Combat

Melee

LRP safe weaponry should be used at all times and needs to be checked by the refs first to make sure it will not cause harm.

One test we have used in the past is to take the weapon from the player and repeatedly whack them with it. If they don’t want us to do that, then the weapon should be considered unsafe. If they are happy for us to do that and they aren’t in a crippled heap on the floor, then the weapon is to be considered safe. This has the added advantage of allowing the refs a little time to let off some steam. A happy ref is a good ref.

But in all seriousness, all weapon blows should be ‘pulled’. This means that the weapon should be pulled back just before the point of impact to avoid hitting your enemy with the full force of the weapon. This has two benefits. Firstly, you won’t harm the other person in real life, and secondly, you are less likely to break your weapon. If you are unsure how to do this, please speak to a ref and they will show you.

Ranged

Some ammunition types can augment damage with a ‘special ability’. For instance:

Armour-piercing rounds will ignore the armour of the target and should use the call ‘through’

Incendiary rounds will cause the location to burn for one extra point of damage after thirty seconds has passed, unless the affected player tries to ‘smother’ or ‘drop and roll’.

Dum-Dum rounds cause all damage taken to be subdual damage.

Armour

Armour is rated according to the type.

Damage you take in combat is removed from your armour first. When your armour is reduced to zero, any remaining damage comes off your BOD stat. When armour is reduced to zero, it must be repaired before it can be used again. The only exception to this is cyberware armour. This is explained in the cyberware section.

Damage calls and taking damage

Ranged

Depending on your skill level and weapon type, call <person> <location> <damage number> <type (if applicable)>

So, Selwyn Chest double through,

Unarmed

You don’t get the luxury of calling a location. The damage calls are similar to above but as it is usually obvious who you are fighting , just the damage call is necessary. If you think that it might not be obvious, due to a massive bar brawl or a situation where you are hitting someone over the head from behind (not actually hitting them of course, just pretending to) then call the person’s name too.

Melee

The unarmed rules apply to melee too for similar reasons.

Subdual damage

As well as the lower levels of the Unarmed Skill, some weapons cause subdual damage too.

Any subdual damage that doesn’t place the character on negative hits will automatically be recovered at the rate of one hit per hour. Medicine can reduce the time this would take (see the Med skill below for more details). Any subdual damage that places the character on negative hits will need medical attention but will not get any worse.

Tasers

A Taser will cause a triple subdue. Any player with three hits or less that is hit by a Taser will be knocked unconscious.

If a character has four hits or higher then he is effectively immune to the paralysing effects of being Tasered. Of course it will hurt like a bastard but he will not be taken down. If the character also had Pain Filter cyberware installed and had four or more hits, then he would be immune to the paralysing effects and the pain and would probably be very annoyed at you. Best to run eh?

Those that are undergoing Cyberpsychosis or are on combat drugs like Fatal Fury or Overfiend, are pretty much immune to the Taser effects too. But then you’re probably going to notice if they are on these types of drugs and the fact that they are immune to the Taser is the very least of your problems.

Taking Damage

As mentioned above under BOD, a character has as many hitpoints as they have in the BOD stat.

Weapons are rated according to the damage they do. Some significantly higher level skills can augment this damage by +1.

If a player is at -1 or below, every minute they will lose another wound until they get to minus their starting hits. If they are not stabilised within one minute of hitting their minus starting hits, then they are dead.

For instance, Selwyn has five hits, is shot to fuck and back, and goes down to -5 hits. At the end of the minute that would put him on -6 hits, he takes his final breath and shuffles off this mortal coil. Unless a medic with skill 5 gets to him and treats him during that final minute, then he has a chance. A medic with skill of 5 treating Selwyn can ask a ref to flip a coin at the end of the minute in which Selwyn dies to see if he survives. If the coin comes up heads then Selwyn has survived and is stabilised at zero wounds.

Damage Chart

Weapons do the following damage