Heavy Ordnance A Reflex Roleplaying Game by Christopher Blankley

In the fourth grade, Mrs. Watkins gave me a D in Mathematics. I was not a happy camper. Now she's a blood thirsty demon from the seventh plane of hell, And I have a Mini gun with 2000 rounds of HESH ammo. Mrs. Watkins, Class is back in session.

Legal Notice: Heavy Ordnance and the Reflex System are (c) copyright Christopher Blankley and Reflex Systems. Unauthorized repoduction for profit is prohibited.

Section I: Character Creation I.I Prelude

You had always known that School was hell, but now-a-days your sure of it. A runaway nuclear reaction in the cafeteria meat loaf had blasted portions of your Elementary School into the nether regions of hell; and all of your teachers have been possessed by brain hungry demons. Now there's just you, the stockpile of armaments from the local National Guard base, and two years of DOOM experience between the safety of home, and eternal oblivion. Good thing your mother packed you a lunch, your going to need it.

I.II Introduction

"I do if for the kicks, baby." -Biker Chick, Wild Rebels

Welcome to Heavy Ordnance, the second Roleplaying Game to use the Reflex Roleplaying System. Heavy Ordnance is a satirical Roleplaying Game where the players play prepubescent school children with large military surplus weaponry. A nasty accident, involving some weapons grade plutonium and the cafeteria meat loaf, has blasted portions of your hometown into the many levels of hell; and all citizens the elder side of puberty have been turned into brain sucking monsters. Luckily, your Elementary School was built next door to the local National Guard base, and yourself, and the rest of your fifth grade class, have armed themselves. Now all you have to do is figure out which end of the bazooka is the business end, before the Principle smashes down the door and snacks on your entrails.

I.III The System

(The below discussion assumes that the reader has a basic understanding of Roleplaying theory: Players, Characters, GM, dice, etc. If you have never played a Roleplaying Game before... Go find somebody who has, and ask them!)

Heavy Ordnance uses the Reflex Roleplaying System, a system designed to be easily adapted to any type of game you wish to run. The rules here explain the system in terms of Heavy Ordnance setting. To use it in terms of another campaign setting may require a few modifications.

I.IV Character Creation

"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em" - the Webb Wilder Credo

Like all Roleplaying Games, all the players must have a Character. Character creation in the Reflex system is very similar to that of many other Roleplaying Games. Take a look at the Character sheet that comes with this game. You can see that it is divided into two main sections: Attributes and Skills. Although the values in these two sections are determined in different manners, they are recorded in very much the same fashion. On both sides of each skill and attribute there is a blank. The blank of the left is for recording the point value of that skill or attribute. (called from here on pips) This is on a scale from 0 to 150, and relates the incremental value of the skill or attribute. This is the value that will be changed through the gaining of experience and the advancement of the character. This value is hardly ever used in game play. The blank on the right is the dice value of the skill or attribute, and relates the number of dice that skill or attribute can donate to a dice pool. The dice value of a skill or attribute is determined from the pip value of the skill or attribute according to the chart below. The dice value is only changed through the increase or decrease of pips, it can never be changed on its own.

Pips Dice

0 to 9 0d 10 to 29 1d 30 to 59 2d 60 to 99 3d 100 to 149 4d 150 up 5d

I.V Age

The first thing you have to do when creating a Heavy Ordnance character, is to determine his age. This is important since none of the characters will be over 13. You are free to choose what ever age you wish. Its good to be older, 'cause your bigger, and you can pick on character's who are smaller than you. But remember: The older your character is, the closer to puberty he is; and the close to puberty one is, the close to being a brain sucking demon one is. If you plan to use a character for very long, A nice comfortable single digit age may be more your style.

I.VI Determining Attributes

"Well, aren't you a big fella!" -Mr. Mental, The Tick.

There are nine attributes in the Reflex System (Well Being, Strength, Agility, Perception, Endurance, Dexterity, Wits, Willpower, & IQ.), divided into three categories (Physical, Mental, & Averaged). Only in two of these areas are pip values actually rolled (Physical & Mental), in the third (Averaged) the value for an attribute is calculated as an average of attributes in the other two areas. (Strength averaged with Willpower equals Endurance, etc.)

Physical Averaged Mental

Well Being Perception Wits

Strength Endurance Willpower

Agility Dexterity IQ

For all the attributes in the Physical and Mental groups roll 2d100 and divide it by two. This is the pip value for that attribute. Round all values up. To determine the pip value for Perception, average the pip values for Well Being, and Wits. For Endurance, average the values for Strength and Willpower. For Dexterity, Agility and IQ.

(We'll follow the creation of the character of Jeff (Sniffles) Smith for an example of the Character Creation system. We must start with some concept of the character we wish to create, I decide that Sniffles is a 5th grader (11 year old), and an avid Dungeon & Dragons player (nerd). He has taken up arms, with his fellow students, against the forces of evil. He hopes to find some use for his chemistry knowledge he has amassed on his own with his chemistry set. Hmmm... explosives. To start I roll up his attributes. For Well Being I rolled 38 and 20 which averages to 29. For Wits I rolled a 73 and a 27 which averages to 50. With these two terms I determine his Perception to be 40 (29+50/2=40). I roll a 17 and a 23 for Strength, which gives me a 20. I roll a 48 and a 32 for Willpower, which gives me 40. That makes Endurance 30 (20+40/2=30). I get a 69 ([64+73]/2) for his agility, a 66 ([63+69]/2) for his IQ, which would makes his Dexterity 68.)

Next we must determine the Dice value for each of the attributes according to the chart above.

(Sniffles has 29 pips in Well Being which gives him 1 dice (hence the name sniffles, I would guess). He has 20 pips in Strength which gives him 1 dice there also. His 69 in Agility gives him 3d there, and his 40 in Perception gives him 2d there. 30 in Endurance equals 2d (just), and 68 in Dexterity equals 3d. 50 in Wits gives 2d there, and 40 in Willpower gives 2d also. Finally his 66 in IQ gives his 3d. All in all, Sniffles is an interesting character: Not strong or fit (classic nerd), but intelligent and quick. Sniffle should make for some interesting roleplaying.)

This is the extent of determining your character's attributes. For a full description of each Attribute see Appendix A.

I.VII Determining Skills

Because to the intensive study methods employed by the American School system, characters in Heavy Ordnance are amazingly skilled for their age. (You there, stop laughing, this is serious!). Each character has 200 pips to allocate through their skills as they see fit.. No one skill can have more than 100 pips at creation, but apart from this rule, there are no restrictions on how the player can allocate his skill pips. How can an 8 year old learn Heavy Weapons skill? (click-ching) Smile when you ask that Pilgrim! Then determine the dice equivalent for each skill that you allocated pips in (using the chart above.) For a full description of the skills see Appendix B.

(Back to Sniffles Smith. He has 200 pips to allocate through his skills. Realizing their importance to weapons to a game like Heavy Ordnance, Sniffles puts 30 pips in both rifle and pistol. He puts 10 pips in Heavy Weapons, just to make sure he doesn't blow his own head off during the game. He puts 30 pips in chemistry (remember the chemistry set?), which leaves him with 100 pips. Looking over the character sheet, he decide to put 30 pips in Explosives, 10 pips in Drive, 10 pips Research, 30 pips in Dodge/Dive, 10 pips in to Hand to Hand, and 10 pips in Computer Operations. Hey, you never know!)

I.VIII Sub-Skills

(Note: This section is optional) You will see that there are 8 skills on the character sheet that are starred. These skills differ from the other skills in that they have sub-skills within them. Sub-skills are used when the main skill is to broad to allow effective use of the skill in a specific area; but knowledge of the main skill in a different area can be used in the new area. For example: Say a person who can speak French encounters a Spanish speaker. Although he won't be able to understand the Spanish speaker, he will be able to pick up general grammar and meaning through the knowledge of his French. A character divides the pips he has in the particular skill into the various sub-skills. i.e. a character with 2d in Linguistics can divide that 30 pips into various languages. For every 10 pips a character has in a specific sub-skill one level of difficulty is removed from the roll he is trying to make. Back to the French speaker above. Say he has 30 pips in his sub- skill French. In his conversation with the Spanish speaker the difficulty would be at 9. But if he was trying to converse with a another French speaker the difficulty would be reduced to 6.

I.IX Determining Exceptional & Detrimental Abilities.

"So Tick, can you destroy the earth with your super powers?" "E-Gad! I hope not! That's where I keep all my stuff!" -Tick & Interviewer, The Tick.

At the bottom of the character sheet you can see a section called Exceptional & Detrimental Abilities. To determine these there are no dice to roll or charts to pick from. This is the player's opportunity to round his character off as he wishes. The player determines what Exceptional and Detrimental Abilities and the GM assigns a dice value to that choice. This is easy enough with things like Exception Sight, Hard of Hearing, Lightning Reflexes; but it isn't so easy with things such as Luck, or Blindness. If the GM and the Player can't come to some conclusion, the GM's word is final. There are only two rules you must follow: 1) For every die of Exceptional Abilities you must take a die of Detrimental Abilities. 2) You can have no more than 3d of Exceptional Abilities. When creating your character for Heavy Ordnance, remember that the game is supposed to be satirical. If your exceptional, and detrimental abilities are totally off the wall, all the better. Be creative, be funny, be weird. GM's Note: I'm sure you can see that possibility for abuse here is very high. It is up to you to keep the players in line. This should be fine in your game but if players are bringing in characters from someone else's game it may cause problems. You are fully justified in allowing the character in you game and disallowing just its Exceptional & Detrimental Abilities. Its your game after all. (Hmm... What kind of Abilities would Sniffles have? Lets see... For his exceptional ability I decide to give him Alchemy at 2d. I guess he learned more than anyone could have guessed with his chemistry set. For his detrimental ability I will give him 1d in sneezing (always at an inopportune moment), 1d in short sighted (glasses), and 1d in permanent wedgie (ouch).)

I.X Determining Hero Points.

These points are used by a player's character to do exceptional things. They will be explained later in Section II.XIV Hero Points. For now all you need to know is all character get 1d3 points. (For Sniffles I roll 2 Hero Points. Good , he's going to come in handy.)

I.XI Determining Morality, Method, & Drive.

"Bite me! It's fun." - Crow T. Robot, Mystery Science Theater 3000.

As you can see from the character sheet each of these three stats has two options. For Morality, either charitable or selfish; for Method, either conformist or rebel; and for Drive, either pacifist or militant. A player must choose one option for each stat. An essay could be written one each one of these choices and its relevance to a character, but for our part we only have to think of them as a leaning. Theses are not dogma that the character follows, only the way they go about there business. Their effect on the game is to determine when a character regains Hero Points. (Sniffles is fleshed out enough so that these choices are pretty easy. For Morality Sniffles is most defiantly Charitable. (Would you like a jelly bean (sniff). They're kind of warm, they've been in my pocket (sniff).) For Method Sniffles is a Conformist. (Well, when there was any type of authority around.) And for Drive Sniffles is a pacifist. (Even though he used a 12-gauge to smear his P.E. teacher across the gym.))

I.XII Determining Name, Height, Weight, & Hit Chart.

"Who the hell are you?" "Name's Ash. (click click) Housewares." -Ash & the Evil Hag, Army of Darkness

These are the final stats on the character sheet. Name is obviously the name of the character (not yours). Height and Weight are for you to choose. You may want to take into account your character's Well Being and Strength Scores, although there are no hard and fast rules. The hit chart, in the bottom right of the character sheet, will be fully explained later in Section II.XII Damage. For now, all you have to do is put the number of dice you have in Well Being in each of the hit boxes.

