the round with his armor. There is a marked dent on impact.
Victim 2 Catches the round with his eyeball. It blows through his brains and out the other side.
Victim 3 Catches the round with his Helmet. It burrows into his skull and knocks him unconscious.
Victim 4 Catches the round in his chest. His armor fails and shatters. The bullet pierces a lung. He goes into shock. He is bleeding excessively from the inside.

27 Shooters from Team A survive to shoot again...

---

Possible streamlining of Damage Effects to facilitate mass combat:

Count Successes - Effective 4s, 5s, 6s for disabling injuries.
Set 25% or 1/3 of all disabling injuries as immediately Fatal. 75% or 2/3 of all disabling injuries as medical cases.

---

Shooting again with streamlined Damage effects:

27 Shooters from Team A Fire at Team B
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 27d6] = 20 hits
Foxhole Saves:
output [count {4,5,6} in 20d6] = 13 Saves. 20-13 = 7 Hits
Dodge Saves
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 7d6] = 4 Saves. 7-4 = 3 Hits
Disabling Injuries:
output [count {4,5,6} in 3d6] =0

Team B is hit 3 times but all its members survive to return fire.

29 Shooters from Team B fire at Team A
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 29d6] = 15 hits
Trench Saves
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 15d6] = 12 Saves. 15-12 = 3 hits.
Dodge Saves
output [count {3,4,5,6} in 3d6] = 2 Saves. 3-2 = 1 Hit
Disabling Injuries:
output [count {4,5,6} in 1d6] = 1

1/3 of 1 casualty is killed immediately! We just flip a dice, 5 or 6 kills em. 1d6 = 1

1 Member of Team A is badly wounded and needs medical attention. 26 Shooters remain in Team A.

Notes:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Do I really want stacking cover and dodge saves.

Will probably have to give machine guns more shots off the bat. Exploding dice are clunky and complicated even when automated.

[Aigre Excalibur]

Throwing out some plot Ideas:

World War 3:

The Siege of Taiwan is a focal point. PLA doctrine has long stressed the importance of this gateway to the pacific. If US allies can hold Taiwan they could strangle China, which is now reliant on food imports to sustain itself. If Taiwan can be taken, Japanese shipping can be strangled and the rest of US controlled pacific bases in Japan, Korea and the Philippines will be in striking range.

Campaign Points:

Players can be an elite strike team for rpg purposes. GM can masturbate with mass combat around them if so desired.

Siege plot points for an RPG group could include

Prelimary Stages:
- Discovery and Force reconnaissance of the incoming forces
- Preliminary Spy Work. Both sides are saturating each other with spies.
- Infiltration - Commando Sorties for the PCs, vanguard actions from the opfor
- Investment and Counterworks of the besieged area. China sends naval and air cover. Taiwan and USA must move other pacific assets to reinforce. Players get dropped to blow up airfields, railways, open and close supply corridors...

Intermediate Stages:
- Key point defense - Straight up fighting for important areas.
- Diplomacy - ASEAN nations contain many USA bases and nominally support the USA in a case of war. But there is ludicrous amounts of chinese money and investments in those nations. They will want to remain neutral. - Hong Kong would most likely Revolt. - India might want to interfere and seize Tibet -> Whoever controls Tibet controls just about all of China's water supply.
- Investigation - Non-Combat oriented Players get to solve other non-combat problems. EG Counter-Espionage - investigation of People, Digital Warfare, dealing with Sabotage and supply SNAFUs... Instigated civil unrest, defusing strikes and protests. Assorted Intelligence gathering operations.

Advanced Stages
Escape - Get out of a fallen island state? (If enough previous missions are failed)
Last stand street fighting fiestas
Escalation - Russian intervention. Spillover into NATO Europe. Commitment of forces on multiple fronts. Possible mixed results in ASEAN results in ASEAN fighting itself, opening a precarious supply corridor for China. Iran and African chinese allies strike at UAE and Israel. But that's another campaign?


Notes:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/would-china-really-invade-taiwan-26196?page=0%2C1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd0uajpVSs0

Civil Disintegration

Capitalism gets more and more automated to unprecedented extremes. The rich need other people less and less to keep producing wealth. Governments are still impotently trying to tax the rich to ensure welfare and social stability. Growing youth unemployment results increasing danger of conflict escalation while the balance of power in terms of control of resources, money and property keeps shifting towards the ultra rich. More attempts at taxation and forced redistribution of wealth further alienates the rich while the respectable middle class start to lose political power due to their growing redundancy. Democracies only heighten tensions and reveals social fault lines as it only reveals the impotence of the masses to actually impose their will on those with real power. Governments lose power as effective tax bases decline. While the ultra rich, seeing the writing on the wall prepare themselves with private armies.

