STOCS lite Companion

Copyright 1995 - 2003 Eoin Connolly, Rob Brennan and Eric Nolan. All rights reserved.

Published by Wasteland Games

Design & Writing: Eoin Connolly, Rob Brennan, Eric Nolan
Proof-Reading/Comments: Dwayne Keogh, Tony Walsh
Cover Design: Eoin Connolly

First Edition - Version 1.01

Dedicated to Gary Gygax, who started it all (or was that Dave Arneson?).

This book contains information that was originally published in draft form in the Wasteland Games Newsletter STOCS3.  The current issue of this irregular newsletter is available by sending a SSAE to Wasteland Games.

Some of the STOCS lite heavy weapons game statistics found in this volume were calculated using BTRC’s Guns, Guns, Guns™ 3rd Edition.  This amazing game-aid for any referee is heartily recommended to the detail-fetishists among you.  BTRC’s web page can be found at: http://www.btrc.net/

This game supplement is protected by the One True copyright law.  Violate this and who knows what could happen to you, one ‘friend’ of ours was spontaneously turned into a giant pink marshmallow.  All interior art (hah!) is copyright the individual artists.

STOCS lite is Wasteland Games’ Trade Mark for its modern-day roleplaying system.  The rules in this book will upgrade any version of the STOCS lite rules to version 2.0.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the STOCS lite companion.  This is a flesh-tearing, excitement explosion of new rules and systems for STOCS lite.  A massive bundle of presents for the STOCS lite aficionado (and people who like tanks).  

Everything in her is optional, you don’t need to use all (or even any) of these rules to run a good STOCS lite game.  Take what you like the look of, ignore sections that deal with things you’ll never need and come up with your own modifications.  We want you to play with a system that you’re completely happy with, that’s why we constantly strive to make our rules simple and flexible.

Some of the highlights of the contents are as follows:  

• A new points based system for generating character attributes, which will please all those people who hate randomness in character generation.
• Character generation expansions such as character age, wealth and attribute based skills.  
• A new and improved skill list, rules for team tasks and rules for long term tasks.  
• Additional melee and bow combat rules suitable for medieval games.  New firearms rules including dealing with heavy weapons like tank guns and artillery.  
• A magic system which can be used for any sort of campaign which contains supernatural abilities like magic (or psionics or super powers).  
• Finally a system for dealing with vehicles of all types, including special rules for pursuits (that’s car chases for you action movie fans).

In this section you’ll find new rules for fleshing out characters during generation.  As with everything in this book, only use the things that you find suitable for the style of game you’re running.

CHARACTER GENERATION

Point Based Attribute Generation

Instead of rolling dice for character attributes some referees may prefer a non-random method of attribute generation.  This is simply done by selecting the desired level for each attribute and paying the cost in attribute points shown in the table below. All characters have 60 points to spend on attributes.

If you choose to use this method, skills and character traits still are determined as per the standard rules.

Character Age

Starting characters are assumed to be between 16 and 25 years old (15 + 1d10).  This is what is represented by the attributes generated during character creation.  For every 5 years added to the starting age a character may add one to their EDU score (totals over 20 are allowed in this way).
If a player decides to increase the starting age of their character, they must make a roll of CON - 5 or less on 1d20 for each five years of additional age taken.  For each roll failed, the player must subtract one point from one of their physical attributes.  

Example: The Aged Joseph Henkel

Joseph‘s initially generated attributes are as follows:  STR 8, CON 13, DEX 11, WIL 15, INT 14 and EDU 17.  

Eric rolls a d10 for Joseph’s base age and gets a 3 giving a base age of 18.  

Eric decides that Joseph has spent a couple of years scurrying in the rat-race already and that Joseph is 33 years old.  

Eric adds 3 to Joseph’s EDU and must roll three times for ageing.  He rolls a 13, 6 and a 8.  Joseph must lose 1 point from a physical characteristic.  The player chooses CON.

Joseph’s final characteristics are STR 8, CON 12, DEX 11, WIL 15, INT 14 and EDU 20.

Quick Skill Purchase

To speed up character generation, players may instead choose skills as follows:

Select a desired skill specialisation and a level of proficiency e.g. Expert Arts(Law).

Pay the general skill cost in skill points.  The character receives both the general skill and specialisation at the desired level.

The player may choose any other specialisations in a general skill area at a cost of one skill point per +1 increase in the specialisation if the specialisation is less than 10 or two skill points per +1 for specialisations above a level of 10.

Example: Here’s One I Prepared Earlier

A player wants to play a fast-talking lawyer, so they choose a level of Expert in Arts(Law) and Professional in Social(Interpersonal).  Assuming a base level of 3 in each general skill, this gives the character a skill of 19 (3+8+8) in Arts(Law) and 15 (3+6+6) in Social(Interpersonal) for a cost of 26 skill points.  The player decides that dealing with the red-tape of the law will require more than a fast tongue, so they take an extra +3 to Social(Bureaucracy).  The base level of Social(Bureaucracy) is the character’s Social skill (9).  The first +1 costs one skill point bringing the skill to a level of 10.  The second and third +1’s cost two skill points each, for a total cost of 5 skill points for the bonus.

Personalised Skill Bases

Instead of all skills having a base of 3 for all characters, personalised skill bases can be calculated during character generation.  This should be done before choosing skills.  In the table below each general skill has a governing attribute listed.  To calculate a character’s base chance in a particular general skill, divide the governing attribute by 4 (round nearest).  This gives a range of Skill bases from 1 to 5 with an average of 3.

Example: Joseph’s skill bases

Joseph’s attributes are STR 7, CON 11, DEX 11, WIL 15, INT 14 and EDU 20.  Before choosing any skills he calculates his general skill bases.  His skill base for Arts is 4 (14/4) and Physical is 2 (7/4).

As you can see this gives a certain amount of depth to a character, even before you start to choose skills.  Obviously Joseph will have to spend more points than average to obtain a high level of expertise in any physical skill but more erudite areas come naturally to him.

