Editing Stars Without Number: The High and the Mighty (section)

= House Rules =
House rules go here.

== Character Generation & Advancement ==
*Character attributes will be 18, 14, 14, 10, 10, 7, arranged to taste.
*Characters begin at level 1, with 0 Experience points
*Hit Points will start out at maximum for the class, '''plus 10.'''
*Each level, All hit dice will be rerolled. The new total is kept if it is larger, the previous total is kept if the new roll is smaller (There is no +1HP consolation prize!). Note that the +10HP bonus given at character generation is a one-time bonus. It will not apply to later rolls, and it is thus highly probable that characters will not gain HP during their first few levels. Think of it as an advance on future advancement.
*Noble characters are trained to destroy their lesser foes in droves. When fighting generally unworthy opponents, their damage rolls can "blow through" an opponent reduced to zero, and apply to any further unworthy opponents who do not have stronger defenses. 
*All PCs must take the Noble background, but may select whatever training package they wish.
*English is the common language of New Eden.
*All PCs treat Exosuit as an in-class skill.
*Combat/Unarmed is replaced with Combat/Melee. This adds the skill bonus to attack and damage for unarmed and melee attacks. Combat/Primitive must still be used for grenades and the like, so it isn't useless. Combat/Melee OR Combat/Primitive may be used to modify AC when in personal-scale combat versus other melee fighters, provided that the defender made a melee attack on their last action.
*PCs may replace the Noble package's Combat/Primitive with Combat/Melee. This option is not available at other steps of character generation.
*At character creation, Noble characters receive an additional allotment of skill points equal to what their class would normally grant (two for warriors or psychics, three for experts.)
*After character creation, Noble characters receive double skill points (Four for warriors or psychics, six for experts.) The normal skill maximum by character level still applies.
*'''The game will be using the rules from various other books'''. It is advisable that the party pay special attention to the skill functions in those books. Particularly if the group intends to engage in mercenary or other military conflict, it may be wise to plan for one Warrior character to function as captain of the ship and general in charge of ground forces; this would involve high mental attributes and maxed-out Leadership and Tactics skills. 
**Suns of Gold: "A merchant’s expertise is simply the total of his or her Business skill, relevant Culture skill, and the better of their Intelligence or Charisma modifiers. If they have absolutely no planetary Culture skill, they suffer a penalty of -1. A group can pool their talents to use the best numbers available to them, but this requires close cooperation and trust. 
**Skyward Steel: "To determine a ship’s Crew Points, first add the crew’s highest available skill levels for Athletics, Combat/Gunnery, Computer, Culture/Spacer, Exosuit, Leadership, Navigation, Tech/Astronautics, Tactics, and Vehicle/Space. If no PC has the skill above level 0, assume some NPC crewman has it at level 1. Double this total to find the Crew Point total.
**Starvation Cheap: "Add up the army's most common Tech Level, plus the lower of the commander's Tactics or Leadership skills, plus the total of the commander's Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma modifiers...Extremely well-commanded armies might not have enough troops to pad out all the possible units they can support. In this case, any unassigned unit points can be divided up and added to the Strength of one or more units, to represent the surfeit of leadership available to them."
*'''Equipment'''
**Rather than give a particular budget for starting equipment, the PCs are welcome to take any TL4 equipment that seems reasonable. Post your equipment list in the chargen thread and I'll veto anything I deem excessive. A TL4 backpack, a compad, a primary weapon and sidearm, and an armored undersuit should be considered the minimal necessary equipment. The character will also receive 1d1000+1000 Astaroth credits. 
**Each character will also receive a Pilot Suit, which is in essence an AC4 version of the Vacc Skin. They're Encumbrance 0, have an interface for your compad, and are considered TL5 equipment. They can be worn inside a mech, unlike other armor.
**No cybernetics.
**Characters will generally receive XP at my discretion. Expect 1XP per 5 Credits captured, looted, or earned from mercenary work. Mercantile ventures do not grant XP. XP from combat will only accrue if the opposition is meaningful. Meeting goals may result in bonus XP awards.
*The character advancement tables are going to get simplified a little.
**Experts level at 1500, 3000, 6000, 12000, 25000, 50000, 100000, 200000, etc.
**Warriors and Psychics level at 2000, 4000, 8000, 16000, 32000, 64000, 128000, 250000, 370000.
**Further, PCs will receive some special abilities at level 3 and above, which we'll go into later.
*Nobles are harder to kill than lesser men. They may make a physical effect save on the first three rounds after reaching 0 hit points to automatically stabilize. Lazarus Patches do not begin to accrue penalties until after the first three rounds, but are still useless after six. Biopsionic stabilization works automatically, but is still useless after six rounds.

