Warhammer 40k link dump

I need to remember this for when I start tinkering with the XV-8 crisis suit again.

http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=9754

gurps space campaign notes

Average TL 9
Xenophobic TLs will be will be between 6-9. No current civilization using TL 10+
The Ancients: TL 12. Mostly artifacts - may require a lot of work to get things working.

Drives:
Reaction drives are common espescially for inner-system transport.
Reactionless drives are in common use as well.

Jump Gates: The most common form of travel is through Jump Gates - space stations surrounding giant rings that create artificial wormholes between each other. To get a Jump you must do the following:

1. Pay a Jump Fee of 500 credits or 1 credit per 10 cubic yards, whichever is more. This fee will only be refundable if you cannot get a jump on your desired date if scheduled less than two weeks ahead of time. Military jumps have priority over others, and if your jump is canceled due to a military jump you will be offered an alternate date with a 5% refund or completely canceled with a full refund, with your choice. Jump requests made with less than a two week notice are not refundable, nor are requests that are canceled due to a hit during a criminal background check.
2. Submit a Jump Request with the the ship's name, hull size, registration ID, and complete manifest of all crew, passengers, and cargo. Crew and passenger manifests must include some sort of ID, preferably issued by the organization that owns the origination and destination jump points.
   
3. A check will be run on the manifest by both the origination jump point and the destination jump point. If cargo is banned at the destination or there is a criminal is on board, the offending item/person must be removed. Checks may take up to three hours to run. (1d6 * 30 minutes)
   
4. If all this passes a Jump Ticket is issued. Jump Tickets have a report-in time and a jump time. Report-in times are 1 hour prior to jumps.
   
5. At report time, your ship may be subject to an inspection. Inspections always occur if a manifest had a criminal or contraband from step 3. Otherwise they occur randomly depending on the level of security at the origination jump points.
6. Prior to jump time you will receive a coded signal from Jump Gate Control. You will be given a time frame to approach the gate.
   
7. Navigate to the jump gate and respond to the coded signal.
8. A final signal will be issued by Jump Gate Control when the jump is ready. You will have 5 minutes to jump from this signal.
9. When you pass through the jump gate your ship will be in a specialized hyperspace conduit for a short period of time. When it emerges it will be at the destination gate.
10. It is less likely that on destination gate will perform a cargo and personnel check. Roll two security check rolls. If both come up check, a check is performed.
    

Homebrew Terrain

Kinda stashing this here so I don't forget

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=449

Heterodox: Damage

OK. Firearms in the game are a bit overly damaging the way they are now. Three shots and you drop. A medium pistol at average damage will drop most people in just two hits. So do I make guns less deadly or people more resilient?

So here's what I'm thinking about for hit points: Toughness times three for HP. So average people will have about 15-18 HP. Mad tough people will have about 27-30.

Now if I want to aim for medium pistols on average kill average people in 3 hits, then the damage needs to average 5-6 points per hit. Light pistols should take twice as long say 2-3 per hit. Heavy pistols then would be 10-12 damage on average.

Light Pistol/SMG: 1d6 (3)
Pistols in this category are more designed to annoy an attacker and slightly deter than actually kill. Granted a critical hit will do 12 points of damage. If you were lucky enough to make that a called shot to a vital area then yeah you'd have killed them. SMGs are a little more popular in this class because while you would have to hit someone with about 6 to 10 rounds to kill them. Easy enough on the full auto setting.

Medium Pistol/SMG: 2d6 (7)
Medium firearms fall in the 9mm and 10mm range for ammunition. They are considered the standard for most criminals and anyone with a serious mind for self defense. Submachine guns in this class are of course incredibly deadly and are often employed by most security forces.

Heavy Pistol/SMG: 3d6 (11)
Employed by most street hitmen and as a sidearm for military & security forces. The SMG is used by black-ops teams and special forces units, or mounted onto powered armor.

Assault Rifle: 4d6 (14)
Employed by military forces as the main weapon for troops. It is designed to severely wound with one hit, and kill easily.

Battle Rifle: 4d6+6 (20)
Formerly used by most militaries, it has been replaced largely by the assault rifle in combat due to its excessive fatality rate. The assault rifle provides a larger drain on resources and morale.

Anti-Material Rifle: 4d6+12 (26)
Designed to aid in the destruction of vehicles and buildings it is generally considered a war-crime to use a weapon in this class against anyone in less than medium armor.

Mastery System: Skills and Mastery

Starting to work on Heterodox again, and tried to think of away for people (like me) who roll so badly that their characters fail their rolls - constantly. Came up with a Mastery die system and was about to write one set of rules until I looked back at my older notes. The two systems at first seemed to conflict but then I had an epiphany.

Stats range from 1-10.
Skills range from 1-15.
Die roll for skill checks are 3d6.

Thus a nearly impossible skill check would be something with a difficulty of 43.

Mastery Level
By default you are a novice at all skills - even ones you have 15 ranks in! However for every four points in a skill you may purchase a Mastery level in the skill for 10 character points multiplied by the mastery level, up to three mastery levels. Mastery levels add extra dice to your rolls during your skill checks for each level. You simply choose the best three dice to count as your 3d6.

Example: GSS#27 has Pistols 8 with mastery 2. When making attacks he rolls 5d6 with the following results: 6, 5, 3, 1, and 1. GSS#27's "official" roll would then be 6, 5, and 3.

Automatic Hit, Automatic Miss, and Criticals
When making a check and you roll two ones you automatically fail regardless of your skill level but ones ignored due to Mastery dice are ignored. Three ones are critical failures something devastating happens - up to the GM's discretion. For combat, it is typically a gun jamming or slipping and falling. On the upside two sixes are automatic successes. Three sixes are critical successes: maximum damage in an attack or some other beneficial event.

Error 42: 4E Reviews On Hold

Life is getting a bit too hectic for me to sit down and read through this mass of text. The 4E reviews are on hold until I get time to care about it.

Placeholder Domain

Back in the good ol' days of Mage Knight when 2.0 debuted we had Domains. In tournaments you had one round you could play no domain. So as to throw of my opponents I used a card printer to create a "placeholder domain." The flavor text on the back was a textbook example of how I played: psychological warfare.

"Any changes in the weather?"

"None sir."

"What about the battle field?"

"It is exactly as we planned it to be, sir."

"His troops! How do they seem to fair?"

"They looked hard pressed and ready for battle, but no more than our own force, sir."

Khurgan sighed and dismessed the scout. All of Lodin Caine's other opponents would report some twist of luck - favorable terrain, good weather, or even that there was a higher power on his side. But now now. If Caine did have some sort of luck, some sort of favor, why did he not use it now? Was it that his luck had run out? Or did Khurgan plan carefully enough to outwit his opponent?

As Caine's troops engaged Khurgan's forces, then answer was clear: Against Caine, Khurgan's army just wasn't worth it.