Combat

Description

FUDGE: Gunfighting
This is the first draft of some notes I drew up for a FUDGE: Wild West game. They're still pretty rough, but hopefully some people will find them usefull until I can put them in a more attractive format.
Turn Sequence:
1. Staredown (if any)
2. Draw
3. Aim, Snapshot, or Dodge
4. Shoot, Fan Pistol, or Reload
5. Repeat 2, 3 and 4.
1. The Staredown
Match Nerve ratings of the two gunfighters (if a duel) or the gunfighter and his opponents. All opponents must agree to have the staredown, otherwise, skip to step 2: Draw. The winner of the Staredown may add +2 to any single action during the remainder of this turn (Draw, Snapshot, Dodge, Shoot, or Fan Pistol). You take a -1 to your Nerve rating if you are outnumbered 2 to 1, -2 if you're outnumbered 4 to 1, -3 if you're outnumbered 8 to 1, etc.
2. The Draw
All combatants make Fast Draw rolls. Gunfighters act in order of their rolls during each part of the turn sequence. Ties go simultaneously. If you have "the drop" on your opponents (i.e. your gun is already out and aimed at them) add +2 to your Fast Draw roll for this turn.
Example: Bob, Joe, and Frank are having a 3-way duel on the streets of Snakewater Gulch. After the staredown, each gunfighter rolls their Fast Draw. Bob gets a Good result, Joe gets a Fair, and Frank also gets a Fair. However, Frank was lying in wait for Bob and Joe and he has "the drop" on them, so his actual Fast Draw result is Great.
During part 3 of the turn, the Gunfighters go in order: Frank, Bob, then Joe. Then during part 4 of the turn, the Gunfighters go again in order: Frank, Bob, Joe. This means that Frank gets the first opportunity to Aim, make a Snapshot, or Dodge, then Bob, then Joe. Frank then gets the first crack at Shooting, Fanning his pistol, or Reloading, then the other two go in order.
3. Aim, Snapshot or Dodge
Aim
You may spend part 3 of the turn aiming your weapon. Aiming negates the snapshot penalty you take if you don't aim. If you have "the drop" on someone, the aiming penalty is automatically negated and you may shoot with no penalty during the Snapshot portion of the turn.
Snapshot
You may draw your weapon as fast as possible and fire wildly in your opponent's direction. A snapshot is pretty inacurrate, but faster than taking time to aim and fire (it happens in part 3 instead of part 4). You take a -2 penalty to hit when performing a Snapshot. Roll to hit and resolve damage for a Snapshot before moving on to part 4 of the turn. You may also shoot during part 4 of the turn, but it must be another Snapshot.
Dodge
Instead of Aiming or performing a Snapshot, you may instead decide to Dodge. Dodging throws you out of the path of your enemy's gunfire, making you more difficult to hit. If you Dodge this turn, all enemies firing at you take a -2 penalty to hit.
There is also a special kind of Dodge called Diving for Cover. If there is some kind of cover nearby like a water trough, barrel, bar-counter, etc. you may dive behind it. All shots at you this turn automatically miss, but you may not return fire during part 4 of the turn.
4. Shoot, Fan Pistol, or Reload
Shoot
Take your shot. If you Aimed during part 3, you take no penalty. If you did not Aim, you take a -2 penalty to hit.
Fan Pistol
"Fan" the hammer of your pistol and spray all your bullets like a primitive sub-machinegun. Only single-pistol shooters can try this stunt. You may attack as many opponents as you can see within 20 paces, up to the actual number of bullets in your gun (typically six). Regardless of the actual number of targets, you must empty all the bullets from your gun. Make an attack roll for each target, taking a -2 to hit if you Aimed during part 3 or a -3 to hit if you didn't.
Reload
You can reload 2 bullets into a revolver or rifle, or one shell into a shotgun. For every level of the Gift Speed Reload that you have, you may load 2 extra bullets or one extra shotgun shell. It's usually a good idea to Dive for Cover before Reloading.
5. Repeat 2, 3 and 4
After everyone has gone in part 4, the turn sequence starts over with part 2. Everyone who is using a gun that's already drawn gets a +2 to their Fast Draw roll to determine initiative. If any character has to draw a fresh gun for the turn, they get no bonus to their roll.
TWO-GUN SHOOTERS
The biggest advantage to using two guns is ammo capacity. You have 12 shots before you have to reload instead of 6. This is a pretty good advantage all by itself. The drawback is you have to use your "Two-Gun Shooter" skill instead of your "Pistol" skill, and the "Two-Gun" skill can never be better than your Pistol skill -1. The other advantage to using two guns is being able to fight multiple opponents. If you Aim during part 3 of the turn, you can Shoot at two different targets during part 4. You take no penalty for doing this. You cannot shoot twice at the same target.
RANGE DIFFICULTIES
Range Difficulty
In Yer Face
Spittin' Distance
Across the Room
Across the Street
Pretty far away
Real far away Poor
Mediocre
Fair
Good
Great
Superb

5.87 Hit Location in Combat
============================

By: Christian Otkjaer
Date: May, 1993

This rule requires more bookkeeping on the part of each player and the
GM, and complicates combat. However, it should add more excitement to
combat as well. Characters can be kept alive a bit longer, but at the
cost of leaving them severely in need of medical aid.

