Wed Oct 07, 2020 7:20 pm
Core Conversions
This ruleset is based upon the Legend of the Five Rings 4e core rulebook, and utilizes many of those rules - the roll and keep system, actions, traits and rings, etc. Some have been renamed and a few have had their functions changed, and will be listed where appropriate. This conversion is a work of love from a single individual, so some things may slip through - if you find them, please reach out for a GM ruling so the conversion can continue to be improved.
The first, and most obvious, change is the alteration to traits and rings, renaming them thusly. You will note that some there are some new and some old - move speed is now determined by Fitness, rather than Water ring, but the calculation is the same as before, for instance.
Traits and Rings:
(Move Speed) Fitness Attribute
Strength (Physical)
Dexterity (Physical)
(Hit Points) Durability Attribute
Stamina (Physical)
Willpower (Mental)
(Initiative) Readiness Attribute
Reflexes (Physical)
Perception (Mental)
Smarts Attribute
Awareness (Mental)
Intelligence (Mental)
Edge (Void)
Insight Ranks => Expertise Rating
Honor, Glory, Status:
There are some concepts which carry over well, such as glory and infamy, but Honor is not a relevant stat, and status does not function in the same way in each successor state, so these stats have been replaced with Fame, Infamy and Rank. The primary values are Fame/Infamy which will determine how you are viewed by potential employers, the local populace, and enemies. Accruing infamy may leave you unemployable, or even cause hostile forces to finish you off, rather than take you prisoner. Became universally hated at your own peril.
The Rank value represents your position in your organization - as rank values vary from organization to organization, it is an abstracted representation for an internal promotion - it grants little outside authority - even the head of the Capellan state cannot command citizens of the Federated Commonwealth, but it may represent some degree of respect and responsibility within your own organization. This does not give you the right to command other players unless they are directly in your chain of command, but should at least be considered when interacting - being excessively rude to someone important inside another department won't make your boss happy, after all.
Combat Maneuvers:
The combat maneuvers in the L5R core book are altered to instead include those listed here.
Feint (2 raises, Melee): A Feint is an attack that contains, as its first component, a deceptive movement intended to make a target believe that the attack will come from one direction, and then the actual
attack comes from another direction, exploiting a hole in the target’s defenses opened by their attempt to defend against the initial attack. If the Feint Maneuver is successful, half the amount by which the character’s attack roll exceeded the target’s Armor TN (taking the 2 Raises for his Maneuver into
account) is added to the damage roll for that attack, to a maximum amount equal to five times the character’s Expertise Rank.
Disarm/Knockdown (1-3 raises, Melee): You may attempt to disable a target using less lethal means using this maneuver. If you successfully hit after calling this maneuver, you may force the opponent to perform an opposed strength check. If you are victorious, you may do the following, depending on the number of raises: 1) convert the damage to stun damage 2) knock the target prone 3) force the target to drop their currently held equipment.
Extra Attack (5 raises, Melee): An unusually skilled combatant may weave multiple attacks into a combination, striking with staggering speed. If you succeed with an attack utilizing this maneuver, you may make one additional attack with the same weapon this round. There is no penalty to the second attack made as a result of this maneuver.
Precision Strike (1 raise): A character who is making a precision strike is carefully aiming to try and increase damage. For each raise called, they may increase their damage roll by +1k0, and if they call at least 4 raises, may designate a body part for the blow to hit – if the attack inflicts an amount of damage equal to 2x the healthy wound rank of the target, it will inflict a temporary disadvantage of the GM's choosing appropriate to that area. If the disadvantage is not treated by a medicine roll with TN equal to the damage total within 8 hours, the disadvantage becomes permanent.
Automatic Fire (0, 2, 4, 6... raises, Ranged) If you are attacking with a weapon that has the Automatic trait, you may attempt to control the recoil during sustained fire, striking repeatedly in a single volley. Each consecutive attack requires you to call the previous number of raises plus two. Thus the second shot requires two, the third four, and so forth. Attempting this maneuver doubles your ammunition expenditure, meaning a weapon which normally expends one burst per attack would instead expend two in each attack. If you attempt this maneuver without enough ammunition to fully execute the attack, it automatically fails, but still depletes your ammunition.
Suppression (0 raises, Ranged) During a skirmish, while utilizing a weapon with the Automatic trait, it is possible to lay down suppression fire in order to discourage the enemy from taking action. As a complex action, the character may target an enemy to suppress and spend up to three bursts of ammo. For each burst spent, inflict a -1k0 penalty to the target's actions for the round.