(Just these last touches, and Sniffles Smith will be done. Name we already know: Jeff (Sniffles) Smith. Height and Weight can be derived from the character sheet quite easily: Sniffles is a wimp, so I figure he's about 5'2" and 90 pounds. When the wind blows, Sniffles is picked up off the ground.) Here is Sniffles' completed character:

Name: Jeff (Sniffles) Smith Method: Conformist/ Rebel Height: 5'2" Weight: 90 lbs Motive: Charitable/Selfish Age: 11 Drive: Pacifist/Militant Hero Points: 2

Attributes

Physical 29_ Well Being 1d_ 20_ Strength 1d_ 69_ Agility 3d_

40_ Perception 2d_ 30_ Endurance 2d_ 68_ Dexterity 3d_ Mental 50_ Wits 2d_ 40_ Willpower 2d_ 66_ IQ 3d_

Skills

___ Acting ___ ___ Bureaucracy ___ ___ Biology ___ ___ Carpentry ___ 30_ Chemistry ___ ___ Climb ___ 10_ Computer Op___ ___ Computer Prg___ ___ Deception ___ 30_ Dodge/Dive ___ 10_ Drive ___ ___ Electronics ___ ___ Etiquette* ___ 30_ Explosives ___ ___ Finance ___ ___ First Aid ___ ___ Gambling ___ ___ Gymnastics ___

10_ Hand to Hand___ ___ History* ___ ___ Hvy. Mach. ___ 10_ Hvy. Weapns ___ ___ Intimidation ___ ___ Law ___ ___ Leadership ___ ___ Linguistics* ___ ___ Lockpick ___ ___ Mathematics ___ ___ Mechanics ___ ___ Melee ___ ___ Observation ___ ___ Philosophy ___ ___ Photography ___ ___ Physics ___ ___ Pilot ___ 30_ Pistol ___

___ Play Inst* ___ 10_ Research ___ ___ Ride Cycle ___ 30_ Rifle ___ ___ Running ___ ___ Sail ___ ___ Smithy ___ ___ Social Sci. ___ ___ Streetwise ___ ___ Stealth ___ ___ Survival* ___ ___ Swim ___ ___ Track ___ ___ Throw ___ ___ Writing ___

Sub-Skills _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ Exception & Detrimental Abilities _____________________ Alchemy____ 2d_ Sneezing____ 1d_ _____________________ ___________ ___ Short Sighted_ 1d_ _____________________ ___________ ___ Wedgie______ 1d_ ____________________

Section II: The System

II.I The Rules of Play

"Did someone say, games?" -Q, STNG.

Well, since your probably thoroughly confused by the character creation system I'll try an clarify matters by explaining the mechanics of the Reflex system. The most important part of the Reflex System, is the method used to roll dice. It's quite simple: Your attributes and your skills have certain dice scores. Every action is the combination of an attribute and a skill. (Say you were driving a car. Any action taken while doing so would be a combination of your Driving skill, and your Dexterity.) Add the dice scores for the applicable attribute and skill together, and take a number of ten sided dice equal to the sum. (If you had 2d in Dex and 3d in drive, you would have a dice pool of 5 ten sided dice.) This is your dice pool, and it is rolled against a difficulty (a number from 2 to 10, usually 6). Each dice that rolls the difficulty or higher counts as a success. i.e. If the difficulty was 6, every die that rolled 6 or greater would count as a success. The number of successes you roll represents the measure to which you have succeeded. One success equals marginal, Two successes equals average, Three successes good, etc. As you can see, you will need an aweful lot of ten sided dice to play the Reflex System. Sorry, but that's the way the cookie crumbles (Sniff).

(Okay, Sniffles is back to demonstrate the Reflex System for you. Kleenex firmly in hand, He is ready to do his duty for God and Roleplaying System! Oh dear, it seems that Sniffles has gotten himself into a bit of a pickle. Seems that he's left his M-16 back at the library while he was reading up on the proper use of ethyl alcohol in carbonic reactions (hick). Now there are 2 demons charging down the street towards him. Fortunately, there is a Geo Metro parked just a few feet away from Sniffles, and the keys are in the ignition. Firing the mighty steed to life, Sniffles shifts the machine into drive. The demons are only a few yards behind him as he pulls the car out into the road. Snapping and drooling at his rear fender. At the blazing speed of 25 mph, Sniffles brings the car around a blind curve. Only about a quarter of a mile from the library... Oh no! There's a overturned tanker semi blocking the road. Its cargo of gasoline has spilled out into the street. Sniffles is doomed! But wait, isn't there just enough room for the Metro to slip past the tanker? Yes, Sniffles punches it. It is going to require a Drive-Dexterity roll on Sniffles part to make in through the gap. Sniffles has 1d in drive and 3d in Dexterity. 4 dice in total in Sniffles dice pool. The difficulty for this action, in general, would be 6, but since sniffles has trouble seeing over the dashboard, I'm going to raise it to seven. Sniffles takes up his dice and rolls: 2, 7, 3, 8. Two successes (the 7 and the 8). Bully. Sniffles whips the Geo through the tiny gap between the tanker and its cab.)

This is the basis for dice rolling in the entire Reflex System, with one important difference: One die in every dice pool should be marked apart from the rest (this is one of the original dice pool, not an extra). This is the Fortune Die. Though the Fortune Die is treated just like any other dice for the purpose of success, it has a special use when it rolls a ten or a one. A roll of ten means that good luck has befallen your character. A roll of one means exactly the opposite. If a ten comes up on the Fortune Die, roll it again. If a success is rolled (does not have to be a ten), then add that success to your total number of successes, add one to the difficulty, and roll again. If this comes up a success, add another success, add another one to the difficulty, and roll. Keep doing this until you roll a failure. If a one comes up on the Fortune Die, do the inverse of the above. Re-roll the die. If it is a failure, subtract one success from your total successes, subtract one from the difficulty, and roll again. etc. If your total number of successes ever becomes negative, then something terrible happens. Exactly what is up to the GM, but you can count on it not being good.

(The two demons behind sniffles come barreling around the corner, sprinting after the Geo Metro, claws snapping at the air. They round the corner just in time to spot Sniffles successful attempt to clear the tanker; unaware of what substance they are running on... I decide that the demons must make an Observation-Perception roll versus 7 to realize what substance they are running on. The first demon have 3d in Perception, but nothing in Observation, leaving them with 3 dice in his dice pool. The demon marks one of his dice as his Fortune Die (The first one he rolls), and rolls. He gets a 1, a 6, and a 9. Normally that would be one success, but the one on his Fortune die means something bad has happened to him. He rolls his Fortune Die again and gets a 3. A failure, this means that he must subtract one from his total number of successes. Leaving him with zero. He subtracts one from his difficulty, lowering it to 6, and rolls his Fortune Die again. This time he rolls a 6, a success, meaning he need not roll again. The demon is left with zero successes, and therefore fails. What's that sell... Smells kind of... fruity... Sniffles slams on the brakes 20 yards from the demons. Jumping out of the car, he digs into his pocket for his lighter. Flicking the lighter to life, he pauses to form a witty remark... (In his best Arnold) "How vould you like your ribs?" Tossing the lighter into the pool of gasoline, a look of horror crosses the foolish demon's face. The Demon has only a millisecond to act. I decide that the demon has to make a Dodge/Dive-Agility roll, versus 9, to get out of the gas before to goes up.. This time the demon is a little better off. He has 3d in Dodge/Dive and 3d in Agility, giving him a dice pool of 6 dice. He marks his first die as his Fortune Die and rolls. He rolls a 10, an 8, two 1's, a 10, and a 4. Normally that would be two successes, but he rolled a 10 on his Fortune Die. Things will swing even more into his favor. He rolls the Fortune Die again and get a 9. That's a success, and he adds it to his total. He raises his difficulty to 10, and rolls again. This time he gets a 1, a failure, which means that he cannot roll again. It does not mean, however, that he was to start rolling for negative successes. Looks like the demon jumps unharmed from the gasoline as it is engulfed in flames... Hopefully he will be as lucky when the whole tanker goes up.)

There is one last characteristic of dice pools that must be mentioned: All dice in a dice pool do not have to be used toward the same action. Dice pools can be split into multiple actions. i.e. shooting twice in a round, catching a grenade and throwing it, patting your head and rubbing your stomach, etc. If the actions you wish to take are dissimilar, then you take the smallest dice pool of the bunch and split that up between the actions. Only one Fortune Die is rolled, no matter how many actions are taken. The player may decide to with action successes are added or subtracted.

(Okay, say that Sniffles had had a gun and wanted to shoot at the demons AND try to make it through the tanker. Even though sniffles would have 5 dice in his shooting dice pool, he would split up his driving pool of 4d, because it is smaller. He could have put one die to shooting, and 3 dice to driving, or the other way round. Or two dice in both. It would have been up to Sniffles.)

II.II Extended and Opposed Actions.

Extended and opposed actions are rolled in exactly the same manner as the above rolls, however, the successes that are handled differently. An extended action is an action that takes many rolls over time. Such as fixing a car or pushing a rock up a hill. In extended actions the successes from many different rolls are added together in hopes of reaching a total set by the GM. As in the example of the car, maybe it requires 20 successes to get the car running again. The repairman would roll Mechanics-IQ versus 6 every round he is fixing the car until he reaches a total of twenty. In the example of pushing the rock up a hill, maybe it requires 15 successes on strength rolls versus 4 to get it up there. When 15 successes is reached the rock is at the top of the hill. In extended actions teams can work together on an action. Three people can make Mechanic-IQ rolls, each adding his successes to the total. They would reach the goal of 20 much quicker. The old adage: "Too many cooks spoil the broth" may come into play, but that's up to the GM to decide. An opposed action is an action in which two people are doing an extended action against each other. An example would be arm wrestling, or tug of war. In this case success are tallied as in extended action, but one person's success are subtracted from the other person's. Whenever one person's successes equals the target number plus the opponents successes they have won the action. Again, teams may work together. Some opposed actions only require one character to beat the other character's successes for that round. These are called one round opposed actions and do not require a success goal to be set.

(Sniffles awakes to find himself laying 50 feet away from the remains of his Geo Metro, smoldering quietly. Oops. Maybe lighting that gasoline hadn't been such a bright idea after all. Well, at least he had killed those two demons, and it didn't look like he was hurt too bad... Sniffles spots the two demons edging carefully around the burning remains of the gas tanker. Oh boy... Sniffles scans his surroundings, and spots a nearby fence. If he can climb that, its only a short jog to the library and his automatic weapon. It will be an extended action for Sniffles to climb over the chain link fence. It is a rather high fence, and sniffles is rather short, so I decide it will take 8 successes for Sniffles to clear the fence. The difficulty will be 6. Sniffles has 3d in Agility, but zip in Climbing. Well, 3 dice is better than nothing. Running up to the fence, Sniffles start to climb. First round sniffles rolls a 2 (Fortune Die), 9, and a 1. One success, its a start. Second round: 8, 10, 7. Three more. Total of 4. Cool. But it looks like those demons are breaking to a sprint. They're getting closer. Third round: 1 (No!), 9, and 4. One success, but a 1 on the fortune die! Sniffles re-rolls it and get a 7. Wow, that was close... Sniffles slips a little, but doesn't loose any ground. Total of 5 successes. Fourth round: 2, 4, 5. Nothing! Argh, they're almost here! Fifth round: 4, 1, 9. One more success. 6. Help! One of the demons make a jump for Sniffles, and takes a large chunk out of the fence. Sixth round: 3, 9, 9. Yes! 8 successes, on the nose. Sniffles makes it over the fence, and sprints for his life. Run, run, run.)

II.III The Round.

As you can see from the above examples the Reflex System divides its game into rounds. Much like any other Roleplaying Game or, for that matter, Game in general. The round is variable in length, and represents the amount of time it takes a character to make one action (barring the division of the dice pool). The smallest amount of time it can represent is 3 to 4 seconds. This being in combat. It can be as long as hours (for car repair), days (for an experiment), or years (producing a new computer system). The GM should keep track of how long a round is for the purpose of the action being made.

II.IV Experience.

"Conjugate! But I've never even kissed a girl!" -Yacko, Animaniacs.

When ever three successes or more are rolled in a single dice pool, experience is gained. One pip is gained in what ever skill was used for that dice pool. i.e. If a character got three successes in a Dexterity-Drive, he would increase his Drive skill by one pip. The three success must be rolled in the same round, experience is NOT given for every three successes in an extended action. Characters can also be advanced through the expenditure of Hero Points, but this will be detailed later in Section II.XIV Hero Points.

