Violence and Cyberpunk Double Feature

I don't have enough for a Grab Bag post and these two are not big enough for an individual post apiece.

Violence meets Eclipse Phase 2E

Why Eclipse Phase?

Eclipse Phase is a big and deep setting with a unique focus on body-hopping and a strong action/horror vibe.

Downside is it is mechanically fiddly for a D100 game.

Why 2E?

As it's simpler than 1E and has less fiddly parts for it's morphs. Though they still are pretty annoying to convert. I'm probably doing too much math compared to how Violence should be used, but this is what I have.

Converting a Morph

Cost: Starting characters get 1d6-2 Morph Points as in normal Eclipse Phase, as they are not supposed to be big heroes

Savings, insurance and political-actor backing means you can get MP Cost-1 back if your current morph ceases functioning

Avail: Roll d100 to see if it's avaliable in your area, subject to whatever extra Negative traits and gimmicks the GM feels like

WT: 6-WT = Reduction to Injury Check

DR: Represent being Downed, add 1 to th 16+ roll required per 5 points of DUR

Biomorph +2 per injury as normal, Synthmorphs +1 per injury

Pools: Give Adv per point for whatever the GM thinks that pool applies to. Flex is free for the players to spend on making their lives easier.

Movement Rate: Normal human is 4 for walking and 20 for running. Anything higher or lower is going to either catch them or not given enough time

Ware, Traits and Equipment do what they say in the Eclipse Phase book, but as this is Violence. They either dictate you can or cannot do something (mostly Ware and Equipment) or give a Violence Advantage or Disadvantage roll to doing a task. This is up to the GM to adjudicate as the players cannot inherently rely on knowing in Violence.

I might have Traits cut into the 6 skill totals as a balance thing or maybe not.

More likely the Traits and Ware lists should be kept seperate.

Two Common Morphs and how they function in Violence

Flat - Normal human not many of them left

Cost: 0 MP • Avail: 30

WT: 6 • DUR: 30 • DR: 45

Insight 0, Moxie 0, Vigor 0, Flex 0

Movement Rate: Walker 4/20

Common Extras: Many have the Genetic Defect trait

Exactly the same as normal Violence character

Only can find a spare human body 30% of the time

Case - The Clanking Masses, for the poor to be sleeved in

Cost: 0 MP • Avail: 100

WT: 5 • DUR: 25 • DR: 50

Insight 0, Moxie 0, Vigor 0, Flex 0

Movement Rate: Walker 4/12

Ware: Access Jacks, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Lidar, Mesh Inserts, Mnemonics, Puppet Sock

Morph Traits: Exotic Morphology (Level 1), Inherent Flaws

Notes: Light Frame (Armor 6/4)

Synthmorph, so a whole range of extra traits the book only tells you in the generic description

Only adds +1 per Injury to Down roll

Everywhere in the Solar System, they will sell you a garbage body

Cases take +1 Injury Checks because they are cheap garbage and get Downed on a 15+

They can't run as fast as a normal human being

Lots of Ware to interact with the world

Have peanlties to adjusting to being sleeved in such garbage, has a 10% chance to automatically take a second Injury if a 20+ is rolled for recieving an Injury

Light Frame sounds like civilian armor, so it does bear out their total Injury check modifier is -1 (+1-2=-1).

The details of the Equipment itself is fairly pointless and with guns and melee weapons work like normal Violence. Anything labelled an X-Risk imposes a Save or Die roll.

Converting Silver Angel to Cyberpunk RED Waterdeep

So this is a Shadowrun 1E module being converted to Cyberpunk RED for use in a game whre the magic and setting is using a weird Forgottn Realms as it's background. It wasn't as hard as it sounded until I got to recreating the computer network for Cyberpunk RED. Every edition of Shadowrun and Cyberpunk have very different ideas about how to make a good network for players to netrun in.

As I may run this for my players, I'm going to just post rule changes. If you have a copy of Silver ANgel, you will know what I changed.

The NET Architecture and the NPC spells were the most difficult to do, just some gaps don't quite mesh, even though Callie did have vaguely enough spells to pretend she's a Lore Bard.