Guard (0 raises, Melee) During a skirmish, you may choose to take a simple action to guard another character from melee attack. When you do, you lower your own melee armor TN by 5, while raising that of your target by 10. This lasts until your next turn. The effect is ended as soon as you move outside 5' of your target.
Body Cover (0 raises) During a skirmish, you may choose to take a simple action to begin covering another character with your own body. While you do so, you utilize your body to shield them from attacks. All attacks which pass through your character have their TN increased by 15, but if they fail by a margin of 15 or less, they instead strike you. You must perform a free action every round to continue covering another character, and the effect is ended as soon as you are no longer within 5' of your target.
Cover
One aspect of combat in a world with guns (and very large ones, at that) is the uses of cover. In this conversion, the armor TN value has been split into two values, a melee TN and a ranged TN. When in combat, a character can claim light cover by standing near an object able to obscure them from view, or shield at least half their body, such as a bush, or a desk. This grants +3 ranged TN against attacks. You can also gain this bonus by being prone.
As a simple action, a character can take cover, which involves pressing themselves into the nearest solid object and minimizing their target profile - when doing so, they gain +6 ranged TN, but lose that benefit if they are flanked or move out of that position.
As a general rule of thumb, cover is assumed to apply against an attack so long as the character is not caught in a crossfire or ambushed. If an opponent is moving, the character would naturally be attempting to keep the solid object between themselves and danger.
A Game of Armored Combat
Battletech is a game about mechs, and while many other things are included, there remains the need to perform mech combat. There will be additional information about this in another post, but it is important to note that you will need to transform your 4e stats into the piloting and gunnery stats when involved in mech vs mech combat, using the following rules.
A Game of Armored Combat Skill Conversion:
Player character skills translate to mass combat by lowering the TN from a starting value of 8. It is decreased by half your relevant trait, rounded up, and half the relevant skill, rounded down. You cannot decrease using either value by more than 1 point more than the other - so a character with 8 gunnery but only 3 Dexterity would subtract 3 and 2, for a final gunnery skill of 3+.
Many special rules, such as 'Mech vs Infantry, Anti-Mech, and Blast' are utilized only during mixed force skirmishes based on the RnK system. Mech vs Mech combat will be handled utilizing the Game of Armored Combat system as detailed in the 'PbP and Mech Combat' post.
It is also important to note that some techniques or abilities refer to rolls made in Mech combat - and thus might utilize modifiers appropriate to that system - in any cases where they are used in the 4e system instead, they provide a free raise for each point of skill bonus granted.
The first, and most obvious, change is the alteration to traits and rings, renaming them thusly. You will note that some there are some new and some old - move speed is now determined by Fitness, rather than Water ring, but the calculation is the same as before, for instance.
Traits and Rings:
(Move Speed) Fitness Attribute
Strength (Physical)
Dexterity (Physical)
(Hit Points) Durability Attribute
Stamina (Physical)
Willpower (Mental)
(Initiative) Readiness Attribute
Reflexes (Physical)
Perception (Mental)
Smarts Attribute
Awareness (Mental)
Intelligence (Mental)
Edge (Void)
Insight Ranks => Expertise Rating
Honor, Glory, Status:
There are some concepts which carry over well, such as glory and infamy, but Honor is not a relevant stat, and status does not function in the same way in each successor state, so these stats have been replaced with Fame, Infamy and Rank. The primary values are Fame/Infamy which will determine how you are viewed by potential employers, the local populace, and enemies. Accruing infamy may leave you unemployable, or even cause hostile forces to finish you off, rather than take you prisoner. Became universally hated at your own peril.
The Rank value represents your position in your organization - as rank values vary from organization to organization, it is an abstracted representation for an internal promotion - it grants little outside authority - even the head of the Capellan state cannot command citizens of the Federated Commonwealth, but it may represent some degree of respect and responsibility within your own organization. This does not give you the right to command other players unless they are directly in your chain of command, but should at least be considered when interacting - being excessively rude to someone important inside another department won't make your boss happy, after all.
Combat Maneuvers:
The combat maneuvers in the L5R core book are altered to instead include those listed here.
Feint (2 raises, Melee): A Feint is an attack that contains, as its first component, a deceptive movement intended to make a target believe that the attack will come from one direction, and then the actual
attack comes from another direction, exploiting a hole in the target’s defenses opened by their attempt to defend against the initial attack. If the Feint Maneuver is successful, half the amount by which the character’s attack roll exceeded the target’s Armor TN (taking the 2 Raises for his Maneuver into
account) is added to the damage roll for that attack, to a maximum amount equal to five times the character’s Expertise Rank.