II.V Combat.

"Spooooonnn!!!!!" -Battle Cry of the Tick, The Tick.

In any Roleplaying Game the area that requires the most detailed rules is always the Combat system. Even if combat take up a small part in the actual game, a complete combat system is still needed. This fact probably dates back to the origins of Roleplaying Games: in the War Games that boys play. The main problem with playing War is in the fact that if a person gets shot, they have no real compulsion to die. Hence the argument: "Bang! Your Dead! No I'm not! Yes you are! You Missed! How could I, I'm standing right behind you! Well you hit my bullet proof vest then! What vest, I thought we said no vests! But...(pause)...Bang! Your Dead!" and so on. The purpose of a combat system in a Roleplaying Game is to avoid this, and tell everybody, once and for all, who is dead. The Combat in the Reflex System attempts to be a moderation of reality and ease of use. Hopefully you will find its mechanics easy, but believable enough to represent what you wish it to represent.

II.VI Initiative

"Not in the face! Not in the face!" -Battle Cry of Arthur, The Tick.

At the start of every combat round every one must declare what they are doing. (Those of you who are experienced Roleplayers know that many systems require you to do this, and- of course -none of us ever do. But in the Reflex system this declaration is of utmost importance.) Once they have determined what action they are taking, all the players gather together the appropriate dice pool. Dice pools in Combat are calculated in the same way as any other roll (Attribute + Skill). Once everyone knows what they are doing (and the GM knows what the NPC's are doing) then initiative must be determined. In the Reflex System Initiative is determined by the bidding of one's dice pool. i.e. "I bid one dice to go first. I bid two dice. I see your two and raise you one (bid at three). Okay you get to go first." The dice that are bid are taken out of the bidder's dice pool and placed in the center of the table (or other neutral place). All the dice bid are collected. Even if you didn't win the bid the dice you bid are collected. These dice that are removed should not be forgotten, because they become the hero pool and their use will be described latter in Section II.XIV Hero Points. If no one bids any dice then the person with the largest dice pool has initiative, then the next largest, then the next largest, etc.

(Lets say on the last round of Sniffles' attempt to clear the fence, one of the demons wanted to attack him. If Sniffles can go first, he might be able to get his two successes, and clear the fence, so initiative is very important in this situation. The demon is at a distinct advantage in this situation, he a 6 dice in his dice pool, to Sniffles' 3. Unless Sniffles bids for the initiative, he's in deep doodoo. Sniffles decides to bid 1 dice for initiative (leaving him with 2). The demon counters with 2 (leaving him 4). Sniffles could bid three dice, but that would leave him with no dice to roll. Oh dear, it looks like Sniffles is in trouble...)

As you can see, the person with the biggest dice pool is at a major advantage. This is, as it should be, implying that the person who is better at what he is doing can do it quicker. But there is a reprieve for those with terminally low dice pools: Difficulty levels can be exchanged for dice. In other words you can get more dice to bid with by making your action harder to do. This represents rushing through an action, shooting blindly, or throwing a wild punch. You may go first, but you have a greater chance of failing. Which, in a case of life and death, may be worth the risk. Difficulty levels can be exchanged for dice according to the chart below.

+ to Diff. Level Total Dice Gained

2 1d 3 2d 4 3d 5 4d

Say you are at difficulty level 5 and need more dice. Rolling against a difficulty level of 7 would get you 1 dice. Difficulty level of 8 would get you 2 dice. Level 9 would get you 3 dice. Level 10, 4 dice.

(Sniffles only hope is to exchange his difficulty for dice. Fortunately he is only at difficulty 6, where the demon is at difficulty 8. Sniffles boosts his difficulty up to 9, and get two more dice. He bids them for initiative, and the demon lets him go. Sniffles has two dice against difficulty 9. Can he make it... He rolls a 10 and a 7. One success, but a 10 on his fortune die. He rolls it again and get another 10. He raises the difficulty to 10, and rolls it again. A 9. Damn. However, Sniffles has been very, very lucky. He makes it clear over the fence, and the demon is left to contemplate its mistake.)

II.VII Ranged Combat

Combat is divided into two main sections: Ranged and Hand to Hand. Ranged combat, covered here, effects characters blasting at each other with guns, lasers, bows and arrows, rocks, what have you. Hand to Hand Combat, covered in the Section II.X, effects fist fights and marital arts. Combat is an action like any other described in Section II.I. The effect is what is described in these sections. Once you have gone through dice pools, initiative, and rolling, you should come out of it with number of successes. This number of successes effects the location of the hit upon your target and the damage done. First you must roll a 10 sided dice and compare the result to the hit location chart:

Roll Area Hit

0 Head (Double Damage) 1-3 Torso 4-5 Abdomen 6 Right Arm 7 Left Arm 8 Right Leg 9 Left Leg

This will tell you where your shot has landed. Then compare the number of successes you received with the chart below:

Success Result

1 - 2 Normal 3 1 Bump 4 2 Bump 5 3 Bump

Normal means just that. A 1 Bump result means that you can move the hits area one location. Legs can be bumped to abdomen; abdomen to torso or legs; arms to torso; torso to arms, abdomen, head; head to torso. Legs cannot be bumped to torso, or arms to legs, etc., on one bump. A 2 Bump means you may bump the hit two areas. A 3 Bump means you may bump the hit three areas.

Damage is determined by the caliber of the weapon in question (see chart below). Roll the indicated sized dice and add the number of successes you received on your hit. For each bump that you take subtract two points from your damage total. Subtract this result from hit points in the hit location that was hit. See Section II.XII Damage for the effect of this damage.

Note: If the range is within Point Blank Range (Point Blank is determined as your dice pool in yards) then damage is doubled.

Pistol Damage Caliber Damage

.22 1d4 .38-9mm 1d6 .45-10mm 1d8

Rifle Damage Caliber Damage

.223-7.72mm 1d8 .50-10mm 1d10 12 guage 2d6

Though most explosive devices are beyond the scope of this rule system (if a bomb goes off, and your beside it, you're dead), a few explosive devices will be tossed around by the players. Explosives have a damage stat and radius stat. i.e. a hand grenade has (4d6,2). This means that grenade does 4d6 damage within a a 2 yard radius. At every multiple of the radius, the hand grenade will do one dice less damage. i.e. 3d6 from 2 to 4 yards, 2d6 from 4 to 6 yards, and 1d6 from 6 to 8 yards. Beyond 8 yards the grenade would do no damage. Damage from explosives are assumed to be take just to the torso, although the injury is actually spread evenly over the body. Of course, a character's best chance when being shot at is not to be where the gun is shooting. This can only be achieved if the target wins the initiative and rolls an Agility-Gymnastics/Running roll. Succeeding in this isn't quite enough though. This is only an opposed roll against the shooter's attack roll. The dodger must get equal to, or more successes than the shooter, or he will still get hit.

II.VIII Automatic Fire

"This sucks, lets go kill something." "Ha, yeah. Killing is cool." -Bevis & Butthead, Bevis & Butthead.

Automatic fire is dealt with a little differently than normal range combat. Determine how many rounds will fire in that round, then role to hit for the first shot only. If that shot hits, even with only one success, roll one dice for every other bullet that was fired against the same difficulty as the first shot. The hits in this second group of rolls cannot be bumped, they hit where the chart says they do. Their damage is not modified by the number of successes from the shot. If the first shot misses still roll the dice for the other bullets, but with a difficulty of 2 higher. Spraying an area with an automatic weapon is dealt with differently. Collect a number of dice equal to number of rounds that you are firing then subtract a dice for every ten degrees of your spray arc. Roll these dice as you dice pool against a difficulty of two higher than normal. Success are divided evenly amongst the targets. (Note: Suppresive fire does not use your skill-attribute dice pool, although these are still the dice you bid with. One dice must remain in your dice pool at the end of bidding.)

II.IX Cover and Body Armor

Cover and body armor act in the same fashion in the Reflex system. Both absorb damage to certain hit locations. Say a man is standing behind a half stone wall that provides 10 points of cover, any shot that hit his legs would have to get through the stone wall before they start damaging his legs. Also, a man wearing a bullet proof vest that provides 5 points of protection to the torso and abdomen would have to sustain 6 points of damage before he took a point of damage. 7 points would do 2 points of damage, 8 points 3, etc. Of course if the shot hits in a location that does not have any cover or armor then damage is at full.

(Sniffles sprints down the alleyway, across the mail street, and into the library. Behind him he can hear the demons making short work of the chain link fence with their claws. Only a matter of seconds now before they'll be on him. Sprinting across the library, Sniffles comes to his favorite reading spot. Looking under the table he spots his M-16. Picking it up, he pulls the slide back, and removes the safety. "Let's get Literary." He says as he lowers the barrel. The main doors of the library burst open as the demons scan the book shelves. From a stack of American Classics, Sniffles opens fire. 10 rounds, full auto, at the first demon. Sniffles has 3d in Dexterity, and 2d in Rifle, giving him 5 dice to roll with. The demon is a sitting duck, so the difficulty is 5. (No initiative needs to be determined, because the demon is surprised.) Sniffles rolls for the first bullet. 9, 6, 4, 5, 9. 4 successes (a pip to rifle!). Sniffles rolls on the hit chart, gets a 5, and sees that the bullet hit the demon in the belly. He could bump the shot up two locations, but decides not to. He rolls for damage (1d8) and get a 5. adding the 4 successes gives a damage of 9. The skin of the demons is so tough that it acts like 2 points of body armor to all hit locations. However, Sniffles' bullet still does 7 points of damage to the demon's belly. The next nine bullets follow, and since Sniffles hit with the first, the difficulty is still 5. He gets a 6, 3, 9, 2, 6, 10, 6, 3, 9. 6 more bullets hit. They hit 3 to the chest, 1 to the belly, 1 to the left leg, and one to the right leg. Doing 8 points to the chest, 6 more to the belly for a total of 13, 4 to the right leg, and zip to the left leg. Ouch... That demon won't be bothering Sniffles again.)

II.X Hand to Hand Combat

Hand To Hand Combat involves fist fights and other bare handed struggles. The skill governing Hand to Hand Combat is Hand to Hand. This type of combat is treated in almost the same manner as range combat, except for a few important differences.

Determine dice pools, difficulty, and initiative for the combatants as normal. The remaining dice in the dice pool can either be rolled as normal or they can be spent to raise the opponents difficulty (representing blocking and dodging). This is done on a one to one basis. i.e. I have three dice remaining in my dice pool and my opponents difficulty is a 6. I could spend a dice and raise his difficulty to 7, or two dice and raise it 8. Leaving me two dice or one dice to roll for my retaliation strike respectively. Dice are then rolled against the difficulty as normal. The number of success that are scored are the number of damage points done.

(The other demon starts across the library floor. Sniffles brings the demon into his sights and smiles. He fires: 5d vs. 6: 1, 7, 4, 4, 9. two successes, but a 1 on the Fortune Die. He rolls it again: 2. Oh no, down to one success. Lower the difficulty to five and roll again: 4! zero success. difficulty of 4: 1! negative 1 successes Arrrrhhh! difficulty of 3: 5. That's the end of that. But negative successes! I determine that Sniffles' gun jams. Oh boy. The demon clears the great American classics, and pears evily down at Sniffles. Initiative time: Sniffles has 2 dice in his hand to hand pool (Str-Hand to Hand). The Demon has 7. The difficulty is 6. Remember: the demon's skin counts has two points of armor. Sniffles bids one to go first. The demon, feeling generous, lets him. With one die, Sniffles takes a punch at the demon. The demon decides to put three dice into raising Sniffles' difficulty to 9. Sniffles rolls, and get a 3. Sniffles' punch doesn't even make the demon's skin ripple. The demon (which has 4 dice left) decides to play with Sniffles. He decides to see how far he can throw Sniffles. With a 9, 10, 5, and a 1 (two successes) he pitches Sniffles into the Russian Literature section. Sniffles comes around just in time to seen a copy of Doctor Zhivago smack him in the head.)