Shadowrun 1E Difficulty to Cyberpunk RED DV.

3 = 09

4 = 13

5 = 15

6 = 17

7 = 21

8 = 24

9 = 29

Barrier Rating x 5 = HP: 3 = 15 HP, 8 = 40 HP and 10 = 50 HP.

The payment

50,000NY up front 35,000NY on completion 15,000NY if silent for 100,000NY total

In Cyberpunk RED, a Moderate Mission pays 2,000eb per player in total, not just in cash but in loot as well.

So the new totals are:

1250eb up front 875eb on completion and 375eb if silent, per person.

Loot will make up what's probally lost from the unrelated alarm or loud approaches.

All bribes and Nuyen costs are /40, so the 2500NY bribe is 50eb

Winslow the Troll bouncer could be used to really hammer home the awfullness of Shadowrun's future. He's old enough to see his apparent humanity stripped away and replaced by something strange. And to watch the new generation devolve into medically-certifiable short-lived violent morons. Since Shadowrun was pretty clear the generation who underwent Goblinization retained their intelligence and lifespans, but their descendents did not.

But as Waterdeep RED isn't using those themes, I replaced him with an Ogre to have the different theme that the modern/future world is always willing to employ a person who fits a mold.

Ogre Bouncer

4 REF 8 DEX 3 TECH 2 INT 3 COOL 3 WILL 8 BODY 3 EMP 6 MOVE

HP 40 SP 7

Darkvision 20 yards/metres

Skills +2

Combat Base +10

Greatclub (Big bat) M 4d6

8 Javelin (Melee or Ranged) 2d6

Security Forces are Security Operative Mooks

Guards inside facility have Assault Rifles in armoury

Have medium armour jackets they will try to put on as well, conveniently Shadowrun 1E and Cyberpunk both do 3 second rounds.

As I didn't want to build my own Net Architecture, I reused the structure from Interface V1 - small corp facility.

Executive system is sub-architeture that can be tied into the main one from the Computer Center (Room 18)

To be accessed from any terminal.

Or hacked directly for just the sub-architecture in the Computer Center (Room 18)

The old version:

SPU-1 Nothing

SPU-2 No Hellhound

SPU-3 No Hellhound No Node-File DV6

SPU-4 No Hellhound No Node-File DV6

SPU-5 Killer No Node-File DV6

SPU-6 Wisp No Node-File DV6

SPU-7 Hellhound Files DV6 Control Node DV6

SPU-8 Skunk No Node-File DV8

SPU-9 Kraken Control Nodes DV8 Self-Destruct DV10

SPU-10 Nothing

SPU-11 Nothing

SPU-12 Hellhound No Node-File DV8

Based on reading this review and conversion of the network to Shadowrun 3E
https://www.nullsheen.com/posts/silver-angel-review/

Normal Small Corp Facility Floors 1 to 3

No Demons, all Manual Activation

Password DV8

File DV 8

Black ICE: Raven DV 8

SPU A (Personal Terminals, Admins Terminals)

1A Password DV8

2A Black ICE: Skunk, Wisp

3A File per Terminal DV6

SPU B (Buildings Systems)

1B Password DV8

2B Black ICE: Hellhound

3B Control Node: Heating DV6

4B Control Node: Elevator DV6

5B Control Node: Power DV6

6B Control Node: Airlocks DV6

SPU C (Security)

1C Password DV10

2C Black ICE: Asp, Kraken

3C Control Node: Cameras (1/Floor) DV10

4C Control Node: ID Card Scanners DV10

5C Control Node: Maglock Controls DV10

SPU D (Executive Systems)

I presume the security of D has already been dealt with by the NPC runners who happen to be in the Computer Center at the same time.

1D Password DV8

2D Black ICE: Raven x 2

3D File: Silver Angel DV10

When security arrives from offsite, I would assume they are also just Security Operative Mooks with maybe a Lieutenant classed foe to lead them, one group has the following leading them.

