Several AtB questions

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Avigor
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Several AtB questions

Unread post by Avigor »

Hello, new to the forum, signed up to ask some questions that have been bugging me lately, derived from the Knuckle Hoof Hands, Extended Ectoplasmic Hands, and Shotguns.
1: Knuckle Hoof Hands
1a: Where are the rules for metal shod costs? The equipment section says to "see Farrier" but the apprenticeship doesn't list any costs and I didn't see them anywhere else.
1b: If you have these and Crushing/Supernatural Strength and a P.S. high enough to qualify for a punch that does more damage than the natural weapons themselves (ludicrously easy to do, btw), are you supposed to just use the Crushing P.S. punch damage and ignore the Knuckle Hoof Hands damage (if anything just using them as flavor to explain how you can punch so hard without destroying your hands) or take the description of the Knuckle Hoof Hands functioning like brass knuckles and combine the punch and natural weapon damage? I guess to some degree this same question can apply to other natural weapons, like claws, as well.

2: Extended Ectoplasmic Hands
2a: To clarify, in the paragraph where it says you can use it as an attack, it opens by describing them as being able to pass through armor; so does this mean that using this attack can ignore AR outright?
2b: Can you apply HTH damage bonuses to the direct to HP attack this power gives you? The only reason I ask is because the wording specifies you apply your P.S. bonus but doesn't list other bonuses. I suppose this also has a sub-question of: what strike bonuses, if any, would apply?

3: Shotguns
3a: Am I the only one that thinks there should be a difference in spread (at least for sand if nothing else) between a 36 gauge and a 4 gauge shotgun? Am I wrong in this thought that it seems like IRL there should be some variance? I'm guessing the lack of a difference in-game for simplicity, but still I gotta ask...
3b: For the double-barrel shotguns, I'm pretty sure that IRL it is possible to fire both barrels at once, yet there seem to be no specific rules for this occurrence. Are there rules for this maybe in a different book?
3c: What about sawed-off shotguns? I just can't envision a post-apocalyptic world, especially one where the stated purpose of shotguns is clearing the skies of crazy insects, where nobody would apply such a modification to their shotgun. Are there rules anywhere in Rifts or such that can cover this?
3d: The triple-barrel shotgun. This seriously looks like an incomplete entry. Wider spread for buckshot, the same spread for sand? Kinda defeats the purpose of sand's existence then huh? Not to mention that the spread rules as-is (and the triple-barrel even moreso) seems to make it sound like it should be impossible to miss those within the spread (albeit I guess a +3 for aimed from W.P. combined with +2 or +3 from the spread itself means a total modified roll of 5 or less is impossible so I guess there isn't much difference there...
Avigor
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Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2016 8:30 pm

Re: Several AtB questions

Unread post by Avigor »

OK, now I've finally found the firearms targeting rules and the parts that 3d's tangent about the spread descriptions kinda missed...
4a: Actively trying to dodge is -10 and nullify all bonuses... I'm guessing the difference between "evasive action" and "dodging" in this case is the difference between running for cover (especially while crouched, ducking, or bent over) vs trying to literally sidestep an incoming bullet as you watch the gunman prepare to pull the trigger? Not to mention that I couldn't find rules on cover to begin with...
4b: Dodging has a notation that the penalty is instead -12 for "machinegun fire"; does that mean any shots from a "machine gun" (even single bullets), any burst, or just the machinegun-only "long burst"?
I also saw the "errata" thread; should my questions be going into there?
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Alrik Vas
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Re: Several AtB questions

Unread post by Alrik Vas »

That's a pretty tall order of questions. It's been forever since i've played AtB, I'm much more familiar with Rifts now, but Palladium likes to share rules.

Shotgun spread should be uniform for simplicity's sake. If you want to get specific, that's fine, but you can also just narrate that a hit occured because of a different spread from the rounds being used. It's entirely up to you there, your game.

Melee damage goes like this: weapon + PS damage bonus. If you have supernatural PS, you add your punch damage to the weapon and your bonus. So a 30 SN PS with a knife would go like: 1d6+5d6+15 (knife-punch-bonus)

There isn't a rule that i'm aware of for crouching while running for cover to increase miss chance. Though to my mind, it makes sense if you're moving tactically, going from cover to cover, and staying low...then you should be harder to hit. Go with a -2 to strike against people moving such.

Actual cover in current rules requires a successful called shot. If you fail the called shot, you hit the cover and damage it instead. Dealing higher damage than the cover can damage the target behind it.

Machinegun Bursts: I think they mean this as in, there are so many rounds coming at you, that it is less likely you will dodge. palladium doesn't do much to account for the fact that if you're firing a ton of rounds, you miss most if not all of them, generally (range and proficiency are obvious factors there). Sidestepping a bullet isn't really going to happen though, so if the gunner manages hits, the -12 kinda makes sense. Though they made it a uniform -10 later anyway, and only within about 100ft or something (maybe only 50), outside of that range, there isn't any penalty to dodge firearms.

I'm not 100%, honestly, but I hope some of that helps.
Mark Hall wrote:Y'all seem to assume that Palladium books are written with the same exacting precision with which they are analyzed. I think that is... ambitious.

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