Combining actions and the Command skill

[Rerun941]

As a fan of Firefly, I have the Serenity RPG and they have an interesting take on combining actions:

Direct Assistance: Both characters can actively participate in a task, typically long action tasks. e.g. Han and Chewy repairing the Millenium Falcon. "No! No! This one goes here, that one goes there! Right?" *rawr*

Characters add their skills together and get a result for direct assistance. Since the Cortex system and the D6 system use different dice mechanics, there's not a direct translation. Perhaps each rolls their skill and you add the results for a combined result? Perhaps you pick one character as the base and add the amount of skill (minus the attribute) of the helper PC?

Indirect Assistance: Characters can assist, but not directly help in a task, generally for quick (1 round) actions or actions where it's not feasible for more than one person to actively participate. e.g. Han and Chewy flying the Millenium Falcon. Han's hands are on the controls, but Chewy can make minor adjustments and/or point out obstacles to assist Han's piloting rolls.

Characters using indirect assistance all roll and use the highest result rolled. (Just as Han is about to fly into an asteroid, Chewy barks and he veers away at the last minute.)
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Han - "How're we doin'?"
Luke - "Same as always."
Han - "That bad, huh?"

[Rerun941]

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

Coordination rules are like a minefield; there are so many factors that get left out of the RAW.

1). Does the group have training / experience in working together as a coordinated unit?

2). What is their attitude / morale?

3). For larger groups, do they have communication assistance to help with their coordination?

4). Structure and organization?

All other things being equal, a well-motivated group of individuals who have worked together before and are organized into squads, platoons and companies (or their equivalent), and equipped with communications gear are going to be much more effective than a crowd of relative strangers being shouted at by one guy who is supposed to be in charge.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[TheDoctor]

I think I've settled on the following house rules for my games:

Command or Perception Difficulty for the leader
Easy - Coordinating characters have worked together, all participants and leader have comprehensive skill knowledge of the task at hand

...Everything in between...

Heroic - Coordinating characters do not know/like each other, neither they nor the leader have ever attempted the current task before.

This is essentially the same as in the book. Coordinating characters is an action, so the MAP applies if the leader is also participating in the task.

If no one is coordinating, or the Command PERCEPTION check fails, all participants roll, and the highest roll is used. However, a '1' on any of the helpers' wild dice cumulatively remove the highest die of the primary.

If there is a coordinator, the primary rolls his skill, and a pip (+1) for every full die each helper has in the given skill. Hence if Han Solo is repairing the hyperdrive, and Chewie has 4D in starship repaid, Han would get a 1D+1 bonus to his roll. Additionally each helper rolls a wild die, as each might potentially make a grievous error.

So I think officially this post now belongs to the "House Rules" forum.

If however the leader rolls a '6' on the wild die, two or more of the dice totals may be combined, GM discretion.
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"We attack under cover of daylight. Yes it's the last thing they'll be expecting, a daylight charge over the minefield." - Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC SSC

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

In one of my headier moments, I was trying to think of ways that the SW-RPG could be used for epic-level battles, where characters could command capital ship task forces, wings of starfighters and massed ground troops. One of the theories I cam up with (and the one that seemed the most likely) was an idea for making actual character templates to describe whole units. Rather than the standard six attributes, there would be alternate attributes for unit size, training/experience, mission, morale, coordination, etc. The character in command could roll his Tactics and Command skills to gain bonuses that could be applied to his unit's attributes. I even considered something along the lines of scale modifiers for unit size, so that a squad of troops would be the equivalent of Character Scale, while a regiment (4 organizational steps above a squad) would receive a modifier to their attributes because they are so much larger.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[atgxtg]

I did something along those lines for a differnt RPG a few years back.

What you might want to try is giving the leaders a "tactics Poinst" pool that they can spend during the battle like character points. So someone with Tactics 5D would have 5 tactical points.

You could so something similar with Command skill.


One option (if you want leaders to get more dice) would be to allow leaders to "refresh" depleted die pools but by upping the command difficult 1 step for each refresh.

[dph]

I use the following system for assisting others:

One person males the actual skill roll.

Every 'assistant' makes that same skill roll but at Moderate target number.
Every success adds +1pip to the total of the person making the actual roll.

If someone is 'Commanding' the group, the Commander makes his Command roll (as per the skill and taking into account MAP) and if they are susccesful, every succesful assistant (using the above rules) adds +2 pips (instead of +1)

I have tested this with a party of four and find it quick, simple and balanced- for my group anyways!

[Fallon Kell]

I remember some WEG rules that used the aforementioned chart to add dice for multiple people making actions, but it was added to the average of the skills in question. This gave a skilled player call to refuse the help of an unskilled player or NPC.