Initial Wealth and Salary

In this section a system for determining a character’s salary and spending money.  The figures produced are intended to be US dollars.  It is possible to use this figures without modification for UK pounds as average salaries tend to be lower and taxation higher than in the US.

Salary

Salary depends on both a character’s career and their skill level in this career.  The player and the referee should agree which skill the character uses in their day-job (it might be difficult to get a job as a marksman).  For the purposes of determining salary, skills are grouped into the following categories:

Multiply the base salary by the character’s skill level to find their current salary.

Typically characters will spend about 1/3 of their salary on taxes and another third on fixed expenses such as rent, mortgages, food etc.  Thus approximately 1/3 is left over for spending or saving.  Occasionally a character may dip into the 1/3 that they normally spend on living expenses for once-off purchases.  Criminal characters pay no significant tax on their earnings so they are much better off on a given salary (free money = 2/3 full salary rather than 1/3).  Of course they might get caught by the police while “working”.  Savings and investments are covered by the Wealth skill.

Losing your job

Most characters will be in debt but they have no problem making repayments out of their living expenses, if they lost their job it could become a problem.  In this case you may assume that people are in debt to the tune of at least one full year’s salary.  This may result in repossessions and prosecutions for characters failing to make their repayments.

Wealth

Wealth is a new general skill with the following specialisations:

• Cash. The character has access to large sums of cash.
• Stocks & Bonds. The character has access to volatile sums of cash which may be converted to cash with 1 week’s notice.
• Property. The character has buildings (houses, penthouses, apartments, businesses) or land which may be converted to cash after 1 month.
• Possessions. The character has large number of possessions that might come in handy during the STOCS lite game (see below).

Typical amounts of money available with the Cash specialisation are as shown below.  Characters converting Stocks & Bonds into cash roll 1d10 and multiply the cash available by the die roll.  Converting property to cash generates ten times the cash shown in the table below.

Characters may spend up to 10 times the amount shown in the table but they must then make a wealth skill roll.  A failure means that their Wealth general skill is reduced by one.  Note this automatically reduces all Wealth specialisations by one.

SKILL SYSTEM

This section presents a comprehensive STOCS lite skill list, general skill descriptions, rules for multiple characters helping with a task and guidelines on extended research or invention tasks.

Advanced Skill List

Brief descriptions of the STOCS lite General skills are also provided to help stir the imagination when defining new Specialisations.
Referees may make characters may roll against their Possessions rating to see if they already have a particular item that the group desires. The difficulty of this roll should be modified by the exact item required and the character involved. For example, even if you were a gadget obsessed millionaire you might not have a life size replica of the Graf Zeppelin lying around in your garage.

Calculating DL

The standard method for calculating DL (Disability Level) is:

(STR + CON) divided by 5 (round nearest)

This is suitable for gritty, realistic modern day scenarios. However if you want to play a more gung-ho style of game where the players have to be able to survive constant gunfire, try using this method instead:

(STR + CON) divided by 4 (round nearest)

Skill Descriptions

Brief descriptions of all the general skills are presented below with a selection of suitable specialisations.  

Skill List

Team Tasks

If multiple characters are performing a task, and they all have the relevant skill, then the difficulty may be reduced.  The skill of the team is calculated in the following manner:

Additional characters helping do not give a direct bonus to the skill used.

Teams do not normally complete the task quicker unless they choose to reduce the task time as per the normal task rules.  Unlike a normal task, the base time for a team task may be quartered if one quarter the final skill is used.  Co-ordinating very large groups performing a task may be a task in itself, perhaps using Arts(Administration).

Example: The clue is in the Slime

A team of Biochemists are examining some slime collected in a field trip, the referee declares that this a normal task with a base time of 20 hours.  The team consists of Joe Average (Biochemistry 7), Bill Weak (Biochemistry 3), Fred Strong (Biochemistry 14) and Ted Average (Biochemistry 7). 
The base chance of success is 14 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 19.  If the team wanted to half the time taken to 10 hours the would have a base chance of 9, if they wanted to quarter the time to 5 hours they would have a base chance of 4.

If another 10 Average assistants (Biochemistry 7) were added to the team (making a total of 13 effective team members) the base chance would become 14 + 10 = 24.

Extended Tasks

Whenever characters are performing a long-term investigative, construction or creative task the referee may use extended tasks to add depth to the long-term activity.  Extended tasks are suitable when a character is investigating an unknown compound, inventing an alien signal detector or researching a shadowy corporation.  Alternately a simple skill roll or referee fiat can be used in these circumstances.  The pacing of the scenario and the needs of the plot should influence the referee’s choice of task resolution method.

An Extended Task is one where the characters accumulate successes over time, eventually gathering enough to be considered to have finished the task.

Step 1: Decide on Task Difficulty

Task difficulty generally depends on the resources of the group performing the task.  The Task Resources table below shows example resources and the task difficulties associated with them.

The resources needed for a task can be split up into three areas: Equipment, Manpower and Information Sources.  Manpower can only be rented, other resources can be rented or bought.

Equipment is usually lab equipment, for example medical or electronic.

Manpower is the number of bodies that can be assigned to a job.

Information Sources include informants, libraries, news vaults and, optionally, the Internet.

The referee determined which resources are important to a task, informs the characters what the current difficulty is based on the Resources they have and what they would need to improve their chances.

Example: Investigating a Shady Company: Part 1

The players want to find out more about a certain LA company, a Realtors, whose name has been cropping up again and again during their adventures.  The referee decides that Information Sources is the most important resource to have for this Extended task.  The characters have access to public records and the Internet.  The referee informs them that for this task, they have Below Average resources.  The players ask the referee if hiring a private investigator will increase their resources and the referee agrees to increase their resources to Average if they do this.

Step 2: Define the Scale of the Task

All extended tasks will take time to complete, this is defined by two things: the task time period and the number of successful task rolls needed to complete the task.  The base number of successes required is 10 and example task periods are shown in the table below.  Tasks will always take at least the number of successes multiplied by the task period to complete and for characters with average skill levels it will, on average, take twice this time.  The referee must choose values for both successes required and task period before the task is begun.