II.XI Melee Weapons.

Melee Weapons include everything from Broadswords to broken bottles. Anything that is used to do damage. Melee Combat is treated just as Hand to Hand Combat, with an offensive and defensive dice pools. Difficulty level of these dice pools is then determined by the weapon, and a damage modifier is added to the number of successes received. See the equipment list for these values for particular weapons.

(Seeing the demon approach him, Sniffles does the only thing he can think of: He picks up the copy of Doctor Zhivago, and throws it at the demon. Doctor Zhivago is an improvised weapon, and has a +1 damage, Difficulty 6. Sniffles has zip in Melee skill, but 3 dice in Dexterity. He rolls 3 dice against 6. He get a 9, a 6, and a 7. Three successes (a pip in Melee, for a grand total of 1!). Plus 1 for the book gives him 4 points of damage. Minus the demon's 2 points of armor means that Sniffles did 2 points of damage to the demon. The book whacks the demon square in the forehead, sending him staggering back stunned. Love them classics!)

II.XII Damage

"Oooo! That's going to scar!" -Iargo, Aladdin.

Speaking of hits to the head, a discussion on taking damage in the Reflex system is long overdue. As stated before, a character has a number of hit points in each of the hit locations equal to his Well Being dice. This is not, however, the maximum amount of damage a character can take in that location. Multiples of the hit point score relate the effect of the amount of damage taken. Refer to the chart bellow:

Multiple of Hit Points Effect Medic Diff

0 to x0.9 Scratched - x1 to x1.9 Flesh Wound - x2 to x3.9 Injured 6 x4 to x6.9 Seriously Injured 7 x7 to x9.9 Critical Injury 8 x10 up Area Destroyed 9

i.e. If you have 2 dice in Well Being, 0 or 1 point of damage would mean that you are scratched. 2 or 3 points of damage would mean that you have suffered a flesh wound. 4 to 7 would represent an injury. 8 to 13 a serious wound. 14 to 19 a critical hit. 20 or above would mean the area is destroyed. So what does it mean to be Injured? Or Critical? Or Seriously wounded? Quite a bit, to both the character and the player:

A Scratch has no effect on the character's performance. Though for the round after taking the hit the character can do nothing but defend and tend to his wound.

A Flesh Wound subtracts a dice from any dice pool rolled which requires the use of that body location (the head is considered to be used in all actions, the body in any physical one), until medical attention is received. The character will not be able to take any other action other than defend for two rounds after taking the hit. Note: Any hits of Flesh Wound level or above that are inflicted to the head require the injured character to make a Well Being roll versus 5. If failed, the character falls unconscious.

A Injury halves any dice pool rolled which requires the use of that body location. The character will be out of commission for three rounds after the hit, only able to defend.

A Seriously wounded character has all of his dice pools halved until he receives medical attention. Not that he will be doing much anyway. A character with a serious wound will begin to go into shock and must make Well Being rolls versus 6 or become unconscious. He will take one damage point for every twenty rounds that he does not receive medical attention, until he finally reaches x10 his hit points. If the wound was to the body or head, the character dies. If the wound was to the arms or leg, they will have twenty rounds before they expire.

If a character takes a Critical wound to the chest body or head he must roll Well Being versus 6 as soon as he takes the hit or he will fall unconscious and begin to die. If medical attention is not received immediately the character will pass away in twenty rounds. If the would is to the arm or leg the character still has to make the roll as above, but if they fail they will take 1 damage point for every five rounds they do not receive medical attention. If the character makes his Well Being roll he will take one damage point for every ten rounds that he does not receive medical attention. When the character reaches x10 his hit points he may die as above.

If a character receives a destroyed area to the head or body, they will die instantly (obviously). If the hit is to the arm or leg, they will have twenty rounds before they go.

II.XIII Medical Attention & Healing.

If a character with medical skill makes a IQ-Medical roll versus the Medic Difficulty listed on the chart the injured character is considered stabilized. This means that the injured character stops taking any damage from blood loss, and will no long laps in to unconsciousness. The GM should determine if there are any more rolls required to keep the injured character stable. If not, the character begins the long road to recovery. The recovery of hit points is dependent on the type of injury. A Scratch will heal at a rate of one point a day. A Flesh wound at two points per week. An Injury at a rate of one point every week. A Serious Injury at two points a month. A Critical Wound at one point every month. And a destroyed part will never heal. Theses healing rates are for a character in perfect conditions: Plenty of medical attention, good medicine, a good doctor. If any of the factors in the character's recovery are less than perfect, the rate of healing may vary. It is up to the GM to decide what modifier should be applied, but if a character is trying to get better while laying in a muddy ditch he shouldn't be at all successful.

(Now we know what the different damage levels mean, we can see what effect Sniffles had had on the demons. The one he shot with his M- 16 took 13 points of damage to his abdomen. Demons have a Well Being of 4d, so this wound would be (according to the chart above) an injury (injury level is from 8 to 16). The 8 point hit to the chest would also have been an injury, and the 4 points to the right leg would have been a flesh wound. The demon isn't dead, but he won't be bothering Sniffles again... The demon who had the sudden encounter with the works of Boris Pasternak, took two points of damage. For a demon, that's a scratch. The only effect it has on the demon is to stun it for a round.)

II.XIV Hero Points.

"Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" -Bond & Goldfinger, Goldfinger.

There is one last subject that must be discussed before the rules of the Reflex System are anywhere near complete: Hero Points, and their use. The Hero Point reflects the fact that the characters are special, more than just any old so and so. The Hero Point is what allows the character to get out of scrapes when most mortals would be cattle fodder. Players will come to rely very heavily on Hero Points, if they know what's good for them.

Using Hero Points Every character starts out with 1d3 Hero Points. A Hero Point can be spent at anytime during the round to allow the player to collect all the dice that have been bid for initiative in that round (called the hero pool). i.e. If a player bid 1 dice for initiative and is countered with a bid of 2 dice, there would be three dice in the hero pool. If no dice have been bid for that round, then a hero point cannot be spent. These hero dice are added to the players dice pool for that round, and are rolled just like any other dice. But Hero dice can also be spent in a fashion that no other dice can be spent: Direct dodge in Range Combat. Hero dice, and only Hero dice, can be rolled against the attacker's attack roll, even if the character has lost the initiative. Difficulty is the same as the shooter's. This is an effective way to save yourself from death if all else fails. (If we had known about hero points when Sniffles was trying to climb over the fence, things would have been much easier of Sniffles. The demon has bid two dice, and Sniffles had bid 3. That's five dice in the hero pool. Sniffles could have spent a hero point and collected all those dice, and used them to get him over the fence. Fortunately, he was lucky, and didn't need it.) Hero points can also be spent on character improvement. At anytime, a player my spend a hero point and gain 1d6 pips that he may allocate through any of his character's skills or attributes. (Sniffles has 29 in Well Being. That one point away from 2d. He could spend a hero point and get 1d6 pips in Well Being, probably putting him way over 2d.)

Gaining Hero Points As you can see, apart from the three success rule, Hero Points are the only way to improved your character. This being so, Hero Points are what your character gains when he gains experience. Hero Points are awarded to the players on the basis of the quality of their play. The below chart should act as a guideline for GM's:

Awarding Hero Points

1 pt. - Per game session for playing according to the character's Method/Motive/Drive.

1 pt. - Per adventure for achieving the mission objective.

1 pt. - Per adventure for defeating the antagonist (if not the mission objective).

1 pt. - Per adventure for exceptional Roleplaying.

Section III: The World of Heavy Ordnance

Note on Setting: Heavy Ordnance is a game of satire. The idea is for a group of people who went (or go) to the same school, to base their Heavy Ordnance game around that school, and those teachers. Of course, if you are all adults and from different spots on the globe, then your not going to have much of a common reference. Heavy Ordnance can be still played however, just with a little less cutting wit. So in a effort to give everyone a common reference, let me propose: Hometown Elementary School. A school in everyone's hometown. We've all been there, we can all see it in the back of our mind. All discussions in this text will refer to Hometown Elementary. If you wish to run this game in reference to a particular school in your past, all the better.

Note on age: I have written Heavy Ordnance with respect to Elementary age kids. I did this more out of my own personal sense of humor than any real artistic need. If you wish to move the game to a Junior High, Senior High, or College level, that's fine. You'll have to do some explaining of why the players haven't had their brains munched, but I'm sure you can come up with something.

III.I Big Slobbering Nasties from the Other Side of Creation

(Report by C.B. Peewadle of Hometown Elementary School, to all the nations of the world.)

To: All the leaders of the Free World.

From: All those fighting the combined forces of evil.

Re: HEEEEELLLLLPPPPPP!!!!!!

Some kind of inter-dimensional phenomena triggered by a small nuclear explosion has occurred in Hometown. Large portions of our town have been overlapped by the inter-dimensional space commonly referred to as Hell. All citizens of the town over the age of 13 have been possessed by evil brain-eating demons. The remaining populace has armed itself, but our numbers are few. We are in desperate need of reinforcements and weapons. To whoever receives this message, please send help quickly!

My friends, and myself were in class when the accident happened. There was a bright flash, as the cafeteria building was engulfed in a mushroom cloud. While this occurrence is neither unusual at our school, or worrisome; the sight of our teacher, Mr.. Rank, sprouting claws and fangs, was. We were fortunate enough to be able to bludgeon Mr. Rank into unconsciousness with a National Geographic Globe before he was able to crack open our skulls, and dine on our gray matter. Many other students were not so lucky, falling pray to their various instructors.

My class, and myself escaped the school via the playground, and took shelter in the wood that lay behind the school's property. We were very fortunate to find the National Guard base (that was next door) entirely abandoned. The soldiers probably out on the town looking for brains to eat. We armed ourselves, and quickly mounted an assault on our school building. While this first assault met with limited success (and heavy casualties), further expeditions have resulted in better results. We have been unable to determine the source of the demons, or why they have only possessed the adult community. No one has an idea of how our town can be returned to normal, and we have resigned ourselves to simply exterminating the possessed people. Once again, please send all the help that you can. We are in dire need of assistance.

III.II The First Game of Heavy Ordnance, and Beyond.

The first few games of any Heavy Ordnance campaign that you play will probably go the same way: After everyone have made a character, and familiarized themselves with the rules, The game will begin with the players all sitting in class. There is a bright flash, and an explosion from the direction of the cafeteria building, and all the students will rush to the window. While all the students are staring at the mushroom cloud, the teacher, (enter name here), will begin to transform. The GM will give the players a graphic description of the teacher's newly possessed form, and the teacher will start munching on the nearest NPC student. This is where play will begin, with the players having to subdue their teacher with only the classroom as a weapon. After this is achieved, one way or another, the players will make their escape. After a little roleplaying, they will discover that the National Guard base, that was conveniently built next to the Elementary School, is strangely uninhabited. The players will arm themselves, and reenter their school building. From here on all games will diverge, as the players deploy their heavy ordnance, and generally blast big holes in school. Oh, what fun and mayhem the players will have! The rest of the game will, of course, be up to the GM. As he throws one interesting possessed teacher at the players after another. Either the players will clean out the school, or die trying. But what then? What will the players do next as they stand above the rubble of their old school, victory beaming across their faces? They have a whole town to clean out, all they've done is made themselves a base of operations; and the rest of the town will be more densely populated with brain-sucking demons (after all, there are not a lot of adults at an Elementary School). The players will have to build a strategy. A game of Heavy Ordnance could go on for ever and ever and ever... Of course, a game of Heavy Ordnance gets old pretty quick. After you've blown up your third Assistant Principle with a LAW rocket, the thrill subsides. The GM of a Heavy Ordnance game must be sensitive to this, and know when his players are tired of just plain killing. Believe it or not, but there is the opportunity for some kind of plot in Heavy Ordnance. Its not all blood and guns (yeah, sure, right, whatever...). Here's a quick over view of the setting, and some plot ideas. You'll have do some work, but a game of Heavy Ordnance could be quite enriching. (chuckle)

III.III The Whole Sorta General Mishmash... Thing.

