T2K House Rules Clearinghouse

[Raellus]

I thought it would be a good idea to create a clearinghouse for house rules that we use in our own T2K games.

There are some things that the official rules (every edition) don't cover, or rules that are incompatible between editions, or rules that aren't very good and, as GM's we have to develop workarounds or alternatives- hence, house rules.

Here are a couple of house rules that I've developed and used with some success. Although my heart belongs to v1.0, my brain prefers v2.2 mechanics (I find them easier), so the house rules described below are based on/compatible with v2.2 mechanics.

Batteries

Batteries have a finite lifespan, even rechargeable ones. In most of our T2KUs, batteries are no longer being produced. AFAIK, the v2.2 rules don't have a mechanic for keeping track of battery charge; I think it's unrealistic that PCs can use radios and powered scopes without worrying about running out of juice for them so I came up with this:

Each battery is given a two part score, for example... 8/8

The first number is the current charge. This number is lowered after each hour of use. It can be raised by recharging the battery using some sort of recharging device. The second number is the battery charge capacity. Every other time that the battery is recharged, it loses one charge capacity point. Eventually, the battery will no longer hold a charge, resulting in a totally dead battery. The device that relies upon said battery will no longer function until a fresher battery replaces the dead one.

For example, Lt. Dan's NVG batteries start with a base charge (determined by a d10 roll) of 6 so, at the beginning of play, his NVG batteries have a charge/capacity of 6/6. For every hour or so of use, I deduct one point from the current charge number. When the battery runs out, his NVGs stop working. Since his battery still has a charge capacity number greater than zero, he can recharge them and use them again. After he recharges the batteries twice, I deduct one from the charge capacity number like so: x/5. I've had players that were unlucky enough to roll a low starting charge capacity number wind up with completely dead batteries by the end of the campaign. It takes some vigilant record keeping, but I think it adds a degree of realism.

Military Knowledge

When a military aircraft flies overhead, I can ID it with ease and accuracy. Most of my friends- few of them have any military experience or interest in mil-tech- cannot. I figure that not every PC will be able to recognize every obscure weapon, vehicle, uniform, etc. that they will encounter in the game so I created a new skill called Military Knowledge to help determine if a PC can correctly ID military-related stuff in the game. Here's how it works:

For each term served in the military, I award the PC 1 skill point (SP) in Military Knowledge (MK). I also award 1 SP in MK for every promotion roll a PC passes and 1 SP for a stint in a military academy, ROTC and/or OCS-type program a PC successfully completes. I use the higher of either the Education or Intelligence attribute as the modifying. So, for example...

Private Benjamin gets drafted and spends two terms in the army. She gets 2 MK SPs. She fails one promotion but eventually achieves another for an additional MK SP of 1. She barely passed high school so her EDU score is crap, but she's pretty bright so her INT is 7. So, her modified MK score is 10. To tell a T72 from a T80 in profile on a clear sunny day is a difficult task. Private Benjamin rolls a d20 and gets an 8. She successfully ID's the tank.


I look forward to reading about your own house rules so please do share.

[Cdnwolf]

Like it.

[FPSlover]

interesting rules. I may have to use these (with your permission of course)

[comped]

Personally, I:

• Count each shot separately for damage. So if a player fires off 3 shots, he/she has to roll for damage for each shot, or multiply the damage of the first shot by 3.
• double/triple radiation douses (so they may actually look and find rad suits). Make it something to keep track of, instead of ignored.
• use feet, not meters, when measuring distances (helps with research/player knowledge).
• Allow most of those splat books that were published to be used. Except equipment that seems overpowered.
• Double the price on the lower-priced things. After all, this is a scarcity economy, and someone won't let their guns/ammo/rad suit go cheap.
• Add a new skill: Bartering. IE the ability to barter things and services for other things and services. It's tested in a similar way to a skill check, but I test it multiple times during the bartering.
• I also LOVE to use what I call the extended skill test. A lot of people call it that, but you know what I mean. Basically, taking the bartering example from above, if the PC gets a really good score the first roll, the negotiation starts off good. Keep that going for 1-2 roles (they generally last about 3-5 roles), and he may throw in a little something extra. But if the PC fails, the negotiation stops, or just rolls down hill a bit, depending on how bad it is. I may just try and extort them a little further.
• Oh, and I generally do about 1.5 times normal damage for any damage to PCs. Just to make it that bit more deadly.

Thoughts?

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by FPSlover

interesting rules. I may have to use these (with your permission of course)

Please do.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by comped

• use feet, not meters, when measuring distances (helps with research/player knowledge).

I understand why you'd do that if you're playing with Americans who haven't served in the military and never use metric measurements and you as the GM are describing distances to the players, but what about their characters talking to one another? Because if they are military characters they'd use metric wouldn't they?

