Full Metal Atkinson (long--are you surprised?)

The followinig is forwarded from John Atkinson johnmatkinson@yahoo.com,
in
response to the original version Jon/GZG posted:

OK, I just got the rules and read through them.  Will run some solitaire
games and make comments based on that (NRE scout teams going at
it--without
sustained fire rules the bristling excess of SAWs my infantry TOs have
is a
little pointless).  My overall impression is of an excellent
skeleton--Jon
is going in the right direction with this.  Having said that, a bit of
constructive criticism on the details:

WTF is a BeeCee?  Batallion Commander and Battlecruiser are the only
things
I can think of and neither one fits.

Drop the "optional" critical failures rule.  Your dice aren’t big
enough.
Average Joe Engineer rolls d8 for most things (d4 on "refrain from
sexually
harassing females in visual range", d12 on "consume heroic quantaties of
alcoholic beverages", d6 "refrain from picking a fight in a Turk bar
after
same" d12 on "Be an arrogant sonofabitch").  So one out of every 8 times
he
tries to clear a jam, arm a mine, use the radio, blow demo, cut wire,
etc,
he shoots himself in the nads (or equivalant)??  Leave this stuff to the
roleplayers.  We’re not trying to model every freak circumstance
possible--do we check to see if the bullet that kills Joe Skutatoi
detonated
any of his hand grenades?--so it doesn’t serve a purpose, it’s wide
open for
abuse, and the system doesn’t have the granularity to keep them to a
reasonable frequency.  Shall I even mention the rate at which Joe NAC
SASman
with cybernetic implants out the yin-yang and d12 for most things blows
himself up?  8% is just too damn high a failure rate for the
uber-troopers.
Also note that it doesn’t matter what the difficulty of the task
is--you’re
just as likely to shoot yourself in the nads applying SPORTS (Slap,
Pull,
Observe, Release, Tap, Squeeze, immediate action on an M-16 misfire and
second nature to any basic trainee) as Joe Cyberninja is while he
downloads
the triple encrypted classified files from the main computor secure
database
while a firefight rages in the same room, something with 11 too many
legs
chews on his shin, in the dark, and with random fluctuations in the
power
grid.

Area Targets:  Note that most squad level automatic weapons target
groups,
not just individuals.  Perhaps a mechanism for allowing automatic
weapons to
affect "all figures within X inches of the target"?  I mean, suppose Joe
Grenadier takes his MG-34 and starts shooting at a squad of American
Rangers, they ALL hit the dirt (are supressed).  Also I would prefer to
have
the option to put on multiple surpressions (2-3) with the caveat that
they
must come from different firers.  Suggested value for X = 5"??	Note: 
After
finishing the rules, I see that you have a points cost listed for
sustained
fire.  No rules for it, though.  :(  The sustained fire probably covers
this
objection, no?

Quality dice to defend vs. fire.  I’m not sure what you’re getting at
here.
In my mind, the diffference between elite troops and green troops as far
as
difficulty shooting at them come under two main headings.  Elites will
get
closer to the enemy before they are noticed. This should be a factor of
spotting, not shooting.  Elites will take cover faster and under better
cover.	This should be a bonus to going In Position in Stargrunt terms,
not
sure what it translates to here.  But They aren’t harder to hit once
you
catch them.  Note that this is not based on actual combat
experience--I’ll
yield this point faster than I’ll yield the others that I’ve listed.

Nice differencing between between the opportunity and reaction fire. 
Good
call.

Isolation.  This, to me, has something to do with planning.  If a
four-man
SAS team has to split up, and they can discuss it beforehand then it
would
affect them less.  Also take into consideration "modern" (2184)
communications and other technology.  Joe Trapezitoi Dismount may be 100
meters from his team in pitch-black darkness, thick foliage, and with a
small rise between them, but his helmet visor is displaying their
positions
down to the decimeter, and he’s in constant radio commo with his team
leader.  Kinda cuts down on the problem.  I also think your distance may
be
a little short.

Preparing weapons:  When you refer to a requirement to prepare grenade
launchers, I presume you mean big single-shot ones like M203, not
small-caliber magazine-fed ones like the NAC and NRE use.

Crew-served Weapons: DAMMIT!  I want these minis!!

Grenades:  Again, how to treat 25mm airburst-fuzed ones fired in short
(2-3
round) bursts?

Bouncing rules:  Heh!  I suggest that the official method for resolving
debates about bouncing grenades be to bounce the disputing parties off
the
nearest wall at the closest approximation of the correct angle.  Average
the
angles at which they bounce, and that’s official.

Special Abilities:  Neither Sniper, Medic, Assistant Leader are defined.
Support specialist is I presume any member of the crew of a weapon which
gets the activation bonus for having a loader?

Request:  Stats for all weapons mentioned in the Stargrunt II rulebook.

Close Combat:  Obviously unfinished.  Points cost breaks down the cost
for
various HtH weapons, but the rules don’t differentiate.  Right now, Joe
Egyptian in a linen kilt with a bronze axe rolls the same as Joe Tagmata
with powered armor and no HtH weapons.	Quality only, with two doubling
factors, PA and HtH weapon.  If that’s the way it’s supposed to be,
fine.
But then why have different points costs for different HtH weapons?

Points Cost:  That’s the spirit.  If the bastards have to have points
costs,
snow ‘em with a half-dozen versions.

NB To the comedians out there, thanks for the idea about FMArmenian.

And remember Clibanophoroi have right of way.

John M. Atkinson

--Chris  DeBoe	deboe@quixnet.net
www.quixtar.com / www.countdown9199.com