Before the official Dust RPG came out I put together some basic ideas of my own. I ended up rather frustrated with the official RPG as it lacks the speed and 'oomph' of the tabletop wargame. I thought this might be interesting as an alternative and historical perspective.
This is a very sketchy first pass on an RPG, based on the word of Dust and the rules of Dust Tactics, intended to be broadly familiar – if not 100% compatible – for players of that game.
RPG terminology is used without explanation or reference and it is assumed that anyone playing this – at this point – is used to RPGs and knows how they work.
Basic Rules
- Each turn – during combat – you may make two actions.
- Initiative in combat is determined by rolling Cunning.
- Actions consist of Use Skill, Attack, Move and Misc (to cover any other circumstance).
- Two skill or attack actions counts as a ‘sustained attempt’ and you can reroll any failures, once.
- Outside of combat you can use your abilities freely as determined by the Games Master.
When trying to do something you roll a number of Dust Tactics dice equal to your Statistic + Skill – Difficulty (which removes a number of dice). Provided you get at least one success (A target symbol +) you succeed. If you get more than one, you do well.
Weapons have a Maximum Damage statistic. When you use such a weapon you score damage up to that maximum, and no further (there are exceptions).
Armoured troops and vehicles reduce the amount of dice rolled against them. Every point above 1 reduces the dice rolled by 1. Vehicles also reduce the damage from non-antitank weapons directly by 1 point per point of armour. Troops reduce antitank weapon damage against them in the same way.
Skill actions can be difficult, reducing the available dice pool by -1 per level of difficulty up to -5.
You always get to roll at least one dice, no matter how hard things are.
Cover/Protection – under certain circumstances there may be hard or soft protection against an attack or a skill check. For each success you get against soft protection a dice is rolled and each + removes one success. For hard protection, every dice that fails to come up a + removes a success.
EG: A walker is hit by a character with a machinegun for 4 damage, despite applying a -3 penalty to their roll. However, the Walker still has 4 armour as machineguns are not antitank weapons and this reduces the damage to zero.
EG: The same walker is hit with a single + by a bazooka operator, it takes one damage in spite of its armour because the bazooka is an antitank weapon.
EG: A unit of Kriegsmarine is fired at by a character with an assault rifle. The assault rifle has a maximum damage of 1 so, even though he rolls +++ he only does one damage, killing one of the Kriegsmarine.
EG: A hero fires a bazooka into the same unit of Kriegsmarine. While she gets +++ and the bazooka has a max damage of 3, the troops have an armour of two and so reduce this to one damage, taking a single casualty.
Heroes
Heroes are defined by their statistics, skills and their special abilities.
Statistics
Heroes start with 15 points to spread amongst their statistics, each one must be at least 1 and a maximum of 6.
The statistics are:
- Agility: How fast, accurate and agile you are.
- Charm: Your command presence, your charm and your beauty or handsomeness.
- Cunning: How devious you are and how perceptive.
- Grit: How tough and stubborn you are.
- Power: How strong you are and how good you are at applying that strength.
- Smarts: How clever you are.
A statistic ranges from 1-5 in normal circumstances though special abilities and equipment can raise this. Normal troops are considered to have 2 in each statistic. Elite troops may have 3 in each. Heroes can go as high as five.
Other Statistics
- Armour: Standard battle-dress provides armour 2. Your character may be dressed more lightly and have an armour of 1. Heavier armour is harder to come by.
- Health: Health is equal to your Grit. Once you run out of health you are ‘down’ and at the mercy of your enemies.
- Movement: Troops in standard battle dress and gear can move 3m per move action. Troops in light protection (Armour 1) can move 4m per action. Some special abilities may alter this.
Skills
Heroes start with 15 points to spread amongst their skills. Again, the maximum is 5.
The skills are:
- Alertness: How perceptive you are.
- Antitank Weapon: How effective you are with antitank weapons.
- Athletics: How good you are at running, climbing, swimming etc.
- Authority: How good you are at conveying orders and getting them obeyed. At intimidating people.
- Close combat: How good you are in close quarters combat.
- Demolitions: How good you are at setting explosives to good effect.
- Drive Ground Vehicle: How good you are at driving tanks, jeeps, motorcycles etc.
