The previous three sections have dealt with cut-and-dry situations where the various combatants in a battle all shared the same scales of motion and terrain type. Many combat situations may not be so cut and dry. An infantry battle could be going well until the enemy brings in a tank. Soldiers could fire missiles at an aircraft overhead. Bombers could be called upon to make attack runs on starships, while their escorts duke it out with enemy fighters. In situations where more than one scale of combat is present, the fight is considered “mixed-scale” combat, which has several special rules.
Range
In a mixed-combat (cross-combat) situation, the rule is always to use the scale of action of the largest scale represented. That is to say, the scale with the largest increment should be utilized. This has a negative effect on the movement of the smaller scale combatant. If the differences in the scales are significant enough, smaller scale combatants may become effectively stationary.
The scales of combat are as follows for the varying combat scales:
- Character-scale (Melee): 5 meters
- Character-scale (Ranged): 25 meters
- Land Vehicle-scale: 1 kilometer
- Sea Vehicle-scale: 10 kilometers
- Air Vehicle-scale: 20 kilometers
Space vehicles are in a unique situation when it comes to cross-scale combat. Technically, they have the largest combat scale of any combatant type, but the situations in which they would engage a smaller-scale combatant would in most cases require them to enter planetary atmosphere. In all instances where space vehicles are engaged in cross-scale combat, treat them as air vehicles.
The above scales assume that the GM is using Speed-based movement. If Initiative-based movement is being used instead, apply a -1 movement penalty for each small-scale level involved. Take for example a situation where a character, a tank, a jet fighter and a starship are fighting with one another (
you never know, it could happen). The starship and jet fighter are both considered air vehicles, which is the highest scale present, so they take no penalty. The tank is a land vehicle, which is two scales down, so it takes a -2 penalty to its movement. The character is, obviously, a character-scale object, which is three steps down from the air-vehicle scale, and so it takes a -3 movement penalty.
The effective range of weapons may or may not change due to cross-scale combat, depending on whether or not movement is Initiative- or Speed-based. If it is Speed-based, do not adjust the ranges. If it is Initiative-based, apply the same movement penalty scale to the combatant's weapons, unless otherwise noted with the weapon's stats.
For example, a Rocket-Propelled Grenade might be a character-scale weapon, but it still uses land vehicle-scale range (which would make sense for an anti-vehicle weapon).
Initiative
All combatants on all scales still figure their initiative ratings as normal, with one exception. Smaller-scale combatants get a +4 Initiative bonus. This bonus is applied per scale larger or smaller. Vehicles count as their own scale of combat regardless of the vehicle's terrain in this case (i.e. if a vehicle is attacking a starship, it would get the +4 Initiative bonus, regardless of if that vehicle was a tank, an airplane, or a shuttle). If a cross-combat situation exists involving only vehicles of different terrain types, there is a cross-terrain initiative bonus of +2 for lower-scale vehicles. The vehicle terrain scale, from lowest to highest, is Land, Sea, Air and Space.
In the event that there are combatants in a situation where multiple scales and terrains are in a combat situation, the Initiative bonuses stack up. Take the example situation wherein a character, a tank, a jet fighter and a starship are fighting with one another. In this case, the jet fighter would get +4 by virtue of it being a vehicle against a starship, the tank would get +4 by virtue of it being a vehicle against a starship (it does not get +2 for being a land vehicle against an aircraft, since there are combatants of other scales involved), and the character would get +8 by virtue of it being a character against a starship.
Initiative bonuses granted for changes in scale do
not add to the combatant's potential movement, if Initiative is being used to determine movement.
Damage and Scales of Combat¶
The changes in damage potentials over the various scales of combat represent a vast increase in a weapon’s capable destructive power. Simply put, a weapon that does 1 point of HP damage to a starship or vehicle is significantly more powerful than a weapon that does 1 point of HP damage to a character. To be hit with a weapon whose scale is larger than that of a combatant is almost certain death, while lower scale weapons will barely make a dent (
there are, however, a few very powerful character-scale weapons designed to be used against significantly armored targets and vehicles). When using larger-scale weapons against characters, always assume the weapon does Lethal damage.