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by comped

Personally, I:

• Add a new skill: Bartering. IE the ability to barter things and services for other things and services. It's tested in a similar way to a skill check, but I test it multiple times during the bartering.

I really like this idea. There are a few skills on the official list that, in practice, are seldom, if ever, used. Bartering, on the other hand, has been an important part of nearly every campaign I've been involved in. It's really odd that it wasn't included.

[kato13]

I am reluctantly fluent in metric, but the foot is very useful. I even had a foreign born friend say so unsolicited two days ago (when I was discussing how the Fahrenheit scale is the one holdover I want if the US goes metric).

On my logistics gaming system I use cubic feet and kilograms as my base units. A cubic foot is an easy concept to put your arms around both literally and figuratively. Cubic centimeters and cubic meters are harder to conceptualize when you are discussing the volume of an item. You can do liters for volume, but there is a bit of a disconnect as most people dont realize it is a decimeter cubed.

[pmulcahy11b]

AFAIK (from watching BBC America and some other British programs), the British tend to use Metric and English measurements interchangeably. Am I right in this?

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by comped

Personally, I:
[*]I also LOVE to use what I call the extended skill test. A lot of people call it that, but you know what I mean. Basically, taking the bartering example from above, if the PC gets a really good score the first roll, the negotiation starts off good. Keep that going for 1-2 roles (they generally last about 3-5 roles), and he may throw in a little something extra. But if the PC fails, the negotiation stops, or just rolls down hill a bit, depending on how bad it is. I may just try and extort them a little further.[*]Oh, and I generally do about 1.5 times normal damage for any damage to PCs. Just to make it that bit more deadly.[/LIST]Thoughts?

That sort of like the original Star Wars RPG -- you can try one action at normal chances, but if you want to a second, you have to roll extra die. If you try a third, you have to roll two extra dies, Four actions, three extra dies. You can continue along this line, which almost inevitably leads to Catastrophic failure -- but theoretically you can do anything you want in a round.

I use D10s in damage rolls instead of d6s.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

AFAIK (from watching BBC America and some other British programs), the British tend to use Metric and English measurements interchangeably. Am I right in this?

To a degree. Anything to do with driving (road signs, speedometers, etc) is always in miles. If you go to a pub you'd buy a pint (or half pint) of beer. However if you were to go to the supermarket to buy some fruit or veg it would be sold by the gram / kilo.

So not so much interchangeable in the sense that one person might use metric and another would use imperial, more a case of one type of measurement being the standard for one thing and the other being the standard for different things. If that makes sense...

To a certain extent age also comes into it. I'm 45 this year. If someone asked me how far it was to the pub at the end of my road I'd say two hundred yards. If you asked some of my colleagues who are in their mid twenties they'd probably say two hundred metres. I know what my weight is in stones / pounds, didn't have a clue what it was in kilos until my short stay in hospital last year, whereas my colleagues would use kilos. I guess it's what they're taught in schools these days.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by kato13

I am reluctantly fluent in metric, but the foot is very useful. I even had a foreign born friend say so unsolicited two days ago (when I was discussing how the Fahrenheit scale is the one holdover I want if the US goes metric).

I find that surprising. I don't mind feet as a unit of length (I can describe someone's height in feet much more accurately than in centimeters) but the Fahrenheit scale is a total mystery to me. Degrees centigrade have a simple internal logic. Zero is the freezing point of distilled water, 100 degrees is the boiling point. What could be simpler? And generally speaking, metric is just so much easier to get your head around as far as the maths is concerned. 10, 100s, 1000s. You don't have to learn things by rote (12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 1760 yards to a mile, bloody hell!).

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Targan

I find that surprising. I don't mind feet as a unit of length (I can describe someone's height in feet much more accurately than in centimeters) but the Fahrenheit scale is a total mystery to me. Degrees centigrade have a simple internal logic. Zero is the freezing point of distilled water, 100 degrees is the boiling point. What could be simpler? And generally speaking, metric is just so much easier to get your head around as far as the maths is concerned. 10, 100s, 1000s. You don't have to learn things by rote (12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 1760 yards to a mile, bloody hell!).

My logic:

For science Celsius makes sense, but technically kelvins makes more sense. But temperature is used to describe the air or room temperature 100 times more often than it is used for hard science.

0-100 Fahrenheit is the general range where people can live in comfort. It also has a greater granularity and usefulness of 10s

If you say the temp is in the 20s Celsius that is not nearly as descriptive as saying it is in the 70s in Fahrenheit.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by kato13

If you say the temp is in the 20s Celsius that is not nearly as descriptive as saying it is in the 70s in Fahrenheit.