Eventually unrest degenerates into a permanent state of emergency and democracy ceases. The ultra-rich remain the only entities with the resources to enforce order.

RPG Ideas:

The Players fighting for the people are in a comedic situation of trying to occupy their own city after the ultra rich decide to evict them... Because the masses can't afford rents with non-existent jobs and the cities would be much cleaner and more beautiful without them around.

The players are an elite strike force sent to defend a gated community after the proleteriat decide that they have nothing to lose and try to storm the residences of the rich to kill the buggers who have been hoarding all the money and means of production.

Notes
- With an iron grip on the supply of money and goods, the ultra-rich might try a good old fashion population cull by inducing a famine. (Case in point - the Irish Potato Famine)
- The faction fighting for the Masses might try to desperately interdict supplies or set up new bases of production. Perhaps they try squatting on a farm... But still cant feed everyone. And reprisals on illegal squatters are harsh and brutal.
- The ultra-rich can escalate with mechanized armies and air power. The Proleteriat can only hope for a guerilla war. Total Surveillance is imposed which makes a guerilla campaign hell on the guerillas.
- Public relations never ceases. Despite brutality against debtors, mass market manipulations and the use of private armed forces, the rich must remain dedicated to progress, prosperity and the advancement of the human race. They even pride themselves on feats of charity. A few unevolved dissidents who stand in our way will not stop progress... and our ascension to the space age?

[Aigre Excalibur]

Vehicle combat iteration; Modern Aerial Combat simplified for the D6

Given the damage scaling in: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80900.msg7903031#msg7903031

So far infantry and tank combat have 4 rolls - Accuracy -> Cover -> Dodge -> Damage (modified by protection).

Vehicle dodging should be some form of mobility rating modified by driver skill. Mobility rating should be defined here to enable interaction between all types of vehicles.

Mobility:
-2: (Barnhouse) - Super heavy Mining trucks and landcrawlers, civilian tractors, civilian bulldozers.
-1: 3rd Gen MBTs, most civilian trucks, Cougar MRAP
0: Humvee, military Jeeps, Light ulitility/attack vehicles, most civilian cars.
+1: Performance Motorcycles, race-cars on roads.
+2: Helicopters, all types.
+3: Propeller Aircraft. Aerial gunships. Subsonic Jets.
+4: Transonic speeds (Mach 1+ Aircraft) (MIG-19, MIG-21, F-5/E)
+5: Supersonic Speeds (Mach 2 Aircraft) (F4, Mirage IIIE, F-15, F-16, F/A-18 MIG-29, SU-27/29) & Even Gen 5 Aircraft: F-22, F35, J-20, SU-57, Note: Model the countermeasures separetely.
+6?: All aspect stealth Aircraft: F-22, F35, J-20, SU-57) & Mach 3 Aircraft (SR-71 Blackbird, Bristol 188, Tsybin RSR)
+7: Hypersonic Missiles, Orbital craft.

Missile Combat
Mobility 4: Rocket pods
Mobility 5: AIM-9 Sidewinder, R-73
Mobility 6: AIM-7 Sparrow, AIM-120, R-27, Most SAM installations.

Assumptions:
All the above warheads are Lethality 5
Jet Aircraft Armor is at protection 4 (It's all aluminum and kevlar)

Roll to Acquire Target -> Roll to Dodge D6 modified by (Mobility of target - Mobility of incoming missile) -> Roll to damage (5-1 = +1 = 4/6 chance of damaging hits if rolled en masse)

Variables still undefined ---> How the heck do I want to deal with range? An AIM-120 taking 2 turns to hit a target?

Test

Pilot A in their F-15 fires an AIM-7 at Pilot B in a Su-27.

1. Pilot A rolls to acquire a lock. They succeed on a 4,5,6 without any modifications.
2. Pilot B rolls to dodge. The RTD roll is modified at 5-6 = -1, They dodge on a 5 or 6
3. Missile rolls to damage. The roll is modified at 5-1 = +1. They destroy something on a 3,4,5,6.

To do:

Modelling of countermeasures: Flares, Anti-Radar Chaff, Radar Jamming, Passive Stealth, Point Defense (anti-missile guns,lasers,missiles)

[Parsely]

Does a vehicle get -2 if it's not moving when it's shot or does it go lower?

[Aigre Excalibur]

Does a vehicle get -2 if it's not moving when it's shot or does it go lower?

We could GM Fiat unmoving vehicles... like if a guy on a motorbike notices a missile coming towards him he might reasonably apply his mobility to run away (or jump off his vehicle and find a ditch). If there's no chance of a vehicle avoiding a projectile we don't roll the dodge at all and go straight to rolling to model damage.