- Drive Walker: How good you are at piloting walking vehicles.
- First Aid: How good you are at patching up wounds on the battlefield. This can temporarily heal one ally of 1 wound or restore an injured troop to a unit. A wound can only be treated once. If a character is wounded again that wound cannot be healed.
- Knowledge: Knowledge can be anything from science to surgery. It’s a catch-all for any other specialist skill a character might have.
- Machinegun: How good your character is with squad support weapons.
- Pilot: How good your character is at piloting aircraft.
- Pistol: How good your character is with handguns.
- Repair: How good your character is at repairing machines. This does not allow for battlefield repairs in the heat of action without the special ability.
- Rifle: How good your character is with rifles, submachineguns and assault rifles.
- Schmooze: How good your character is at soft patter, fast talking, seduction etc.
- Stealth: How good you are at sneaking around and not being seen.
Special Abilities
New heroes start with two special abilities.
- Agile: You can reroll any successes once on any Agility based roll counting any more successes again.
- All in One: Once per combat encounter you can push your weapon to breaking point. You double your attack dice and your maximum damage with a weapon for a turn.
- Assault: Once per day you can push yourself and double your movement for one turn, letting you cover ground fast. If you move twice this applies to both moves.
- Battlefield Repair: You can roll your Repair to try and fix a war machine during battle. This is a temporary repair and restores one health to a vehicle but it will lose that health at the end of the engagement and may be destroyed.
- Berserk: Once per battle you can re-roll all your failed dice on an attack roll and double the potential damage of attack. Doubling effects don’t stack, they add to the multiplier. Two doubling effects would increase the max damage to x3, for example.
- Black Ops: You roll an extra dice for initiative, as does your whole team so long as you are a part of it.
- Charge: You may move and attack for a single action.
- Deadly Weapon: You roll an additional dice when attacking with a particular weapon type and your maximum damage with that weapon is raised by +1.
- Fast: You get a free move action every turn in addition to your normal actions.
- Fighting Spirit: Provided you move and attack, misses and hits are reversed on your dice roll for your attack this turn.
- Get Moving: If you succeed on an authority roll you can grant someone else – or another unit – an additional action. They must be able to hear you though.
- Makeshift Repair: You can get a ‘destroyed’ vehicle back into action – once per day – with a Repair roll.
- Resilient: Every point of damage you take roll a dice. Each + reduces the damage by 1.
- Sniper: When firing on squads you can pick the casualties (normally the Games Master would). When using a rifle you re-roll your + rolls and count the extra successes on top.
- Spotter: As a spotter you can use your attack action to help call in the fire of others. This means they count misses as successes and + as failures for this roll.
- Superb Skill: One of your skills is increased by +1, as is its maximum potential.
- Superb Statistic: One of your statistics is increased by +1, as is its maximum potential.
- Tank Head: Once per day you can restore all health to a damaged – but not destroyed – vehicle.
Experience
Every adventure the hero participates in earns them one experience point.
- Raising a statistic costs double the current level in experience points.
- Raising a skill costs the current level in experience points.
- Buying a new skill costs one experience point.
- Buying a new special ability costs three times the current number of special abilities.
Weapons
Weapon Max Damage Special Traits
Flamethrower 4 Area effect, Antitank weapon, no penalty against troops.
Shotgun 6 -
Demo Charge 2 Antitank effect
Knife 1 +1 dice in close combat rolls.
Grenade 2 Ignores cover.
Napalmthrower 6 Area effect, antitank weapon, no penalty against troops.
.50 cal MG 6 -
.30 cal MG 5 -
17 pdr 8 Antitank weapon
M1 AR 2 -
M9 Bazooka 3 Antitank weapon
UGL 2 Ignores cover.
88 cannon 8 Antitank weapon
MG44 6 -
Laser Pistol 2 Laser weapon
Laser Gewehr 2 Laser weapon
Laser Werfer 2 Antitank weapon, no penalty against infantry.
Stg47 2 -
MG48 8 -
Panzerfaust 2 Antitank weapon
Panzerschreck 3 Antitank weapon
5cm Flak 43 10 -
Kampfzange 8 -
Nebelwerfer 42 6 Antitank weapon, no penalty against infantry.
