Dark Matter

Additional and Modified Rules

Stun and Coma

The default Palladium rules sort of cater for stun, in my opinion very badly, and coma, except coma only occurs when a character is dying (below Zero HP), and thus is not applicable to resist being rendered unconscious, as in the case of 'Stunners' in Dark Matter.

According to the default rules both in Rifts and other books "A character subject to Knockout/Stun is not necessarily unconscious just dazed". So why even bother having it as an ability that can be gained at certain levels in HtoH combat? I did once find a minor clarification in the rules that suggested a character who is 'Stunned' simply looses their next attack, and tucked away in the Conversion Rulebook, a 'Knockout' resulting from a 'Point Blank' shot to the Head or Heart will render the character unconscious for 2D6 hours.

Stike to Knockout/Stun

If the 'Automatic Knockout/Stun on a Natural nn/nn/nn' ability exists then this implies that anybody can attempt a strike to Knockout/Stun at any time, except again there is nothing in the rules for this.
Any 'Strike to Knockout Stun' requires a 'Called Shot' against the Head of the Target, even in HtoH combat. This means that the attacker must roll 12 or more to hit the intended location, and exceed the AR of the Armour the Target is wearing (thus you in theory can't knockout or stun somebody using Armour of Ithane, at least in HtoH combat, but I'll leave it to apply common sense to this one).

Hits to the Head automatically inflict double damage (2x damage from die roll + 2x PS damage modifier). Even if the blow is intended as a non-lethal one it may still kill the target (see Below).

If the Damage is greater than 3xDR then the target must save Vs Knockout/Stun. If the Attacker has 'Automatic Knockout/Stun on a Natural nn/nn/nn' and successfully rolled that on the dice then the target receives a penalty of  3x the Attackers PS damage bonus to the save.

If the save is failed the target is knocked unconscious, otherwise they are stunned.

Note:- this only applies to HtoH attacks with Feet/Fists/Tentacles/Tails and only if the Attacker doesn't posses an attack mode that can directly affect the nervous system of the target, such as Electric Eels, which use an Electric Discharge to stun/incapacitate their prey. Similarly it doesn't apply to weapons such as Stun sticks. However, certain small blunt weapons can be used to knockout/stun, such as knuckle dusters and saps/coshes. Again GMs need to uses their common sense here, a skilled Martial Artist making a called shot to the head with a staff would in theory be able to knock their opponent out.

Note:- The traget of a Knockout/Stun attack, assuming they have the actions available to do so, can still attempt to Parry, Dodge, Entangle, and if struck roll with Punch.

Save Vs Knockout/Stun

The chance to knockout/stun a target is dependant upon both strength and technique as outlined above, thus the ability to resist the effect of a stun attack is the inverse, the weaker the attacker the greater the chance to resist the blow.

Thus the base saves, according to the strength and entity designation of the Attacker are

Supernatural : 1%->10%

Robot, Android, Super with a PS>40 : 1->15%

Robot, Android, Super with a 30>PS<=40 : 1->20%

Robot, Android, Super, Augmented Creature with a 21>=PS<=30 : 1->25%

All others with a PS<30 : 1->30%

PE bonus to save adds to the base, Attacker's PS modifier reduces the base. Roll under the modified base to Save.

A successful 'Roll with Punch' roll halves both the inflicted damage, and the Attackers PS modifier to Stun/Knockout.

Knockout/Stun Effect

As described above a failed save Vs Knockout/Stun renders the target of the Attack Unconscious whilst a successful save just leaves them 'Stunned', except again the rules fail to describe what 'Stunned' means.....

A Stunned oponent has only half their Attacks/Actions and may not actively attack. They may counterstrike but without benefit of any HtoH:Stike bonues. All bonuses to Parry, Dodge, Roll with Punch/Fall/Impact are halved (round down). They also suffer a +8 penalty to their initiative (ie they are slow to react to anything).