Before starting an extended task a character can try to estimate the number of successes required to complete the task.  Estimation of the number of successes required is a task with the following difficulties:

Characters can perform an extended task without knowing the scale of the task, they just accumulate successes until the referee informs them that the task is complete.

Step 3: Perform the Task

Once the Extended Task has been started, the character(s) involved roll the relevant skill after the task period has elapsed.  If the task roll is successful then they gain one success towards completion of the task.  A critical success counts as 2 successes, a critical failure subtracts one from the current number of successes accumulated.  When the characters have accumulated the number of successes required for the task, the task is complete, although characters may not always realise this.

Example: Investigating the Shady Company: Part 2

The referee determines that the investigation of the shady Company is a short-term project with 20 successes required.  The difficulty of the task is Normal (+ 0), and because more than one PC is devoting time to the job, the task is treated as a co-operative task.  There are 3 PC’s involved (Research skills: 14, 12, 9) so the task has a modifier of + 7.  

The Time Period is 1 day, so after one day has elapsed the player character leading the Investigation (usually the one with the highest skill) rolls the task.  Their modified skill is 21, and on the first day they roll a 4, giving them 1 success.  The next day they roll 1, which is a critical so they get 2 successes, giving them a total of 3 successes.  This continues until they have accumulated the 20 successes necessary.

Research skill

Some extended tasks are based on a skill other than Research.  For example, a character investigating an Alien artefact may use Engineering(Gray Technology).  A character may use their research skill to increase the chances of success in a these extended tasks.  

During each time period a research task may be made prior to the extended task, if this is successful then the current extended task has a modifier of + 5.

The Internet

If a referee desires to feature the “information superhighway” prominently in their games then it may be used as an information resource.  During the task period the characters must make a Normal (+ 0) Science(Computers) task roll.

A successful task means that the research task this period as being performed with access to an Above Average information resource for this research period.

Roleplaying out the Rolls

It is critically important for extended tasks to be more than a dice rolling exercise.  If possible, the referee should split the task up into small breakthroughs.  This means that the players can follow up on the information they have rather than waiting until they have accumulated so many successes that they reckon there is nothing more for them to find out.

Example: Investigation Breakthroughs

The referee has several snippets of information regarding the Shady Realtors which will get released to the characters bit by bit.  These pieces of information could be as follows:

COMBAT

In this section both modern and historical combat possibilities are discussed.  New firearms options, complete rules for heavy weapons, shields and armour in melee, new types of melee weapons and bow weapons are all covered in this section.

Firearms

The following optional rules are presented for use with firearms.

Scopes

Optical scopes come in a range of mognifications, generally from 1X to 10X.  Many modern rifles such as the Steyr Aug and the G-11 are fitted with optical sights.

Optical sights give a + 5 bonus to hit, but only if the firer has aimed for one round.  Optical sights are effective out to 100 metres times their magnification.  Due to the tunnel vision effects of optical sights it is not possible to use them to aim at moving targets within 20m.

Extra Damage for Aimed Shots

If a character aims at a target and hits it, the amount they make the to-hit roll by is added to the damage done.  For example, if an aiming character with a modified skill of 17 rolls 10 on the to-hit roll, then they add 7 points to the damage done.

AutoBurst Weapons

Autoburst weapons may fire one 3 round burst at an individual target for which they get the + 5 autofire bonus to hit.  The target of an AB weapon is treated as if they were hit by a single shot.

Taser damage is 3d10 as Unarmed damage and always causes a Panic check.  Tasers can only be used at point-blank range.
Chemical attacks are covered in the heavy weapons section.  Mace is an incapacitating agent.  Both normal and keyring mace can only be fired at point blank range.

Heavy Weapons for STOCS lite

In the basic STOCS lite rules hand held firearms and melee weapons are covered, for some situations the characters will want something with a bigger bang (even when it isn’t necessary).  The following sections give special rules for the use of heavy weapons.

Heavy Weapons Use

The base skill for using these weapons is Combat (Heavy Weapons), however if the referee wants to create alternate sub-skills for ATGWs, large calibre guns and autocannons who are we to complain?  Except where noted below, heavy weapons use the normal STOCS lite to-hit tasks and modifiers as presented in the STOCS lite basic rules.  Most heavy weapons have an effective, long and extreme range just like small arms.  Special cases are noted below.

Anti Tank Guided Weapons

ATGWs have no extreme range, thus their maximum range is RNG x 5.  ATGWs have a minimum range listed after the slash in their RNG statistic, no targets may be engaged up to this range due to warhead arming, guidance limitations etc.  All ATGWs, anti-tank rockets and recoilless rifles have a backblast zone extending as a narrow cone several metres behind the launcher.  Any characters caught in this area when the weapon is fired take blast damage equal to 10 (exception the Armbrust backblast is only 1).  This blast value applies to targets within 2m and decays along the cone like a HE blast. This makes firing most of these weapons impossible inside an enclosed space such as a building.

Grenades

Hand grenades can use either Physical(Athletics) or Combat(Heavy Weapons) when rolling to hit.  Rifle Grenades always use Combat(Heavy Weapons) and are -5 to hit at all ranges.  HE grenades should roll for scatter just like other HE rounds.

Range Effects on Damage of Heavy Weapons

Automatic Fire with Heavy Weapons

The RCL numbers given in the heavy weapon table have been reduced to represent fire from fixed mounts such as vehicles or tripods .  The standard STOCS lite rules are used to roll to hit with an autofire burst.  After a burst has hit, add the target’s size modifier (e.g. Large target + 5) to each die rolled for hits on the target.  This makes anti-vehicle automatic fire effective out to longer ranges than anti-personnel automatic fire.  In general the RCL of a fixed/tripod mount weapon should be reduced by 4, a bipod reduces RCL by 2.

For example, a 20mm autocannon firing at a vehicle (Large target, + 5) at 150m fires a burst of 30 rounds.  This burst must roll to-hit normally and then rolls 10d10 to determine how many hits are achieved on the vehicle.  The effective recoil number is 5 (base) but each die rolled adds + 5(large target) so 10 hits are automatically achieved.