"I'm pretty cool, but I can't change the future." - Butthead, Bevis and Butthead.

Contrary to the players first impressions (or second impressions for that matter), Hometown has not fallen into the depths hell. This is not something that you should tell the players right off. In fact, this isn't something that you should tell the players at all. Let them believe that their teachers have been possessed by the forces of Satan, not that they can really tell the difference. Yes, Hometown has not become inter-dimensionally meshed with the nether world, and the creatures that are possessing the adult population of the town are not demons in the strictest sense of the term. What has actually happen is far more interesting, and far harder to deal with. Let me explain: The nuclear accident in the cafeteria not only ripped a hole in space, but also in time. In fact, the rip spread so far that it expanded passed the history of mankind. While this had no effect in the past (dinosaurs can't quite rap their heads around temporal mechanics), it had grave implications in the future. In the distant future, mankind has suffered through a terrible nuclear/biogenic war. Virtually all of mankind had been obliterated, and the survivors of the war found that they had to adapt to a world very different from the one they had lived in before. New environmental forces came to bare on the human race, and a evolutionary race for dominance began. The eventual victor in this race was a creature perfectly suited to a world left by a nuclear/biogenic war, something that you or I could only describe as a demon. These `demons' were a totally new form of life. They existed without a body, possessing other life forms to pursue their goals. They did not reproduce, but consumed the genetic data of other life forms and applied it to their own. Once one host died, the demon took the genetic data that it had consumed with that host, and moved to another. This next host would transform into a copy of the former host, and go about stealing more genetic data. Once this host died, the cycle would continue. And continue, and continue. This combination of predator/parasite was perfectly matched to the hostle environment of the war torn world, and the demons made short work of the remaining human population (who had reverted to hunting and gathering). But once they had consum all of the remaining life on earth, they found themselves without hosts. They became trapped in their transfer states of nothingness, unable to continue their vile mission of destruction. For centuries they remained this way, floating. That is, until the tear in space/time. Apart from being blood thirsty murderers, the demons were also highly intelligent. They realized that this space/time fissure was their opportunity to find an unlimited source of new hosts. All of time was within their grasp, and all they had to do was enter the rip in time. As they went through, they found that they could only travel to the nexus of the fissure (Hometown USA) but this was enough for starters: Thousands of victims, all within a small area. They set the brighter members of their numbers onto the task of navigating the time rift to any place in space and time, while the rest began to feast. They quickly either possessed or dispatched most of the adult population of Hometown, but for some reason, unknown to any of the demons, they're unable to possess any of the pre-adolescents in the town. They were able to destroy most of the individuals in the early hours of the invasion, but some grouped together and formed a resistance. While this is little more than and annoyance to the demons, it is worrisome that they are unable to use their powers on a section of the population. But after they have learned to navigate the temporal rift, they plan to look into it thoroughly. That you can be sure of.

II.IV Big Guns! Big @&%$'ing Guns!

So what does this temporal rift mean for the players? And what about these `demons'. Well, basically it means that the players have two roads they can follow when they finally get around to wanting to get rid of the invasion (if they ever get around to it). They can either try and plug the space/time fissure, or they can find out what makes them immune to the demons possession. Neither will assure them victory over the demons (after all, if you close the rift won't the demons still be in our time), but it will give the players something to do other than blast the crap out of innocent walls. I won't even pretend to suggest how the players will achieve either of the above, but I will say that it better not be easy. Something like closing the time rift should be the culmination of an entire campaign. Don't let the players have anything for free. After all, the whole town is out to eat their brains... And just in case you missed it: When the players blast one of the possessed adults, they are not destroying the demon. The demon can simply move to another host if the one he is in dies. Even though big guns are pretty much the corner stone of the game, they aren't going to do they players any good in the long run. Eventually one of the demons will take the players by surprise, or sneak though overlapping arcs of fire. Eventually they will have to do something else other than shoot, even if its just rolling over dead.

III.V So What Do You Want To Do? I Don't Know, What Do You...

"The only solution to a zany scheme, is an even zanier scheme!" "Why does it have to be Zany?" -Homer & The Nerds, The Simpsons.

Of course, a torrent of roleplaying ideas has washed over you while you've been reading this. All you have to do is sit down with your players and let it all go...right? Well, if this isn't true, here's a few ideas that your welcome to build off:

What if these demons can possess other things beside humans (No, not a dog you idiot. Watch out! That poodle's got six inch fangs!)? Maybe one of the demons has taken control of a computer, and found it advantageous for its purposes. Maybe its become some kind of super brain killing machine that can control other machines over a distance (Maximum Overdrive anyone?). Yeah, and maybe its learned how to make organic computers that it can be implanted into people's brains and it takes control of the one... Well, you get the idea.

What if the demons have learned how to bring thing through the temporal rift? What if, during their early experiments, they bring dinosaurs through into the city. If nothing else, it would be interesting for the players to shoot at something different for awhile. This might be a good way for the players to learn that they are dealing with a time/space rift, and not simply an incursion of Satan. Maybe the demons bring through some marauding Pirates, or some space age killer droid. The possibilities are endless.

What if the army figures out what's going on and sends in a task force? You know, tanks, helicopters, marines, etc. Of course, all the soldiers would become possessed by the demons, but wouldn't it be fun to have the players fighting heavily armed bad guys for awhile? Maybe the players can get their hands on some of the cool hardware. (Picture it: 11 year olds in a Commanche... "Don't worry man, I've been playing Maximum Overkill since it came out!")

There are probably an infinite number of clever plots you could create around the temporal rift. For instance: Why was the National Guard base built next door to an Elementary School? Maybe one of the players goes back in time and convinces the National Guard to build it there, knowing its future usefulness. Maybe the players will go back in time to try and stop the nuclear explosion in the cafeteria, only to learn that it was caused by a time traveling demon. Things could get very complicated, and great fun. Don't over do it though. The point where one of the players turns out to be the other gun man at the grassy knoll, things have gone a little too far.

One thing to keep in mind when creating plots for Heavy Ordnance is that it is, all in all, a game of satire. If you can use the game to take a poke at some one or some institution, go for it. Though if you can't work it in, don't feel too bad. There should be plenty going on to keep your players busy. One fault of Heavy Ordnance is that there is very little opportunity for any kind of actual Roleplaying. Virtually all characters that the players encounter (other than the other players) will be out to eat their brains. If you're like me, this will probably come as a great relief; but if you are an actual Roleplayer, this might not be the game for you. If your clever, you could probably whip something up, but don't count on it. There's very little roleplaying involved in a demon ripping off your head and drooling down your neck.

III.VI Physic Demonic

"Okay, who brought the dog?" -Vince, Ghostbusters.

What does a demon look like? How tall are they? Do they have arms? Faces? Well, when it comes to the physical appearance of demons, there are no hard and fast rules. Demons, by their very nature, modify their physical appearance every time they jump into a new body. Characteristics of the old human will always show through after then transformation. The extent of mutation also varies per case. Some demons become almost totally bestial when they transform, other might almost pass for human on a rough day. Stats, however, can be generalized. Although most demons will have specific skills of their own (remember demons are very intelligent creatures), some skills are common to all. Below is the stats for the 'average' demon:

Average Demon

Attributes: Well: 4d Per: 3d Wits: 1d Str: 4d End: 4d Will: 4d Agl: 3d Dex: 3d IQ: 3d

Skills: Dodge/Dive 3d, Hand to Hand 3d, Track 3d, various skills left over from human days.

Note: Demon skin is very tough and acts as 2 points of armor against firearms. Most demons have claws, these are a diff 5, +5 damage weapon.

Section IV: Sample Adventure. Stupid is as Stupid Does...

"Ooo, floor pie!" -Homer, The Simpsons.

Stupid is as Stupid Does... is an short, low level adventure for the Heavy Ordnance Roleplaying Game. This adventure will serve as a good break for a Heavy Ordnance group that has shot one to many demons for it to be fun anymore. Of course, the players will have to shoot plenty of demons in Stupid is as Stupid Does..., but hopefully they will have a reason for do it.

IV.I The Story So Far...

The meat loaf has hit the fan. The world has ended, at least in the vicinity of Hometown USA, and the players are among the few people still to be in their right mind. The players have guns, big ones, and have used them to clear out their school of everyone of the demonic persuasion. Hometown Elementary has become an island in a sea of destruction. A haven for anyone who is still human. But this is not enough; the hordes of evil are pounding in the doors. The players must take the battle to the enemy, or drown under the tide of destruction. Reports from children that have managed to make it all the way from downtown Hometown indicate that demonic activity is far greater there. The leaders of the Hometown Liberation Front and Bake Sale Society (HLFBSS) has decided that an expeditionary force must be sent downtown to evaluate the threat, and create as much havoc as possible. As always, the players have been nominated for the job. The players, dubbed the Downtown Expeditionary Force (DEF), are to take the newly equipped Urban Assault Vehicle (UAV) downtown, scope out the demonic forces there, and return with as few casualties as possible. If the players succeed, there will be medals and danishes all round. If they fail, this will look grave for the noble HLFBSS.

IV.II The Briefing.

A few days before the actually expedition, all the member of the DEF (the players) are collected in Hometown Elementary's Gym to receive their briefing from Colonel Chalky While. The Colonel is of the ripe old age of 13, and commands the respect of everyone at Hometown Elementary. Once everyone has seated themselves quietly upon the bleachers, the Colonel steps up onto the platform beside the school band. "My fellow humans," He begins. The band suddenly erupts in a few rousing seconds of Tequila before the Colonel waves them to be quiet. "Not yet you idiots!" "Sorry," First Kazoo replies. "we thought you were done..." The Colonel looks angrily at the band, then continues his speech. "My fellow humans, It is my great honor to send you forth upon this your most glorious of missions." Once again, the band starts up with Tequila. The Colonel quiets them with and angry look. "Sorry, we thought you were..." The Kazoo man says softly. The Colonel, trying to look dignified, returns his attention to the players. "Though what you are about to do is dangerous. Though what you are about to do will almost certainly get you killed. Do no look upon it as suicide. No sir. For what you do, you do for the greater good of humanity, and the betterment to all. So when that evil demon is sucking out your brain, you can say to yourself: Sure, it hurts, but its a good kind of hurt." Tequila erupts once again from the band, this time as if they mean to continue. The Colonel loses his cool, and throws his notes at the first Kazoo. "What, what?" The Kazoo man says as the band grinds to a halt. "Stop! That!" The Colonel says as if he is having an embolism. The Colonel tries to regain his composure, and turns back to the players. The first seven notes of Tequila burst from the band in rapid succession. The Colonel looks like he's going to feed first Kazoo his instrument. "Sorry. Slipped." First Kazoo tries to look at something else. The Colonel buries his face in his hands. His will broken. "Oh, just go kick some ass..." He says to the players, and steps off the platform. The Colonel makes it halfway across the gym before he turns around and yells: "Now you idiots! You can play now!" The look at each other with surprise and start up playing. The players are played out of the gymnasium with a rousing chorus of... Yes, you guessed it: Tequila. Bam dududuu-dududa.

IV.III This, this is my BOOM stick!!!

Those players who have brought their characters over from a different Heavy Ordnance game will already have some equipment; but for brand new characters, a trip to the armory will be in order. The Armoror is a little hesitant to give the players any quality equipment (not expecting the player to come back), so the stuff below is all he will part with:

2 LAW's. 5 fragmentation grenades. 4 M16's. w/ 12 clips 2 .45 Autos. w/4 clips 1 Ingram M10 w/5 clips 3 3 point bullet proof vests (altered to fit a 10 year old).

The players will have to pester the Armoror to get any more equipment out of him. Unless the players are very persuasive, the Armoror will not budge.

IV.IV A visit to the Bus Barn.

