The Vortex Parallel Rifts® Megaverse®

Rules Modifications - The Damage Capacity System

These rules outline a significant change to the Palladium System.

I have long had issues with the Standard Damage Capacity (SDC), Mega Damage Capacity (MDC) and Armour rules.

In the default system only SDC armour, even if it covers the entire body, has an Armour Rating (AR). I have in the past, as a base, changed the MDC:SDC ratio from 1:100 to 1:10, and given all MDC an AR based upon its current condition.

This second change I’m keeping with the change to Damage Capacity(DC) as it allows weapons that wouldn’t normally be able to penetrate armour to do so if its falling apart.

The Damage Capacity(DC) rules were written by Edward May (Sir Tenzan), a long standing Rifts GM and are available on his website (https://sirtenzan.tripod.com/RIFTS/houserules.html) as well as being reproduced (for the most part) below.

There are some amendments to his original rules as I don’t agree with his linear progression for everything, nor with the way that Penetration Resistance worked for Robots, Vehicles, and Power Armour. There are also additions for Psionics,Magic, and Cyborgs which are not covered in his original rules.

Damage Capacity

You may call them hit points, others may call them hit dice, and others may call it whatever they will. For simplicity's sake, I've chosen the neutral name of Damage Capacity, D.C. This is the factor that will rule over all others, hit points, S.D.C., and M.D.C. (Though these archaic terms will be used in converting the system to this new, more realistic and more deadly system.)

A character, who is not what previously was an MDC being, begins with a Damage Capacity of the equivalent of his P.E. plus 1D10 plus any PE bonus plus (if applicable) any race bonuses plus any (previously) S.D.C. added from his/her O.C.C (including that added by OCC/RCC skills). A character what previously was an MDC being begins with a Damage Capacity equal to their MDCx5.

With experience, a characters total DC increases according to their OCC/RCC/race progression. Previous SDC creatures gain 1D10 for each additional level plus any SDC increment gained through new physical skills (Note these may also raise PE and modify the PE Bonus). Progression for previous MDC being is RCC/race dependent.

Absorbing Damage

A character can absorb certain types of damage fairly well, including falls, punches, kicks, and blunt attacks. To determine how much damage can be absorbed by a character, per attack, figure that 1/5 of their total Damage Capacity, can be absorbed in each attack of this type.

Thus a character with a total of 30 DC can absorb up to 6 points of damage for every non-supernatural physical punch/kick attack made against them. This means that a character with a PS of 3-15, striking a character with 30 DC with any regular punch, will not do much (or any) damage to them unless a critical strike is rolled. Now, power punches, trained kick attacks, and super strong characters have a much better chance of doing real damage.

Attacks with bladed weapons, bullets, and similar, cannot be absorbed, in fact, these are extremely serious wounds that will continue to bleed additional damage capacity after the attack has been inflicted – See Blood Loss below.

Note: Physical attacks (punches, kicks, claw and bite attacks) by supernatural or magic creatures bypass this damage absorption ability. Thus, you cannot absorb damage inflicted by a supernatural creature in this fashion, unless you’re a supernatural creature yourself.

Blood Loss

After an attack has been made by blade, bullet, or anything else that punctures the skin and causes blood loss (Note: Wounds inflicted by Energy Weapons tend to be self-cauterizing), the wound continues to bleed, inflicting 1D3 damage to the character per point of penetration value past the limitations of their armor, if applicable, per minute. If a weapon has a penetration value of 4, and its target is not wearing any armor at all, it inflicts the initial damage PLUS 4D3 damage in blood loss for every minute thereafter. Naturally paramedic/first aid rolls can be used to staunch blood flow. Note the Blood Loss damage is applied every combat round (15 seconds) at the end of the round. Thus is you are bleeding at 9D3 per minute then you lose 2D3 DC for the first 3 rounds and 3D3 DC at the end of the last round.

Penetration Resistance

This is a rating that determines how resistant an object or an individual is to penetration, as its name suggests. This value essentially rates how much of the force of an impact it can take, due to armor protection, before the structure takes damage.