LOL! In what way? Surely they are both equally descriptive to those who are familiar with them. For me 0 degrees Celsius equals frost, in the 20s is comfortable, 30s is beach weather and 40s is make sure you stay hydrated or you might die

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Targan

LOL! In what way? Surely they are both equally descriptive to those who are familiar with them. For me 0 degrees Celsius equals frost, in the 20s is comfortable, 30s is beach weather and 40s is make sure you stay hydrated or you might die

The fact that 10 degrees C = 18 degrees F (for range not actual temperatures) means there is less precision when either using a single degree or a group of 10 degrees. I am very familiar with both and that lessening of precision is truly the only part of the metric system that bothers me.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Targan

LOL! In what way? Surely they are both equally descriptive to those who are familiar with them. For me 0 degrees Celsius equals frost, in the 20s is comfortable, 30s is beach weather and 40s is make sure you stay hydrated or you might die

I'm in agreement with Targan, specifically the part in bold type.

[B.T.]

Originally Posted by Targan

(12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 1760 yards to a mile, bloody hell!)

A question: I have some trouble with the lack of skills, that cover the "maintenace" of animals. A veterinary should have some experience with different animals. I can understand, that a person, who has some horsemanship or riding skill, can treat a horse. And he can judge, what a certain horse can do. But what about the handling of dogs or cows? Should all this be ruled with the farming skill? How do you handle this in the game?

[Targan]

Originally Posted by B.T.

A question: I have some trouble with the lack of skills, that cover the "maintenace" of animals. A veterinary should have some experience with different animals. I can understand, that a person, who has some horsemanship or riding skill, can treat a horse. And he can judge, what a certain horse can do. But what about the handling of dogs or cows? Should all this be ruled with the farming skill? How do you handle this in the game?

In the system that I use, "The System That Shall Not Be Named", we created a Veterinarian skill, and the original system from which I adapted TSTSNBN has the skill Animalcraft. Each class of animal would have it's own version of Animalcraft. The Agriculture and Riding skills can also be used for some various aspects of caring for and training appropriate animals.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I really like this idea. There are a few skills on the official list that, in practice, are seldom, if ever, used. Bartering, on the other hand, has been an important part of nearly every campaign I've been involved in. It's really odd that it wasn't included.

I suppose in a way bartering is a form of persuasion in that you are trying to "presuade" someone to trade something at a price favourable to you, so perhaps it could be a cascade of the Persuasion skill?

[Olefin]

Really like the Bartering skill idea. Have seen players trying to barter ammo for food and the GM basically arbitrarily said what you got. But with that skill you could have players who can talk someone down a lot versus those who just go ok and hand over what turns out to be an exorbitant amount.

Lot better to only have to hand over a few shotgun shells to get that Polish Ham than one of your guns or a Jerry can of methanol. (Ie a great barter skill and good rolls versus not being able to barter at all)

Also could be a way to get information as well in certain cultures - in the Middle East being a good barterer is a great way to get the merchant on your side and maybe make him open up for other things. Paying full price robs him of his fun and he doesn't want to talk to you at all.

So that great skill you have at getting information isn't going to help when you are a crappy barterer and make the guy hostile or indifferent

[Tegyrius]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Also could be a way to get information as well in certain cultures - in the Middle East being a good barterer is a great way to get the merchant on your side and maybe make him open up for other things. Paying full price robs him of his fun and he doesn't want to talk to you at all.

So that great skill you have at getting information isn't going to help when you are a crappy barterer and make the guy hostile or indifferent

It may be a semantic issue, but this seems to argue for the skill being named "Negotiation" to imply a wider range of applications than just trade. I am becoming less and less a fan of unitasker skills.

- C.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Tegyrius

It may be a semantic issue, but this seems to argue for the skill being named "Negotiation" to imply a wider range of applications than just trade. I am becoming less and less a fan of unitasker skills.

- C.

The few times it has become necessary, I used an average of INT and CHA, with the difficulty depending on the circumstances.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Really like the Bartering skill idea. Have seen players trying to barter ammo for food and the GM basically arbitrarily said what you got. But with that skill you could have players who can talk someone down a lot versus those who just go ok and hand over what turns out to be an exorbitant amount.

Another average of INT and CHA.

[Damocles]

Aren't you just persuading someone to pay more? Or persuading someone to give you a discount? Isn't this something the system can already do with the persuasion skill?

[Olefin]

Its actually not just persuasion - as someone who has been to the Middle East and been involved in various markets where I have had to barter its not just persusasion - but a combination of several skills - you have to add also your mastery of the language as well because that also helps you with bartering - only so far that pantomine will work