What's all this, then?

Long ago, I worked to create a modification of Legends of the Old West that supported Barsoomian adventures. It was a lot of fun, but I never really got to play the game very often, and there were some aspects of the play that I didn't really enjoy.

I thought back on the game, and decided that I would come up with my own skirmish rules. Here they are.

Right now they're very incomplete.

If for some reason you feel compelled to give the a try, I would really appreciate it if you would give me a heads up and some feedback.

Setup

• Determine the characters you want to play. Right now I only have specs for a couple (Red Men and Green Men). I recommend 2 red men for every green man on the other side. Otherwise, just keep the forces even for now.
• Make up an activation deck.
• There are a couple of ways to accomplish this:
• A bowl of colored marbles, one for each figure on the board.
• A bowl of poker chips with the names of the characters on each side.
• Cards with the character names on them, or numbers that are assigned to a character, or suits.
• For every 9 markers, add a 10th unique marker. This marker marks the end of a turn. Have a minimum of 6 markers for each end of turn marker, so if you only have three characters, double up on their markers (each would have 2) in addition to the end of turn marker.
• Each player takes turns setting out scenery.
• Each player takes turns setting his characters out on the board.
• Each player declares what each character is currently armed with.

The game is now ready to play.

Turn Sequence

• Activate each character by pulling an activation marker. If the End Turn marker comes up, go to the Clean Up phase.
• That character can now take actions. Each action has a cost. A character can spend all, some or none of their actions at this time. They may want to reserve their actions to be used later for defense
• Possible actions:
• Shoot: A character may spend points to discharge a weapon. They don't have to shoot at any one or thing in particular, but if they want to hit an opposing character, that opponent must be in range of the weapon.
• Attack: A character may spend points to attack an opposing character. The characters must be in base to base contact to engage in an attack.
• Move: A character may spend points to move. Each point spent will move them their movement distance, modified by terrain.
• Take an Action: Jumping, opening doors, reloading weapons, all are actions that can be taken. All have an associated cost.
• Reserve an action: A character must have action points if they wish to defend themselves against future attacks, so a character that expects to be engaged in an attack may want to reserve points to defend themselves.
• Clean up: Any dead characters can be removed, all action points are reset, any scenarios effects that need to be resolved are resolved, any victory conditions are tested, and so forth.

Action Points

• A character spends action points to perform actions. Every action has a cost.
• The number listed with the character is how many action points a character starts with at the beginning of being activated.

Optional - this hasn't been playtested yet

• As a character takes damage, his action reserve goes down. Divide his action by the number of wounds. When a character takes a wound, the maximum action he has available when activated is reduced by that number.
• A character is allowed to expend a wound in order to add action points for a turn. The added action points are only available for the current turn, and the character won’t regain that wound. This represents someone pushing themself so hard that they’ve taken damage to achieve some result, and may provide a character with that extra edge they need at a vital moment to overcome some adversary or obstacle.

Recovery

• If a model takes more hits than he has, he’s really out of the game. If he’s reduced to exactly 0 points, then he has a chance of recovering during the course of the game. Leave his activation card in the pile. When his activation turns up, he can spend all of his action to roll for recovery. Roll a d6. On a roll of 1, he has recovered from his shock and gains one wound.

Shoot

• A player's character spends the requisite number of action points to fire.
• Verify the target is in range.
• If it is, roll less than or equal to the characters Shooting skill using a d6.
• If the roll is successfull, the opponent rolls to see if they take damage. They need to roll less than or equal to their Strength to avoid taking damage.
• If the opponent fails the roll, they take damage according to the damage specified in the weapon.
• Mark off an expended shot from the weapon

Attack

• If an attacking character has moved into contact with another character, and still has action available, they may elect to spend those actions as attacks.
• For each attack made, the character must expend the action listed with the weapon.
• An attack is made by rolling less than or equal to the attack value with a d6.
• If the defender has action points left, they may either:
• Move out of contact, thereby ending the attack.
• Defend, by rolling the defense or less on a d6
• After a character has defended, if they still have action points available, and they are still in contact, they may choose to attack. The roles are now reversed.
• If the defender fails his defense roll, the attack hits, and the defender takes damage equal to the weapons strength

Other Actions

• Reload
• Jump
• Open/Close Doors
• Pick something up/put something down/pass something to another character (they must have available action points)

Move

• A character can move as many inches as are listed in there stats per action
• Terrain will affect the cost.
• A character may move, take and action, and then move. The order they expend actions is completely up to them.

Big Men

These are larger than life characters, who inspire and lead a band of men. Some characters start out as big men. Some characters are elevated to the status of big man by circumstance. There must always be at least one big man in each warband.

There are limits to the number of big men you are allowed to take with a warband. I’ll discuss that in force composition.

• If you take a character who is already a big man, he must be the leader of the warband, he cannot be demoted to the status of a common follower.
• If a big man is killed or incapacitated, then another character must be elevated to the status of big man.
• A big man has 2 more action points. He can share his action points with another member of his team.
• Some big men have Fame. These are points they can use to drive the rest of their team to greater feats. Once a fame point has been spent in a given game, it isn’t recovered for the duration of the game.
• Fame can be used as a modifier to any die roll in a game, either positively or negatively. The character must be within 6 inches of the big man to receive the modifier.

Characters

Red Man

• Shoot: 3
• Strength: 3
• Fight: 3
• Dodge: 3
• Wounds: 2
• Actions: 6
• Movement: 1"
• Equipped with:
• Rifle
• Pistol
• Sword
• Dagger

Green Man

• Shoot: 2
• Strength: 3
• Fight: 4
• Dodge: 3
• Wounds: 5
• Actions: 6
• Movement: 2"
• Equipped with:
• Rifle
• Pistol
• Sword
• Dagger

Equipment

Ranged weapons can also be used in melee (you can always use a pistol like a club). When rolling to shoot, Ranged weapons use Shoot to determine if a hit is successful. When used as clubs, ranged weapons use Bludgeon. Obviously, ranged weapons do not use ammo when used in melee.

Rifle

• Range: 12"
• Shoot: 4
• Bludgeon: 4
• Damage: 2
• Ammo: unlimited

Pistol

• Range: 6
• Action: 2
• Bludgeon: 2
• Damage: 1
• Ammo: 6

Sword

• Attack Action: 2
• Defend Action: 1
• Damage: 2

Dagger

• Attack Action: 1
• Defend Action: 1
• Damage: 2

Hands

• Attack Action: 1
• Defend Action: 1
• Damage: 1