Body Armour

Modern body armor, Kevlar and the like, have a penetration resistance of between one and five, meaning that it can resist most assault weapon attacks, but anything heavier still stands a good chance of getting through. A good way to rate high tech body armor in RIFTS is simply to make it 1/10 of the armor's damage capacity, rounding up.

This means that a man wearing CA-1 Body Armor can be pummeled with hundreds of 7.65 mm rounds from an AK-47, since their penetration value is only a 6, though jostled and bounced around, the armor takes virtually no damage - aside from scuffing up the paint job. If a jeep with a .50 caliber machine gun in the back pulls up though, the man wearing the CA-1 had better take cover, because it's going to eventually punch its way through his armor.

Here are some common examples;

This system makes Plastic Man a good quality suit of body armor that can resist most light damaging attacks, and has the added benefit of providing environmental protection; essentially a hard-NBC suit. Meanwhile true combat types like CA-1 are efficient at stopping anything short of a 50 caliber full metal jacket round. However true this may be, a rail gun would chew up most anything on a battlefield -armored or not. Using an RG-14 Boom Gun against armored infantry would be massive overkill, like using a tank against infantry.

Vehicles, Robot Vehicles, and Power Armour

Whilst extending this system over to heavier forms of armor would be appropriate as well, especially in the case of armored vehicles, armored robot vehicles, and similar, it falls down when we consider MDC per location. For example the Glitterboy has a Main body MDC of 770 but each arm has an MDC of 270. This would give a PR 77 for the main body and a PR of 27 for the arm, yet both are made of exactly the same thickness and type of material, it’s just the main body is a larger area and therefore had a greater capacity to take damage before its destroyed. This simplification is further compounded with vehicles not specifically designed as armored vehicles, like cars, trucks, semi-trucks, hover-vehicles, and aircraft, and made worse if they a reinforced pilot's compartment. The answer lies in what the armour is designed to protect against. In most cases it’s good against small arms fire and most heavy man portable weapons (missilers excepted), but not against mainline battle tanks (at least pre-rifts MBT since the Glitterboy was designed to stand up against these, and to date has the most advanced MDC armour manufactured on Rifts Earth). Looking at the Penetration Value (see below) of both modern and Pre-rifts weapons we can make some assessments of the PR of armours.

Supernatural Creatures

Creatures with supernatural attributes are another matter to consider. One must take a couple of factors into account - their M.D.C. and the nature of this M.D.C. protection. Creatures that are soft skinned and human like, but nonetheless supernatural will have a Penetration Resistance equal to the square root of their MDC/4. Thus a creature with 100 M.D.C. now has a Penetration Resistance of 5. This means that they are impervious to most small arms fire, all the way up to a 5.56mm Caliber round fired at point blank range. Meanwhile a creature with 1,000 M.D.C. has a Penetration Resistance of 16, which is impervious to most support and infantry level weapons. However, if a Glitterboy with an RG-14 walks up, or a tank drives up that creature is in serious danger.

That covers creatures with soft flesh. Then you have to consider creatures with hard protective features, like a dragon with their legendary scaly hide, or a Fury Beetle's tough carapace. For these creatures their Penetration Resistance is equal to the square root of their MDCx4. With a Hatchling Dragon that has 250 M.D.C., then it has a Penetration Resistance of 32. Once that same Hatchling reaches maturity in 600 years, guessing that it becomes a 2,500MDC dragon it’s penetration resistance rises to 100! There is very little in the books that would phase a dragon of this power, let alone the most powerful Great Horned Dragon possible with 8,000 M.D.C., which would have a P.R. of 180.

Cyborgs and Robots

Another element missing in the original rules is that in regard to Cyborgs and Robots (such as Coalition Skelebots).