Types of Heavy Weapons Rounds

APDS and APFSDS rounds

Specialist discarding sabot AP (Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot and Armour Piercing Fin Stabilising Discarding Sabot) rounds have a greater armour penetration than conventional AP rounds. They have an armour multiplier of x½.  These rounds also have superior range to conventional AP rounds.

HE High Explosive rounds

As HE rounds have an area of effect in which all targets are potentially damaged. It is important to find out where they land even when they miss their intended point of impact (the to hit roll is failed).  If a shot misses roll a d10 on the HE scatter table below (however on a critical failure the GM may decide that the round is a dud and no explosion takes place). The distance scattered from the aiming point is shown on the table as a percentage of the range from shooter to aiming point.  All indirect fire and fire at extreme range doubles the distance scattered. If using indirect fire and a forward observer is present to relay corrections (and they make their Combat(Heavy Weapons) skill check) then the second and subsequent rounds scatter half the rolled distance.  Stationary fixed mount direct fire weapons always halve the scatter for second and subsequent shots at the same aiming point.

Explosions are discussed in the STOCS lite rules.  The rules below extend those from the basic set as they are more general and can deal with heavy weapons and demolitions.

All explosive devices have a danger radius associated with them.  Within this radius explosions have two damage causing effects, blast and fragments (frag).  The base blast and frag values apply to characters within 2m of the explosion.  For each doubling of the radius (4m, 8m, 16m, etc.), ¼ the blast and frag values  (round nearest).  Modify the values as follows:

• Characters in contact with the explosion double both the blast and frag values.
• Characters who are prone or in hard cover half the blast and frag values.
• In a confined space the blast value is doubled.
• Underwater explosions double the base blast radius to 4m and halve the damage of fragments.  

Inside the blast danger radius a character takes the blast value in d10s of damage.  Blast causes damage mainly by concussion and cannot be protected against by most personal armour.  If the blast doesn’t kill the character instantly then being blown into walls etc. can cause falling damage.  In addition, any character that takes a - 1 AAM or more from blast damage must roll WIL or be panicked. Treat all blast damage as a hit to the torso.

Within the fragment danger radius the character is hit by a number of fragments equal to the frag value.  Each fragment does 2d10 points of damage and has an armour multiplier of x4. Roll randomly for the hit location of each fragment.

HEAT rounds

HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) is a type of warhead used on many modern anti-armour weapons as its armour penetration is not dependent on the velocity of the round at impact.  This makes it the best choice for the low-velocity rounds fired by most personal anti-armour weapons.

HEAT weapons normally have an Armour Multiplier (ArmX) of x1. Some vehicles have special composite, spaced or active armour that is especially effective against HEAT warheads.  This is indicated by placing an S after the AV of the vehicle. HEAT weapons have an ArmX of x2 against these armours.

Smoke rounds

These rounds rapidly combust to form a vision obscuring smoke screen.  In general it takes 1d10 + 10 rounds for the smoke cloud to form.  While the cloud is forming there is a -5 to hit all targets behind the smoke.  When the smoke cloud has formed there is a -10 to hit targets behind the smoke and -5 to hit targets in the smoke.  This effect usually will last for 1d10 + 10 minutes, although high winds will disperse the smoke in half this time.  Thermal imaging equipment will reduce the effective modifier for smoke by 5 e.g. no modifier while the smoke is forming.  

The size and shape of the smoke cloud depends on the prevailing wind conditions but in light winds it will form a circle with a diameter of approximately 30m for grenades and guns up to 100m or 50m for larger guns.  

Multiple smoke rounds may be fired at the same impact point, this has the effect of doubling the visibility modifier where their areas of effect overlap.  If this means the modifier is -20 (i.e. target behind a double density fully formed cloud) then no fire is possible as the line of sight is blocked (of course thermal imaging equipped units will still be able to fire).

White Phosphorous rounds

These are a special type of smoke round that explosively generates a cloud of rapidly burning phosphorous fragments.  WP rounds have no formation time and the smoke cloud only lasts for 1d10 minutes. The smoke cloud is only half the diameter of a normal smoke round.  

In addition to the smoke effects, WP inflicts a WIL - 5 panic check on all within the burst radius and causes 2d10 damage to 1d10 - 1 random locations.  All flammable substances within the blast radius hit by fragments will ignite (these puppies burn at 2700 ºC).

Chemical rounds

There are a variety of chemical warheads available, these range from incapacitating irritant gas (BZ, CS, CN) to deadly nerve agents (Sarin, VX).  
For simplicity agents are divided into two types as shown in the table below:

All chemical rounds have a danger radius equal to a smoke round of the same type.  If the referee rules that the exact chemical or dose is more or less effective then the task difficulty should be altered. Mace spray is an example of a directed attack of an incapacitating agent.

There are a variety of protective measures from water-soaked rags to full CBW (chemical, biological warfare) suits, in general the more advanced and lethal agents require more sophisticated protection.  Effective protection should reduce the difficulty of the survival tasks as follows:

Demolitions

Instead of use as a weapon, explosives can be used to create breaches or to destroy items.  All explosive devices have a Blast value associated with them.  For example a 1kg block of C-4 plastic explosive has a Blast rating of 40.  The effects on characters of detonating an explosive are covered in the section Explosive Blast and Fragmentation above.  Typically non-weapon explosives will only have a minimal fragmentation effect so this is ignored.

To create a 1-meter diameter breach in a barrier, it requires explosives with a Blast value equal to the barrier’s armour value.  For example, a brick wall has an AV of 40, so it will require about 1kg of C-4 to create a 1-metre breach.  Blowing up bridges, destroying equipment etc. just requires the referee to decide how many 1-metre breaches are required to accomplish the task.

Setting explosives in this way requires a Combat(Demolitions) task roll.  If the task is unsuccessful the effective Blast value of the explosives is halved for determining damage effects to the target.

