A couple weeks ago I mentioned a homebrew I had that was inspired by Twilight 2000, Dark Conspiracy, and Mutant Chronicles.  Unfortunately, I wasn't particularly happy with it and had to tinker a bit.  This isn't a finished game by a decent bit.  I haven't addressed income for instance and I haven't really unified the careers with the skill list.  It's a bit of a frankengame where I took bits and pieces I liked from a number of design attempts and tried to bodge them together.

http://www3.telus.net/public/uncouths/XXIc.+fmt.pdf

hmmm...lots of views but no comments...

So, I'm thinking about going back to Awareness, Coordination, Knowledge, Personality, Strength for characteristics. After all the work I did to change it. My reasoning is this, the five points to spend or re-arrange work better and make more sense with five stats and the others can be slipped into the traits. Also, I can never get behind Agility for shooting.

So, here's an updated five stat version.  I've added some gun and vehicle stats.  My current thinking on rating vehicle armour is that as much of it is classified information that a vehicle class modifier and weight based stat is probably sufficient.  I need to do some research on cannon performance.  As long as I can find a muzzle velocity and the mass of the round I can work out damage.  Grenades and explosive rounds are a bit more difficult as I need to know how much explosive, what explosive, and how it compares to TNT.  Wikipedia makes things so much easier.  I've also got some thoughts on a bleak near future setting where dark forces from outside are trying to break in and take over the world.

http://www3.telus.net/public/uncouths/fivestat.pdf

Post apocalyptic?  You'll wish for an apocalypse?  You'll pray for the mercy of hell before the end.  

   The world is dying.  Toxic vapors are seeping up from the chasms opened by the great quake storms.  New mountains are rising and coastal lands are flooding or sliding into the sea.  The age of man is at an end but the old rivalries endure as nations and corporations battle over scarce resources and arable land.  The Earth's starving billions are being lured into camps with the promise of food and shelter, where there flesh is harvested to feed the masses and their organs are used to extend the lives of the rich and powerful.  And still the engines of industry grind on desperately mining the landfills of the past for scarce resources. The great cities sprawl for hundreds of miles building ever higher to escape flooding and lethal gases.
   In the distant and folded recesses of space time the dark ones have awakened.  Their fortresses are rising out of the depths of negative space to claim new territory, slaves, and victims from among the lost and broken victims of society.  They are preparing for the day when they can overthrow the legions of humanity and rule a world of fire and horror.

   Workplace safety has been replaced with the death on the job bonus with the contract willing the corpse to the corporation.  

   Nature has gone mad with larger and more ferocious predators spawning from previously domesticated species.  Strange and hardy vegetation is spreading out from the jungles and rainforests with carnivorous and even mobile plants becoming ever more common.

   Wars are fought between corporations as often as nations over scarce resources and intellectual properties.  The nations of Amblock and Euroblock, are loosely allied with the Dismedia and Buffetcraft corporations.  Uralblock and Nordica are locked in a constant conflict over what's left of Finland.  The Legio corporation produces a range of highly modular military hardware.  The China - Mongolian alliance dominates Asia and the South China sea.

   Linguish is a new open source language created to make communication without paying word ownership fees possible.  Despite decades of corporate efforts to stamp it out Linguish, with its sixty public domain symbol set, has become the new universal language.

   Similarly Byteshillings have become the world's currency.  Individual, coded coins with imbedded chips are traded on a

   The Dark Lords are not allies and their conflict is causing most of the catastrophic changes.  The Gardener is altering the biosphere.  The Smith is wracking the Earth.  The Sleeper is tormenting the waters.  Their servants are humans subverted to their causes and altered to give them powers beyond mortal men.

   High Town is the most exclusive real estate development in Eastam City.  A square mile of suburbs set atop a cluster of cloud scraping towers that blot out the sun.  High town features Eliot High School, with its football and baseball fields.  An independent burger shop and grocery on its classically styled American main street.  Down below in the eternal darkness of Low Town, the huddled masses sift through the detritus, packed into coffin racks and dormming rooms, as the preachers of the Cult of Hate pass among them planting the seeds of revolution.