[Aigre Excalibur]

EWAR Primer for the D6 - Part 1 Radar Jamming

Thus far in missile combat we have the following steps:

Roll to Acquire Target -> Roll to Dodge D6 modified by (Mobility of target - Mobility of incoming missile) -> Roll to damage

Ewar will generally either modify some of these rolls or add another layer of saves, acting as a "cover save" for vehicles.

Radar Noise Jamming

Area Jammers - blocks one or more or all frequencies of radar in the vicinity by signal spam.

Directional Jammer - blocks all frequencies by spamming at a known enemy radar at a single point.

Assumptions: All modern radars and radar jammers are frequency agile.

Strength 1: <10 KW Short Range SAM acquisition RAdars
Strength 2: 20 KW Civilian Air Traffic radars, high resolution fighter Radars
Strength 3: 100 KW Compact Long Range Radars found on destroyers and AWACS (~500 km range)
Strength 4: 500+ KW Hardened Radars found on some SAM systems.
Strength 5: 1-5 MW Deep Space Radiotelescopes

Jammers:
ALQ-99 should be Strength 3

Basic roll to Jam: ECM Strength + Operator Skill - ECCM Strength - Enemy Operator Skill.

Directional Jamming gives a +1 to jammer strength at a cost of being able to jam only one target.

Stealth

Stealth Capabilities give a -2 on an attacker's roll to achieve target lock. (No, I don't wana model signature radius) If detection is a thing, stealth will be used as a plot device.

Pyrophoric Flares

Flares give a 5/6 save against infra-red homing missiles. A flare pod uses a hardpoint on a fighter and is used up when deployed.

Infrared jamming

Omni-directional Jammers - Provides a 3/6 Save against IR-homing missiles
directional IR jammers - Jammer rolls on its own computer's skill to acquire a target lock on the missile. Then it provides a 4/6 save against the IR missile. (scrap this idea?)


Notes:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://www.radartutorial.eu/index.en.html

https://fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/docs/fun/part11.htm

Note: The math on counting radar strength is too hard for me, and most of the documentation is difficult to get. But Maximal Range is a function of radar power and thus radar strength can be estimated broadly enough for the D6 by deriving them as a function of range. What the hell, we can actually dig around for the numbers.

Flares and IR jammers are mostly anti-manpad. Most serious business SAM or AA systems are radar based.

Chaff is obsolete in aerial combat against Doppler-Pulse Radars that can distinguish between targets by speed. They are still used on ships however.

[syvarris]

My attempt to convert ammo tables into a simple not over-engineered roll to dodge system

*Six dense posts full of mechanics follow*

Oh, Aigre, how I've missed your unique game systems.  I'll try to read over this and give my thoughts, but, uh, I'll be pretty busy in the near future.  May I suggest you put each of those posts fully inside a spoiler?  It would make it all much easier to parse.

[Aigre Excalibur]

Unoriginal idea for an antagonist:

Islamic Terrorists Freedom fighters... Lots and lots and lots of islamic fighters. Islam has the world's largest growing demographic in the world. Because Muslims seem to be breeding faster than any other ideological group, and they seem to be resilient to conversion to other religions and belief systems.

What about an armed Islamic conflict within western society. Perhaps the combatants are helped along by mass immigration, with combatants infiltrating along with refugees. But once west, Jihad is unleashed upon the free world.

Players would be first responders, maybe policemen, maybe an elite unit of some kind of special forces or mercenary group. A campaign would take the players from terrorist incident to terrorist incident where the PCs will be in the midst of war crimes in the making and have to deal with armed terrorists in a civilian heavy area of operations.

The heavy civilian presence also justifies the use of precision units and keeps tanks and heavy fire support (mostly) out of the picture.

Notes:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/06/why-muslims-are-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religious-group/

[Trinculoisdead]

I was thinking about a kind of dinner party game. The characters are various distant relatives of this super-wealthy guy who has died recently and left a strange will behind: having no immediate family living, his fortune will be split amongst his more distant relatives by five of his closest friends and confidants, based upon how well these relatives fare in various tests of physicality, morality, and social etiquette. The game would take place over only a week or so, and the challenge would be in first figuring out what these five executors of the will value in a potential inheritor, and then convincing them that you fit that bill exactly.

I like the idea of the game placing emphasis on social graces, mental aptitude, and deception. And I think the competitiveness of it could lead to some quality back-stabbings, so to speak, as the various heirs work to undermine each other while scrabbling for the top. A kind of lobsters-in-a-bucket situation.