Guns Blazing (or maybe not?)

 Yesterday, I ran a relatively straightforward combat mission for Missions & Mayhem to play test some of the combat rules. And of course, as we got started, the players were looking for ways they could solve the mission without resorting to combat. But after straight up telling them I needed to test the combat rules, they went with it. 

The players went in with a good tactical plan, hired mercenaries for extra firepower support (old school D&D players want their men-at-arms, you know!), and good use of the "I Know a Guy" rule to get access to night-vision goggles. 

We were able to test out surprise and initiative (just like Classic D&D, and they work just as well), regular attacks and the special double-tap, burst, and spray autofire rules, grenades/explosives, and the first aid rules. 

One area I had been wondering about were the double-tap and burst rules, which I'd imported directly from d20 Modern. For both of these, in d20 Modern, you sacrifice accuracy and ammunition for increased potential damage. As a game mechanic, it's elegant. Firearms all deal 2dX damage. With a double-tap, you fire two rounds and take a -2 to hit, and deal an extra die of damage (3dX). With burst autofire, you fire five rounds and take a -4 to hit, and deal an extra two dice of damage (4dX). 

However, in M&M, it's not as easy to get bonuses to hit (no feats). Also, there's less hit point inflation, because NPCs/creatures have mostly flat hit dice, not bonuses to each die for Constitution scores. When I ran the solo test with Jeremy a few weeks back, we'd discussed the option to change double-tap and burst autofire to be a bonus to hit, rather than a penalty, but deal standard damage on a hit. The thing that holds me back is that ammo expenditure becomes the only reason NOT to double-tap or use burst fire if you have the proficiency for it. 

The rules for spray autofire (expend 10 rounds, trying to target several people with one attack) works similarly to the explosives rules. You only need to hit AC 11 (ascending AC) with your attack roll, but the targets in the area get to make a reflex saving throw. In the case of spray autofire, they take no damage on a save. With explosives, they take 1/2 damage (like fireball in D&D). This seemed to work well. No need for a change. 

I do have notes for figuring out where a grenade or other thrown explosive goes off on a miss. I think I need to also implement them for both burst and spray autofire. We had one instance where a burst attack missed a terrorist standing among the hostages. On the spot, I had the player roll a reflex save to avoid the bullets striking a hostage (failure! But the hostage survived with 1 hit point). That worked, but since I already have rules for how to determine where an explosive goes off (and it may still affect the intended target if you're lucky), it's easier to implement those for missed autofire attacks in crowded areas as well. 

We didn't get to test out the suppression fire rules (empty your magazine in one direction, opponents must make will saves or dive for cover/lose their actions for the round), but everything else went fairly well. 

Right now, I'm working on the first campaign module: Cryptids & Conspiracy. Basically, X-Files, but with potential for psychic or occult Heroes (and villains). I've got the advanced classes and psychic powers done. I need to write up a system/advice for creating and running conspiracy groups as opponents, and of course stats for a bunch of cryptids, alien visitors, and ghosts/demons that can be investigated. Once those are all done, I'll add some mission design guidelines and XP award guidelines. I'll likely include a few sample missions as well.

So still early in the process, but so far I'm happy with what I've done.