There is a fixed scale between the scales of damage. For reference, ten HP on the Character-scale will cause one point of HP damage on the Vehicle and Starship-scales (
vehicles and starships have already been scaled up such that starships are capable of delivering more damage and taking more punishment than vehicles). When converting between the two scales, any decimal remainders from the scale conversion are always rounded up regardless of how small they are (
so it is possible to nibble a larger-scale combatant to death, though this prospect is unlikely at best). The conversion between scales should happen last, after the amount of damage that would ordinarily be applied to a target has been calculated. This modification assumes that weapons of different scales are being used. If this is not the case (
such as a tank using a mounted sub-machine gun), the damage modifier is not used.
HD Modifiers
To help offset the inherent power larger scale combatants have, it is assumed they have a harder time targeting smaller, relatively maneuverable targets. Smaller targets are also assumed to be more nimble than their attackers. To reflect this, a cross-combat HD modifier is used. This modifier is dependent upon the difference in Size Class. Subtract the smaller Size Class from the larger one and add five. The final result is added to the HD of the smaller combatant, and subtracted from the HD of the larger combatant. All character-scale combatants will need to subtract eight levels from their Size Class to account for the difference between the character and vehicle/starship Size Class scales (a Size Class 5 character in combat against a vehicle is considered to be a Size Class -3 combatant).
For example, a Thrynn Scout is strafing an Interstel Terrain Vehicle. The Scout ordinarily has an HD of 63 and is Size Class 15. The ITV ordinarily has an HD of 76 and is Size Class 6. In this case, the ITV gains a bonus of 14 to its HD (15-6 = 9, 9 + 5 = 14), bringing its HD to 90. Conversely, the Scout's HD drops to 49.
A target can always take a hit if a critical hit is rolled for a combatant, regardless of its scale. There is no scale adjustment for critical hits. Likewise, there are no adjustments for the levels of critical misses by a combatant.
Simultaneous Combat
Certain combat situations may call for simultaneous combat, which is considered a special type of cross-combat. Simultaneous combat actions occur when, for whatever reason, two or more combat actions must take place at the same time. Examples include boarding actions (wherein there is a character-scale combat situation taking place at the same time as a vehicle-scale combat situation at sea, or a starship-scale combat situation in space), mixed-combat situations wherein not all of the combatants are against one another (say, if a group of characters finds themselves fighting a battle tank that happens to be
inside a starship, which is itself fighting other starships), or combat happening at the same time in two separate locations. Simultaneous combat actions can get very complex very fast, because factors in one action may affect factors (or even the outcome) of other actions.
Depending on how the PCs are involved, the GM may have several options as to how to handle a simultaneous combat situation. If the PCs aren't involved at all, then the GM can just use Simple Combat (
see Chapter 9.1 for details). Use of goals is strongly encouraged in this case. If at least one PC is involved in an action, the GM may choose whether or not they want to run the PC's action as a side adventure, if they want to treat the combat situations as distinct actions, or if they just want to use Simple Combat.
PCs and members of the PC group (including NPCs) can take crew damage should it be indicated as a result of actions on the larger combat scale, along with any other NPC character-scale combatants (i.e. should a vehicle or starship take crew damage, any combatant inside that vehicle or starship may take the damage). When crew damage is indicated in this case, each combatant group rolls 1d10. A member from the group with the lowest throw will ultimately take the damage (continue rolling in the event of ties), using the same crew damage schema for the vehicle/starship in question. Should the vehicle or starship be destroyed, the PCs will suffer the penalties for the craft's destruction along with any remaining NPCs.
Probably the best way to deal with a simultaneous combat situation is for the GM to resolve actions on whichever scale is most critical to the overall combat situation before going on to the remaining actions. In the event that all actions are equally critical to the current action, the GM should resolve the action on the largest combat scale involved before proceeding to the smaller scales.
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