Strength and Robustness (and Size Modifier…)
Strength is cheaper in Mission X – only 5 points per level instead of the old 10. Toughness is no longer tied inextricably to ST. In the face of rapid-shooting firearms, being a giant pile of “hit points” is devalued.
Why did the cost change? In some respects, strength is always useful. In others, it’s deprecated. “Hit Points” have been completely eliminated from Mission X, replaced by wound Severity condition level. Even so, The Usual Math shows Striking ST at 5/level, Lifting ST at 3/level, and the rest at 2/level is Hit Points. I felt lifting is as useful as always – that is to say, very – even with tons of high-tech gear. In fact, my biggest observation in my DFRPG game with a character who commonly goes about heavily armored (really, really heavily armored, like “underlayer of chain mail plus very heavy to epic plate” heavy) is that the mobility hit is the brutal one from encumbrance. Skill can be compensated for, but “who falls behind gets left behind, or eaten” is painfully true. Modern loads have not changed this much. So…lifting is as useful as ever.
That leaves Striking ST, which is basically 5 points per +1 to swing damage. But swing damage is gone as such (there are no thrust and swing separate damage progressions), so cutting that down from 5/level to 2.5/level seemed apt, and we right-sized the damage progression a tetch so that we didn’t get hand weapons cleaving plate armor again.
That makes 3 for lifting and 2-2.5 for hittin’ stuff, might as well call it 5/level and indulge in that sweet, sweet pentaphilia.
That being said… shouldn’t “the bigger you are, the harder you fall” still apply? Well, sort of.
Enter Robustness, a brand-new secondary characteristic priced at 25 points per level. It’s what determines how much punishment you can shrug off after armor is penetrated (Size Modifier figures directly into this after-armor injury as well).
Size Modifier is in parenthesis in the title as it only appears fleetingly here, but I can tell you that a Severity 6 wound on a Robustness 0, Size Modifier 0 human … a “normal Joe,” is the equivalent of taking a full-HP wound all at once.
Against a SM +2 giant … you just subtract 2 from Severity, so that same impact/shot produces a Severity 4 wound. Still a Major wound, but now it’s equivalent to half the large creature’s HP. Against a SM -2 creature, Sev 6 becomes Sev 8 … a mortal wound.
The implications for smallarms versus vehicle combat should be pretty obvious when you think on it.
Here’s a box-text that currently appears in the working draft, to wrap this up…
A ripped operator can buy extra Robustness without having to be a 300-lb gym bro – though being a ripped gym bro is a great rationale for purchasing extra Robustness. A fragile giant can be SM +2 but low Robustness.
This decoupling keeps firearms feeling dominant, melee is still going to be scary up close, and the whole damage system scaling smoothly from microbes to kaiju. It’s the same thoughtful streamlining Dungeon Fantasy applied to fantasy combat applied to modern action.
Over the next weeks I’ll be making posts talking about the different chapters, the game development, what MX is … and what it’s not. Please stay tuned! If you want to follow on Kickstarter so that you will be on board immediately when it launches, please click here to jump over to the promo page!
