Fallout D6: Combat and Condition Rules

The D6 System rulebook offers several options for combat rules.  Here are the options I think better suit a D6 game based on the Fallout games, plus additional rules (some cribbed from D6 Adventure) to cover things like gun fire modes, hit locations, health, and radiation damage.  These rules are more about the "reality" of the games rather than a post-apocalyptic simulator.  While Gun Nuts might balk at 10mm submachine guns turning enemies into hamburger at close range, while being less effective at long range, that's exactly what happens when one is foolish enough to hand Ian or Sulik a submachine gun in the first two Fallout games (learned the hard way.)

Initiative

Fallout D6 uses the “Initiative Rounds” rule for initiative: players roll their Agility to determine their order in a combat round from highest to lowest.  As a quick option, the GM may roll once for a group of like enemies with the same Agility score, such as raiders or radroaches.

Defense Skills

Fallout D6 characters can defend themselves by using combat skills as described under Defending Against Attack in the D6 System rulebook  p.68.   Characters can “dodge” incoming ranged attacks with either the acrobat, or athlete skill, while "parries” can be performed with the melee weapons or unarmed skill depending on the type of attack.  Parrying melee weapons requires a sturdy weapon or other hard object.

Hit Location (V.A.T.S.)

In the Fallout games, the Vault Tec Assisted Targeting System or V.A.T.S. enables precise attacks against specific hit locations.  For Fallout D6 purposes, characters may choose to attack a designated hit location, with a corresponding modifier to the total difficulty and damage.

At the GM’s discretion, some explosive devices, traps or environmental hazards may target individual locations automatically, such as the legs in the case of stepping on a mine, or an arm when trying to open a trapped container.

Location	Difficulty Modifier	Damage Modifier
Head	+1D (+3)	+12
Torso	0	0
Arm, leg, conveyor, or tail	+1D(+3)	-2
Sensory organs or robotic sensor	+4D (+12)	+12*
Combat inhibitor (robot) or fusion core (power armor)	+4D (+12)	-2
Held weapon, small	+4D (+12)	0**
Held weapon, large	+1D(+3)	0**

* does not apply to robotic sensors
**damage is applied to the weapon instead of the character, which may destroy it.

Hit Location Effects

Damage to a hit location is applied to the character's Body Point total just like general attacks.  Dealing enough Body Point damage to a single hit location to cause a Wounded Level or higher results in the hit location becoming “Crippled.”

A Crippled location suffers negative penalties or effects.  The character continues to suffer from these effects until the hit location(s) are healed via direct application of a stimpak or treated by a character with the doctor skill.  While using first aid can recover overall Body Point damage, Crippled hit locations continue to suffer from negative effects until treated directly as described above.  Healing all of the character’s Wound Levels, whether naturally or through a physician's care, results in the corresponding hit locations recovering as well.

It is possible for some penalties and effects to double in the case of arms and legs.  If both arms are Crippled, the corresponding penalty is -2.  If two legs are Crippled, the character's Move drops to 1 in addition to doubling the corresponding penalty.

Robots require a character with the repair skill to recover Crippled hit locations instead of the doctor skill. 

Location	Effect
Head	-1 to Perception, Intelligence, and initiative totals.
Torso, abdomen, or thorax	The character can do no more than passively defend in the next round.  No effect afterward.
Arm	-1 to acrobat, athlete, melee weapons, throwing, unarmed, or any other action totals using that limb; also drops any held weapon.
Leg or conveyor	-1 to acrobat, athlete, sneak, and other movement action totals.  Move is reduced by 50% (minimum Move of 1.)
Sensory organs or robotic sensor	Blinded for one round (+4D/+12 to sight-based difficulties.)  -2 to sight-based difficulties thereafter.
Combat inhibitor	Robot attacks nearest creature or robot indiscriminately until destroyed or inhibitor is repaired.
Fusion core	Fusion core overheats and explodes in a small, nuclear explosion in 1D+2 rounds.  The explosion destroys the suit's armor plates, and deals 6D physical damage (10% radiation damage,) in a 3/8/16 meter blast radius (including the person wearing the armor.)

