Modelling CS Response to Player Actions

Wanted: Dead or Alive

So this is something I've been working on since ... a while ago. Couple of years, at least, I think.

The basic idea is to give the CS a form of AI for the game. Something that responds organically to the actions the player group takes.

In the previous iteration, it was a percentage check much like a skill. The group had a "CS Awareness" stat, and the GM rolled it like a skill. On a success, the CS is actively pursuing the players, with the level of success indicating how bad of a response.

I may continue working on that, but with Savage Rifts finishing in about a week, I figure I should start looking at how to adapt my present ideas over to the Savage Worlds rule-set.

In this case, it's actually fairly straightforward. There are a couple of ways to handle it - the RAW Savage Worlds way and the Savage Rifts way.

The RAW Method

The RAW method is to, again, treat it as a skill check. The level of the skill is the general idea of how annoyed the CS is, while the TN is the result of more immediate actions. Suggested starting values for both are d4 and 6, respectively, making it very unlikely that a new group will attract particular interest at any given time.

Suggested modifiers:
Obvious DB(s) in the party: -1 to TN
Obvious use of Magic / Psionics against CS troops: -1 to TN
Within the borders of a CS territory: -3 to TN

Things that increase the die level:
Repeatedly wiping out CS troops
Assisting known enemies of the CS

The Savage RIFTS Method

The Savage RIFTS way, and my preferred way, is to borrow shamelessly from the Savage Juicer mechanics.

Give the players a Wanted level, and a Wanted die. At the beginning of the game session, the GM rolls the Wanted die. If the roll is above the Wanted level, the CS has taken notice of the players and has sent some forces after their group. The players may opt to lower their Wanted level (and lower is worse, in this case) to avoid the encounter, but in doing so they make it more likely to occur in the next session, and possibly with worse consequences: the lower the Wanted level, the bigger and nastier the force that is sent after the players.

Suggested starting points for Wanted are 8 and a d8 (yes, the Wanted die can Ace).
The Wanted die fluctuates based on player action:
+ 1 die level when travelling through CS territory
+ 1 die level when passing near a CS outpost
Still working on what would lower the Wanted die

Finally, the players may actively court CS intervention with flagrant displays of power. This is mechanically represented by lowering their Wanted level in exchange for a "super" bennie. I'm still working on the details of what this would entail, but an example might be that the group automatically achieves a particular task, or maximizing any roll (without raises), etc. It will need to be worth bring the CS closer to finding the group.

Work Still to be Done

These are very rough, off the cuff ideas that need refining and playtesting. In particular I need to determine what the CS response is at a given Wanted level, how to regain Wanted levels, and what voluntarily burning a Wanted level does when used for a "super" bennie.
Still, I think this is a good starting point and there's enough there for anyone reading this to run off with and make their own.

CS Medium Machine Gun

As noted in the Organization post, the CS lacks anything resembling a heavy machine gun. Hell, they don't even have a light machine-gun equivalent. The closest thing to a machine gun that I can find in Rifts at all are rail guns. I'll forgo the complaint that rail guns are not intended to be fast firing weapons (see the US Navy and their foray into RGs - damn thing sets the air on fire!) - Siembieda has obviously built his world with rail guns filling the role of many-rounds-fired projectile weapon.

With that in mind, I took a look at the CS arsenal and found a depressing lack of rail guns. The SAMAS flying power armor uses a rail gun. The Skelebots (think Terminator, but really, really dumb) use a couple of variations. That's it. The Skelebot models are listed as being used by troops in enhanced body armor, but they're really just used as oversized rifles - not an emplacement type weapon.

So, what to do? Glancing at the options and examining the role intended (use in a Heavy Weapons Squad), I think I'll have the CS port the C-40R (SAMAS rail gun) to a man-portable version. Or rather, I'm going to go back to the origin of the CS equipment: the NEMA equipment found in Chaos Earth. They have two man portable rail guns that seem to fit both squad and platoon level support roles.

The NEMA R-660 and R-670 were both rail guns intended to be fielded by two man human teams. The 660 was a lighter weapon, filling the role of M-60 or M-249. It had its own internal power source, negating the need to haul around the additional weight of a power pack. The 670 was a heavier weapon, analogous to the M-2. If the C-40R (SAMAS main weapon) is patterned off of the Silver Eagle's USA-40R, then there's no reason that the CS wouldn't have something similar to the 660 and 670. However, the CS aren't as advanced as NEMA was and have been reverse engineering their tech and using inferior materials. This translates to bulkier, heavier gear, accuracy degradation, and externalization of some features such as the power supply.

C-450R

This is a medium, all-purpose rail gun designed to be used by a two-man team or a single augmented user. The C-450R has a fair amount of recoil requiring it to be braced on a bi-pod for most users. Users with a PS of 22 or higher can use it without the bi-pod without penalty; users with a PS of 18-21 will take a -2 penalty to strike while users with less than an 18 PS will take a -5 penalty to strike.

The weapon is belt fed and takes the same ammunition as that used for the C-40R and C-200. Typically the weapon is deployed with C-200 style ammunition drums and belts as those are more man-portable than the nearly 200 lb drum used by the SAMAS.

Primary Purpose: Assault, Anti-personnel

Secondary Purpose: Defense, Light Anti-armor

Weight: Gun: 45 lbs, Ammunition: As C-200 and C-40R

Mega-Damage: A burst is 20 rounds and inflicts 4D6 MD. A single round deals 1d4 MD.

Rate of Fire: Each burst is one hand-to-hand attack.

Payload: As C-200 / C-40R

CS Organization

The Coalition States - depending on your perspective they're either one of the most evil organizations in North America, if not the world, or they're the saviors of humanity. It's quite possible that they're both.