On the day of the expedition, the players report bright and early (at least 10ish) to the Bus Barn behind the school, where the UAV is stored. The UAV, as you might have guessed, is a big yellow school bus with a few optional extras. The windows have been covered with steel plates, a hole has been cut in the roof and a M60 has been mounted by it, a plate of spikes has been added to the front of the bus, and the letters DEF and the HLFBSS emblem (a muffin with a sword through it) has been painted on the side. The players will meet Q-Ball, the HLFBSS local technical genius. He will give them the tour of the UAV, pointing out the useful bits, and asks them to please bring the thing back in one piece. The players can load their equipment aboard, and get under way. Players who look around the bus will find a milk crate of molitov cocktails under one of the benches. There are gun slits cut into the steel covering the windows that will allow the players to shoot out.

IV.V Bye-bye Boys, Have Fun Storming the Castle!

As the players drive the UAV out of the Bus Barn and by the front of the school, they will see that everyone has come out to wish them on their way. The band is there playing, of course, Tequila, and everyone else is weaving happily. (Any player that can land a stun grenade in the band at this point get a hero point on the spot.) The bookies have the players odds of survival at even odds... As the UAV rounds the corner, the happy waving crowd turns in to a weepy mourning one. The bookies move their decimal place on their tally boards, and turn the odds of the players survival to 1000 to 1.

IV.VI Hi Ho, Hi Ho, its off to war we go...

Its a ten minute drive to downtown Hometown, down a twisting badly kept road. The bus is equipped with an 8-track player to help the trip go quickly. Unfortunately, the only cassette on the bus is The Greatest Hits of the BeeGees. So as the players jive on down to When the Lights Went Out in Massachusetts the UAV works it's way down to the downtown. The players are almost halfway to downtown Hometown when they run into and obstacle. As the players round a corner, they see that a tree has fallen across the road, blocking their path. Whoever is driving the UAV will have to make a quick decision: Will they try and ram the tree, or will they stop the bus. As you have probably guessed (and hopefully, so have the players), this is an ambush. Sitting in the branches of the trees lining the road are four demons, just waiting for the bus to roll by. If the driver is smart enough to ram the tree, he must make a Dex- Drive roll versus 7. Any successes will mean that the UAV has broken through the tree. The demons will try to drop down upon the moving bus, and each demon will have to make a Agil-Gym roll versus 6 plus the number of successes the driver got on his drive roll (So if the driver got 3 success on his drive roll, the demons would have to roll against 9). The stats for the average demon are given above. If the driver stops the bus, the demons will drop down almost immediately. They don't have to make any roll to drop down onto a stopped bus. They will start tearing at the UAV to try and get at the players inside. The UAV doesn't have enough momentum to break through the tree from a sitting start, so the players will be sitting ducks inside the bus. If the players stopped the bus or not, hopefully they will be able to deal with the demons and move on to the next part of the adventure.

IV.VII Downtown, Where the Cabs don't stop...

"Slow Down!" "Why? Everybody else is Russian around here!" -Yacko & Rasputin, Animanics.

If the players manage to make it through the ambush, the UAV will roll onto the streets of downtown Hometown. The town doesn't seem to be the site of the end of the world. The houses seem in perfect condition. The lawns are all mowed, and the streets are free of burning wrecks. In fact, the city seems just like it always did, except for the fact that no one is around. Downtown is totally quiet. Nothing seems to be moving. No pets, no birds, no people. If it wasn't for the players, the city would be dead. The players can drive around for as long as they want, marveling at the peace. They can even get out and check out the houses if they want. Everything seems normal. The houses are tidy, and their doors are locked. It seems like everyone has just gotten up and gone on vacation. Everyone, at the same time... Eventually the players will roll the UAV down Main Street. As they pass the city hall they will encounter their first sign of life. In the loosest sense of the word: As the players roll down Man Street, a vehicle will make a left onto Main from Pine. The vehicle, which seems to be some futuristic sort of tank, will head straight for the UAV. Coming towards them at about 10 mph. If the players stop and reverse, the tank will speed up to try and catch them. Once the tank gets within twenty yards to the UAV it will suddenly stop. At first the players might think that the tank has thrown its track, as the tank leans uncomfortably to one side. But as the tracks disappear into tank, and the whole things begins to transform, the players may thing twice. The Tank quickly transforms into a giant Robot. The tank barrel mounted on its right forearm. The Tankbot stands up, and levels the barrel at the UAV. Any intelligent player will be pissing themselves at this point; but luckily for the players , the Tankbot is having a little trouble adjusting to the Midwestern climate, and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. The shell will explode a good 20 feet away from the UAV, incinerating a perfectly innocent park bench. What the players do from here is totally up to them. The Tankbot is unable to hit the UAV with its cannon, but if it can get hold of it, it will try and punch the UAV into oblivion. The players can easily run from the Tankbot, but while they're in the UAV they won't be able to shake it. Weapons will have little effect against the Tankbot, and a LAW rocket will only knock it on its ass. Eventually they players will have to abandon the UAV and let the Tankbot have its fun with it. The Tankbot will proceed to smash the UAV into a pile of twisted metal, then wander off down the streets of downtown. Players may quickly conclude that they are in way over their heads, and have more than enough information already to deliver a concise report back to the Colonel (They've got really really BIG robots! What else do you want to know?"). The only question will become: How to get home? If the players don't conclude this, and want to wander around for a bit longer, let them go right ahead. Throw in the occasional demon, and bring back Tankbot now and again. They'll sooner or later run out of ammo and want to go home. Getting home, of course, is going to be tough. There are plenty of cars around, but there's one problem: No gas. Really, every gas tank in every car in town is totally dry. None of the cars will go. The players may think of draining the fuel out of the UAV, but their are two problems with this: 1. The UAV uses diesel. 2. The players will have to siphon the diesel out. Whatever the players conclude, they are going to have to go searching for something. Be it gas, a truck that uses diesel, siphoning equipment, or a ray of hope. One of the players may realize (and feel free to point this out if they don't) that there may still be some pockets of human resistance left downtown. If there is, they may have what they players are looking for, and they might help the players get back to Hometown Elementary. Unless the players have a better idea, this may be their best bet for survival. Of course, the most intelligent place to start looking for survivors will be at the nearest school. Just like the players, if any children survived, they are probably holding up there. There are a few schools downtown, but the nearest to the players (wherever they are) is the Arnold Buckweed Junior High. If the players decided to go looking for what they need in the downtown stores, they will come up empty. All gas, everywhere, is dry. Siphoning equipment and a diesel powered truck won't be to hard to find, but as soon as the players return to the UAV, they will find that its tanks have already been drained. There are no signs of how this happened or who did this. The fuel just seems to have vanished.

IV.VIII Arnold Buckweed Junior High.

"Now I know hell." -Author, First day of Junior High.

Eventually they players will end up at the Junior High. There only hope will be in finding other human resistors to the demon invasion. On approaching the school, they players will see no signs of life.

The inside of the school looks like a battlefield. Corridors have been blockaded with desks and chairs, claw marks can be seen in the walls and floors, and classroom doors have been ripped clean of their hinges. Still, there are no signs of life, and the only mark of human habitation is the occasional bloodstain. As they players wander around the destruction, any hope of finding a pocket of human resistance will drain from them.

Unfortunately, the first life the players will encounter will not be human. In the library the players will encounter a rather runtish demon that seems to be shelving books. The demon has glasses perched over its bug-like eyes, and moves about the shelves of books in a busy fashion. The demon is the twisted remains of the old librarian, and some regressive gene has kept it in the library even after the mutation. The librarian is very protective of his books, and will attack the players as soon as they enter the library. Even though he is a runtish demon, he may still be a handful for unsuspecting players:

Librarian Demon

Attributes: Well: 3d Per: 2d Wits: 1d Str: 3d End: 3d Will: 4d Agl: 2d Dex: 3d IQ: 4d

Skills: Gymnastics 3d, Street Fight 2d, Read/Write 4d, Research 3d.

The Librarian will fight to the death, and will try with all his might to protect his books. The players should be able to quickly dispatch this demon, but the sound of any gunfire will bring three more demons running from down the hall. These three demons are of the full grown 'average' type, and will dispatch the players with extreme prejudice. They players will have a few moment to prepare for this assault, and dig themselves in behind the book shelves. The demons will have to come down the hall and cross the open reading area before they hit the players. With a few overlapping arcs of fire, the players should be able to cut the demons down like corn.

If the players take down the demons, they will probably venture down the corridor from which the demons emerged. At the end of the corridor they will find the science labs for the Junior High. Going inside, the players will see what the demons were working on:

The laboratory seems to be in full operation. Bunsen burners are burning, beakers are bubbling, and computers are computing. On the lab benches are about dozen large specimen jars, each containing a human baby. The babies are in the various stages of gestation. Anywhere from 3 to 9 months along. Anyone who takes a closer look at the babies will see that they are in fact alive inside the jars, breathing and growing.

What is going on here? Though the players may never know the whole story, they can probably guess most of it. The demons are doing experiments into the reasons why prepubescent children are not effected by their powers of possession. Even though they do not yet know the reason why this is the case, they have managed to genetically engineer a human child that is not immune to their power. The babies in the jars are the product of this experiment. Human children that can be possessed by demons.

Any player who has ever seen Aliens probably won't go anywhere near the jars, no less disturb them. But in this case, it doesn't really matter. Once the players have had plenty of time to look around the lab, and have jumped to some conclusions to the origins of the babies, a couple of the babies in the jars will start to kick and shake. After a few moments of this, their jars will crack and then explode. Smart players will quickly turn their weapons on the rest of the babies in the jars.

Two of the demons the players slew in the library have jumped into the bodies of the babies. They have broken out of the jars and hidden under the lab benches. They both will quickly mutate into tiny versions of the demons the players killed in the library. Being of such a small size, these mini demons are very, very, fast. They will scamper around the lab floor, moving from bench to bench, probably scaring the players half to death. Here are the stats for the mini demons:

Mini Demon

Attributes: Well: 1d Per: 1d Wits: 1d Str: 1d End: 2d Will: 4d Agl: 5d Dex: 4d IQ: 3d

Skills: Gymnastics 3d, Street Fight 3d, Track 3d, Biology 3d.

Note: Claws are a diff 5, +2 weapon.

Shooting at the mini demons will have little effect other than to destroy the scenery. With 8 dice dodge, its unlikely the players will hit one. Players that don't run for their lives from the laboratory will be slowly picked at by the demons. They will charge, strike once, then run for cover. A few tries at this, and the players will be badly injured.

Those that run, will be chased by the mini demons, out into the library, and into the Gymnasium beyond. In here, the players will be in better shape. The mini demons have nothing to hide under, and it will be harder for them to attack in the open. The players won't be able to hit the demons with their guns, but things will be looking up.

Just as the players are getting frustrated, the fire exit of the Gym is suddenly smashed in. A ride-on lawnmower, blades down, comes screaming into the gym. It does a wide loop across the floor and catches the mini demons in it blades. A red spray washes from the back of the lawnmower, and it screeches to a halt. The driver, a chubby dull looking man, climbs off the mower and giggles.

"Only way to get them suckers." He says.

IV.IX Bob the Custodian

The man, the players will find out, is Bob the Custodian. He has been the custodian of Arnold Buckweed Junior High for over ten years. He is happy to seen the players, and willing to answer any questions that they might have.

Of course, the first question on every players mind will be: "Why the hell aren't you a brain sucking demon?" Well, Bob has no idea, but the players may be able to hazard a guess:

Bob is, to be politically correct, intellectually challenged. Or, to be more realistic, dumb as a post. The players will quite quickly assume that this is the reason for Bob's freedom from the demon menace. Whatever the reason, Bob is a God send for the players. He not only has gasoline, but he also has a truck around the back of the Junior High; and he is only to happy to drive the players wherever they want to go.

Bob is genuinely interested in what they players are up to, and is curious about their weaponry. He is not completely aware of what has happened around him, and hasn't made the connection between everyone disappearing and the demonic hordes that he's been fighting. He has survived through a combination of brute force, and good luck; using his gardening implements as weapons.

If asked about the demons, Bob will have one piece of important information. He will tell the players that after the initial wave of demons destroyed the Junior High, they all seemed to abandon the place and head off to the High School at the center of town. Ever since, Bob has only ever encountered the occasional demon. All the rest seem to be holding up inside the High School building.

IV.X Tankbot Was A Steel Driving Man.

