Modified D20 System for Wild Pig Comics WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF COMBAT Congratulations soldier! You have been given control of a 40 ton fighting machine, known as a Mech. It is a complex machine when used in combat, and while your machine has unique capabilities, all Mechs follow the same rules for combat. Here are the steps to how a combat works. PHASE 1: INITIATIVE. Roll a D20, and add your Piloting Skill modifier (which is +1 when you start). That is your initiative roll. The Mech with the highest initiative can choose to go first in the round or last, and all remaining players go from the lowest initiative to the highest initiative. Higher initiatives go later so they can react to the lower initiative s moves; if your initiative is higher, you can move around your enemy after he has moved. Initiative is rolled at the start of every round. PHASE 2: MOVEMENT. Each Mech can now move, from lowest initiative to highest initiative. Mechs have 3 speeds- Walk, Run and Jump. Walking and Running allow you to do the same thing for the most part, it is just a question of how many movement points you use on your turn. Move Forward: You can move in a straight line forward, at a cost of one movement point per hex. If there is a terrain change, it costs extra 1 movement point (such as climbing a hill or entering trees). Move Backward: You can move backward at the same rate as moving forward, but you cannot run backwards (so your backward movement is limited to your walk speed). Rotate your Mech: At the start of every round and the end of every round, you can rotate your Mech by one hex direction without spending a movement point; if you need to rotate past that (for example, if you need to rotate 2, or rotate midway throughh your move), it costs 1 point of movement per hex rotated. Stand Up: If you are knocked prone, you can use 1 Movement Point to attempt to stand. Each attempt also generates 2 heat, and requires a piloting check (which is explained later). Expend a GEL pod: Certain healing and beneficial pods can be used on yourself for the cost of one movement point; their rules will be in their item description. The other type of movement is Jumping. Not every Mech has Jump Jets, but some do. If you have Jump Jets you can jump as part of your normal movement (either walking or running); it does not increase your maximum speed. Your jump allows you to ignore terrain modifiers, and you can move in any direction, and face any direction when you land. Use of Jump Jets does put a penalty on your attack rolls, and increases your heat more than walking or running.
Mark Your Movement: At the end of your movement phase, you need to put down a small D6 on the base of your mech. The color of the dice indicates your penalty when you attack later on; the number of the die represents the penalty opponents have because of how far you moved. If you did not move at all, no die is needed. A White D6 indicates you walked. Count the number of squares you moved from where you started (not the number of movement points). If you moved 1-3 hexes, make it a 1. If you moved 4-6 hexes, make it a 2. If you moved 7-9 hexes, make it a 3. If you moved 10 or more hexes, make it a 4. If you took a movement action but didn t move (such as stood up but stayed in hex), make it a 6. Walking generates one heat. A Black D6 indicates you ran. Follow the same guidelines as white D6 for numbers. Running generates two heat. A Red D6 indicates you jumped. Regardless of if you only jumped 1 square or moved your full run speed with a jump in between, if you jumped at least 1 hex, your die is red. Follow the walk D6 guidelines. Jumping generates heat as if you walked or ran, plus an additional heat per hex jumped. As noted, the color of your die represents your attack penalty; when you attack, you get a -1 if you walked, a -2 if you ran and a -3 if you jumped; and your opponent gets a penalty based on how far you moved, represented by the number on your die. There are also plenty of optional rules that involve movement points, but nothing you need to know right now. PHASE 3: ARTILLERY Not in this demo, but eventually you ll be able to request airstrikes or orbital bombardments on your target. PHASE 4: COMBAT PHASE Your chance to blow everything up. At low levels, it s harder to hit things you are just not used to your Mech yet, but you will still have your chance for carnage. All attacks happen simultaneously, which is another reason it is good to go last in the round you don t want to shoot your weapons at someone who has already been destroyed, and if you know your laser will be destroyed at the end of the round, you d better use it now. Initiative goes in the same order as movement. Choosing Weapons: Each of your weapons has four major stats: Location, Damage, Heat and Range. Location is the body part where the weapon is stored; you can see if a weapon is on your Center Torso or Left Leg by looking at their Critical Hit Locations. Location only has one purpose for attacking: the direction in which the weapon can fire. If a machine gun is located on your Right Torso, it can t fire at a target on your left side. Each location has a shaded hex diagram; that is the direction in which the weapon can fire. Damage is how much damage the weapon does if it hits. If it is a number, it does all that damage to one location; if it is more than one D6, it is typically done to multiple locations (unless noted on the weapon). Some weapons have their own rules in addition to just doing damage. Heat is how much heat the weapon generates from firing. Some Mechs have the ability to generate more heat than they can dissipate in a round; so it may not be able to fire all of its weapons every round. Heat is generated whether you hit or miss with a weapon.