Victory MG 6 -
Rifle GL 4 -
.45 Pistol 2 -
Laser weapons roll a dice for each potential damage that they have done. Each + increases the damage by 1. Armour protection is then figured from there.
Example Character
Doris Bader – RAF Fighter Ace
Shot down early in the war, Doris was later fitted with experimental robotic legs to enable her to take to the air once more and to bring terror to the Bosch.
Statistics
Agility 3
Charm 2
Cunning 3
Grit 3
Power 2
Smarts 2
Armour: 1
Health: 3
Movement: 4m
Skills
Alertness 1
Athletics 2
Close Combat 2
Machinegun 4
Pilot 4
Pistol 2
Special Abilities
Plane Head (As tank head, but renamed for her sake).
Fighting Spirit
Equipment:
Flight jacket
Flying goggles
Browning pistol 2 damage
Blade-heels (retractable blades in her robotic legs) 1 damage, +1 dice in close combat.
Example of Play
Shot down over occupied France Doris is attempting to make her way to the coast and, thence, back to Blighty. She has her survival kit from her downed plane, a compass, a pistol and a map and she has the fighting spirit that has seen her this far. Not to mention a pair of tireless robotic legs.
Following a road west towards the coast, she comes upon a Nazi checkpoint, they’re sweeping the area for partisans and a squad of five SS Recon Grenadiers lead by a Gestapo officer are stopping vehicles on the road. It’s night time, but the terrain is tight, it might be tricky to get past them.
She lurks in the shadows until a little French van filled with chickens arrives at the checkpoint, occupying the officer and two of the men. This is her chance to sneak past.
Doris doesn’t have the stealth skill, but anyone can try to sneak around. The Games Master rules that this is a cunning roll and generously gives Doris an extra two dice to roll because it’s dark and the guards are distracted. This gives Doris a total of five dice. She says she’s going to take her time and concentrate on moving very slowly and carefully, so that also makes this a sustained attempt.
She gets four successes and there’s no way the Grenadiers can beat that, being standard 2/2 troops. However, because she took her time the Games Master rules that the chicken-van moves on quickly and that the Gestapo officer – a 3/3 troop, has a chance to spot her. He rolls and gets three successes. Not enough to spot her. She’s lucky – so far.
A bit further up the road an open-topped staff car carrying three more grenadiers comes rumbling down the road. Doris dives for cover but the GM will not allow a sustained action this time – nor any bonus due to headlights. Doris rolls three dice and gets no successes. All three of the grenadiers spot her, all rolling +’s on their perception checks. They bring their car to a halt and open fire.
Doris rolls her cunning for initiative and gets no success. The GM decides to roll for the Grenadiers as a unit and they get one success. They go first and besides the driver, who is halting the car, the other two open up with their guns.
The grenadiers have four dice each in their attack and their guns do a maximum of two damage. The two passengers can each make two attack actions – sustained attacks. The GM rules that the darkness imposes a -1 dice penalty and that Doris has soft cover at the side of the road. This means they only roll three dice. They get: Zero successes and two successes respectively. Doris rolls for her cover against the damage and prevents one. She’s winged, reducing her health to three and putting a nasty hole in her jacket.
It’s now Doris’ go and she returns fire enthusiastically with her browning. A sustained fire action. The Grenadiers are easier to see, lit up as the car is, and so she takes no penalty. Doris has agility 3 and pistol 2 giving her five dice. She scores three successes, the Germans roll for cover getting one success, reducing it to 2 damage. That’s the maximum for the pistol anyway. Normal soldiers can only take one damage, so the driver and one of the gunners shriek and die under the blazing onslaught of her pistol.
It’s a new turn now, the remaining German throws himself over the car to take hard cover and takes a potshot with his STG47. He scores a single success and Doris’ cover doesn’t protect her. She takes another damage, leaving her with one left. She needs to end this battle quickly…
Doris’ robot legs power her across to the road and she slides across the bonnet of the car, a blade-heel clicking into place as she kicks at the hapless German. This give her six dice to roll and cover doesn’t count against close combat attacks. She scores two successes and the poor Grenadier takes a bladed heel to the throat, dying in a gurgling puddle of blood.
Doris is wounded… quite badly, but now she has access to German uniforms, papers, and a car. Not to mention some better weapons.