5.871 Hit Location
-------------------

As suggested briefly in Section 3.6, players can aim at a specific body
part during battle. There is a penalty for the size of the part, as
follows:

Eyes, coins, etc.: -3
Hands, feet, heads, pixies, etc.: -2
Legs, arms, leprechauns, etc.: -1
Human torsos, halflings, giants' legs, etc.: +0
Giant's body (if you can reach it), dragons, cars, etc.: +1 or
more (Subtract 1 from final damage so this +1 to hit does
not become a +1 to damage, also.)

If the player doesn't specify a body part, it is assumed to be a torso
attack.

These are for melee combat. For a ranged attack, simply set the degree
task appropriately higher.

If the range is too distant, you can't aim at a specific part. Instead,
roll to hit the torso as usual. If successful, use a random hit location
by rolling 1d6:

Rolled Hit
1 Extremity
2 Leg
3 Torso
4 Torso
5 Arm
6 Head

On a result of Extremity, roll another d6: 1-3 = Foot; 4-6 = Hand.
On a result of Hand, Foot, Arm or Leg, roll another d6: 1-3 = left;
4-6 = right.

A game company called The Armory makes a "Hit Location" die with a
different circled body part on each face. You could simply use one of
these, instead.

[Digression: both The Armory and Flying Buffalo, Inc., make some
interesting novelty dice that would work very well with FUDGE, and are
recommended. You can get dice showing pictures of different fumbles,
critical hits, NPC reactions, noises, monster encounters, treasure,
weather, corridor options, traps, doors, etc. Ask your local retailer
to check his distributor's catalog under "Dice." - S.O'S.]

Aiming at a specific body part means a -1 to Initiative if using those
rules.

5.872 Damage to an Individual Body Part
----------------------------------------

Each body part has its own Damage Capacity, all based on the the
character's general Damage Capacity:

Foot: -2 levels to general Damage Capacity
Hand: -2 levels
Arm: -1 level
Leg: -1 level
Head: -1 level
Torso: -0 level

That is, someone of overall Fair Damage Capacity has Poor Damage Capacity
in each foot and hand, Mediocre Damage Capacity in his head and in each
arm and leg, and Fair Damage Capacity in the torso. His *Constitution*
is not affected by this, though: if he has Fair Constitution, all body
parts have Fair Constitution.

You could represent this on the back of the character sheet as a table.
For example, here is a table for someone of Fair Damage Capacity:

Scratch Hurt Very hurt Incapacitated Near Death
Torso: 2 2 2 2 2
Head: 2 2 1 2 2

Body and head wounds are treated exactly as in the main text.

The terms "Incapacitated" and "Near Death" are replaced by the terms
"Useless" and "Crippled" for the limbs.

Scratch Hurt Very hurt Useless Crippled
Left arm: 2 2 1 2 2
Left hand: 2 1 1 2 2
Right arm: 2 2 1 2 2
Right hand: 2 1 1 2 2
Left leg: 2 2 1 2 2
Left foot: 2 1 1 2 2
Right leg: 2 2 1 2 2
Right foot: 2 1 1 2 2

5.873 Useless and Crippled Limbs
---------------------------------

A character drops whatever he was holding in a hand or arm that becomes
useless. It must be healed before it can be used again.

If a leg or foot becomes useless, the character falls down. (A Superb
agility roll might prevent this, if the GM is willing.) He can stand and
move again (slowly) if he leans on something, even if it's just a
makeshift cane.

A crippled limb is the same as useless, but takes twice as long to heal.

Any limb that takes damage beyond crippled is permanently cut off,
crisped, withered, mangled, etc., depending on the attack. Only magic,
cyberware or a miracle will help in these cases.

5.874 Modifiers Due to Damage
------------------------------

Only the most severe Wound counts for negative modifier purposes, and
only for an appropriate activity.

Example: a character is Hurt (-1) in his right arm, Very Hurt (-2) in his
left leg, and Hurt (-1) in his right foot. He is at -2 to all actions
involving the left leg, which include fighting while standing. The -1 to
his right foot is not cumulative with this damage. However, he is only
at -1 if trying to pick a lock, since only the arm wound counts in this
action.

5.875 Keeping Track of Wounds
------------------------------

You can still use the card method to track wounds, but you should make
your own cards indicating what they are for. E.g., a card with a picture
of a left hand or "left hand" written on it counts as a wound to
(surprise!) the left hand. You might just want to record wounds on paper
instead.

5.876 Widespread Damage
------------------------

If a character is hit by a giant fireball, a flame thrower, the blast
from a grenade, a cave in, etc., the damage must be distributed to each
afflicted part.

Figure the final damage as usual. Every part of the body that possibly
could be affected takes *half* (round up) of the final damage. If you
have different armor on different parts of your body the calculation must
be made for each body part. (A Space Crusader in heavy battle armor
might not mind a blast from a flame thrower, unless he had just taken off
his gloves . . . or helmet!)

Rules

Notes