Introduction
Welcome to the second Wasteland Games update. It has proven to be a bit more irregular than we anticipated (we were all abducted last June - or something). It is now back with a vengeance and we may even get another one out this year (yeah, right). In this update, you will find extra bits and pieces to help you use STOCS lite for your own fantasy/medieval games, most of which first appeared in Future Roleplayer magazine. Of course, if you want a magic system you'll have to rip off somebody else's or come up with one of your own. My own personal favourite is to give magic to the NPC's only and have them do whatever you want. That should help keep magic an unknown, mysterious and barely logical entity (and saves you having to worry about internal consistency). Maybe for the next update, we'll give the basis for a magic system. Coming out in the early Summer ('96), we have another two background/sourcebooks for STOCS lite. The first is El Paso, a Wild West sourcebook with lots of pretty essential gun totin', fast gamblin', bronco-bustin', train-robbin' information. We also have Heretics, a Modern Horror sourcebook that plunges the players into the depths of insanity. Topics under consideration for future updates are: Careers in STOCS lite, Vehicles (poop- poop) and a Point Blank conversion for El Paso. We also intend to bring out a set of quick- reference cards for STOCS lite.
FANTASY/MEDIEVAL RULES
Melee Weapons
In this booklet, you will find a small list of melee weapons. This is by
no means complete but it's easy to define extra weapons using these values
as a guideline. As a basic rule-of- thumb, melee weapons are divided into
three main types, small, medium and large. For each category, typical damage
values and example weapons are as follows: Type Damage Examples Small 1d10
Knives, improvised weapons, small clubs. Medium 2d10 Swords, spears, maces
and axes. Large 3d10 Two handed swords, axes, flails and lances. The ArmX
of melee weapons is usually x1. Some exceptions to this rule are spears,
rapiers, lances and blunt instruments (maces, clubs etc.). These exceptions
have an ArmX of x½.
Ranged Weapons
In medieval games, ranged weapons consist
of bows, crossbows and thrown weapons. Items such as throwing knives and
axes do the same damage as their hand-held counterparts. Spears and javelins
have a RNG equal to the STR of the thrower. Other thrown weapons have a RNG
equal to half the STR of the thrower.
| Weapon | Damage | ArmX | Reload | Range |
| Bow | 2d10 + 5 | x2 | 1round | 20 |
| Crossbow | 2d10 + 20 | x1 | 4 rounds | 40 |
Armour
Armour: it protects your important bits, it
looks good, it keeps you cold in winter and hot in summer. It's also heavy
and might not be the best thing to be wearing if you fall into deep water,
but you can't have everything. Armour comes in four main types: leather or
padded cloth, chain, plate and a special type of plate called hard plate.
Hard Plate has better steel and craftsmanship than normal plate. In a world
where hard and normal plate exist alongside one another, the hard plate should
cost up to ten times as much. All armour encumbers to some degree. This is
represented as a penalty to all physical acts, such as fighting, riding,
sneaking etc. To determine a character's armour penalty, add up the per-location
penalties for each piece of armour worn. These penalties are listed below.
| Armour Type | AV | Head | Arm | Torso | Leg |
| Leather/Padded Cloth | 2 | Special | None | None | None |
| Chain | 8 | Special | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| Plate | 10 | Special | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| Hard Plate | 15 | Special | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
The penalty above for the torso includes both the front and the back. Leather or padded cloth does not give a penalty to actions. The penalties given above for Arm and Leg are for a single limb only. Penalties for armour are rounded to the nearest value. With head armour, characters not only choose what type of armour is worn on the head but also how much of the head is protected. Whenever a character is struck on the head, roll a die to determine whether or not the blow has struck the headgear. Head protection affects a character's Perception skill. It does not affect their mobility (no physical penalties). And always remember, headgear makes you go bald.
| Head Coverage % | Up to 50% | 51-75% | 76-100% |
| Perception Penalty | None | -5 | -10 |
As a little bonus to armour wearing fiends, when seated on a horse, characters may ignore the armour penalties for their leg armour. Mounted knights can be devastating. The trick is to kill the horses first, then they become walking pillboxes with a good reason to hate you.