== Economics ==
There is no such thing as interstellar credits in this game, nor are there currency exchanges. Planetary/System currency will be described as "credits," although in fact this represents some arbitrary amount of dollars, dinars, pesos, energy certificates, or the like. Keeping a hoard of planetary currency on your ship is not unwise if you intend to return to that place, but generally speaking you should accumulate WEALTH rather than MONEY. Trade goods transfer just fine across the stars. Bonuses or Penalties to trade modifiers do not stack; use the largest bonus and the largest penalty.

== Starting Ship ==
*You will begin with a top-of-the-line military frigate in a saucer configuration
*This ship contains a Workshop and one unit of Fuel Bunkers at no cost in space or mass. The workshop can do repairs and the like for suits or light mechs.
*You may equip it with any further components you like, although you are limited to TL4 hardware. 
*I ''strongly recommend'' a drive-2 or drive-3, another Fuel Bunker or Fuel Scoop, one or more units of cargo space, and a way to reach the surface of a planet: Drop Pod, Cargo Lighter, or Atmospheric Capability. If you doubt the need for cargo space, consult the rules on mech maintenance.
*The ship will also be equipped with some gunnery-scale defenses: A heavy machine gun on the port and starboard sides, a forward-mounted rocket launcher, and a dorsal turret armed with an anti-vehicle laser. These are useless in starship combat but may have some utility if the ship is assailed on the ground or by a boarding party. They do not require space or mass.
*25,000 credits worth of mecha maintenance parts constitute one ton of cargo. You start with 5 tons of these materials, and 100,000 credits worth of any other TL4 trade goods you like. See: Suns of Gold, pg. 16.
*The ship has 20 crew plus yourselves. The crew are peasants and are only paid one-quarter of the normal amount, they are prepaid for the first three months.
*Ship's stores last for four weeks rather than two weeks. This is doubled normally for extended stores; one unit of extended stores will give you two months of supplies in total.
*Your family's generosity is great, but not unlimited. Visits to Astaroth will allow you to pay the crew for another month so long as you make a substantive report of your ventures, and will allow you to refuel, replenish your stores, and perform your yearly ship maintenance for free.
*The ship has six suites for command crew (yourselves), which are three meters by three meters. Unimaginable luxury! The crew are in a tightly packed barracks with bunks.

== Mecha ==
*Mecha have double hit points.
*Suit mechs must be custom-fitted to the user, and are not interchangeable. 
*Noble-grade mechs are a little better than factory standard. The PCs may add the following bonuses to their own personal mechs: 1 power and free mass to all Suit mechs, 3 power and free mass to all Light mechs, and 5 power and free mass to all Heavy mechs.
*Suit mechs take up 2 tons of cargo space. Light mechs take up 10. Heavy mechs take up 50.
*The Workshop in a Frigate can perform repairs and maintenance on a Light mech. A Cruiser-scale workship is required for Heavy mechs. Suit mechs just require a toolkit.
*Cargo carried about by a mech is highly likely to be destroyed in any exchange of fire or the like.
*A mech pilot cannot be wearing any armor heavier than a pilot suit or armored undersuit.
*The interior space allowed for pilot equipment is very cramped. The pilot may only have 5 encumbrance units of weapons or equipment inside a suit mech, 10 inside a light mech, or 15 inside a heavy mech. Unworn armor cannot fit inside a suit mech. 
*The pilot's Exosuit skill subtracts from the mech's Armor Class.
*Every Suit Mech may have one sidearm: This is a personal-scale weapon such as a laser rifle or monoblade which can be used freely. Players may choose any TL4 weapon as their mech's sidearm. You can swap out your sidearm during downtime or with a check.
*A ranged gunnery weapon on a mech can only be used every other round, due to cool-down requirements. Slow-firing weapons must test or require another round to cool down.
*A mech's ranged weapons score a Critical Hit on a natural 20. Their Melee weapons score a critical hit on a score of 20-(Combat/Melee) or better.
*Melee attacks made by mechs use the pilot's strength or dex to-hit, but their bonus damage is always +2 regardless of the pilot's attributes, because mechs are hella strong.