Of course, a pleasant scene of human interaction, such as that between the players and Bob, has to be broken by violence (action genre motto). And who else can bring such a thing to reality but- Yes you guessed it... The Master of Disaster... The Mean, Green, Fighting Machine... Tankbot!!! (Yeah. Tankbot, Tankbot, He's our man! If he can't kill it, no one can!)

The wall of the gymnasium is blown in by a blast from Tankbot's cannon. He smashes the rest of the wall down as he swaggers into the gym. Tankbot has gotten a little more used to the Midwestern Climate now, so he's shooting straight once again. He will level his cannon, and incinerate one of the basketball hoops.

The players will have to be creative in dealing with Tankbot. Their weapons will have little or no effect on him.

Hiding inside the Junior High will be an ineffective tactic with Tankbot. He will smash down walls and roofs at will to get at the players. It won't take much damage by Tankbot before the Junior High collapses in on itself.

The players best bet is to stick with Bob, and use his knowledge of the local terrain to their advantage. His lawnmower is fast enough to shake off Tankbot's aim most of the time, so they should be able to move around without getting blasted.

Though the players may come up with their own plan for defeating Tankbot. Below is what Bob will come up with after a little time (okay, a lot of time):

Like all sports fields at Junior High Schools, the football field at Arnold Buckweed Junior High is a swamp. One corner of it is more rice paddy than grass field; and no matter what time of the year it is, it is always under water. On top of this, Bob will switch on the field's sprinkler system (proper use of school funds) and drench the rest of the field. He will ask the players to lure Tankbot out into the field, and try and get him into the deep end. When Tankbot is up to his knees in mud, he will use his lawnmower and 100 yards of unbreakable garden hose to trip Tankbot. Once in the mud, Tankbot will be unable to pull himself out, and all of his trying will just dig him deeper.

Of course, if the players get a better idea, let them go through with it. Tankbot is a tough nut to crack, and brute force won't bring him down.

IV.XI Hail the Conquering Hero's...

"I just love it when a plan comes togther." -Hannibul, A-Team.

Once Tankbot is defeated (if Tankbot is defeated), the players will probably want to head back home. Arnold Buckweed Junior High is a pile of rubble by the time Tankbot is finished with it, so Bob will be happy to go with the players. He will drive them home in his pickup, and stay at Hometown Elementary to help the players out.

The players will return to a warm reception. Just the fact that they're alive will be a cause for rejoicing. The Colonel will be interested to hear their report, and everyone will be fascinated by the existence of Bob. Q-ball will be disappointed about the destruction of the UAV, but will be interested in the existence of Tankbot. He will start right away on a weapon that can be used against it. If asked, Bob will be happy to say with the HLFBSS and help out in any fashion that he can. The HLFBSS scientist, at least would like to take a look at him.

Is this the end of the DEF? Is it's mission complete? Of course not! This is but the first day in long campaign for freedom. Many question remain to be answered: Why is Bob unaffected by the demons? How can this fact be used to HLFBSS's advantage? What about Tankbot? Where did he come from? Is he a vicious killing machine? Or is he just misunderstood? What of the demon bread babies? What will they grow up to be like? Will the demon scientists find away to leap into the bodies of the players? What's going on at the High School? And what the hell happened to all of the God damn gasoline? Did the demons steal it? What are they using it for? Many questions remain to be answered, and only the players can ask the questions.

Experience

The players will most likely want to get some experience for their trouble. Here's a break down:

1 Hero Point - Per game session.

1 Hero Point - Deciding to look for help at the Junior High without prompting from the GM.

1 Hero Point - Defeating Tankbot and returning home alive.

1 Hero Point - Exceptional Roleplaying.

Appendix A. Attributes.

Physical Averaged Mental

Well Being Perception Wits

Strength Endurance Willpower

Agility Dexterity IQ

Here is a quick description of the Attributes in the Reflex Roleplaying System, with a breakdown as to their meaning according to dice level.

Physical

Well Being Well Being is very easily confused with Attribute of Endurance. It may become difficult to determine where to use one, and where to use the other. Keep in mind that Well Being is the measure of the character's health. Endurance is the measure of the character's ability to continue under adverse conditions. Apart from being a simple measure of a character's health, Well Being is also the general measure of the character's build and weight. Characters with low Well Being will probably be short or pudgy. Characters with a high Well Being, tall and lean. There are no hard and fast rules about this, however. You can still make your character as you see fit, regardless of his Well Being.

1d - Character is either runtish or overweight. The character has a cardiac chasing after their grandmother.

2d - Character is of normal build and weight, though is probably of the couch potato type. Fine for long walks or short runs, but is definitely not the athletic type.

3d - The athletic type. Collage athletics to lower professional level. A good athlete, but nothing remarkable. Though with a little practice...

4d - Professional athlete. A physical powerhouse. All you need is the opportunity to become one of the greats.

5d - Adonis. Lesser mortals cower in your presence.

Strength A simple enough attribute. The measure of the physical power of your body. Want to bend steel, or punch through walls? This is the attribute for you.

1d - Physically inconsequential. Hopefully your either a child or an invalid. You can lift your backpack, that's about it.

2d - Normal, day to day strength. You can open the tops of jars and move furniture around.

3d - You've either pumped iron, or worked in a job with a lot of lifting. You're the kind of person people like to have on their side in a fight.

4d - Professional body builder or muscle man. You can do some cool tricks, like bending bars or tearing up phone books. People don't mess with you unless they really have to.

5d - You once killed a man by flexing your left peck. You either the strongest man in the world, or you want to find him and kick his ass. Your one bad mother-(Shut your mouth!) I was just taking about 5d.

Agility The ability to control your movements and actions. Your over all balance and stability on your feet. This is the attribute that lets gymnast do what they do.

1d - You trip over the curb a lot. Gym Class was torture to you. You've found that if you remain seated, nothing bad will happen to you.

2d - You were a terror on the Jungle Gym as a child, but you can't do a hand stand to save your life (not that you've ever had the urge to).

3d - You can do some impressive acrobatics, and can do some great slam-dunks with a basketball.

4d - You could compete in the Olympics or walk a tight rope. Combined with Martial Arts, you make a deadly combination.

5d - Master Ninja. Jackie Chen has nothing on you.

Mental

Wits The measure of your overall mental health and sharpness. This is a nebulous attribute that deals with everything from imagination to humor. People with high Wits make good stand up comedians, and poets. A low Wits score could imply a psychosis, or simply just a boring mentality.

1d - Your about as interesting as a squash. You've never quite grasped the humor behind the "Who's on first skit". You think Full House is a laugh riot.

2d - Your generally a nice person, though you can get irritable. You can hold your own in a "Your mother..." contest.

3d - Your a pleasant and interesting person, probably an artist of some sort. Your witty enough to write sit-coms in your sleep, and your always mulling some great idea over in your head. One day you might write it all down...

4d - You make a good living off your imagination. Comedies, tragedies, poems, novels; you've done them all. In an argument, you can turn your opponent to jelly in under five minutes.

5d - When you die, God had you and Shakespeare down to work on a project together. You are hailed as one of the master creative powers of your generation.

Willpower The measure of your mental strength. This is an attribute that only comes into play under adverse circumstances, when pressure is put onto a character. The attribute becomes of great importance in Reflex Games that involve the supernatural.

1d - You can't handle pressure. You passed out while taking your SAT exam. You worry constantly about the hole in the ozone.

2d - You can deal with pretty much anything that hits you in daily life. Though anything outside of your paradigm sends you for a loop. You own a gun to protect yourself from crime.

3d - Your cool as a cucumber. Men with knives don't even phase you. The supernatural though, is a little beyond you tolerance.

4d - You have, to coin a phrase, balls of steel. You leap across precipices of lava just for the fun of it.

5d - "Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? I don't see nobody else here. You must me talking to me."

IQ The ability to use your mind quickly and efficiently. What most people think of when they think of intelligence.

1d - Your brains directly attached to your drool gland. You never understood what picture you were supposed to see in those ink blot tests.

2d - Average moxy. You made it through high school algebra, but switched to an easier major in college because you couldn't hack the math.

3d - You can wrap your head around Quantum Electrodynamics without any trouble, though you still have to stop and do addition on your fingers.

4d - Intellectual powerhouse. You think chaos theory is a way to spend a fun evening.

5d - "12.54352 days to be exact, Captain."

Averaged

Perception One's physical and mental health determine how receptive one is to the environment around them. Perception is the measure on your ability to pick out important details from the mass of useless information that bombards us everyday.

1d - You miss some of the simplest things. You didn't know there was anything wrong with your marriage until your wife packed her bags and moved to her mothers. Hey, watch out for that car!

2d - You spot most stuff of importance. You can play poker with you buddies, and know when they are bluffing.

3d - You would make a good police detective. You can usually tell if someone is lying to you, and you clean up at Easter egg hunts.

4d - You senses are keenly tuned. You very seldom miss anything; and if you do, someone was probably hiding it from you.

5d - "Elementary my dear Watson."

Endurance Being the combination of your physical and mental strength, Endurance is not as much the measure of your physical fitness, but more the measure of your perseverance. How far can you run, or how long can you go without food? It comes in to game play mainly with respect to operating with injuries.

1d - Climbing out of your easy chair winds you. You faint at the very sight of your own blood. No one wants you around when furniture has to be moved.

2d - Your fine for normal exercise, but any kind of extended run leaves you flat. You shrug off most minor wounds.

3d - On a good day, you can run a marathon.

4d - Tough as nails. Your one of those African guys who chases after the giraffe until it falls over dead from fatigue. Cool.

5d - You once got hit in the head by a falling brick. Didn't even phase you. Does the phrase: `Unstoppable mutant beast from hell', mean anything to you?

Dexterity This attribute measures you ability to do fine manual tasks. It is the average of you Agility (physical adeptness) and your IQ (mental adeptness). It requires a combination of both to be good with your hands.

1d - Butter fingers. You can't catch a baseball, and you throw like a girl. "Here, let me hold that priceless vase for you-(smash) Oops, sorry."

2d - You can play a slick game of foozeball, type 40 wpm, and do the hand jive without braking a bone. You still crash into the canyon walls in `Rebel Assault' though.

3d - Your a video game master. You can do that cool thing where you spin a pen around the back of your thumb. Anyone for a game of Pick Up Sticks?

4d - You one rewired a TV in under ten minutes. You can flip a coin and always get it to land heads up.

5d - Your either a knife thrower or a steno typist. You roll 7 or 11 every time at craps.

Appendix B Skills

Here is a quick description of the skills in the Reflex System. Remember: If you can't find a skill that quite fits what you want your character to do, make a new one. Skills should be somewhat flexible in the Reflex System.

Acting The ability to take on the persona of a character, either real or fictitious.

Biology The study of life. Useful in any situation involving the theory of organic.

Bureaucracy Familiarity with bureaucracies of all kinds. Useful when one wants to speed up a governmental process that is designed to be slow.

Carpentry The ability to construct think out of wood. From toys to bridges.

Chemistry The study of chemicals. Useful in any situation involving the theory and application of chemicals. (explosives, poisons, etc.)

Climb Guess.

Computer Operation Operating a computer system. Includes knowledge of operating systems (DOS/Windows, Unix, etc.), applications, and games.

Computer Programming Programming of a computer sytsm. Includes most languges (C, C++, etc.)

Deception The ability to lie. "Really Officer, I didn't seen that stop sign"

Drive Operation of motor vehicles, from car to trucks.

Electronics Basic Electric circuit design and construction (remember, the integrated circuit was never invented in the world of the Screaming Silence).

Etiquette The knowledge of how to act in certain social situations. Sub- Skillable to different social levels and societies.

Explosives Boom! Includes creating and disarming.

Finance The study of how to make money (legally).

First Aid Patching people up so they don't die.

Gambling Knowledge of how to play (and win) at games of chance, from roulette to poker.

Gymnastics Ability to perform physical stunts.

Hand to Hand Ability for fight with one's fists and feet.

History Self explanatory. Sub-Skillable to a specific era or place.