In the case of robots, as opposed to piloted robot vehicles, their structure/frame is their armour, and as in the case of power armour we can’t use any MDC by location rules. Instead we’ll use either the “Frame MDC” if using the construction rules or the “Main Body MDC” if that’s all we have, like in the case for robots like the FASSAR-20 Skelebot. The PR of the robot is then given by the square root of the mainbody/Frame MDC rounded to the nearest integer. Thus a basic light frame with 120MDC has a PR of 11 the same as that of a Skelebot with a Mainbody MDC of 130. This applies to all elements of the robots construction, main body, legs, arms, tentacles, tails, and head. This also allows for highly penetrating attacks to sever limbs or blow the robot apart. If the PV is more than twice the PR of the robot then the either the limb/location is destroyed or the robot blown apart, if they failboth their Dodge (if available) and their “Roll with Impact”(if available) save.

M.D.C./S.D.C. Conversions

M.D.C. Conversions are relatively straightforward and simple, take the amount that already exists and multiply it by 5. Here are the new Damage Capacities for various structures in RIFTS;

S.D.C. Conversions are even simpler - convert them straight across 1 S.D.C. = 1DC. Thus a GAW-F14 with 1,800 S.D.C. now has 1,800 DC. Comparing the F-14 to the Nightwing, then, you wind up with a new age jet slightly tougher than its pre-cataclysm stable-mate, thanks to new technologies. Some objects in RIFTS are inappropriately rated for this system, however, and are perhaps poorly rated even for the RIFTS game with the existing rules set. After all, a battleship taking a dozen serious strikes on or below the waterline can sink, even though it hasn't been blown completely out of the water.

Thus ships like the Ticonderoga with 20,000 M.D.C. would convert to a Damage Capacity of 100,000. This means that the armor is so thick that you would essentially need a several mega-ton nuke to do any damage to it. A better system would involve a damage capacity per area. An example;

Weapon turrets, screws, and similar can all have fixed amounts of damage, but these areas should be labeled in this fashion so that it makes it apparent that although the vessel is massive, it is not a super armored juggernaut. Carriers were never meant to duke it out with an enemy point blank, they were meant to stand off and strike with their aircraft. A carrier would yield like tissue paper against missiles and large caliber cannons. In addition to this, create a table of damages that can be inflicted or just use some common sense in the matter. If the vessel is struck in the aft lower hull - then assume that one of the engine rooms are now flooding. Give it a number of compartments that can flood without causing adverse effects, and go with it. It makes it a lot more dramatic and realistic. Naturally, as a combat vessel, it will have provisions for pumping, repair, and such - so don't make it unrealistically low either. I would say about two dozen good hits below the water line (12 10x10 foot areas) will send her to the Davie Jones locker. A dozen on one side could cause her to roll. For a total damage capacity, I would go ahead and use the 100,000 D. Cap that it’s converted M.D.C. would provide, but use the P.R.s for each separate area. Just rule that once that much damage has been inflicted, the vessel is in serious trouble of structural failure, fires are popping up faster than damage control can counter them, and the vessel is essentially doomed.

Don't count stuff like turrets, screws, and similar against this total -just stuff regarding the hull's integrity itself. Converting supernatural creatures over is a simple conversion, just multiply the M.D.C. by five, and that becomes their D.C.

Penetration Value

All weapons have some measure of penetration value, but not all weapons are created equally in terms of their ability to penetrate armor. Lasers are notoriously poor armor penetrators. Rail Guns are good armor penetrators due to their velocity, but AP weapons are still better. Plasma is good for cooking a soldier in body armor, but is poor at penetrating the armor plate of an armored vehicle. Here are some rules of thumb to go by when determining penetration value. These factors will be determined by how much M.D. the weapon inflicted prior to the conversion to the new system;

Lasers

1/3 the Max. Damage of the weapon. Thus a laser that inflicts 24 M.D. (4D6) will have a Penetration Value of 8; roughly equivalent to pre-cataclysm assault rifles using A.P. rounds. Note that ion weapons are classified within this category.
Pulse lasers are a different entity entirely. Pulse lasers space their beams by microseconds to counter the diffusion that typically hampers high powered lasers as a result of vaporized material on the target - thus treat any bursts from a pulse laser weapon as having a penetration value based on the total burst damage. Thus an L-20 or CP-40, has a P.V. of 12! Note: Some armour’s, like the Glitterboy’s are polychromatic and highly laser resistant. Against these armours, halve the PV unless it’s a variable frequency laser, when it returns to its nominal value after the laser has attuned to the correct frequency.