=== Mecha Critical Hits ===
*Ranged weapons critical only on a natural 20, but melee weapons critical on (20-weapon skill: Primitive, Melee, or Psitech)
*'''On a Critical Hit''', first determine whether the hit dealt any damage after applying the target's armor. If the hit dealt no damage, reduce the target mech's armor by 1. If the hit dealt damage, the pilot may roll a saving throw. Physical versus things that are essentially like bullets, mental versus psitech attacks, evasion versus explosives, tech versus energy weapons, luck if nothing else applies. On a successful save, the mech merely takes damage normally. On a failed save, apply the damage AND roll 1d6:
**1: Armor Damage. The target mech loses 1d4 points of armor. Subsequent armor criticals reduce armor by 1d4 more points AND penalize Armor Class by 1.
**2: Weapon Damage. Randomly select a weapon on the target mech, which becomes Damaged. It is at -2 to hit and damage. A further critical hit to the same weapon renders it Disabled, and it cannot be used until repaired. A third critical hit to the same weapon renders it destroyed. It cannot be repaired and must be replaced.
**3: Locomotive Damage. Determine how many locomotive systems the mech has. All mechs have legs. Some may have grav pods or the like. Randomly determine which are affected. Damage to Legs reduces the mech's ground-based Speed by 1, to no lower than 1. Recalculate its movement rate accordingly. Damage to grav pods or the like is handled like weapons: First they are damaged and only propel the mech at half their normal speed. Then they are disabled and cannot be used. Then they are destroyed and must be replaced.
**4: Systems Damage. Roll 1d4.
***1: Power Fluctuation. The mech loses its next action.
***2: Ammo Cookoff. Non-explosive ammunition for one weapon is destroyed, leaving only enough ammunition for one attack, or one weapon with explosive ammunition has it cook off, dealing damage equal to one hit to the defending mech. If the weapon had more than one unit of ammunition remaining, only one unit is left. 
***3: Power Drain. The mech's energy weapons deal damage with one die type lower. 3d8 becomes 3d6, for example.
***4: Power Severed. The Referee may select one power-intensive system that ceases operation until this result is repaired. If there are no power-intensive systems, use Power Fluctuation. 
**5: Electronics Damage. Roll 1d4.
***1: Visual sensor damage. -2 to hit with all weapons unless some other sensor system is available.
***2: Targeting systems damaged. Melee attacks and short-ranged ranged attacks are unaffected. Most Long-ranged ranged attacks suffer an additional -2. Systems that rely on sophisticated targeting, such as anti-air lasers, are generally totally unusable.
***3: Comms Down: The mech loses access to its communications suite.
***4: ECM/ECCM Damage: The mech ceases to operate as an ECM/ECCM platform. This may be ''really bad.''
**6: Pilot Damage. Roll 1d4.
***1: One piece of equipment inside the pilot compartment is destroyed, if the pilot is carrying additional equipment. Determine randomly.
***2: The Life Support system is damaged. This will become a problem in 1d20 minutes in hostile environments.
***3: The pilot suffers 1d4 damage and a suit tear to their pilot suit.
***4: For each die of damage dealt by the weapon, the pilot takes 1d6 damage. No hit roll required.
*Repairing a level of critical hit damage has a cost equivalent to 1d4 HP for that type of mech. It takes 12 hours, divided by the skill of the technician, who must have a skill of at least 1.

=== Mecha Movement  ===
Mechs have halved movement rates, but I think you're miscalculating how far that comes out to. 
A shock suit has Speed 4. You multiply that by 10 meters to figure out their normal combat move, which is 40. Compare that to the [I]20[/I] that an un-enmeched* infantry moves. So, we divide your 40 meters in two to get 20 meters. Hexes are two meters. So you can move 10 hexes. 20 if you give up your action, or have the Melee skill to charge and choose to do so. Normal characters move 5 hexes, or 10 if they run or charge.
So! Shock and Psi suits move up to 10 hexes. Specialist suits move up to 15.