Explosive Blast Values

Example Heavy Weapons

ARCHAIC COMBAT

Bow Weapons

All bows and longbows are fired with the Combat(Archaic Weapons) skill.  Crossbows use the Combat(Firearms skill).  Bow weapons use firearms to-hit tasks and modifiers.  Add the DB of the character to damage done with a bow weapon.  Bows are rated for the minimum strength a character must have to use them, characters with a lower STR must half any damage done and double reloading time.

Shields

Shields vary in size and can give a bonus of up to +8 to the defence of a character using one.  Rear attacks will ignore this bonus.  All shields give an encumbrance AAM equal to half the bonus provided by the shield (round up).  For example a medium shield which gives a bonus of + 4 to defence, gives an encumbrance AAM of -2.

Missiles fired at a character with a shield may strike the shield, roll a d20 and if it is less than the shield’s defence bonus then it strikes the shield before hitting the character.  Shields typically have an AV of 15.

Archaic Armour

In some games, pre-20th Century armour may play an important part.  All these armours are poor protection against firearms and all firearms have an ArmX of ½ when firing at them.  Archaic armour comes in four main types: leather or padded cloth, chain, plate and steel plate.  The steel plate category is meant to represent more advanced armour-making or better craftsmanship.  In a setting where both plate and steel plate exist, steel plate should cost up to 10 times as much.

All armour encumbers to some degree.  This is represented by a special AAM which only counts when making physical tasks e.g. fighting, riding, sneaking etc..  To determine a character’s armour AAM, add up the per-location penalties for each piece of armour worn and round to the nearest whole number.  The penalties are listed in the table below.  Leather or Padded Cloth does not give a penalty to actions.

Torso includes front and back. Arm and Leg are for a single limb only.

When choosing head armour, a player must decide what percentage of the head is covered.  Whenever the player is struck in the head, roll a die to determine whether or not the blow has struck the armour.  Head armour affects a character’s Perception skill.  The modifier to Perception is based on the percentage of head coverage as follows:

New Melee Weapons

The listing of melee weapons here and in the STOCS lite basic rules is by no means complete.  As a rule of thumb, melee weapons can be divided into three main types: small, medium and large. Melee weapons can also give a modifier to DEX when determining the order of character actions.  For each category, typical damage, DEX modifiers and example weapons are as follows:

The ArmX of melee weapons is usually x1.  Some weapons penetrate armour better due to their piercing attacks (e.g. spears, rapiers or lances) or their concussive effects (e.g. maces or clubs).  These penetrating weapons have an ArmX of ½.

This section is a re-statement and clarification of the STOCS lite personal injury rules.  These have evolved through the editions of STOCS lite so some readers will notice more changes than others.

Example Melee Weapons

WOUNDS AND HEALING

Damage

All damage in STOCS lite, whether it’s from small-arms fire, melee weapons or simply falling, is randomly calculated by rolling d10s.  When rolling damage, a 9 or a 10 on a die roll indicates that an additional d10 is to be rolled and added to the damage total.  Additional d10s can subsequently generate even more damage.  

For example if a weapon does 2d10+20 damage and a player rolls a 3 and a 9, then another die is rolled and added to the total. If it is a 9 or 10, then add the result to the total and roll again.

Disability Level

A character’s resistance to damage is rated by their Disability Level or DL.  When a character is injured, the number of damage points inflicted is divided by their DL (round down).  The result of this division is a measure of the severity of the wound called an All Activities Modifier (AAM).  This is a negative modifier to all rolls.  An alternate way to look at this is that for every DL points of damage taken you get a -1 AAM.  

For example if a character with a DL of 5 takes 11 points of damage then they take an AAM of -2. All die rolls they make will now get an additional -2 modifier.

Damage and Locations

Whenever a character takes damage the actual part of the body injured affects the severity of the wound.  

Damage points inflicted to the head are doubled.  Damage points to limbs are halved.  Any armour is taken into account before the location multipliers come into effect.

It is possible to aim at a specific hit location rather than at the whole target using To Hit Modifiers (with either Melee or Firearms combat, see later).  If a specific location is not aimed at, roll a d10 for a random hit location on the table below.

Limb Disabling

If a character sustains a -3 AAM wound to a limb location, the limb is considered to be disabled, i.e. useless.  

A disabled limb cannot be used for 2d10 days.

Criticals

A critical success on any combat to-hit task does double damage before either armour or location multipliers are calculated.  

A critical strike to a limb automatically disables the limb, an injury which will take 2d10 days to heal.  Optionally, a limb is broken if hit with a critical strike that inflicts a - 3 AAM or more.  

Broken limbs take 2d10 weeks to heal.

Armour and Barriers

Armour is divided into 2 categories, personal armour and barriers.  Personal armour is worn and a barrier is something you use as cover.  See the STOCS lite rules for examples of armour.

Whenever you are hit on a location which is covered by armour, first multiply the AV of the armour by the Armour Multiplier of the weapon and then subtract the result from the damage points inflicted.

Attacks have Armour Multipliers (ArmX) as follows:

Example: Fred’s Vest

Fred is now wearing a Kevlar Vest.  He is shot with a pistol, which does 24 points of damage to his Torso.

Since his vest covers the torso he multiplies its AV(10) by the Armour Multiplier of the weapon (X2) and gets 20.  The damage is reduced by 20 leaving only 4 points of actual damage.  His DL is 5 so the shot does no real harm.

Fred breathes a sigh of relief.

Resolving Damage Effect

Whenever a character takes damage points the following steps should be followed.  In STOCS lite character wounds have several potential effects: AAMs, Panic checks, Unconsciousness and possibly Eventually Fatal results.  

After figuring wound effects, you no longer have to keep track of the damage points inflicted, only the character’s total AAM.

1. Calculate AAM.

The damage points inflicted are divided by the DL of the character (round down).  The result is the AAM for the wound.  

When a character receives a -10 AAM (or greater) in a single wound, it is possibly fatal (see Death below).  

AAMs received are cumulative, all wound AAMs are added together to give the total AAM which is noted on the character sheet.

2. Check for Unconsciousness.

Skip this step unless a wound AAM of -3 or greater is sustained.

In this case the character must roll CON - Total AAM.  

