Fightin' Words!

When testing your mettle in the arts of war, please include the following for each round:

Melee or Missile Attack roll
Damage (if you hit)
Saving Throw (at least one each round even if you aren't directly engaged in melee)

Initiative is only necessary at the beginning of battle, unless requested by the JM. Initiative is rolled on d10, +/- the missile damage modifier from your DEX score. Pioneers include their class bonus to missile damage as well, based on their quick draw training. Warriors do not add their damage bonus to initiative.

Additional actions may be possible depending on circumstances. In general, if you want to use one of your percentile abilities, go for it. Rather than asking first if you can try something I'd rather you just went ahead and made the roll -- keeps things moving along. I'll rule on what happens based on the situation, the success of the roll, and the mysterious precepts of True Scientific Realism as I understand them.

If you prefer to simply post your attack and defense rolls that's fine -- I'll just add in description as needed and (hopefully) appropriate for your character. But please feel free to describe any combat maneuvers in more detail.

(For additional notes on grappling and other combat maneuvers see that post)

Grappling and Other Fancy Combat Maneuvers

(I think I've finally figured grappling out to my satisfaction. Aside from the part where I wonder if these rules are needed at all, that is. Your thoughts are welcome.)

When you make an Attack or Saving Throw it can be described any way you want, but the only mechanical effects are those told by the dice: You may well be a whirlwind of flashing steel slicing through enemy necks. You might escape death by inches, turning aside a killing spear thrust with the force of your chic chi parasol. And when it comes to the slingshot you may as well have ten thumbs and astigmatism for all your luck hitting the broad side of a battle cruiser. But in game terms that just means that your sword hit for 10 points of damage; you saved for half damage, and your sling bullet missed.

If you want more lasting mechanical effects, you can try combining your Attack or Save rolls with other abilities: A Psi-Knight might combine a Melee Attack with Command Matter in an attempt to disarm his opponent. A Doxy might Seduce a foe into Saving her by Throwing himself in front of a charging rhinoceratops -- if she makes her Seduce and Saving Throw her victim takes the damage.

One case of this is grappling, submission holds, wrestling throws and so forth. You start a grapple by stating your intention to restrain your opponent, then rolling a Melee Attack* combined with a Feat roll. If your Attack roll fails there is no grapple. If both Attack and Feat roll are successful you have grabbed hold of your foe! The foe gets to defend with an opposed Feat roll, which doubles as a Saving Throw for purposes of damage.

If both grapplers make Lesser Feat rolls they cancel each other out in the struggle for dominance, but the better success (lower roll) can make an unarmed Melee Attack on the other. The Feat roll still doubles as a Saving Throw.

If both grapplers fail Lesser Feat rolls neither can make an Attack roll but either can choose to step out of the grapple and flee, resume normal melee, etc.

If one attacker succeeds at a Lesser Feat and the other fails, he can immobilize his opponent or make an unarmed Melee Attack. If he was previously immobilized he can break his opponent's hold. In all cases, if grappling continues he gets to subtract his Strength score from next round's Feat roll.

If either combatant rolls a Great Feat they may automatically hit with a melee attack (no roll needed) or perform a more spectacular maneuver such as a body slam, suplex, throw, etc. This is based on the character's stated intention at the beginning of the round. If they haven't stated a special combat move they may only take the automatic melee attack. JM adjudicates the results, especially in cases where both fighters make a Great Feat roll.

Creative fighters may find other abilities such as Sneak Attack, Sneak, etc useful in grappling but that is up to the player to suggest and JM to adjudicate.

* OK, smart guy, or a Missile Attack for those of you armed with lassos, bola constrictors, rubberband lazers, etc.

Skill Notes and Critical Hits & Misses

In general, surprise me.

I have my own ideas about how the percentile abilities work but I want to avoid codifying them too much. And you'll find I'm willing to be persuaded by your cunning, clever or crazy rationales for using the skills.

Outside of combat you aren't obligated to automatically roll just because there's a relevant skill. If you just want to tell me what you say or do that's cool -- If I decide a dice roll is required I'll let you know.

While it's perfectly acceptable to just throw dice on a skill you feel is appropriate, feel free to include any description of what specific action you're taking as well. It's possible you may hit on something that will help your roll -- maybe even make it unnecessary.

Social skills based on Intelligence and Leadership should be mainly role-played -- go to the dice if you want to get a little extra oomph but success or failure isn't necessarily going to be determined purely by the roll.

Combining skills is acceptable: "Using Robot Friend and See the Future I attempt to re-calibrate Rollo the Craps-bot to always roll boxcars." It's probably best to limit yourself to using one or two ability rolls per round or action though

On the other hand if you want to do something truly outlandish -- "I Command my Monster Friend Godzilla to roll over and play dead" -- I think throwing the dice is a fun option. Something like this would only work on a ridonkulously good roll, but if you succeed, hey, you just made Godzilla your puppy. How Airwolf is that?

Critical Successes and Fumbles:
At JM's option a roll of 99 or 100 on any percentile check may result in a critical fumble: pratfalls, foul-ups, stubbed toes, broken bones, public humiliation, private shame, and similar mishaps. If the Ability chances are 99 or better a fumble may still occur on a 99 or 100 -- you're so awesome that you only fail spectacularly.

Similarly any percentile roll of 01 or 02 may be a critical success determined by the JM, unless the success chances are only 02 or less, in which case the player should just be glad of his or her good luck to make the check at all.

Character Creation

Ability Scores
3d6 in order, natch.

Hit Points
Begin play with the maximum for your character class. Dual class characters begin with the average of their two classes, rounded down.

Races, Hybrids and Character Options:
All standard races, cyaborgs, half-born, etc. are available.
Additional races: Cyclopeans, Hutts and Duckoids (Asteroid 1618, download or view pdf at EC group > Files > Game Aids & Resources),
Mike David's Insectors, Mantopi, Ratlings, and Sages (RPG Fun Pad, here),
Bulterrians (M65Q, here),
and Zombies (M&B, here).

If you choose a non-standard race let me know before character creation as I may make some modifications.

If you are making a half-born or cyaborg character, there's a handy chart by Jeff Rients at the EC Group detailing stat bonuses and maluses (EC group > Files > Game Aids & Resources > EC Races). If you are playing a half-human, reduce one stat bonus *and* one penalty by one point, player's choice.

Mutations:
Core chart from the rulebook and my expansion posted to the EC message (EC group > Files > Rules Expansions & Variants > EC mutation expansion) list are available. If you choose to use the expanded chart please roll randomly to determine the chart to be used for each mutation.

Character Classes:
In addition to the six core classes the (Variant) Biker and Scientist/Mad Scientist classes and the Wrestler subclass are available (EC group > Files > Rules Expansions & Variants).

Character Portraits:
A character sketch or HeroMachine portrait will earn you 50 XP.

Post your character sheet in the comments of this post or email it to me. I'll post it to the blog and link it from the sidebar. Game on!