== Weapons & Equipment ==

== Combat ==
*Surprise may be checked for if the groups run into each other unexpectedly or one side does not expect combat. Surprise will generally result on a 1-4 roll of a D12. You may notice this is equivalent to 1-2 on a D6. The reason this matters is that characters with the Perception skill may subtract their ranks (including rank 0) from the range of rolls that result in surprise. Therefore, someone with Perception 2 would be surprised only on a 1 on 1d12. Someone with Perception 3 could not be surprised under normal circumstances. 
*During the round you first move up to your movement rate, and then may take an action. This may be to charge, use a weapon or item, use a psychic power, reload, or similar things that may be done quickly. 
*Combat movement rates are cut in half. Rotating is free. You will by default end up directly facing whatever enemy you attack. Your front facing is the three hexes in front of your character. Enemies attacking via melee will have +2 when attacking from your 2 flank hexes or +4 from directly behind. These modifiers do not apply to ranged weapons.
*Hexes are generally two meters across; I may adjust this scale when there are Light or Heavy mechs in play.
*Lesser enemies may be arranged into Mobs ala Godbound.
*You may draw whatever weapon you intend on using as part of your action. It requires an action to re-sheathe or otherwise put away a weapon. If you don't want to do this, they may be dropped on the ground. Mech weapons are integral and need not be drawn or sheathed.
*Cover protects against ranged attacks. Light cover will typically give a -2 penalty to hit, heavy cover will give -4. The determination as to whether cover is light or heavy will depend on the degree of concealment, the density of the material, and the type of weapon being fired. A plywood door will not give meaningful protection against a rocket launcher, but a flimsy reflective surface might give cover against a laser weapon.
*A character armed with a melee weapon, or unarmed but possessiong Combat/melee skill of at least 1, may charge into melee as their action. They may move up to their normal movement rate and still make a melee attack. This attack is made at +2 to-hit and damage, but gives them a +2 penalty to their AC until their next action. 
*Characters who are armed with melee weapons (Unarmed counts if they have Combat/Melee at a skill level of at least 1) have a "zone of control" across their front arc. This has several effects.
**They may make a "free" melee attack at -2 to-hit against any enemy who attempts to use ranged attacks while in their zone of control. This may also apply to the use of certain psychic powers or other distracting activities. They may make a number of free melee attacks equal to their skill in Combat/Melee.
**Enemies also provoke this attack if they move out of any hex inside the zone of control at their full movement rate. It requires their move action to "step" one hex in whatever direction. This includes stepping into another hex in the same zone of control.
*Some weapons are a bit different.
**Gunnery weapons require a one-round cooldown between uses.
**Monoblades deal 2d6 damage.
**Void Carbines are designed not to damage starship internal systems. They also function like a suit ripper on a hit.
**Mag Rifles and Mag Pistols deal only 2d8 and 2d6 damage, respectively. However, Mag Rifles ignore 4 points of vehicle or suit mech armor, and Mag Pistols ignore 2 points. They are still ineffective against targets only affected by gunner-scale weaponry.
**Spike Throwers deal one less die of damage against armor as protective as a CFU or Pilot Suit. They deal two less dice of damage against vehicles or the like. 
**Personal-scale energy weapons receive +2 to hit rather than +1 to hit.
**Sidearms which are projectile weapons have the Ammo trait (it should have always worked this way anyway) but they use their own skill instead of gunnery to check at the end of combat to see if they've gone dry.
**If you have Ammunition Cells and a rocket launcher, you can state that you've got Anti-Personnel AND Anti-Vehicle rockets. Anti-Personnel rockets do 3d10 straight to mobs, but don't have the AP quality. Switching between types of ammunition takes a round, but only requires a free action. Your mech does it automatically in response to a simple mental command. You check at the end of combat only re: the types of rockets you have used, so you can run out of one but not the other.