Mage (Wage)

6 REF 6 DEX 7 TECH 7 INT 4 COOL 4 WILL 4 BODY 4 EMP 4 MOVE

HP 30 SP 11 (Mage Armour)

Equipment: Wand

Skills Magic +6/Base 11 History +6/Base 11 Perception +4/Base 11 Others +2

Multiattack. The mage makes three Arcane Burst attacks.

Arcane Burst. 1.5 yards/metres Range 40 y/m. Hit: 6d6 Force damage.

Spellcasting. The mage casts one of the following spells, INT casting DV to avoid effect 14

At will: Detect Magic, Light, Mage Armor (included in SP), Mage Hand, Prestidigitation

2/day each: Fireball (level 4 version), Invisibility

1/day each: Cone of Cold, Fly

Bonus Actions

Misty Step (3/Day). The mage casts Misty Step, using the same spellcasting ability as Spellcasting.

Reactions

Protective Magic (3/Day). The mage casts Counterspell or Shield in response to the spell's trigger, using the same spellcasting ability as Spellcasting.

See-Me-Not Spell

Modified Crown of Madness, Level 2 Enchantment

The NPC team is comprised of: White Tiger (Netrunner, RED CRB p.414)

Callie Firebird (Reclaimer Chief with no cybernetics and no Heavy Melee Weapon, Paramedic and Pick lock removed, replaced with Magic +10, RED CRB p.414)

Callie could even be upgraded to an Outrider  (RED CRB p.415)  with no cybernetics, Shotgun, Criminology and Land Vehicle Tech replaced with Magic +14 and Moto 4 replaced with Combat Awarenss 4.

- Callie is conducting a NPC-only Ritual to enforce the Crown of Maddness and Clairvoyance spells.

- Callie casts with EMP + Magic if that is relevant

- Reactions

Protective Magic (3/Day). Callie casts Shield in response to the spell's trigger, using the same spellcasting ability as Spellcasting.

- Her spells are DV14 and are the following:

Cast at level 1:

Cure Wounds

Mage Hand

Magic Missile

Shield

2/Day, cast at level 2

Crown of Madness (Cast once already)

Invisibility (Cast once already)

1/Day, cast at level 3/4

Clairvoyance (Cast already)

Confusion (Cast already)

Miscellaneous Grab Bag Part 5

 I was deeply inspired by the Mothership adventure Interloper to include an ecology section for an adventure idea I had. Part of that ended up unravelling the unstated rules behind the food web in the module as the prelude for using it elsewhere.

(Interloper, art by either Francesco Zanieri or his outlines formatted by Meredith Silver)

- There are 4 trophic levels,

Primary Producers (usually plants) -> Primary Consumers -> Secondary Consumers -> Tertiary Consumers

- Each Secondary Consumers species needs to feed on 2 prey species,

- Each Tertiary Consumers species needs to feed on 3 prey species,

- A Primary Consumers species can be prey for 3 other species if obligatory herbivores (like deer) or 2 if occasionally omnivores (like pigs).

- Species with different diets/niches to stages in their lifecycle can occupy different trophic levels across their lifecycle.

I couldn't quite define this as a rule but it appeared that each species should have a different feeding strategy.

Extras

I arbitrarily require 1 grass/ground-level, one-bush/short and one-tree/tall plant species for Primary Producers, as the only other ecology minigame I know is Spore.

There should probably be just as many insect/small animal species as big animals.,

One big animal and insect species must be a scavenger/detritivore. This is bourne out of nothing but the sample food web had a Primary Consumers detritivore, several slightly different scavening species and in general something should be breaking down biological matter.

Fantasy Violence might be an alternative to the standad Violence in the Street rules for my pair of Violence hacks.
https://pressthebeast.bearblog.dev/fantasy-violence/

Would have to readjust the Reach and Lethality for all natural weapons again.
Reach starts a 0 for claws, gos to 1 for antlers and projecting defences and 2 for tusks.
Optional - And then -/+1 for every final 4 Growth stages they are from 8-12 according to the growth rules.
Damage dice start at Lethality 0 for 1d4 nd go up by +1 until 2D6 = 4.

