Garrett Taylor

Multiple Actions

Although all rules in a roleplaying game are "optional," the game can be run effectively without the multi-action rules. After you have tried a game or two and gotten comfortable with the flow of action, you may want to introduce the following.

The Multi-Action Charts

The Multi-Action Charts are used when you want to sum the action of many identical (or nearly identical) characters into a single die roll, or when a character is trying to have his roll apply to more than one action.

In order to use either of the Multi-Action Charts, each individual action must be able to succeed independently of the others. You could not, for instance, use the Multi-Action Charts to see if a group of characters could lift a rock -- it makes no sense for some of them to be able to lift the rock, and not the others. Either they all lift the rock or they all fail.

Many on One

To resolve many characters' actions with one roll, the characters must all have a skill or attribute value within one point of each other. If the values are too different, you must roll separately for each group with similar values.

For each group of similar characters, find the number of characters acting under "# Char." The corresponding bonus modifier is added to the group's bonus number.

To find how many of the characters succeed, use the "How Many Succeed" column. Find the entry corresponding to the amount by which the total exceeded the difficulty number (including the group bonus modifier), then look under "# Char." to find out how many characters succeeded.

In a situation requiring an effect total, use the bonus modifier of the number of characters who actually succeeded as the effect bonus.

Example: Six shocktroopers are gunning for a character, but only four hit. The damage bonus modifier is only +3.

One on Many

If a character is trying several actions with different skill values and/ or different difficulties, he rolls the die once to get a bonus number, and adds that bonus number to each skill separately. He then compares each total to the "modified difficulty" of the appropriate action. He may check in any order he wishes.

The difficulties are modified according to the "DN+" column of the "One on Many" chart. The first action checked is at DN+2, the second at DN+4, the third and fourth at DN+6, and so on.

Example: Quin in grabbed the rope while checking the safety on his Uzi. The two shocktroopers on the far side of the ravine didn't look too friendly; to have any chance at escape, Quin knew he'd have to swing and shoot simultaneously.

The gamemaster tells Paul to use Quin's Dexterity for the swing, and fire combat for shooting. Swinging across the ravine has a difficulty of 8. The shocktroopers' dodge scores are 9.

Paul rolls a bonus of O; he decides to check the swing first, as he'd prefer not to be hanging over the chasm (or falling in). The modified difficulty of the swing is DN+2, or 10; his Dexterity of 11 is enough to cross the ravine. The first shot difficulty is DN+4, or 13.

Quin's fire combat total is 14 and he hits the first shocktrooper. The third action (shooting the second shocktrooper) is DN+6 or 15. Quin misses the third shot. Quin swing across the ravine, his shots catching one trooper as the other dodged. The soldier of fortune landed on the other side, also prepared to defend himself.

Example: In the above example, the hit shocktrooper's Toughness is increased by three, since Quin was attempting three actions.

Quick Method

If a character uses the same skill to attempt several actions, each of which has a difficulty number within one of all others, you can use a shorthand method to determine number of successes. This is most often used when attacking multiple opponents, each of whom has the same defensive skill.

This method may not be used to attack the same opponent multiple times. Find the amount by which the skill total exceeded the difficulty of a single action, then look under the "# Char." column to find how many total actions succeed.

Example: Having finally finished off the pesky shocktroopers at the ravine, Quin runs across two more who have come to investigate all the shooting. Quin decides he had better drop both at once so they cannot raise an alarm. If Quin beats the difficulty number by two he has hit a shocktrooper; if he beats the difficulty number by four he has hit both shocktroopers at once. In either case, their Toughness is increased by two.

Example: Quin stretches his luck by firing at six shocktroopers, who have a dodge of 10. Quin gets an action total of 16. He beats the difficulty by six. Quin hit four of the shocktroopers.

Extending the Chart

If situations arise when you need to find the modifier for a number of actions or groups larger than 15, find the value of the measure closest to your number. That value is the bonus modifier and the Toughness modifier. The "how many succeed/difficulty increase" modifier is equal to double that value.

Example: One hundred characters would have a bonus modifier of +10 (the value of 100), a Toughness modifier of +10, and all would succeed if they exceed the difficulty number by 20.

Summing Efforts for a Single Action

When characters are combining their efforts to accomplish a single task, and when they must either succeed as a group or fail as a group, use the following procedure.

1. A lead character is chosen; this is the character whose skill or action score is best suited for the task.
2. All other characters whose appropriate skill or attribute is within five points of the lead character's skill may try to add their effort to the lead character. Each aiding character makes a Perception check against the "coordination difficulty" of the task.
3. The value of the number of characters who successfully add their effort (including the lead character) becomes a bonus modifier for the lead character.

Example: Six characters are trying aid a lead character in lifting a rock.

Five of them make their coordination checks; the measure 6 (includes the lead character) has a value of 4. The lead character has a bonus modifier of Coordination Difficulties

• Task can be broken up into parts which can be worked on independently, such as digging a ditch with minimal interaction between characters: 3.
• Task requires basic coordination of activity, such as lifting a rock: 5.
• Task requires coordination and adjustment based on feedback, such as paddling a canoe in a flat lake or repairing a starship in dock: 8.
• Task requires constant adjustment in a non-stable environment, such as repairing a starship during combat, paddling a canoe in rapids, or modifying different parts of a computer program simultaneously: 12.

Summing the Effect of Gamemaster Characters

What if 200 gamemaster characters are coordinating their efforts in a mystic ritual? Do you have to roll 200 Perception checks to come up with the correct answer? Well, yes; but if you are willing to live with an approximation, use the following (this assumes that each character has the same skill or unskilled attribute as the one the lead character is using, at a value which is within five of the lead character's value):

Value of number of characters
+ Average Perception
- coordination difficulty
-2
------------------------------
= bonus modifier for lead character

Example: 200 fledgling wizard gamemaster characters, with an average Perception of 9, have been gathered to help a great wizard with a ritual. The difficulty of helping the mage is 9. The value for 201 is 12.

12 (value of 201) +9 (average Perception) -9 (coordination difficulty) -2 = 10. The wizard receives a bonus modifier of 10.

Avoiding the Tyranny of the Rules

The rules are a framework upon which you and your friends build stories set in the dynamic world of Torg. As with most frameworks, the rules work best when they show the least, and when they can bend under stress. If you need to bend the rules to keep a story flowing with a nice dramatic beat, do so. Keeping to the letter of the rules is almost certainly counter productive.

We wrote the rules so you could play a game in a unique setting, not so we could dictate exactly how you should use that setting. So go have fun.

That's a rule.

MANY ON ONE EXAMPLE

      Bonus   How Many
#    Modifier  Succeed
1       --      DN
2       +2     DN+2**
3-4     +3*    DN+4
5-6     +4     DN+6
7-10    +5     DN+8
11-15   +6     DN+IO

* Four shocktroopers get a +3 modifier.

** Beating the difficulty number by 3 means that two have succeeded.

MULTI-ACTION CHARTS

Many On One

# Char. Bonus      How Many
        Modifier   Succeed
1         --           DN
2         +2          DN+2
3-4       +3          DN+4
5-6       +4          DN+6
7-10      +5          DN+8
11-15     +6          DN+10

One On Many

# Char. Toughness     How Many Succeed/
        Increase     Difficulty Increase
1          --               DN+2
2          +2               DN+4
3-4        +3               DN+6
5-6        +4               DN+8
7-10       +5               DN+10
11-15      +6               DN+12

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