So I went to the hobby store and bought some used Palladium material.  Why? Because the covers were pretty, the interior art looks awesome and I have some other Palladium stuff at home.

Here's what I got:

Palladium FRPG  Sourcebook - Yin-Soth (Book VII)
Turtles Sourcebooks - Transdimensional Turtles and Mutants in Orbit
Heroes Unlimited Sourcebook - Heroes Unlimited GM Guide
Palladium Core Book - Robotech

The system (Fantasy, TMNT, Heroes Unlimited, Robotech) seems a bit intimidating because of the huge number of skills, the many skills that modify attributes and the many rolls in combat.

What house rules do you use to ease session prep time and to make combat fly?

Are there good rules of thumb to setup combat encounters? For example, if a party of 4 is adventuring in some decreipt tomb and they encounter a band goblins; is a good rule of thumb 1 goblin per party member with a +1 attack, +1 parry?

(Many rolls in combat --> Roll to hit, defender rolls to dodge/parry, roll damage, defender rolls to roll with the punch).

Thanks!

Eric

Quote from: enelsonSo I went to the hobby store and bought some used Palladium material.  Why? Because the covers were pretty, the interior art looks awesome and I have some other Palladium stuff at home.

Here's what I got:

Palladium FRPG  Sourcebook - Yin-Soth (Book VII)
Turtles Sourcebooks - Transdimensional Turtles and Mutants in Orbit
Heroes Unlimited Sourcebook - Heroes Unlimited GM Guide
Palladium Core Book - Robotech

The system (Fantasy, TMNT, Heroes Unlimited, Robotech) seems a bit intimidating because of the huge number of skills, the many skills that modify attributes and the many rolls in combat.

What house rules do you use to ease session prep time and to make combat fly?

Are there good rules of thumb to setup combat encounters? For example, if a party of 4 is adventuring in some decreipt tomb and they encounter a band goblins; is a good rule of thumb 1 goblin per party member with a +1 attack, +1 parry?

(Many rolls in combat --> Roll to hit, defender rolls to dodge/parry, roll damage, defender rolls to roll with the punch).

Thanks!

Eric

Well, the first thing I do is completely ignore "roll with the punch".  Almost no player I've had ever uses it, so for me its no big loss.

If you want to make combat a bit deadlier and faster, use the house rule that only hth/blunt type attacks to damage to a character's personal SDC.  Things like guns, knives, etc go directly to HP.

Scaling combat encounters is not very straight-forward because there are several things to worry about:
1. Number of attacks they have
2. Attack/Dodge/Parry bonuses
3. How much damage they can do
4. How much SDC/HP/Armor they have

These values all have a pretty wide range of possible values, both for the PCs and the things they fight.  You'll have to look closely at what values your PCs have in these areas then try and come up with a good match.

Personally, I just usually make a rough guesstimate to start off with, then just fudge the numbers on the fly if it seems like things are going much easier or harder than I originally anticipated.

.  You have to design them with the PCs in mind factoring in the number of attacks, combat bonuses,

Here's some excerpts from my recent PFRPG campaign (pdf links, too):

Campaign Houserules

Skills & Skill List

For skills, I took a page from Rolemaster, and flipped roll-under to roll-over, which made (for my group) big success even on a small chance more possible, and also helped with some of the "I have to roll under 45% to ride the horse across the river?" questions.

 Notes:
 

-All skills increase by 5% per level.
  -Skill Rolls are Percentile Rolls + Skill Bonus + Any Modifiers vs. A Difficulty Check of 70-150+ (depending on difficulty).
  -Skills cap at 100%.
  -Rolls of 96-100 are considered open-ended critical successes—roll again and add that to your total.
  -Rolls of 01-05 always fail, regardless of skill level.  Roll again and subtract to see how badly you failed.
 
and then...


 Hand-to-Hand Combat:  After massive deliberation, I’ve decided to let Hand to Hand skills stay the same for now.   I’d like to simplify things a bit, so I’m totally open to suggestions.  One thing:  Basic, Expert, and Assassin all start with 4 attacks per round, not 2 or 3.
 
  Initial Rolls:  When rolling your characters, roll one more dice than is listed for that stat (if PS should be a 3d6, you’ll roll 4d6).  Drop the lowest number.  If a race you’ve chosen has two stats that are the same numbers of d6s, you may switch around those stats rolls as you like.  See, playing humans does have its perks, huh?
 
  Long Bowman:  Playing a long bowman?  Don’t expect to have six shots per round by the time the third session is underway.  Long bowman attacks/shots will progress as per their Hand to Hand bonuses only.
 