A failure means that the character is unconscious for a number of rounds equal to the amount the roll is failed by.  After this step AAMs inflicted by unarmed combat attacks are halved.

3. Check for Eventual Death.

This result is also only possible when a wound AAM of -3 or greater is sustained.  In this case, roll a d10.  

If the result is greater than the AAM inflicted by this wound, the character will live and is in no danger of dying from the wound sustained.  

If the result is less than or equal to the wound AAM, the character has sustained a CLASS II wound and may die in 1d10 hours.  

If the result is equal to or less than the wound AAM - 5, a CLASS I wound has been sustained and the character may die in 1d10 minutes.  For a more detailed explanation of CLASS I and II wounds, see Wound Stabilisation, below.

4. Check for Panic

A character who receives a -3 or greater AAM, and is not killed or rendered unconscious, must make a Hard (- 5) WIL roll or be panicked.

Example: Fred eats lead

Fred takes 36 points of damage.  

He has a DL of 5 and has a Total AAM of 2, from a fall earlier in the day.  

We divide 36 by 5 giving a wound AAM of 7.  

Since this AAM is over 3 Fred‘s player must roll his CON (12) - Total AAM (9).  He rolls 14, a fail by 11, so Fred is unconscious for 11 rounds.

The referee then rolls a d10, and gets a 2.  As this is equal to the wound AAM - 5, it is a CLASS I wound and Fred will die in 1d10 minutes.  

Once he’s conscious, he screams for a medic.

Example: Fred eats more lead, much later.

Fred is leaving the hospital, happy at being able to walk unsupported, when Mad Jack steps up behind him and pumps a single 10mm shell into his leg, screaming, “That’s for Papua, New Guinea!”  

Unfortunately for Fred, Mad Jack has got a critical which means that Fred’s leg is automatically broken for 2d10 weeks.  

To add insult to a grievous injury, Mad Jack does 45 points of damage, which is halved (limb hit) and then doubled (critical).  This gives Fred a -9 AAM. One inch to the right and this could have been fatal.

Fred’s player rolls Fred’s CON (12) - 9.  A 19 is rolled, a fail by 16, so Fred is unconscious for 16 rounds.  

The referee then rolls a d10.  A 7 is rolled, less than the AAM inflicted, so this wound is a CLASS II wound.  The referee rolls another d10 to see how many hours Fred has left to live and gets a 9.  

Mad Jack runs off screaming, “Bananas!”, leaving Fred alive, but dying.  He vows to go private next time.

Wound Stabilisation

There are three types of Eventually Fatal wounds, CLASS I, CLASS II and CLASS III.  The first two are obtained through injury of some sort, the third is a by-product of a mortal wound healing or a result of a disease or illness.

CLASS I Wound

A CLASS I (massive blood loss/trauma) wound is the most severe.  After sustaining such a wound the character must check for death in 1d10 minutes.  

A stabilisation attempt uses Medicine(Paramedic) skill and takes 1 minute.  This reduces the wound to a CLASS II wound, which must then be stabilised in turn.

CLASS II Wound

A CLASS II (internal bleeding, wound complications) wound is the next type of wound.  After sustaining such a wound, the character must check for death in 1d10 hours.  

A stabilisation attempt using Medicine(Surgery) skill takes 1 hour and reduces the wound to a CLASS III wound, which must then be stabilised in turn.

CLASS III Wounds

A CLASS III (wound infection, fever etc.) wound is the last type of eventually fatal wound.  A CLASS III is the result of a CLASS II wound being stabilised, and cannot be gained directly from an injury.  

After sustaining such a wound, the character must check for death in 1d10 days.  A stabilisation attempt uses Medicine(Nursing) skill and takes 1 day.  Success means the character involved will live and is out of danger.  For a stabilisation attempt to take place, the patient must be resting for the entire day.  The medic need not spend every waking moment on the patient; treatment, in this case, means keeping the wound clean and keeping an eye on the patient.  A medic can simultaneously treat up to five such patients.

Due to the importance of medical equipment, if a character makes a stabilisation attempt without medical tools all stabilisation tasks become Hard (- 5).  This is quite a harsh ruling so be prepared to be flexible in what counts as ‘medical tools’.  Examples include: A first aid kit, antibiotics, pain-killers, a sharp knife, clean bandages or compresses.  

When treating CLASS III wounds, medical tools can include shelter from the elements, bed rest and perhaps even warm food as well as drugs.  Of course exceptional medical facilities (e.g. a fully equipped trauma theatre) may give a modifier of +5 to +10 to skill checks.

Increased Lethality

To make wound stabilisation tasks more difficult for larger wounds, each stabilisation attempt should have a penalty equal to the AAM inflicted by the eventually fatal wound e.g. skill -6 for a wound inflicting an AAM of -6.

Example: I’m bleeding! Mother! Save me!

Fred receives a CLASS I wound.  He has 4 minutes to live.  A colleague performs Medical on him (rolling Paramedic skill) and succeeds.  This has taken 1 minute.  Fred now has (random d10 roll) 3 hours to live.  

Fred’s friend drives him to a doctor (this takes nearly an hour).  The doctor has time for two attempts (using Surgery).  She succeeds on the second.  Fred now has (another random d10 roll) 9 days to live.  

The doctor keeps him in a back room and treats him every day (using Nursing).  Each stabilisation attempt now takes one day and requires total rest.  
The doctor succeeds on the fifth day (Fred was running a severe fever and it was touch and go for a while).  Fred is now out of danger.

Death

After a character’s eventually fatal time period has passed or when they receive a wound AAM of -10 they must roll CON - Total AAM or die.  If this roll is passed the character has pulled through and begins to heal.  Note that it is possible for a character‘s total AAM to exceed -10, as most deaths will occur from the Eventually Fatal effects of lesser wounds.

Healing

A character reduces the total AAM by 1 every week.  Treatment by a medic allows the healing of 1 additional AAM per week.  Performing Paramedic successfully on a wounded character reduces the character’s AAM by 1. This can only be obtained once per wound, and after that the only way to get AAM back is through natural healing.

