Rule refinement

[IVhorseman]

uhm... what exactly is a... silly?

[Dr. X]

Yeah, man. When I kill things, the head is <i>never</i> left on. That means that I could <i>never</i> use a Medik.

Usually when my minifigs die, I rip them apart, attach blood pieces, sprinkle them all over the ground, then put fire, explosion, and more blood pieces all over. It takes a while to design a good death/blood/fire scene, but I do it for a lot of minifigs when they die. My Medik would have trouble finding all the pieces of the minifig, then getting through the fire without getting burned. I don't think the head idea is very practical.

[Rayhawk]

uhm... what exactly is a... silly?

Silly is short for cylinder. Sillies are the round versions of the 1x1 brick.

I'm too lazy to look it up in the 2001 rules, so I don't know if this is still the same, but the way we're doing it nowadays is kind of a house rule - cutting weapons and explosive weapons can detach body parts; other types of damage don't, for the most part. If a minifig is killed by a cutting or explosive attack, the attacker dictates the degree of dismemberment however he wishes, which usually means either decapitation or severance at the waist, since ripping limbs off takes more work than we're willing to invest except for totally crazy damage rolls. (And we use the house rule for those types of attacks, when there's a tie roll between Damage and Armor, while not killing the victim outright, results in the loss of something - either a weapon or a limb.)

So Medix get fewer opportunities to work when they're in a battle with axes and grenades, but when it's a lot of spears and lasers and bullets, people aren't losing their heads as often.

If it was really an issue, it could also be tied to critical rolls somehow - casualties lose their heads when an attacker rolls a crit success on either the Attack or Damage roll; otherwise their heads stay attached.

[IVhorseman]

I'm too lazy to look it up in the 2001 rules, so I don't know if this is still the same, but the way we're doing it nowadays is kind of a house rule - cutting weapons and explosive weapons can detach body parts; other types of damage don't, for the most part. If a minifig is killed by a cutting or explosive attack, the attacker dictates the degree of dismemberment however he wishes, which usually means either decapitation or severance at the waist, since ripping limbs off takes more work than we're willing to invest except for totally crazy damage rolls. (And we use the house rule for those types of attacks, when there's a tie roll between Damage and Armor, while not killing the victim outright, results in the loss of something - either a weapon or a limb.)

I also use this rule, and it's one of the relics from 2001 that i've preserved. of course, things like turn radius and block displacement are right out the window.

regardless, choosing limbs to cut off by whatever the player wants to do will result in heads getting torn off fairly often, but not always. if there's mediks on the field, suddenly EVERYONE'S heads are coming off, if for no reason other than that a medik will have less to work with. and once this starts happening, you lose a lot of the interesting "well, since he was blocking the explosion with his arms, his arm popped off"s. instead you get "and then his head fell off". and that's so much less... creative.

If it was really an issue, it could also be tied to critical rolls somehow - casualties lose their heads when an attacker rolls a crit success on either the Attack or Damage roll; otherwise their heads stay attached.

considered it, but the same problem arises. sometimes you just want to see people get torn in half. if a medik can fix it either way, you don't have to deal with worrying about heads coming off. instead, you can save your decapitations for times when they're TRULY appropriate.

let's attack this from another angle though. We all want something that lets minifigs be resurrected, but something that won't require keeping track of a whole bunch of stuff. That still leaves us the constant UR setting, but I still feel there should be a bit more of a twist to that. something that gets mediks running, but doesn't require pips to keep track of things. ideas?

[Bonn-o-Tron]

I think by silly, she might've meant silly putty.

[Blitzen]

No, I'm pretty sure that I meant cylinder.

[Tzan]

let's attack this from another angle though. We all want something that lets minifigs be resurrected, but something that won't require keeping track of a whole bunch of stuff. That still leaves us the constant UR setting, but I still feel there should be a bit more of a twist to that. something that gets mediks running, but doesn't require pips to keep track of things. ideas?

This still needs pips:

Instead of keeping track of the dead guys keep track of how long its been since the medik healed someone. The shorter its been, the easier the roll. The longer its been the harder the roll is because he has got the shakes from not being able to treat anyone.

[Bonn-o-Tron]

...put a red 1x1 silly on the stump.

Whoops, stupid me.

[IVhorseman]

Instead of keeping track of the dead guys keep track of how long its been since the medik healed someone. The shorter its been, the easier the roll. The longer its been the harder the roll is because he has got the shakes from not being able to treat anyone.

but i don't *like* pips.

[Dr. X]

let's attack this from another angle though. We all want something that lets minifigs be resurrected, but something that won't require keeping track of a whole bunch of stuff. That still leaves us the constant UR setting, but I still feel there should be a bit more of a twist to that. something that gets mediks running, but doesn't require pips to keep track of things. ideas?

That's just what I thought, something easy to keep track of so that probably means a constant usage rating, but it still needs something to make it better.

My brain keeps thinking of hard to keep track of ideas - like the color of the minifig's shirt dictates the UR (stupid), or the minifig turns into a live kitten or snake on a failed roll depending on by how many he failed. None of these will work, I think.

I had an idea that was great, but I forgot it right as I was about to type it. Crap.

[IVhorseman]

no, i mean NOT like that. we've got it covered as to what happens when minifigs are and aren't revived. calculating the UR is the only thing that we want to figure out.

a constant UR just feels wrong to me. like there could be something so much better, just WAITING for us to figure out, but we'd just be stuck with a lame, constant value.

[Dr. X]

no, i mean NOT like that. we've got it covered as to what happens when minifigs are and aren't revived. calculating the UR is the only thing that we want to figure out.

That's why those ideas do not work. I know the idea I forgot was the best one and it had something to do with UR, I just can't bleedin' remember it!

[Tzan]

but i don't *like* pips.

Well you are wanting a variable number to roll against. There are only two ways to do that, counting something or generating a number randomly.

One way involves counting something (pips) which represent time, bandages, medik insanity levels.

The other way is a die roll or flip a playing card. So the enemy player rolls a die to determine the extent of wounds on the dead guy and the medik rolls against that number.

[IVhorseman]

The other way is a die roll... So the enemy player rolls a die to determine the extent of wounds on the dead guy and the medik rolls against that number.

So like a Medikal Feat? i was thinking something along these lines. enemy player rolls a d6 (or a d10 if the unit is missing ANY limbs, not just head), and Mediks roll skill. actually, i like that.

[Tzan]

enemy player rolls a d6 (or a d10 if the unit is missing ANY limbs, not just head), and Mediks roll skill. actually, i like that.

Yup, thats what I meant.