 

Creatures and Hit Locations

Non-humanoid creatures and robots may have hit locations that are different from a bipedal humanoid's.  In such cases, body parts used to attack (such as a radscorpion’s tail or a centaur’s lashing tongue) are treated as “arms.”  Body parts that are used to move, such as snake-like tails, wheels, or treads, may be considered one or two “legs” for hit location and penalty purposes. Wings and flying conveyances are also treated as “legs,” and when Crippled, the victim falls to the ground, requiring a movement action to resume flight.  Sensory organs or devices are generally treated as “eyes” if used as the target’s main way of sensing enemies, such as a bat-like creature’s ears.
 

Fire Modes and Ranged Weapon Options

Guns, energy weapons, and some ranged weapons have one or more different fire modes, with one of them being their primary mode (capitalized in the weapon's description.)  In addition, most ranged weapons can be aimed, with the exception of weapons that only have Burst fire mode.

Aim

A character can forego all actions in a round to aim a firearm or other ranged weapon.  Every round spent aiming uninterrupted provides a +1D bonus to the appropriate weapons skill; +3D maximum.  (Tip: this works well with V.A.T.S.)

Single fire

Single fire mode covers both weapons that fire a single shot, or are semiautomatic.  Single fire weapons that have loaded ammo remaining can be fired multiple times at the standard, multi-action penalty.  However, weapons that have Burst fire as their primary mode suffer a -1D penalty to damage when fired singly.

Burst fire

Weapons with Burst fire deplete three (3) rounds of ammo per attack action when fired in this mode.  Weapons with only Burst fire mode cannot be aimed.  Burst fire weapons also suffer from spread (see below.)

Expending an Entire Magazine

Fallout D6 does not use an individual rule for fully-automatic fire.  Instead, characters can “sweep” a room or pin down opponents by taking multiple Burst fire actions at the standard, multi-action penalty until they run out of ammo.  The character can continue to fire at 0D skill if they have ammo remaining, but have no chance to hit (their opponents don't know this.)  This is an exception to the multiple action rules.

Spread

Shotguns and Burst fire weapons cause “spread,” where multiple rounds, shot, or flames are diffused over a wider area at longer ranges.  For each range increment, the weapon loses 1D from its total damage, but gains an additional, adjacent target for the attack, at the same skill roll total.

 

Body Points, Wounds, and Radiation Damage

Fallout D6 uses the Body Points option for character damage.  It also uses the Wound Levels option to track the character’s overall condition, but with some changes to wound level penalties.

 

Body Points

A character has a total number of Body Points equal to 20 plus an Endurance roll.  If they prefer, players may choose three (3) times the number before the “D” on their Endurance die code plus any pips instead of rolling.  For enemies and NPCs, the GM can choose this average to quickly determine their number of Body Points.  Some enemies may have more or less than the base 20 Body Points (plus Endurance.)

Wound Levels

Wound Levels are benchmarks along a character’s Body Point condition track, expressed as a percentage of the character’s Body Points total.  When a character first reaches a Wound Level, they immediately suffer a detrimental effect.

Body Point Damage	Wound Level	Effect
0-20%	Stunned	-1D for all remaining actions this round and next round or may only defend or retreat in the next round.
21-40%	Wounded	A random hit location is Crippled
41-60%	Wounded Twice	A second, random hit location is Crippled.  Penalties for the same location are doubled.
61-99%	Incapacitated	The character is severely injured.  As a free action before losing consciousness, they may try to stay up with a Moderate (15) Endurance or Perception roll. If the character succeeds, they may continue to act, but all Crippled penalties are increased to -1D.  If they fail, they are knocked unconscious for 10D minutes.
100%	Dead	The character is dead (or destroyed) to the grave sound of Ron Pearlman’s voice, unless another character can succeed at a Very Difficult (20) first aid roll within one (1) hour, to bring the dying character back to Incapacitated Wound Level.

 

Wounds and Effects

The Wounded and Wounded Twice levels result in a random hit location becoming Crippled, unless it is the direct result of a V.A.T.S. attack which affects the specific location instead.  To determine a random hit location, the GM rolls 2D on the following table.