Plasma

1/5 the Max. Damage of the weapon. Thus a plasma blast that inflicts 60 M.D. (1D6x10) will have a Penetration Value of 12; roughly equivalent to pre-cataclysm white phosphorus, if not a little better.

Rail Guns, Fragmentation, HE, and non-AP explosives

1/2 the Max. Damage of the weapon. Thus a Rail Gun that inflicts 40 M.D. (1D4x10) will have a Penetration Value of 20! Using this same formula for the RG-14 Boom Gun that inflicts 180 M.D. (3D6x10) you wind up with a Penetration Value of 90, making it a true anti-armor weapon.

Armor Piercing Explosives (including shaped charges)

These are specifically designed as armor penetrators, thus they have a 1 for 1 penetration value versus mega-damage. However penetration is not linear, bigger shells do not travel faster, they just inflict more damage in a bigger radius. For damage up to MDCx10 use 1:1. For damage of MDCx100 divide the damage by 10 as a base then add (square root of the die type * die type) for each die of damage.
An AP Mini-Missile has a P.V. of 40, since it inflicts 1D4x10 M.D. Meanwhile a 200 mm H.E.A.T. round that does 3D6x10 M.D. has a P.V. of 180! This illustrates the use of having a 7 ton cannon in a heavily armored turret, versus just having a 700+ Lb. RG-14 Boom Gun. It also shows the AP Mini-Missile to be an effective weapon against lightly armored vehicles like APCs and similar, but not much use against a main battle tank. Meanwhile a 16 inch cannon on a battleship, with a maximum damage of 3D6x100 M.D. has a P.V. of 224 (180+3*sqrt(6)*6) - basically showing that it can inflict damage to just about anything it is pointed at, just as it should be.

Particle Beams

1/2 the Max. Damage of the weapon. Thus a particle beam that inflicts 40 M.D. (1D4x10) will have a penetration value of 20. Particle Beams are a different entity from loose plasma cloud explosive blasts, they are focused and directed at a target at speeds approaching the speed of light, and do not suffer the diffusion problems lasers do. As a result their penetration values are far superior.

Vibro-Weapons

1/2 the Max. Damage of the weapon. Thus a vibro-sword that inflicts 12 M.D. (2D6) will have a Penetration Value of 6.

Force and Mono-filament Weapons

Equal to the Max. Damage of the weapon

Magic Blades

Equal to the Max. Damage of the weapon. Magic weapons specific to demons, monsters, dragons, good, evil, etc. - all have the normal penetration value mentioned here against other opponents, but against the specific target type they specialize in, ignore the penetration resistance of that target! Thus a tank with a 200 mm cannon can hammer on a 4,000 M.D. dragon all day long with H.E.A.T. rounds without doing much more than pissing it off. A lone hero, however, with a dragon slayer sword, however, can engage and potentially defeat the beast.

Magic Spell and Psionic Effects

In the original article there is no consideration of either damage inflicted or resisted by either Spells or Psionic ability. Given that these are a fundamental part of Rifts it’s somewhat of an omission.

Conventional Weapons

Here is a list of conventional weapons calibers with their approximate penetration values and damages:

Note: Frangible rounds have a penetration value of 1, regardless of caliber of the round, but the rounds does double damage to soft targets - like unarmored humans. Full metal jacket variants increase the penetration value by 2.