Cardinal System

Thre have been a few iteration of this system. Which fits uneasily into that category post-D&D go where they have skills and dangerous combat, but no fromwork of proceedures for what to do as the players cross the campaign space except roll dice whenever the "Narrator" feels justified. It's a dice pool system a bit like Savage Worldssauguine press

.

2010 Ironclaw 2E

6 traits BODY SPEED MIND WILL SPECIES CAREER

Species 3 Skills

Species 3 Gifts

Career 3 Gifts

Career 3 Skills

Personality + Local Knowledge 2 Gifts

13 Skill Marks

3 Gifts

TOTAL

6 Skills + 13 marks

11 Gifts (9+2)

2011 Noggle Stones

6 traits BODY SPEED MIND WILL NATURE(Species) NURTURE(Career)

Species 3 Skills

Species 2 Gifts

Career 3 Skills

Career 2 Gifts

Personality + Combat Save 2 Gifts

9 Skill Marks

3 Gifts

TOTAL

6 skills + 9 marks

9 Gifts

2013 Myriad Songs

6 traits BODY SPEED MIND WILL LEGACY(Species) CAREER

Species 3 Skills

Species 2 Gifts

Upbringing 2 Gifts

Career 3 Skills

Career 2 Gifts

Personality + Combat Save 2 Gifts

9 Skill Marks

3 Gifts

TOTAL

6 skills + 9 marks

11 Gifts

2016 Urban Jungle

7 traits BODY SPEED MIND WILL SPECIES CAREER TYPE

Species 3 Skills

Type 3 Skills

Career 3 Skills

Species 2 Gifts

Career 2 Gifts

Type 0/1 Gifts

Type 1/2 Soaks

Personality 1 Gifts

TOTAL

9 Skills

5/6 Gifts

1 to 2 automatic soaks

There has definitely been a series of reduction, if not refinement in how games from the Cardinal system work. Noggle Stone was explicitly dubbed "lean" but the writers. But even then, they have been reducing the number of Gifts a playable character gets and can spend and reducing skills as well. But Skills are consistent here, finding a good number and moving the burden onto automatic Gifts like Area Knowledge to provide basic-level rolls. Urban Jungle is interesting as its inclusion of a 7th characteristic; Type does three things. Besides being a refinement of Upbringing from Myriad Song. It provides another automatic dice for a bevy of skills and so compensates for the smaller number characters get in that game, it generally coms with an automatic Soak (defence) and so educes the main thing Gifts were being spent on and it allows for a standardisation of what the species and career dice apply to compared to Ironclaw.

Ironclaw Standard Fantasy Races

Back in the early 2000s, Ironclaw 1E had the option of playing a selection of non-animal fantasy races. This was never updated to 2E offically. But I think I found someone else's draft and added Tieflings and Dragonborn from 4E, as that's when I stumbled onto Ironclaw 2E around 2012/2013?
I don't remeber where I got this from or even if I was the one to make the conversion of someone elses Ironclaw 1E write-ups. The 1E write-ups had 2 more human types for Tolkien-style things and didn't have Warforged.

Those last two are probably the iffiest of them all. As one is missing an inherent magical nature and the other has one in defiance of how the rest of Ironclaw species/races are written up.