VEHICLES

Vehicles are most often used in STOCS lite for three main activities: as transport, in combat and for chases.  Some guidelines for all these situations are presented in this section.

Vehicles for Transport

During many scenarios the PCs may need use vehicles of one kind or another in order to get to specific scenario locations. The following table gives a list of typical costs for transport systems.  First-class tickets will be at least double the cost shown.

Vehicles in Combat

Vehicles can easily be used in STOCS lite combat with the following guidelines.

Rating Vehicles

In STOCS lite each vehicle is described by a set of five attributes:

Vehicle Movement

In combat vehicles move first in the combat round (as if they were DEX 20).  Each round of movement in combat requires an appropriate drive task (Auto, Aircraft or Watercraft).  If this roll is successful, a vehicle may move its Max speed in metres.  If failed up to half this distance may be moved.  Critical failure requires a crash check, see below.

The referee should modify this for poor driving conditions if necessary.  While off-road all vehicles that are not designed for off-road use get a -5 to their Agility.  All tracked and four wheel drive vehicles are considered to be off-road vehicles.  

Shooting at and from Vehicles

All vehicles have a target size modifier for to-hit rolls against them.  Typically most vehicles are a Large (+5) target, some vehicles are Very Large (+10) targets.  If a character wants to hit a person visible in/on a vehicle, rather than the vehicle itself, use the normal target size modifiers.  Other target size modifiers can be used to shoot at visible occupants.  

All shots at an evading vehicle also have a negative to-hit modifier equal to the vehicle’s Agility.

Unless firing a vehicle mounted weapon or from firing ports all shots from a moving vehicle are hip-fire (no aiming, - 5 to hit).

Called Shots

By aiming at small vulnerable areas of a vehicle a character can halve the base AV.  This is done by taking a -5 modifier on the to-hit task.  When shooting at cars this could represent shots at windows or tires.

Resolving Hits on Vehicles

Each vehicle has a DL and an AV.  Roll damage normally and subtract the vehicle’s AV (but see Called Shots above).  Divide any remaining damage points by the DL of the vehicle (round down).  This gives the vehicle activities minus (VAM) inflicted.  Compare the VAM to the results below to find the damage effects.  All effects are cumulative, so a vehicle that receives a -3 or greater VAM from a critical hit must roll twice on the vehicle penetration table.

Vehicle Damage Table

Crash Checks

A critical failure on any drive roll requires a crash check.  Generally, to make a crash check a driver must make a Hard (-5) drive roll.  Of course this may be modified by the exact circumstances of the crash.

If the crash check is successful then only a temporary loss of control is suffered (the vehicle skids wildly).  The vehicle receives a special VAM of -5 until the end of the next round, although there are no vehicl penetration effects.

If the crash check was failed then a crash has occurred.  This involves a catastrophic collision or loss of control and results in impact with a solid object or objects, with optional burning and exploding. If a crash occurs all occupants of the vehicle take damage by rolling a number of d10s equal to:

The number of dice rolled is reduced by half (rounding up) for each of the following that apply:

• If the occupant is wearing a seatbelt
• If the vehicle is equipped with airbags
• If the vehicle has extensive specialist anti-crash equipment e.g. automatic fire
• Fire extinguishers etc.

Roll separately for each passenger and this damage is applied to three random hit locations as falling damage.  Personal armour will reduce this damage with an armour multiplier of x1.

Vehicle Penetration Table

Chase Scenes

Whenever all or most of the opponents in a combat are in vehicles it is more appropriate to use these chase scene rules to govern movement in an abstract way rather than the standard combat system.  There are a number of tasks outlined in this section for resolving chase scenes.

When using these rules exact movement distances are not used, instead the relative positions of the groups of vehicles are tracked using range bands.  There are four range bands defined.  The range band vehicles are at defines the difficulty of weapon fire tasks and the range at which escape is possible.

The effects of escape range are defined in Range Band Movement below.

This works well when all the characters involved have similar types of weapons, if some characters have weapons with significantly shorter range then all their to hit tasks will be increased in difficulty by at least one level.  

Setting the Scene

At the start of the combat the referee should decide at which range band the combat begins.  The referee should also decide the type of terrain the chase scene takes place in, this will determine the escape range for the combat and the maximum modifier possible due to a speed advantage.
The types of terrain and the maximum speed modifier in that terrain are below in the Terrain Modifier Table.

Chase Scene Combat Rounds

Chase scene combat follows the same general rules as normal combat.  However movement uses abstract vehicle movement tasks that can result in changes to the current range band.

Range Band Movement

At the start of each round, the referee should choose one side (usually the players) to make an opposed driving roll to determine range band movement (if any) this combat round.  Make an opposed roll between the driving skills of the driver in the pursued and chasing vehicles.  If there are groups of vehicles use the skill of the best driver in each group to determine the outcome.  

Drive skills for this opposed roll have the following modifiers:

• Each driver should add their vehicle’s agility
• Any VAM currently in force
• + 5 for each speed class that your vehicle is greater than the opposing vehicle’s speed class, but note that there is a maximum modifier due to terrain type.
• - 5 for each speed class that your vehicle is less than the opposing vehicle’s speed class, but note that there is a maximum modifier due to terrain type.
  If the opposed roll succeeds then the rolling side may choose to change the range by one range band.  If failed then the opposing side may chose to change the range by one range band.  A critical success forces the opponents to make a crash check, a critical failure forces the rolling party to make a crash check.  If the pursued vehicle moves beyond escape range then it has escaped and the combat is over.

Ramming

At Range 1, a driver may try to ram their opponent at the point in the round where they normally act.  This is an opposed roll like range band movement and the same modifiers apply.  Pedestrians use half their DEX instead of a drive skill.  

On a successful ram task roll,  the damage inflicted is a number of d10s equal to 1 + (number of points the task roll was made by).  This is doubled in the case of critical success.  On a failed roll the damage is inflicted on both the ramming and the rammed vehicle.  A critically failed task will only cause damage to the ramming vehicle.  If one of the vehicles involved in the collision is double the mass of the other then all damage to the heavier vehicle is halved and the damage to the lighter vehicle is doubled.  Critical failures also force a crash checks just like any other drive task.