Disarm/Knockdown (1-3 raises, Melee): You may attempt to disable a target using less lethal means using this maneuver. If you successfully hit after calling this maneuver, you may force the opponent to perform an opposed strength check. If you are victorious, you may do the following, depending on the number of raises: 1) convert the damage to stun damage 2) knock the target prone 3) force the target to drop their currently held equipment.
Extra Attack (5 raises, Melee): An unusually skilled combatant may weave multiple attacks into a combination, striking with staggering speed. If you succeed with an attack utilizing this maneuver, you may make one additional attack with the same weapon this round. There is no penalty to the second attack made as a result of this maneuver.
Precision Strike (1 raise): A character who is making a precision strike is carefully aiming to try and increase damage. For each raise called, they may increase their damage roll by +1k0, and if they call at least 4 raises, may designate a body part for the blow to hit – if the attack inflicts an amount of damage equal to 2x the healthy wound rank of the target, it will inflict a temporary disadvantage of the GM's choosing appropriate to that area. If the disadvantage is not treated by a medicine roll with TN equal to the damage total within 8 hours, the disadvantage becomes permanent.
Automatic Fire (0, 2, 4, 6... raises, Ranged) If you are attacking with a weapon that has the Automatic trait, you may attempt to control the recoil during sustained fire, striking repeatedly in a single volley. Each consecutive attack requires you to call the previous number of raises plus two. Thus the second shot requires two, the third four, and so forth. Attempting this maneuver doubles your ammunition expenditure, meaning a weapon which normally expends one burst per attack would instead expend two in each attack. If you attempt this maneuver without enough ammunition to fully execute the attack, it automatically fails, but still depletes your ammunition.
Suppression (0 raises, Ranged) During a skirmish, while utilizing a weapon with the Automatic trait, it is possible to lay down suppression fire in order to discourage the enemy from taking action. As a complex action, the character may target an enemy to suppress and spend up to three bursts of ammo. For each burst spent, inflict a -1k0 penalty to the target's actions for the round.
Guard (0 raises, Melee) During a skirmish, you may choose to take a simple action to guard another character from melee attack. When you do, you lower your own melee armor TN by 5, while raising that of your target by 10. This lasts until your next turn. The effect is ended as soon as you move outside 5' of your target.
Body Cover (0 raises) During a skirmish, you may choose to take a simple action to begin covering another character with your own body. While you do so, you utilize your body to shield them from attacks. All attacks which pass through your character have their TN increased by 15, but if they fail by a margin of 15 or less, they instead strike you. You must perform a free action every round to continue covering another character, and the effect is ended as soon as you are no longer within 5' of your target.
Cover
One aspect of combat in a world with guns (and very large ones, at that) is the uses of cover. In this conversion, the armor TN value has been split into two values, a melee TN and a ranged TN. When in combat, a character can claim light cover by standing near an object able to obscure them from view, or shield at least half their body, such as a bush, or a desk. This grants +3 ranged TN against attacks. You can also gain this bonus by being prone.
As a simple action, a character can take cover, which involves pressing themselves into the nearest solid object and minimizing their target profile - when doing so, they gain +6 ranged TN, but lose that benefit if they are flanked or move out of that position.
As a general rule of thumb, cover is assumed to apply against an attack so long as the character is not caught in a crossfire or ambushed. If an opponent is moving, the character would naturally be attempting to keep the solid object between themselves and danger.
A Game of Armored Combat
Battletech is a game about mechs, and while many other things are included, there remains the need to perform mech combat. There will be additional information about this in another post, but it is important to note that you will need to transform your 4e stats into the piloting and gunnery stats when involved in mech vs mech combat, using the following rules.
A Game of Armored Combat Skill Conversion:
Player character skills translate to mass combat by lowering the TN from a starting value of 8. It is decreased by half your relevant trait, rounded up, and half the relevant skill, rounded down. You cannot decrease using either value by more than 1 point more than the other - so a character with 8 gunnery but only 3 Dexterity would subtract 3 and 2, for a final gunnery skill of 3+.
Many special rules, such as 'Mech vs Infantry, Anti-Mech, and Blast' are utilized only during mixed force skirmishes based on the RnK system. Mech vs Mech combat will be handled utilizing the Game of Armored Combat system as detailed in the 'PbP and Mech Combat' post.
It is also important to note that some techniques or abilities refer to rolls made in Mech combat - and thus might utilize modifiers appropriate to that system - in any cases where they are used in the 4e system instead, they provide a free raise for each point of skill bonus granted.
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What was lost can be found again, if you only know where to look...
What was lost can be found again, if you only know where to look...