>Human

Habitat: Choose One

Cycle: Day

Senses: None

Natural Weapons: None

Include Racial Dice with: Academics, Tactics, choice of Social or Culture skill

Racial Gifts: Geography, Increased Trait: Wits, Diplomacy

>Dwarves

Habitat: Mountains

Cycle: Night

Senses: None

Natural Weapons: None

Include Racial Dice with: Climbing, Digging, Endurance

Racial Gifts: Night Vision, Sure-footed, Spelunking

>Wood Elves

Habitat: Forest

Cycle: Choose

Senses: Hearing

Natural Weapon: None

Include Racial Dice with: Observation, Stealth, Weathersense

Racial Gifts: Acrobat, Keen Ears, Fast Climber

>High Elves

Habitat: Coastal

Cycle: Choose

Senses: Hearing

Natural Weapon: None

Include Racial Dice with: Observation, Academics, Supernatural

Racial Gifts: Acrobat, Keen Ears, Increased Trait: Mind

>Plain Orcs

Habitat: Plains

Cycle: Day

Senses: Smell

Natural Weapon: Tusks

Include Racial Dice with: Endurance, Presence, Tactics

Racial Gifts: Frenzy, Hiking, Animal Handling

>War Orcs

Habitat: Plains

Cycle: Night

Senses: Smell

Natural Weapon: Tusks

Include Racial Dice with: Endurance, Presence, Melee Combat

Racial Gifts: Frenzy, Hiking, Increased Trait: Body

>Ogres

Habitat: Choose (Plains, Forest, Mountain)

Cycle: Day

Senses: None

Natural Weapon: Wrestle

Include Racial Dice with: Brawling, Endurance, Supernatural

Racial Gifts: Increased Trait: Body, Charging Strike, Choice of (Coward, Frenzy)

>Troll

Habitat: Mountain

Cycle: Twilight

Senses: Listen, Smell

Natural Weapon: Claws, Teeth, Wrestle

Include Racial Dice with: Brawling, Endurance, Choice of (Stealth, Presence)

Racial Gifts: Increased Trait: Body, Charging Strike, Natural Armour

>Tiefling

Habitat: Choose (Plains, Forest, Mountain)

Cycle: Night

Senses: None

Natural Weapon: Horns, Hooves

Include Racial Dice with: Deceit, Stealth, Supernatural

Racial Gifts: Fast Jumper, Sure-footed, Unshakeable Fighter

>Warforged

Habitat: None

Cycle: None (or, As Group Majority)

Senses: None

Natural Weapon: Wrestle

Include Racial Dice with: Endurance, Brawling, Melee Combat, Ranged Combat

Racial Gifts: Sure-footed, Clear-headed, Unshakeable Fighter

>Dragonborn

Habitat: Choose

Cycle: Day

Senses: Listen, Smell, Spot

Natural Weapon: Claw, Teeth, Torch (Torch@ Close d8, d4- Damage + 1 Weak, On Fire)

Include Racial Dice with: Endurance, Supernatural, Presence, Tactics

Racial Gifts: Increased trait: Body, Mystic (Elementalism), Natural Weapon: Torch

Genesys/Edge of the Empire

I played a bit of Star Wars Edge of the Empire and Genesys, it's refinement tended to build it's character archtypes/species/races on a smaller budget. So when I found Adventures in Azeroth, the Warcraft hack. I was idlely curious about how they would differ from the original EotE set. According to one writer on the long-gone FFG forums, he built Star Wars species to a 120 to 130 XP budget. And not going too hard on high stats or reduced Starting Experience. So, I tried calculating and rebuilding the Warcraft races/species to the same totals and trends.

Most Genesys material including Adventures in Azeroth, says Wounds and Strain are 5 XP for a change of 2/1 Wounds/Strain and 15 XP for 3/2. But the writer comment on the old forums said he used 5 XP for each, with an addition 5XP if the core was 1 or 3 as that was compounding. Somtimes it worked out the same either way.

Night Elves +5 XP

High Elves +10 XP

Blood Elves +0 XP

IronForge Dwarves Fine

Wildhammer Dwarves -5 XP

Fine as is for 120 XP total +10 XP if using 130 XP total

Gnomes Fine

Orcs Fine

Darkspear Tribe Fine but very unbalanced, I would give them a choice of either skill but not both and add 10 XP to Starting Experience

Revantusk Tribe -10 XP or make the two skills a choice between but not both

Zandalari Trolls -10 XP or make the two skills a choice between but not both

Tauren I would deduct 1 from Brawn and add 20 XP

Ogres Fine but very unbalanced

Goblin +5 XP but again, very imbalanced

Draenei (Eredar) fine but still two 3 values is not normal flor Edge of the Empire

Draenei (Broken) +10 XP

Forsaken Fine

Worgen Fine

Furbolgs Fine but tempting to give them +5 XP

Pandaren Fine but too unbalanced

Naga +10 XP, the divergent Biology thing makes the difference too large

Mok'Nathal +20 XP, Silhouette 2 already accounts for increased Encumberance Threshold and isn't worth as much as it's been costed.