Supernatural Creatures

Attacks from these creatures are the big X-Factor in setting up this system. Assume that the penetration value of hand-to-hand attacks made by a supernatural creature is equal to his/her penetration resistance. This means that a Great Horned Dragon Hatchling, with 450 M.D.C prior to conversion, has a P.V. to all of his/her hand to hand attacks of 32! Meanwhile an adult ice dragon with 4,000 M.D.C. prior to conversion has a P.V. to all of his/her hand to hand attacks of 126! This effect is purely mystical, and does not mean that the attacks do any more damage than the listed conversion, it's just that it somehow effects much stronger armor than it technically should. This is actually a system that makes sense, as supernatural creatures often have hierarchies that are based around the strongest/toughest member of a group, as is the case with Gargoyles. Hatchling dragons will NEVER in their right mind attempt to tangle with an adult. Demons tend to be extremely subservient to greater demons. This all explains those reasons quite well - with the M.D.C. system as it was previously, if a lesser demon got really lucky, it could essentially defeat a much tougher demon. With this system an Alu Demon would never even consider bucking up against a Gallu Demon Bull, because he'd mop the floor with him and come out unscathed. Note. For spells which create magic armour, multiply their DR by 5 against physical attacks by supernatural and magic creatures.

M.D. Weapon Damage Conversion Table

In the original system, as developed by Edward May, there is a conversion table for weapon damages, but the conversion significantly alters the bell curve of damage for the weapon. I would rather keep the bell curve as is and just apply the x5 multiplier to previously MDC weapons.

Supernatural Damage Conversion Table

The damages listed in the GMG had to be adjusted somewhat to fit the new system a bit more adequately.

Conclusion

This new system of modifications will allow RIFTS to have a more balanced feel to it, so that tanks cannot be taken out by infantrymen leveling a platoon sized barrage of laser fire against it, in less than five seconds. Tactics might allow them to disable a tank tread, dump a grenade down a cannon barrel, or even to blast through the hatches leading to the soft and fleshy crew inside - but that takes serious work and strategy, something seen far too infrequently than it should be in any game. It also makes it so that supernatural creatures of immense power are indeed something to be feared. What I liked about the weapon's conversions was that it made it so that an infantryman could take out another infantryman relatively well, with the right equipment, but against a suit of power armor - he would be next to powerless. I also like how the penetration values of certain weapons begin to illustrate their purposes a little better than the previous system. An AP Mini-Missile was about the most redundant example I could think of in the previous system. I know my players ALWAYS opted for plasma mini-missiles if given the option. Now, you see that plasma is good for certain things, but not so good for others. It can fry a guy in body armor, and it will utterly annihilate anything that is poorly armored, yet against armored vehicles it's just an expensive pyrotechnic show. Meanwhile the AP Mini sucks for anti-infantry operations, given its small blast radius, yet against armor it can put serious hurt on these. According to Spirit West, the C-40R was a lightweight and less expensive alternative to the USA-M31, the rail gun intended for the SAMAS by the US Government. This rule shows the C-40R to be excellent as an anti-infantry weapon, but a piece of junk when bucking up against real armor. It show's the SAMAS's entire purpose as being a heavyweight bruiser meant to support infantry against infantry, rather than as a high speed and agile armor-busting dynamo. Heavy combat calls for heavy weaponry - plain and simple. The USA-M31 described in Spirit West does 1D6x10 M.D. which would give it a P.V. of 30, more than enough to effect a suit of armor like the SAMAS, which was the standard for the time. There again, it fits the setting, yet against even something like the APC V - it is not enough to really do more than scuff up the paint job. What I also like about this system is that it makes it easier to support the idea of energy weapons in addition to conventional firearms. Conventional firearms have long been complained about, in RIFTS, as useless. They have GREAT value in this system, because they are cheap, easy to produce, and the true assault models with the right accessories/ammunition are reasonably effective against all but the heaviest armored infantry. While this system will prove to be a challenge to integrate at first, it will probably improve the combat setting all around to have a lot more shell shock value to it that was strongly lacking in the RIFTS system. At last - characters will avoid diving into a pitched battle against powerful adversaries, and even if they do, they will have to work for every inch they might gain.

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