Heavy Machinery The use of construction machinery.

Heavy Weapons Knowledge of the use and maintenance of heavy weapons, from bazookas to artillery pieces.

Intimidation The ability to get people to do what you want through less than socail means

Law Knowledge of the legal system

Leadership One's ability to lead people.

Linguistics Knowledge of languages. Sub-skillable to specific languages.

Lockpick Opening doors with out a key.

Mathematics Everyone's worst enemy.

Mechanics The ability to operate and fix mechanical devices.

Melee Use of hand weapons (sword, clubs, poddles).

Observation Sherlock Homes greatest skill

Philosophy The most useful skill in the Reflex System :-)

Photography The operation of a camera, and the overall theory of taking good pictures.

Physics The theories of physics. Great for determining when your exactly going to hit the ground after throwing yourself off a building.

Pilot Operation of flying machines.

Pistol Use of handguns.

Play Instrument The ability to play musical instruments. Sub-skillable to a specific instrument.

Research Library use, and all round collage skills.

Ride Cycle The operation of a motorcycle.

Rife Use of rifles, machine guns, SMG's, etc.

Running You ability to spring great distances.

Sail Operation of water vehicles.

Smithy The ability to forge metal.

Social Science Communism. Capitalism. Where to pick up your welfare check.

Stealth Be very quiet, I'm hunting rabbits.

Streetwise Where to contact the black market, and what to say when you do.

Survival Knowledge of how to live in the great outdoors. Sub-skillable to a specific climate.

Swim Blub.

Throw Whap. Hey watch where your throwing that thing!

Track Hmm, three men on two horses pass this way. One horse have bad limp.

Writing Ability to construct legible sentences.

Appendix C. Weapons and Equipment

"Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun." -Ash, Army of Darkness.

Ahh, guns. Lots of guns. Lots of really big guns. Lots of really really really really BIG guns. That's what this game needs. Lots of really really really really really really... I've tried to put a nice selection of weapons on this list, so the players won't get to bored to quick. But I have neither the time, nor the energy to make it anywhere near complete. If your going to get into any serious Heavy Ordnance you should go out and get the Compendium of Modern Firearms from R. Talsorian Games. This will give you all of the guns and explosives that you'll ever need (it has pictures too). Here's how to adapt it to the Reflex System:

Compendium of Modern Firearms Look at the chart on page 213-214. This is all the bullet damages for a bunch of different systems. Look at the last column, the D20 System, for the damages for all the bullets in the Reflex System. Easy, huh? Really, I didn't plan it this way... Now flip to the data on the particular weapon that you want. Ammo Type and Clip are right in front of you. Load Time is easy to figure: If its has a clip, Load Time is 1; if it's revolver, Load Time is 3 (unless you use a speed loader, then its 1). S/R is determined by looking at the Rate of Fire. Divide the (SS) by 30 and round up to find the S/R. If the gun is capable of automatic fire, its automatic rate is 10 (unless its some kind of mini gun, then you can put the S/R higher, GM's decision.) Dice Mod and the Ranges are a little harder to figure. Dice Mod is zero unless the GM feels there is a reason that it should be otherwise. Unless a weapon has a reputation for being either accurate or inaccurate, you don't have to worry about that. For Close Range, look down the Range Chart for the weapon. Where the probability for a body hit changes from 0.990 to any other probability is Close Range. i.e. The HP-35 Browning Hi Power has a 0.990 probability of a body hit at 50 meters. It has a 0.972 probability at 75 meters. That means the Browning's Close Range threshold lies somewhere between 50 and 75 meters. Lets take 50 as a nice round number. Long Range cannot be determined from the Compendium. Just say its at 200, unless you have a reason to think otherwise.

Of course, you might want a few blades and knives to round out your character, so go get The Compendium of Weapons, Armour, & Castles from Palladium Books. Here's what to do:

The Compendium of Weapons, Armour, & Castles This is really, really, easy: Look at the data on the weapon you want. Look at the Damage stat. This is the plus to the melee attack in the Reflex System. Look at the Dex. stat. Add this to 5 to determine the base difficulty for the weapon. That's it.

Weapons and Equipment List

Firearms:(Dice Mod,S/R,Ammo Type,Close Range,Long Range,Clip,Load Time,Cost)

Melee Weapons:(Base Diff,Damage Plus,Cost)

Equipment:(Cost,Weight)

Pistols Glock 17 (0,2,9mm,100,200,17,1,450) This popular pistol was made famous by the knee jerk gun centralists who dubbed it the "Plastic Pistol", and said that it could evade detection at airport metal detectors. That fact that it had more metal in its construction that most other guns was immaterial. This weapon is very popular with the police and armed security forces, and can often be found on their person.

M1911A1 (0,2,.45,25,200,7,1,400) This is the .45 Auto that has been in service in the US army for over 70 years. This is the only handgun that the players will find at the National Guard base at the beginning of the game.

Smith & Wesson Model 10 (0,2,.38,50,200,6,3,300) This is the stand issue police revolver, though it is often substituted for the Glock 17 by most policemen. It is also a popular self defense weapon among Americans.

SMG's Heckler & Koch MP5 (0,2/3rb/10,9mm,100,300,30,1,NA) The MP5 (and its various incarnations) is the most popular weapon of Commando and SWAT teams. Its adaptability and reliability make it an excellent weapon for all purpose combat, and will probably become a favorite weapon of the players. Most models of the MP5 have a folding stock so it can be shot as an SMG or as a rifle.

UZI (0,2/3rb/10,9mm,25,200,30,1,NA) The Uzi is as close to a classic as a weapon can become. Its peculiar design is instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever watched T.V. or gone to an action movie. The weapon still sees extensive service today, 40 some years after its invention, and is often found in the hands of police and criminals.

Ingram M10/11 (-1,15,9mm,25,200,32,1,NA) These tiny weapons are popular with the criminal community, and other less restrained individuals. The high rate of fire of the weapons has earned them the nickname of "Buzz Saw", which is most descriptive of their use. These weapons are far more controllable with the optional suppresser. If one is used the -1 dice mod can be ignored.

Assault Rifles AK-47 (0,10,7.62,75,500,30,1,250) Originally produced in Russia, and since shipped around the world, the AK-47 is one of the most common weapons in service anywhere in the world. Its rugged design, and reputation for dependability, make it the perfect weapon to be placed in the hands of untrained revolutionaries, or others with minimum weapons experience.

L85 (0,10,5.56,200,600,30,1,NA) The L85 is the new standard issue weapon system for the British army. It is of the innovative `bullpup' design, which means the magazine is located behind the trigger and grip. This supposedly reduces recoil, and makes the weapon easier to handle (and it makes it look really cool too...).

M16 (0,10,5.56,300,700,30,1,550) The standard issue weapon system of the US armed forces. The M16 has seen service for over 30 years in the hands of America troops, from the jungles of Vietnam to the desserts of the Persian Gulf. The weapon has gained a reputation for jamming when dirty. This will be the major weapon of use by the players since they will be raiding a national guard base.

Shotguns Remington 870 (+2/-1,1,12gu.,15,40,7,5,200) A classic pump action shotgun. Popular with the police, and for home safety.

CAWS (+2/-1,2/8,12gu,15,40,12,1,NA) This Close Assault Weapon System defiantly lives up to its name. When set for full auto, it can pretty much turn anything into hamburger in one round. A couple of these might be laying around the National Guard base, if the GM is in a good mood.

Machineguns M60 (0,10,7.62,200,600,belt,belt,NA) The standard general purpose machinegun of the US army. The M60 has a built in bipod which, unless your Rambo, must be used when firing the weapon. The weapon is belt fed, with a stand belt holding 100 rounds.

Minimi (0,15,5.56,50,400,30/belt,1/belt,NA) The light machinegun of the US military, the weapon can either take an M16 magazine, or be belt fed.

.50 M2HB (0,10,.50,200,800,belt,belt,NA) This is a big gun. big, big, big gun. What else do you want to know?

Grenades & Launchers

Grenades (Damage,Area of Effect)

M67 (4d6,2) The standard fragmentation grenade of the US armed forces. About the size and shape of a baseball. Has a standard 4 second (1 round) delay fuse.

M203 (0,1,40mm,50,400,1,2,550) This is the under barrel grenade launcher used by the US Army. It must be mounded to the underside of a M16 or compatible weapon to be used. It can use various loads as listed bellow: The M79, the U.S.'s stand alone grenade launcher, has the same stats.

M381 HE (4d8,1) High explosive round. The most common load. M397 HE Airburst (4d8,2) Similar to M381, but explodes above the ground. M433 HEDP (4d8,1) Can penetrate 5 cm of steel. M576 MP (0,1,12gu,5,30,1,2,NA) Turns the Grenade Launcher into a shotgun. There are also a plethora of tear gas, rubber, and other non- lethal rounds.

Heavy Weapons 30mm ASP (0,2/10,exp(4d8,1),100,500,belt,belt,NA) This is a fully automatic 30mm grenade launcher. Very, very, very, nasty. Must be fired from a tripod.

M72 LAW (0,1,exp(6d8,2),100,1000,1,NA,NA) This disposable weapon is able to blast its way through almost a foot of steel.

M202 FLASH (0,1,Flame (area of 20),50,750,4,2,NA) This incendiary weapon is intended to replace the flame-thrower is field service. It fires a 66mm incendiary rocket that, for game purposes, destroys everything in its target zone.

Hand Weapons Dagger: (5,+1) Military issue knife. Diamond tipped, and all that.

The Heavy Ordnance Roleplaying Game

Name: Method: Conformist/ Rebel Height: Weight: Motive: Charitable/Selfish Age: Drive: Pacifist/Militant Hero Points:

Attributes

Physical ___ Well Being ___ ___ Strength ___ ___ Agility ___

___ Perception ___ ___ Endurance ___ ___ Dexterity ___ Mental ___ Wits ___ ___ Willpower ___ ___ IQ ___

Skills

___ Acting ___ ___ Bureaucracy ___ ___ Biology ___ ___ Carpentry ___ ___ Chemistry ___ ___ Climb ___ ___ Computer Op___ ___ Computer Prg___ ___ Deception ___ ___ Dodge/Dive ___ ___ Drive ___ ___ Electronics ___ ___ Etiquette* ___ ___ Explosives ___ ___ Finance ___ ___ First Aid ___ ___ Gambling ___ ___ Gymnastics ___

___ Hand to Hand___ ___ History* ___ ___ Hvy. Mach. ___ ___ Hvy. Weapns ___ ___ Intimidation ___ ___ Law ___ ___ Leadership ___ ___ Linguistics* ___ ___ Lockpick ___ ___ Mathematics ___ ___ Mechanics ___ ___ Melee ___ ___ Observation ___ ___ Philosophy ___ ___ Photography ___ ___ Physics ___ ___ Pilot ___ ___ Pistol ___

___ Play Inst* ___ ___ Research ___ ___ Ride Cycle ___ ___ Rifle ___ ___ Running ___ ___ Sail ___ ___ Smithy ___ ___ Social Sci. ___ ___ Streetwise ___ ___ Stealth ___ ___ Survival* ___ ___ Swim ___ ___ Track ___ ___ Throw ___ ___ Writing ___

Sub-Skills _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ Exception & Detrimental Abilities _____________________ ___________ ___ ___________ ___ _____________________ ___________ ___ ___________ ___ _____________________ ___________ ___ ___________ ___ _____________________

Pips Dice 10 -- 1d 30 -- 2d 60 -- 3d 100 -- 4d 150 -- 5d

+Diff Total Dice 2 1d 3 2d 4 3d 5 4d 6 5d

Success Result 1 - 2 Normal 3 1 Bump 4 2 Bump 5 3 Bump

Equipment Ammo

Hit Chart

Head ___ ___________

R Arm ___ Torso ___ L Arm ___ ____________ ___________ ____________

Abdomen ___ ___________

R Leg ___ L Leg ___ ___________ ____________

Money:

Firearms

Weapon Dice Mod. S\R Ammo Close Long Clip Load

Melee Weapons

Weapon Base Diff. Damage Mod.