Violence! Double Feature

Wasteland Violence! and Mutant Violence! Redux

(Palladium Books 1986, Art by Kevin Eastman)

Once again Violence is found here

https://lukegearing.blot.im/violence#ref-1L37

Now there has been some changes since I last tried to make a Violence hack. Pseudo-Historic Violence and its melee table have been replaced with a slightly modified version of Violence in the Streets. A much closer and finely grained system. So mutant equivalences will need to undergo a major adjustment.

Wasteland Violence is simple from a creation stand-point. Why do the extra work when you can just remix D20 Modern Apocalypse?
Now Violence doesn’t really do skills and certainly not a D&D 3E-inspired skill rank system, so the D20 roll needs to be adjusted.

I originally had an idea of taking the DC after 10, dividing it by 2, rounding down and adding it back to 10. So, 15 = 12, 20 = 15, 25 = 17 and 30 = 20 etc. But in the end, it was simpler to just divide all DC by 2 and round down. This does have the nice synergy of making the DC 5 survival check a DC of 2 or only fails on a roll of 1.

D20 loves modifiers and they come in blocks of 5 in D20 Apocalypse. Therefore, it’s simple enough to treat each modifier of +/-5 as an Advantage or Disadvantage.

The details of the carnage start on page 14 but the relevant rules for exploring, scavenging and bartering start on page 17. After page 25 though it gets more into D&D weapon rules, which are ignorable. These stop at page 29, since after that are vehicle rules which I’ll get into later.

The rarity og guns can be represented with roll on this tool for The Country (Luke Gearing/Violence Jam 1). Where you can roll to see what customisation and markings make your gun unique and traceable.

https://perchance.org/countryselect

• Looted Guns (Hauled out of long-cold dead hands) - rifles, pistols, machineguns at -4 to hit.

• Hunting Guns (Good for killing things that can't shoot back) - shotguns, rifles at -2 to hit.

• Military Guns (Nice, dangerous and valuable) - rifles, pistols, machineguns.

• Foreign Military Guns (Look cool, everyone knows who has one of these) - rifles, pistols, machineguns.

Since Violence at the Street Level doesn’t do spears, I had to make some up.

• Makeshift Spear: A metal blade taped or attached to the end of a stick
• Range 7 Lethality +3 Fragility 3 in 6

• Proper Spear: Time taken to properly attach a blade to a tall and straight pole
• Range 8 Lethality +3 Fragility 1 in 8

• Fire-Hardened Spear: The most common weapon for most of human history
• Range 8 Lethality +2 Fragility 1 in 8

Vehicles

A vehicle is a separate character that has the D20 stat line. Since 90% of these are real-life stats that are found online, it can just be elided like how Violence expects most things to be treated.

But really what is important is the Fuel Capacity and the Gas Mileage. The thing that tells players how far they can go in the vehicle on a single point of fuel.

For vehicular combat, play as normal Hand to hand combat, except no one really has any skill in it. Additional things like spikes and armour take up space and weight but increase Lethality. D20 Apocalypse has a list of modifications that can serve as inspiration on pages 32-34.

A faster vehicle will eventually catch up with a slower one unless th driver can somehow manoeuvre it into a location the overtaking vehicle cannot go.

Vehicles can have Injuries which effect their manoeuvrability and a scavenged vehicle starts with 1d6 Injuries. Downed vehicles need repairs to work again. Injuries to the Fuel Capacity and Gas Mileage reduce their value by ¼ per Injury.

Wilderness Survival and Travel

Violence doesn’t have much to say on the subject. The Empire of Texas by Luke Gearing (the creator of Violence) has a person move one 24-mile hex while on foot/by wagon or two on horseback. There was seemingly no adjustment for terrain.

For a 12-mile hex, I would say foot/wagon moves two hexes or one when in rough terrain. A mounted character moved 4 hexes or 2 when in rough terrain.