Range is the distance in hexes the weapon can be fired at. Minimum range is a penalty based on how close the weapon is; you take a -1 for each hex away (for example, a LRM 5 has a minimum range of 0-6. If a target is one hex away, ie adjacent to you, you would take a -5 penalty to hit it). Short range is firing the weapon without penalty. Medium Range has a -2 to your attack roll, and Long range has a -4. You cannot hit a target with a weapon if it is greater than Long Range. There are optional stats as well. Ammo is the number of times you can fire a weapon system per combat; if you have multiple weapon systems on the same ammo, it is total per combat, not total per weapon. Also there are additional notes on specific weapons, which will be explained on their cards. Tonnage and Type determine the weight of the weapon, and what type of damage it does, which will not mater in this demo. Attacking: When you make an attack roll, you roll two separate D20 s. One is for the Attack, and one is for the Location. The Attack Roll is composed of: Your attack roll is 1d20 + your Gunnery Skill + Any temporary or item bonus (such as a Targeting Laser) Your movement modifier (color of your die) Their movement modifier (number on their die) Your Heat or other penalties Cover or Terrain Modifiers Range Modifier As a general rule, you ll need a modified 10 to hit; as you can imagine, you ll miss a lot until you get your gunnery skill up. If you hit, the other D20 is your location die. That tells us where you hit with your weapon. If you use missiles or other weapons that do multiple dice of damage, you roll an additional location d20 for each damage die (you don t have to roll additional attack roll). So a LRM 20, which has 4d6, spreads its damage around 4 separate areas. Weapon Facing: Each location has a chart that shows what angles its weapon can attack. Weapons with a (R) indicate it is a rear facing weapon on that torso; so a weapon with the Right Torso (R) means it uses the rear arc for determining its firing range. Also, depending on what angle you attack a target from, you may be unable to hit certain sides of it (for example, if you are directly to a Mech s left side, all of your right side rolls would instead hit its left side, as you can t hit its right side. Assigning Damage: Each location has separate hit points, divided by external (junk armor) and internal (important framework). Here s how to read a card: Location is where the damage lands, as noted. If a location is destroyed, all equipment on it is unusable to the Mech (such as ammo and weapons); and any additional damage to the Mech is transferred to the next location (see below). Armor has two numbers; one out of and one in parenthesis. The first number is the external armor, which can be damaged all day long without penalty. The second in parenthesis is the internal armor, which is much more vulnerable. If you have damage greater than both numbers combined at the end of the attack phase, that body part is destroyed, and cannot be repaired. Every time your Mech is hit in a body part and you take internal damage, the attacker also gets to make a critical roll (see below).