Shields
Shields give a bonus of up to +8 to the defence
of the character. Don't worry too much about facing. If they're attacked
from behind, ignore the shield bonus. To counter- balance this free defence,
shields have a penalty to all physical actions equal to half the defence
value of the shield. For example, a shield which gives a defence bonus of
+6 also gives a penalty to physical actions (in the same manner as armour)
of -3. If anyone with a shield wants to have it block arrows and whatnot,
have them roll a d20. If they roll under the defence bonus of the shield,
the arrow is embedded in the shield, otherwise it hits the character.
Horses
On roads, a horse can comfortably cover 50km
in one day. A horse with more than 100kg on it's back has a 1 in 20 chance
of going lame each day. A horse's maximum speed is around 30 metres per round,
although this is halved going across rough ground. The maximum safe speed
at which a character can ride a horse is twice their Ride Horse skill in
metres per round. Any faster involves a skill roll. Falling off a horse causes
2d10 points of falling damage for every 10m per round the horse was travelling.
Horses in Combat Situations
There are a number of modifiers which are applied to various skills
when horses are used in combat. These are listed below. . A character on
foot attacking a character on horseback does so at -5. . Charging on a
battle-trained horse gives a -5 to Melee skill and a +10 to weapon damage.
Dismounted characters with a polearm set to receive a charge get a +10 damage
bonus. . Despite their size, horses only have a DL of 7. They have a STR
of 30, a WIL of 10 and an attack skill (with their hooves) of 7. Being struck
by a horse's hooves does 1d10+20 points of damage and they have a x1/2 ArmX.
Example Weapons
| Weapons | Damage | ArmX | Wt | Notes | |
| Knives | |||||
| Small knife | 1d10-4 | X1 | 0.1 | Used for the peeling of fruit. | |
| Dagger | 1d10+2 | X1 | 0.5 | +5 to DEX when attacking | |
| Main Gauche | 1d10+0 | X1 | 0.5 | Sword breaker, used in left hand. | |
| Axes | |||||
| Hatchet | 1d10+4 | X1 | 1.0 | Wood chopper, small and vicious | |
| Axe | 2d10+0 | X1 | 2.0 | 2d10-2 if used 1-handed | |
| Battle Axe | 2d10+4 | X½ | 2.5 | -5 to DEX when attacking | |
| Mattock | 3d10+0 | X½ | 3.5 | -5 to DEX when attacking | |
| Polearms | |||||
| Halberd | 2d10+4 | X½ | 3.5 | ||
| Spear | 2d10+0 | X½ | 2.0 | Usually less than 2 metres long. | |
| Pike | 3d10+0 | X½ | 4.0 | -5 to DEX when attacking. | |
| Swords | |||||
| Sabre | 2d10+2 | X1 | 1.5 | ||
| Shortsword | 2d10-2 | X1 | 1.0 | +5 to DEX when attacking. | |
| Longsword | 2d10+2 | X1 | 1.5 | ||
| Broadsword | 2d10+4 | X1 | 2.0 | ||
| Bastard Sword | 3d10+0 | X1 | 2.5 | 2d10+4 if used 1-handed. | |
| Greatsword | 3d10+2 | X½ | 3.5 | -5 to DEX when attacking. | |
| Rapier | 2d10-2 | X½ | 1.0 | ||
| Bludgeons | |||||
| Club | 1d10+0 | X½ | 3.0 | ||
| Mace | 2d10+0 | X½ | 3.5 | ||
| Spiked Mace | 2d10+2 | X½ | 3.5 | ||
| War Hammer | 2d10+2 | X½ | 4.0 | ||
| Staff | 1d10+4 | X1 | 3.0 | ||
| Morning Star | 2d10+4 | X½ | 3.0 | -5 to DEX when attacking. | |
| Misc. | |||||
| Whip | 1d10-2 | X2 | 2.0 | ||
| Flail | 2d10+2 | X½ | 3.0 | -5 to DEX when attacking 2-handed | |
| Flail | 3d10+0 | X½ | 5.0 | -5 to DEX when attacking. | |
| Chain | 1d10+2 | X1 | Var. | -5 to DEX when attacking. | |
| Improvised | 1d10+2 | X2 | Var. | Bottle, chair, frying pan etc. | |
| Lance | 3d10+2 | X½ | 5.0 | Only used on moving horse. | |
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