But I found a good version for 3-mile hexes, which agrees with D20 Apocalypse, that the normal adult walking rate is 3 miles an hour. D20 Apocalypse also says vehicles are restricted to 30 miles an hour due to debris, so that’s nice and simple.

I would like to credit someone, but I don’t remember who I got these from.

Intended for use with pseudohistorical Violence rules for tracking outdoor hexcrawls, but should be generic enough to be usable across the board. Assumes 3-mile hexes or squares.

## Ailments

Life-threatening conditions such as poison, hypothermia, bleeding, exhaustion, hunger, thirst etc should be tracked the same as injuries and inflict stacking disadvantages.

Fast-acting conditions (i.e. hypothermia, bleeding, petrification) should be checked against every hour to avoid another stack of the same condition. Slower conditions (i.e. exhaustion, hunger, curse) should be checked against daily.

A character may sustain up to 3 stacks of a given condition - any more and they are Downed, requiring intervention by another character to avoid death.

## Travel

Average human walking speed is 3mph and therefore can cover 1 hex per hour 'as the crow flies' at a steady pace. If running, 2 hexes per hour can be covered but untrained characters must check against exhaustion. Exploring a hex thoroughly takes 3 hours.

## Rest

6 hours of sleep is the minimum to clear 1 stack of exhaustion. Food, shelter and a source of heat are required. Lacking one or more incurs a check to clear the exhaustion, two or more is at disadvantage.

The rest of the rules (bar one exception) are from The Empire of Texas

The day is divided into 4 6-hour Watches. Once per Watch, check for Encounters. It is assumed two of these are spent travelling, one establishing camp and resting, and the last sleeping.

Me - I like 8 hour blocks better because 12 hours is a bit too subject to the weather and daylight. But either can use the table from here:

https://mythlands-erce.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-3-mile-hex-natural-unit-for.html

Hours with walking per 3 mile Hex, half the time for horses and 1/10th (6 minutes) by vehicle. Unless an off-road vehicle, vehicles treats any terrain with just a trail as rugged terrain and any without any track as very rugged. Like many this in Violence, carrying capacity is an exercise for the Referee.

If food and water are not found, each member (and horse)in the caravan consumes 1 Food and Water ration. Horses require double rations in the desert.

Back to Texas

Encounters

Roll a d6 - on a 6, an Encounter occurs. Determine Surprise, Distance and Disposition. If an item of interest is present in the hex, the encounter swill resolve nearby. In some cases, the disposition and surprise may result in ‘no encounter’ - a small group warily watches the unaware players.

Surprise

For each party, roll a d6. On a result of 1 or 2, that party is Surprised - they are unaware of the encounter.

Distance

If the PCs are surprised, the encounter happens at a range of d20*10 feet. This might represent an ambush or a stealthy band, as determined by Disposition. The NPCs may not engage, and simply observe.

If the NPCs are surprised, or neither are surprised, the encounter happens at a range of d20*100 feet – the other group spotted at a significant range. Depending on Disposition, unsurprised NPCs may attempt to approach or flee.

Disposition

For NPC parties, roll 1d6:

1) Violent.

2) Hostile.

3) Cautious.

4) Wary.

5) Friendly.

6) Desperate.

Desperate groups may be starving, dehydrated, injured or out of ammunition.

Revising Mutants

A mutant has four points split between Animal/Human. These detrmine how human or animal-looking the mutant is. The five mutant shapes are also reflected by the five possible states of mutant. So, no Human Features needed and not BIO-E either unless you are buying species abilities for finer details.

Every point on Man is a Competencies and every point on Animal is a Trait from the species entry in TMNT&OS. Competencies got moved from the main Violence document to page 4 of a PDF called Special Investigation Unit, currently linked at the top of the webpage. If you don't want to treat a Trait as one line on the write-up, be more granular and optionally treat it as 20 BIO-E. Bonuses granted by Species can be used to fill a Trait slot. Every point of Animal is -1 to DV for social interactions with humans.

Extra Attacks from Species Traits is Advantage. For Heroic games, each hero gets four Plot Points to revese the Down status and major NPCs get two.