On the round after they are stunned, and on all subsequent rounds until they recover, they may make additional saves Vs Knockout/Stun, but without applying the Attackers Modifier, and on the second and subsequent attempts an additional bonus of 1/3 their PE Bonus cumulative (i.e 1/3 on attempt 2, 2/3 on attempt 3, full on attempt 4, etc).

Characters automatically recover after (10 - Stun Reduction Duration) rounds, assuming they fail all thier recovery saves.

If the target is Knocked out then they are rendered unconscious for (damage inflicted - 2xStun Reduction Duration) x 5 minutes

Knockdown/Knockback

The only rules relating to knockdown are in the Conversion book and relate to MDC damage taken from Missiles, Railguns, and the like, and are simple 'roll percentile - low is better' type roll with no modifications for 'Strength' except exempting Supernatural Creatures which again is illogical; a man-sized supernatural creaturre is as much subject to the effect as a man-size suit of armour or cyborg, even if they are much better able to resist the effect (although having the ground blown away in a 10m diameter crater isn't exactly resistable).

Attribute Modifiers

Attribute Value 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
PS Damage Modifier
+2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10 +11 +12 +13 +14 +15 +16 +17 +18 +19 +20 +21 +22 +23 +24 +25
PS  Modifier to Save Vs Knockdown
+1%
+3%
+5%
+7%
+9%
+11%
+13%
+15%
+17%
+19%
+21%
+23%
 +25%
 +27%
 +30%
 +33%
 +36%
 +39%
 +42%
 +44%
 +47%
 +50%
 +53%
 +56%
PS Modifier to Stun/Knockout
+1%
+2%
+3%
+4%
+5%
+6%
+7%
+8%
+10%
+12%
+14%
+16%
 +18%
 +20%
 +23%
 +26%
 +29%
 +31%
 +34%
 +37%
 +40%
 +43%
 +46%
 +49%
PE Modifier to Save Vs Stun/Coma
 +3%
+5%
+7%
+9%
+11%
+13%
+15%
+17%
+19%
+21%
+23%
+25%
 +27%
 +29%
 +31%
 +33%
 +35%
 +37%
 +39%
 +41%
 +43%
 +45%
 +47%
 +49%
PE Stun Reduction Duration
 0 
 1
 1 
 1 
 2 
 2
 2 
 3 
 3 
 3 
 4
 4
 4
 5
 5
 5
 5
 6 6
 6
 6
 6
 6
 7

Non-lethal/Blunt Force Trama and DR.

The Damage Capacity rules which replace SDC/MDC/HP into a unified scalable attribute, enables the absorbtion of a character's Damage Resistance (Damage Capacity/5) if a blow is characterised as either Non-Lethal and/or delivered by a 'Blunt' object or weapon, a punch, or a kick, and in all cases where neither an object nor weapon is used not delivered by a Supernatural creature, as these blows ignore DR.

All well and good so far, however, if you hit somebody hard enough, then you're actually going to do real damage, even if the intent is not to (ruptured spleen, kndneys, broken ribs, etc). So this bit is currently missing from the rules as they stand...

To cater for this the following changes apply..

For Supernatural creatures or characters with Supernatural Strength : If they inflict more than 3x the characters DR then 20% of the damage inflicted is 'lethal' damage and could thus accidentally kill the target unless they pull their blow.

For Robots, Androids, and characters with Super strength : If they inflict more than 3x the characters DR then 10% of the damage inflicted is 'lethal' damage and could thus accidentally kill the target unless they pull their blow (although less of a chance than those with Supernatural Strength).

For Augmented characters with enhanced strength : If they inflict more than 3x the characters DR then 5% of the damage inflicted is 'lethal' damage.

For characters with exceptional strength : If they inflict more than 5x the characters DR then 10% of the damage inflicted is 'lethal' damage.

Note: if the attacker makes their Pull Punch roll (roll 11 or higher on D20) then the 'lethal' element of the damage is halved.


The Legal Bit
Dark Matter original Graphic Novels by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie published by Dark Horse Publications Adapted for Telivision by Sci-Fi Channel.


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