== Mobs ==
Because A. Tracking single enemies is a pain in the ass and B. You guys are expected to destroy scads of them, we're going to be adopting the Mob rules from Godbound. I'll summarize below.
*Mobs occupy an area rather than having discrete positions. I'll tell you specifically if they have cover or not. 
*On their turn, Mobs make one or more attacks on every enemy they have LOS to. 
*Mobs are basically normal troops, so they typically will be firing rifles or the like; gunnery weapons will be called out specifically.
*Mobs have HD rather than HP. So, of course you are wondering how you deal HD damage instead of HP damage.
*The answer is that we use Godbound's damage charts. In essence, you roll your normal damage. Each die is then counted ''separately''. '''A 1 on the die deals 0 damage, a 2-5 deals 1HD, a 6-9 deals 2HD, and a 10+ deals 4HD. If you have a modifier due to an attribute or the like, apply that to any one single die of your choice.''' 
*Area effect weapons are lethal against mobs. 
**An HMG fired to suppress deals half its damage straight, with no to-hit roll required. If the target is behind hard cover, they may save to negate the damage.
**A rocket launcher firing anti-personnel rockets deals straight damage, but fires at a -2 penalty. 
**Other weapons we'll deal with as they come up.
*You cannot move through a mob!

== Vehicles ==
If you are firing using anti-vehicle weapons, I may apply the quick kill rules (Starvation Cheap) or alternately allow you to automatically inflict crit effects.

== Hacking ==
Complexes or large ships typically have a network of computing systems called Data Nodes. Each node is a component of a greater whole, carrying some portion of the system's permissions and capacity. If you're an authorized user you can do all manner of things remotely, but if you're an interloper you have to pry the system open one node at a time. If you're working with just a dataslab, hacking a node takes 2d4 rounds. If you have actual hacking gear, whether a neural interface and deck or a hacking module built into your mech, then things are easier. In that case, it takes your move to jack into an adjacent node, and your action to attempt to hack it. Rules follow.
*The initial hacking attempt is always a Computer roll.
*The difficulty of the computer roll is dependent on the system, and typically will not vary through a system.
**Essentially unsecured consumer-grade systems are Diff 6. We typically won't roll for them.
**Marginally secure consumer or small business systems are Diff 7.
**Systems that someone has made any real effort to secure are Diff 8. This includes most corporate systems, or military systems that in fact rely on physical security rather than electronic.
**Medium corporate or military security systems, or those run by serious hacker types, are Diff 9. There may also be countermeasures.
**High security systems are Diff 10. Expect failures on your rolls to carry potentially serious consequences.
*Success brings rewards!
**A simple success gives you control of that node. See below for benefits.
**A failure "locks" the node, it cannot be attempted again until circumstances change substantially.
**An exceptional success (You roll at least three points higher than the difficulty, for example a 10 or better on a Diff 7 system) brings further benefits. Roll 1d6.
***1: You can immediately (on your next round) attempt to hack a nearby node without having to move adjacent to it. You gain knowledge of the location of that node whether you successfully hack it or not.
***2: You gain a useful piece of information.
***3: You gain a financially valuable piece of information.
***4: You learn the location of 1d3+1 other undiscovered data nodes in the complex. 
***5: You can immediately make some alteration to a device related to this data node. For example, if you hacked a node in the life support system, you could attempt to make it highly uncomfortably hot or cold. Safety interlocks will typically prevent you from doing anything immediately lethal.
***6: You can brain-burn an enemy hacker in the system for damage equal to 1d4 for each even level you have obtained. They may make a tech save to halve that damage. In either case, they'll be stunned and unable to hack for 1d6 rounds.
*The types of things you can attempt to do vary by the total number of nodes you control.
**Once you gain at least 25% of the nodes in a complex, you can attempt to make slightly advantageous changes using the node you are present at. So, changing the temperature from a life support node or opening or closing doors from a security node.
**Once you gain at least 50% of the nodes in a complex, you can attempt to make substantial changes using any node you have control of, from any other node.
**Once you gain at least 75% of the nodes in a complex, you can attempt to do make any change from any node you have control of.
**If you should gain 100% of the nodes, you no longer need to make rolls. The system is under your control.
*Enemy hackers are single, heroic troops rather than mobs.