Example Military Vehicles

Example Aircraft

Example Civilian Vehicles

Weapon Stabilisation

For vehicle-mounted weapons, weapon stabilisation and fire control equipment can negate movement modifiers.  The weapon stabilisation/fire control can also be used to negate target-based modifiers e.g. small target, target movement etc.

Converting Vehicles to STOCS lite

If you have statistics for a particular vehicle, it is easy to convert it into STOCS lite terms.

Speed

This is rated as the vehicle’s top speed in km/h and the speed class which is equal to the top speed divided by 50 (round up).  For example a car with a top speed of 207km/h has a speed class of 5.  Its speed rating would be 207km/h (5).

Damage Level

Armour Value

Note these are just guidelines, if you happen to know that a specific vehicle was over or under armoured for its class, then you should adjust the AV by up to + or - 50%.  If a vehicle has special composite or spaced armour designed to be more effective against HEAT warheads add an S after the AV in the vehicle description.

Agility

MISCELLANEOUS

Guidelines for hostile environments, encumbrance, exhaustion, animals in STOCS lite and character experience are covered in this section.

Interacting with the Environment

Here are  several suggested applications of the basic STOCS lite rules to common game situations.  All of these rules should be treated as optional and only used by the referee whenever it will advance the action.

Hostile Environments

When a character is using survival skills in an environment (Arctic, Jungle, Desert, etc.) the players must make a normal task roll for the appropriate survival skill every day.  A failure means that the character takes a AAM penalty (decided upon by the referee, usually -1 to -3).  Note that a -3 AAM can cause an eventually fatal result.

Specialist survival equipment may lower the task by one or two difficulty levels.  Especially harsh conditions or circumstances should increase the difficulty of the task.  Creative players that can come up with reasonable suggestions or other suitable skills should also have the difficulty of the task reduced.

Encumbrance

You can calculate a AAM for each character based on the amount they are carrying and any armour worn.  Usually it is better for the players to only carry a reasonable amount of gear and ignore the details.  

In cases where the characters are carrying around lots of equipment the referee can choose to inflict AAMs on the encumbered characters as follows:

If amour is worn give the referee may give characters a AAM equal to the average AV/5 if the armour covers the body and limbs or average AV/10 if the armour is only worn on the torso.  Head armour instead gives a - 5 to all perception tasks.

Exhaustion

Characters who want to stay awake for a night must make a WIL roll to stay awake.  They also take a -5 AAM due to exhaustion.  Every subsequent night spent without sleep means another WIL roll to stay awake and an additional -5 AAM.  Characters that have a full (8 hours) night’s sleep lose all their exhaustion AAMs.

Animals in STOCS lite

Animals are a special class of NPC that the referee may introduce into the game.  They differ from humans in many respects, such as their senses, habits and physiology.  To keep things simple, use the normal STOCS lite rules for personal combat but use any particular knowledge you have of the creature to show the players that it isn’t just something to shoot at.  One exception to the normal combat rules is that animals should have a special + 5 to their WIL when checking for Panic or unconsciousness.  Animals with natural weapons (claws, hooves, horns, etc.) do not halve the AAM inflicted like a human unarmed attack.

Aptitude: is used as the animal’s skill like a NPC, non-predators should attack with half their Aptitude, predators use their full aptitude.  
AC (Attack Chance): roll this number or less on a d20 for an encountered animal to attack the characters.  

Speed: this is the animal’s maximum walking speed, maximum running speed is twice this number in metres per combat round.

Horses as Mounts

On roads, a horse can comfortably cover 50km in one day.  A horse with more than 100kg on its back has a 1 in 20 chance of going lame each day.  
The maximum safe speed at which a character can ride a horse is their Ride skill in metres per combat round.  Going any faster requires a skill roll.

Falling off a horse causes 1d10 points of damage for every 5m/round the horse is travelling.

Characters wearing archaic armour while on a horse may ignore any armour penalties due to armour on their legs.

In combat situations there are a number of modifiers which can be applied to tasks.  

• 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 damage.
• Dismounted characters with a polearm set to receive a charge get a +10 damage bonus.

Character Experience

If the referee desires, each player can be given up to 2 Experience Points after each session.  Normally 1 or 1½ points would be awarded, the number being based upon the player’s contribution to the game.

Improving Character Skills

Character skill levels can be increased by spending the experience points in the same way as skill points are used during character creation.  Experience Points can be used to increase general skills or specialisations.  To raise the level of expertise in a skill already acquired, simply pay the difference in skill points between the old level and the new one.  The referee should approve all skills the player chooses to improve.  Some referees may require the improved skills to have been used in the course of the adventure or at least practised between adventures.  Experience points may be saved between game sessions.  

Example: Experience

To raise a Professional specialisation to Expert would cost 7 - 3 = 4 EPs.

Improving Character Attributes

To improve an attribute a player must spend experience points equal to their current attribute.  This results in their attribute increasing by one.

Using Experience Points During Play

One experience point can be spent to gain a + 5 bonus to any skill or statistic during play.  This allows characters with some saved experience points to get “lucky” breaks.

MAGIC

In many popular role-playing settings, mystical or occult forces are a central campaign element.  In worlds where some characters can manipulate these forces it is useful to have rules or guidelines governing the use of this “magic”.  The aspect of magic which will bring the most rewarding play is a subtle and detailed mythos that provides a context for any game effects.  Referees looking for an example mythos should examine the STOCS lite campaign setting ‘Heretics’ available from Wasteland Games.

Especially when playing shorter campaigns it may be helpful to the referee to have some general guidelines for game effects to fall back on and that is what is presented here.  Alternatively these rules can be used as suggestions on how to build your own magic system or to model game effects from other game systems when you are playing in their game-setting with STOCS lite.  These rules could just as easily apply to psionic effects or super powers as magic.

Magical Skills

All magic use requires a skill task roll.  Specific magical skills must be defined for the setting.  It is recommended that t