When you lose a body part, any damage not absorbed by the armor (or internal armor) is carried over to the next area, as shown in the Damage Transfer Diagram. Arms and Legs transfer damage to their respective Torsos; Right and Left Torsos transfer damage to the Center Torso. If a Mech loses a Torso, the attached leg and arm are unusable as well. When a Mech loses its Head or Center Torso, it is destroyed. Rear Torsos work similar to Front facing torsos, except that they have separate Hit Points. Critical Hit: Every time you roll a natural 20 on the Attack Die, or if you do internal damage to a body part, you score a potential critical hit on the body part. Roll an additional D20, and consult the Critical Hit Locations chart. If the number matches one anything that is not No Critical, something bad happens. If it is a weapon, heat sink or jump jet, that item is disabled for the combat. Engines, Gyros, Life Support and similar components have specific penalties listed for them. Ammunition hit is not only destroyed, but explodes as though it was a normal hit; so if a LRM20 Ammo is critically hit, the stored area would take 4d6 damage, potentially carrying over to the next part of the body. If a 20 is rolled on the critical hit die, that body part is permanently destroyed, as are any body parts attached to it. Additionally, ammo explosions create such a blast that they mock the effects of a Head Shot, forcing a Pilot Consciousness Roll (see Head Shots). Head Shots: Whenever a character s Head is hit, the character must make a Consciousness Roll (1d20 + Piloting Modifier). There is a chart on the right side of the page, showing the required roll. Each shot increases in difficulty; the more you get knocked around, the harder it is to stay awake. If you pass out, your Mech shuts down on the next round, and you can attempt to regain consciousness at the end of that round. Every time you take a head shot, you make the roll and mark off one of the Consciousness counters, to increase your next roll. If your pilot has been hit 6 times in the same battle, and lived somehow, he still does from the trauma. Physical Attacks: In this demo, we are not going to allow Charging, Pushing, or jumping on another Mech s Head (which is very possible down the road). If your Mech has a hand, you can punch a Mech; if it has a foot, you can kick another Mech. These count as normal weapon attacks. The only exception is the Kick attack; if you hit, the targeted Mech needs to make a piloting check at the end of its turn; if you miss, you need to make a Piloting Check or you will fall. Repairing Damage: Some Mechs have the ability to repair damage or other beneficial actions via a weapon, such as GEL launchers or a GEL dispenser. You can repair a Mech up to its normal armor value; anything above it is wasted. You cannot repair an item that was destroyed on previous rounds, but you may be able to repair an area that was lost during the current round (for example, if the Mech lost its arm from an attack that round, but the Damage Phase hasn t happened yet, it may be able to use a GEL dispenser to repair its arm before it falls off). Most GEL packs have three charges per critical location; if you are using them via GEL dispenser or launcher, you must choose each time which to use. PHASE 5: DAMAGE PHASE This phase deals with the effects of damage. After all the numbers have been calculated, things go boom or fall off. Here is what happens: 1. Anything that has no Armor Value left is destroyed. Mark off anything that cannot be used. 2. Determine if you fall prone. The Piloting Roll is 1d20 + your Piloting Skill modifier, and the base roll needed is 10. You need to modify it by all the potential penalties listed in the Piloting Roll section of your sheet. No matter how many reason you have for making a Piloting Roll, you only make one at the end of your turn. If your
piloting roll is a failure, your Mech falls prone. This is the same check used to determine if you can stand up during your Movement Phase. 3. Tally up Heat, and determine Heat Penalties. Add up all heat generated this round (any heat your carried over from previous rounds, movement heat, weapon heat and possible heat from other sources) and subtract the number of active heat sinks (listed on your sheet; but remember to subtract any that were destroyed or in lost body parts. These penalties will remain during your next turn, even if you lower your heat during it. If your Mech has a heat of 14 or higher, you need to make a Shutdown Check. Roll 2d20 and add the results together; if the roll is less than the number required by the chart, your Mech is shut down on your next turn. 4. Attempt to Wake Up. If you started your turn unconscious, and did not fail any additional consciousness checks this turn, you may can make another Pilot Consciousness roll (at your current penalty) to attempt to wake up for the next round. This roll does not count as additional damage and does not increase the check for future rolls, even if you fail it. PHASE 6: CLEAN-UP PHASE During this phase, remove any dead Mechs from the board; very few things happen in the Clean-up Phase, and are usually specific to a piece of equipment. ADDITIONAL RULES There are MANY additional rules that cover actions not used here picking up the arm of a Mech that just had it blown off and beating that Mech over the head with it; capturing resources and dragging ally s bodies off the battlefield to save their Mech; Crashing through Buildings and Shooting down Airplanes; deploying weapons of mass destruction. For this demo, these rules will not be used, as we are simply trying to teach the basics of the game. If we decide to play it in the future however