  Mulligan Stones:  Just as in the Rifts campaign, Mulligan Stones can be used.  These allow one reroll each on any roll.  You’ll get one to start out with, and then may only see one if you do something amazingly well or in-character.  These are extremely rare, so use ‘em sparingly.
 
  Perception:  I’m still working on this one, so if you’ve a better way to do this, please, let me know.  Even though I’ll freely admit the IQ stat alone is not the best determiner for Perception bonuses, I’ll say an IQ stat of 10-12 is worth a +1 perception bonus, an IQ stat of 13-14 is worth a +2 perception bonus, an IQ stat of 15-17 is worth a +3 perception bonus, and an 18-23 is worth a +4.  24+?  Likely +5, but we’ll talk.  
 
  If your character is of a lower intelligence, but you want him to be the observant type, you can trade in one “other” or secondary skill for a +2 bonus.
 
  Psionics:  Psionics are exceedingly rare in Irrin.  We won’t be rolling randomly for these.  If they aren’t part of your class, you don’t have ‘em.
 
  Psychosis/Disorders tables:  I’ll be the final adjudicator of the rolls for these, so we don’t get a party full of Wolfen and one guy with a insane fear of Wolfen.  You don’t have to roll on these tables, but if you do, you’ll also start off with a random perk or bonus suitable to your class and determined by me.  
 
  Stats/The d30 Returns:  As we started somewhat in our Rifts campaign, there will be times when you need to roll under a stat on a d30 to succeed or pass a challenge.  This will continue in the Irrin campaign. This helps make stats in the Megaversal system more pertinent to gameplay.
 
  In addition, there will be negative modifiers for low stats, per the rules listed in Rifts:  Ultimate Edition.
 
  We will also be using something close to the Instincts/Beliefs ideas presented in Burning Wheel, but that will be covered during character generation.  


As a side note, you can also speed things up by just keeping init order and going in rounds, extending combat rounds out another melee action when things are almost finished, etc.  It really doesn't run slowly once you're in the groove, which is nice for a reactive combat system.

And yeah, fudging is good.  It's hard to come up with any set numbers offhand, so trial, fudge, and error would be my call.

Thanks for the great advice!

Where in this scale would you place the Palladium combat system for speed of combat "resolution":

Slow --> Dnd 3.5, Spycraft 2.0
...
Medium --> Star Wars d6
...
Fast --> Savage Worlds, Stormbringer 1st ed

Thanks!

Eric

Oops, forgot this question; for a stat block do you use something simple like:

...Grunt +1 to-hit, d6 damage, 10 hp, 20 sdc (if applicable)

or do you use something else?

(as is probably evident, I like combats in my games so that is my focus.)

Thanks again!

Eric

Quote from: enelsonThanks for the great advice!

Where in this scale would you place the Palladium combat system for speed of combat "resolution":

Slow --> Dnd 3.5, Spycraft 2.0
...
Medium --> Star Wars d6
...
Fast --> Savage Worlds, Stormbringer 1st ed

Thanks!

Eric

I'd put it, for a newer GM, swuarely in the "Medium" category.  I'd say mine runs medium-fast, but that's with as much experience behind the screen as I have.

For stat blocks, yeah, I use something really close to what you've put there.  For mooks and grunts, skills are generally just common-sense

For example, here's one I found in my notes:

Human Brigand
+1 STR/PARRY/DODGE
12 HP, 22 SDC (worn & smelly leather armor)
Shortsword 1d6, Shortbow 1d6

Brigand Leader
+3 STR/PARRY/DODGE
15 HP, 34 SDC (worn studded leather) +8 from magical item=42 SDC
Large Battleaxe:  2d6+2
Long Daggers x2 (often thrown):  1d6 ea
Amulet of Minor Protection: This amulet provides the wearer with protection (8 SDC, usually good for one blow or so) and regenerates its SDC daily.  Usually used by politicians and high-profile types as a secret prevention against assassination.

'Mulligan Stone' is my new favorite name for 'bennies', 'hero points', 'plot points', etc.  They almost sound like magic items.

Quote from: jrients'Mulligan Stone' is my new favorite name for 'bennies', 'hero points', 'plot points', etc.  They almost sound like magic items.

They can, be, Jeff, they can be.  I like it too--that, and I think every other possible name had been taken.

We actually have the little Chessex glass marbles we use--there's nothing like someone throwing one on the table.  You can also use them to help other party members, so I can remember times when an EXTREMELY important task got a little "bump" from 2 or 3 different group members--made all the more exciting by how rarely they're given in our games.