It took a lot of play testing, and taking it out for a spin at a couple of game conventions, but finally the expanded and refined Combat Toolkit is here.
One reason for the big upgrade, that went from less than 20 pages to nearly 40, is that combat features heavily in Electric Gods, and the types of combat is wide and varied, with weapons ranging from a pointed stick to a futuristic blaster pistol, flying combatants, fights while jumping from branch to branch in the jungle canopy, and hand to hand combat on conveyor belts leading to a reclamation furnace.
All us Gamers is not a table top wargame. It is a roleplaying game. Making a system for combat that honors the distinction is not easy, and the temptation is to either go very mechanical, or entirely improvised with GM rulings.
Instead what is here is a mechanical system that gives some concrete, mechanical outcomes, embedded in an action narrative framework.
It now has a number of explicit harm types, rather than just injury, such as stings, tranquilized, paralysis. It makes poisoning a process that repeats a harm over time. That mechanism would be easily applied to diseases and radiation poisoning as well.
Medical intervention is tighter and smoother. It primarily allows the medics to create a group result that modifies the patients healing checks, using the system from the Inner Core.
There is a guide for weapon types and armour, giving difficulties for producing a hit, strength of application of a hit, modification of saving throw difficult by armour type, and a section on explosions for those that want grenades through to atomic blasts. This section is not comprehensive but models enough that anything else you want to add can find guidance here.
Importantly there is a set of formal “hand waving” rules that show ways to simplify, remove features you don’t feel like using and reduce game master and player book keeping. These rules have names like “Action Movie”, “Boss, Minion, Extra” and “Time Waffle”.
That is the simple mechanical process that drives the show. The art of the combat comes from its integration with the struggle and operation tools, allowing each moment of combat to be about achieving something, maneuvering, suppressing opponents, preventing and achieving operational goals and so on.
All Us Gamers Role Playing Game 