One of the books that Palladium released for Rifts was World Book 11 (WB11): The Coalition War Campaign. It gave the CS a major face lift, updated and upgraded a lot of it's gear, and provided quite a bit of background information. However, I feel that the squad make-ups are lack luster and don't really feel like part of a true military. Now, this is easily chalked up to the writer simply not being familiar with the military and looking at it from the point of view not dissimilar from that of a Hollywood producer. I, however, want some extra realism with my extreme gonzo setting, so I'm setting about addressing that.

First, let's discuss how the US Army does things. The smallest unit usually encountered at an organization level is the Squad. A Squad is typically nine members strong, with a Squad Leader and two Fire Teams of four members each. A Squad's actual make up and load-out is dependent upon the intended purpose of the Squad. Here we will discuss two real world Squad types and two that will exist only in Rifts Earth.

Rifle Squad

A Rifle Squad is the bread-and-butter Squad of the military. When people think of an infantry squad, they're really thinking of a Rifle Squad. Generally speaking the squad will carry similar gear with two of the squad toting automatic weapons. The US Army fields Rifle Squads with nine members - a Squad Leader and two Fire Teams. Each Fire Team is lead by a Team Leader and consists of an additional three members. The CS version is similar, but instead of two Fire Teams of four, they field three Fire Teams of three, giving the CS Rifle Squad a size of ten members total. The reduced Fire-Team size is a nod to Siembieda's idea that the combat in Rifts Earth has evolved to be much smaller in scale due to the overall destructive power of an individual soldier.

• Squad Leader - SGT, CA-4, CP-50
• Fire Team Alpha
• Team Leader - CPL, CA-4, CP-40
• Rifleman - PVT, CA-4, CP-40
• SAW - PVT, CA-4, C-29
• Fire Team Bravo
• Team Leader - CPL, CA-4, CP-40
• Rifleman - PVT, CA-4, CP-40
• SAW - PVT, CA-4, C-29
• Fire Team Charlie
• Team Leader - CPL, CA-4, CP-40
• Rifleman - PVT, CA-4, CP-40
• SAW - PVT, CA-4, C-29

Heavy Weapons Squad

A HW Squad is typically designed to either provide heavy anti-infantry firepower or heavy anti-vehicular firepower. In the modern military, a HWS typically runs two machine guns and two anti-armor weapons. For the CS, this will likely be a pair of CTT-P40 particle beam cannons and a pair of CTT-M20 mini-missile launchers. There is a surprising lack of heavy machine gun equivalent in the CS arsenal - then again, they're typically dealing with single to small groups of high defense targets rather than other armies, so I suppose this makes sense.

Assault Squad

This is a purely fictitious squad designed for Rifts Earth. With the prevalence of magic, psionics, and the like, melee combat has seen a resurgence. The Assault Squad is designed to handle that. Composed primarily of juicers and combat 'borgs, the assault squad is designed to get into the enemy unit and wreak havoc up close an personal. Since this is a purely fictitious squad type, it will require more thought on it's composition and so will be detailed in a later post.

Psi-Squad

The Psi-Squad is an attachment from PSI-Batt. It's really just a larger version of the Rifle or Assault Squad, but with CS Psi-Stalkers and Dog Boys. The squad leader is either a highly trained SF type or a well respected Psi-Stalker. The fire teams are lead by Psi-Stalkers with their members comprised of between three and six Dog Boys. Total squad size: between 13 and 22.

Again, being a fictitious squad type, I will detail it's composition in a later post.

Rifts Tactics

Having gotten some perspective from the RRT stuff, I think I can start piecing together what a Rifts Tactics game would look like. I'll be posting individual model stats periodically, but we'll start with the CS Grunt.

Basic Conversion Factors
These conversion factors are the baseline for given values - individual attributes may be tweaked up or down.

Speed: Given or calculated MPH / 15. 15 MPH = 1" MV.
Range: Given Range (in ft) * 3/1000.
MDC: Given MDC of main body / 25.
MD: Maximum damage of weapon / 20.

I have not done any work on calculating attack or defense values (GUN / DEF in RRT).

CS Grunt

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MV    | 1"
MDC | 4
RNG  | 6" (4" for C-29)
MD    | 2 (3 for C-29)

Our friendly cannon-fodder CS Grunt is back, and ready for action. As we've calculated before, the Grunt has a SPD of 20 which translates to about 14 MPH. This gives him 1" of MV, which makes sense at this scale. Infantry are SLOW compared to modern vehicles.

He's wearing CA-4 armor, which nets him an MDC of 4. Not the most resilient thing on the battlefield.

He's wielding a CP-40 rifle. It has a range of 2000 ft and does a max of 36 MD. Rifts Tactics stats would be 6" range and 2 MD.

So, he's not much to look at on his own: MV 1 MDC 4 RNG 6 MD 2.
However, the strength of the CS infantry is not in the individual, but in the army itself. I foresee CS infantry being bought by the platoon, with three to four stands of ten troops each (squads). To put this in perspective, a single stand would have 40 MDC and be putting out 20 MD. A full platoon is racking 160 MDC and putting out 80 MD, and that's assuming no special weapons. Based on my design for CS organization (still being worked out, hopefully it'll be published by the summer), each squad is rocking three C-29 plasma ejectors. So, a squad is putting out 7*2 + 3*3 MD, for a total of 23 MD per stand. 92 MD per platoon. A single squad could conceivable take out any known power armor and a few robots while they're at it.

So what's the downside? Speed. They are abysmally slow compared to everything else. Most units will outmaneuver them or take them apart before they close to a range at which they can bring their full fire power to bear - the CP-40 has a range 6" but the C-29 only has a 4" range. That's two rounds of advancing that the C-29s aren't being used. A smart opponent will use fast, hard hitting units to close and destroy the infantry before they're able to open up. Missiles work great as well.