Traits that only gives S.D.C give -2 to Down Checks. Light/Medium/Heavy/Extra-Heavy Armour is -1 per tier to Injury checks. It can be hard or fleshy but is still tissue and/or layers of minerals.

Since we are revising for Violence in the Streets, natural weapons must be accounted for. The easiest answer for Reach is 0, since natural weapons are parts of the body touching another, but many animals keeps foes at bay without bodily risk. You could still keep it simple with Reach 1.

Look at the species' intial Growth value (1 to 20). Every 2 points above or below 10 is -1/+1 Reach.
Add/Subtract 1.5 Reach for each point towards Human, stopping at Reach 0, round other final results down in all cases. A Growth 1 (-5 Reach) bug can be kept away with a short stick, a Growth 20 (+5 Reach) elephant just pushes past in a fist fight.

Natural Weapons are by definition, dangerous. So the Lethality of them goes up by the damage dice.

D4 = 0    D6 = +2    D8 = +3    D10 = +4    2D6 = +5

While it's simpler to say mutants turninng into human-looking pizza-eaters implies they become omnivorous and lactate-digesting by default. It's too tempting to pass up mutant scavenging rules.

Mutants need a majority of whatever protein their base species eats; vegetable or animal. A Ration of the right type is Good Food and they need one ration per day. Otherwise, they can eat two Bad Rations to get the same effect. This includes food of the wrong type, has no real nutritional value or what has spoilt. Eating only Bad Food give Disadvantage the next day, as does eating only 1 Bad Food in a day. Some species which scavenge garbage are find with eating Bad Food and grazing herbivores can spend a Watch (6 hours) solely stationary grazing to generate 1 Bad Food for themselves.

Making an NPC
So compared to Violence, a mutant NPC sounds complex. But not really, a foe is still just a bonus to hit and a weapon. Just a Referee must also decide if they have a natural weapon as a backup or primary weapon and if they are naturally outsie the human body range. Giving a Lethality and Reach modifer as the Referee feels like it. A mutant is just as likely to have functioning giant ears, a sharp nose, natural body armour as a human is to have a radio reciever or spare grenade. Whatever is needed to to make the foe engaging for the players.

Mutant Violence

 

(Eastman and Laird for TMNT&OS)

Someone once told me that while the action in MitN was good, the character creation was slow.

And I reflected on how TMNT&OS was also a bit of a pain to make characters, and neither really fitted a vision of fast mutant action.

So I tried mixing TMNT&OS with Luke Gearing's Violence to make it a bit more speedy. It ended up being Violence with mutants, rather than Violence attached to TMNT&OS, but I sort of like it.

https://lukegearing.blot.im/violence#ref-1L37

 

Mutant Violence

A mutant has four points split between Animal/Man.

Every point on Man is a Competencies and every point on Animal is a Trait from the species entry in TMNT&OS. Every point of Animal is -1 to DV for social interactions with humans.

The five mutant shapes are also reflected by the five possible states of mutant. So, no Human Features needed and not BIO-E either.

Extra Attacks from Species Traits is Advantage.

 

(One more stage than TMNT&OS depicted)

Now for something contradictory to Violence.

Major Characters have 4 Plot Points which can reverse a Downed state. Named NPCs have 2 and likewise have only 2 points to split between Animal/Man.

Optional Melee Table

Martial Arts for a mutant-style game increases Fist bonus by 1 as if a shield. Natural Weapons simulated by damage; D4 = Dagger, D6 = short sword etc, but count as Fists for Weapon vs.

 

A random roll got me Alpha the Killer Hamster

Trained by the military to kill, he escaped with $100,000 of 1980s money in weapons and equipment. His flight or fight response is all outta flight.

Rating 2/2 Plot 4 Social Penalty -2

Trait – Claws

Trait – Digging

Competency – Driving

Competency - Squad Automatic Weapon

Melee +4, +2 From Claws +2 Training

M60 machine gun

Garish Van

 

Modified Melee Procedure. Trained (3) Claws attack as Short Sword and defend as Fist