   Policing is a private business.  Due process and justice are luxuries of the past.  If the police respond to a call, it's because they're getting paid and their justice will fall where the customer desires.  The gangs protect their clients better, protection money buys protection but there are always hungry new gangs trying to gnaw out territory for themselves and sometimes it's hard to know who to pay.

   Nu city was meant to be a shining utopia.  A towering city built on and from the bounteous deposits of plastic floating in the seas.  Her towers rise towards the heavens with graceful arches joining the higher levels.  Beautiful parks and gardens top the towers and agricultural terraces face outwards to the sun.  The rich and powerful enjoy the highest apartments and penthouses, flitting about in air cars to attend gala balls and concerts.  The rents get more affordable as one descends towards the surface where in the darkness of the streets and sewers, the lost and broken eke out a bitter life sorting trash and wading through the tidal waters which sweep away the fallen and the weak.  Any unrest in the streets is harshly put down by armed security drones and public safety officers in powered armor.  The indiscriminate use of fragmentation grenades and autofletchers quickly breaks up any protest or riot.

Martial Arts
   Detailed martial arts combat replaces die rolls with maneuver choices.  The players note their maneuvers secretly and reveal them at the same time.  The maneuver modifiers are applied to skill and compared to the opponent's.  If offense is greater than the target's defense the damage is inflicted.  While Controlled a fighter can only attempt to break control.  When attacked by multiple opponents, defensive skill applies to all attackers but the defender can only attack one target.  This allows the attacking group to take higher attack and damage maneuvers without fear of reprisal.

Maneuver Offense/Defense (Damage)

Uppercut 0 / -1 (+1)
Knife Hand Strike +1 / 0 (-1)
Chop 0 / +1 (-1)
Jab -1 / +1 (0)
Butterfly Punch +2 / -1 (-1)
Slap +1 / -0 (-1)
Backhand 0/-1 (+1)
Sticking 0/+2 (-2)
Trip 0 / +1 (-1, Down)
Sweep Kick +1/-1 (0, Down)
Jump Kick 0/-2 (+2)
Snap Kick +1/-2 (+1)
Back Kick -2/-1 (0)
Block and Throw -2/0 (+2)
Block and Grab -2/+2 (+2 to locks and holds)
Grapple 0/-2 (Grappled)
Grab and Throw -1/-1 (+2, Down)
Hip Throw 0/-1 (+1, Down)
Shoulder Throw -1/-1 (+2, Down)
Inside Reaping Throw 0/-2 (+1, Down)
Outside Reaping Throw (0/-1, Down)
Suicide Throw -2/-2 (+2, Both Down)
Tackle 0/-2 (+2, Down)
Cross Body -1/-2 (+3, Down)

Pile Driver -2/-2 (+4, Down)
Suplex -1/-2 (+3, Down)

Choke -3/0 (0, Choking Behind)
Strangle -2/-1 (0, Choking)
Arm Lock -3/-1 (+1, Control)
Leg Lock -2/-2 (+2, Control)
Leg Hold -1/-2 (0, Control)
Shoulder Hold 0/-1 (0, Control)
Pin -1/-2 (0, Control)

Evade 0/+2 (-2)
Escape 0/0 (-2, Break Control)
Retreat -2/+4 (-2)

So, digging around Wikipedia I found stats for a WWII Long Tom artillery piece Damage 1100, range 85 now the range is based on muzzle velocity based on the assumption that gravity will bring a shot fired at 1m from the ground in 0.447seconds.  But a long tom should have a range of around 25000m.  Of course it's fired at an angle to get a parabolic trajectory but I'm wondering if I should be looking at air friction and momentum.

I stalled out a bit this week, though I made some notes for a setting where the police assist a bad president in overthrowing the government of the United States.

I went looking for some car and gun magazines to find some precise statistics for modern cars and guns.  Most of my reference material is a decade or so out of date.  Anyhow, it'll probably be a month or so before I can get those, I guess.  So I put some time into cleaning up what is about my largest and longest standing design project.  Galaxies In Shadow.  http://www3.telus.net/public/uncouths/FDGIS2020.pdf