2D Roll	Hit Location
2	Sensory organ or robotic sensor*
3	Head
4	Leg (roll 1D: odd=right, even = left)
5	Arm (roll 1D: odd=right, even = left)
6-8	Torso, abdomen, or thorax
9	Leg (roll 1D: odd=right, even = left)
10	Arm (roll 1D: odd=right, even = left)
11	Head
12	Sensory organ or robotic sensor*

* If a robot or enemy in power armor is attacked from behind, this is the combat inhibitor or fusion core instead. 

Radiation Damage (Rads)

Radiation is a fact of life in the Wasteland, even centuries after the nuclear bombs.  Despite some adaptation due to mutation, humans can still sicken and die (or worse,) from too much radiation exposure.  Here is a sample of common radioactive hazards in the Wasteland and their corresponding radiation damage:

Radiation Hazard	Radiation Damage
Irradiated food or drink	1D per consumption
Irradiated body of water	1D (or more) per round of exposure
Toxic waste barrel(s)	1D (or more) per round in a 2-meter radius
Radioactive storm (lightning flash)	1D every 2D+2 minutes while outside shelter
Reactor, leaking or damaged	5D per round of exposure in a 10-meter radius*
Reactor, functional	3D per round of exposure in a 6-meter radius*
Massively-irradiated area (such as The Glow or Glowing Sea)	11D per round of exposure

* Some radioactive objects can have an effect radius. Radiation damage is reduced by 1D per 2 meters away from the source.  A Geiger counter can detect this radiation range when present.
 

Radiation Damage, or Rads, are resisted with an Endurance roll just like Body Point damage, but are tracked separately. 

Rad damage reduces the character’s maximum amount of Body Points.  A character cannot heal any Body Points reduced by Rad damage until the Rad damage is healed either by using RadAway or treatment by a character with the doctor skill.

In addition to reducing Body Point totals, suffering enough radiation damage equal to a Wound Level results in an equal Radiation Level, with detrimental effects.  Note, while a character can be Stunned with zero (0) Body Points of damage, they must receive at least one (1) point of Radiation Damage to suffer the Minor Radiation Level. 

Radiation Damage	Radiation Level
1-20% of Body Points	Minor
21-40% of Body Points	Advanced
41-60% of Body Points	Critical
61-99% of Body Points	Deadly
100%+ of Body Points	Fatal

Minor Radiation: the character experiences a slight feeling of sickness, fatigue, and nausea.  -1 penalty to Endurance totals.

Advanced Radiation: the character’s fatigue and nausea worsens to frequent vomiting; some hair loss may occur.  -2 to Endurance-based totals and -1 to Agility-based totals

Deadly Radiation: the character experiences almost complete hair loss, bleeding, and loss of teeth and skin.  Endurance penalty increases to -1D, while the Agility penalty increases to -2.  They also suffer a -1 to Strength and Charisma-based totals.

Fatal Radiation: the character is now in almost complete agony.  While the character may suffer further radiation damage, they remain at 1% of maximum Body Points.  In addition, they suffer a -2D to all actions, and their Move score is reduced by half.  Without medical intervention, the character will eventually perish (in 1D months) due to massive cancers.  Optionally, the GM may allow the player of the fatally-irradiated character to take the Ghoulish Perk/Trait and change the character's species to “ghoul” as indicated in the Perk’s description.

Some attacks, such as from radiation weapons or radioactive creature attacks, have a portion that is radiation damage (found in the weapon or creature's description.)  While characters use the same Endurance roll to resist the total damage.  The radioactive portion is also represents separate Rad damage.  Protective items or Rad-X reduces this portion.

For example, a Vault-dweller with 2D Endurance and 22 Body Points, wearing a Vault jumpsuit (+1 radiation) with a leather jacket (+2 physical, +1 energy) over it is attacked by a glowing one for 4D damage, with an 18 total.  The vault-dweller tries to resist by rolling her Endurance of 2D, for a total of 7.  The leather jacket's +2 bonus applies to the physical damage for a total of 9, so she takes nine (9) Body Point damage (Wounded.)  However, she also takes half Rad damage (rounded down) of four (4,) which is reduced by one (1) due to her Vault jumpsuit's bonus for a total of 3 Rads.  This gives her a Radiation Level of Minor.  Even if she gets out of that nasty situation, our Vault-dweller will be feeling a little sick later.  If she had taken Rad-X before that encounter, the Rad damage might have been reduced to zero (0.)