I'll use this thread to post the rules as I get a chance to type them up and as they become relevant. So welcome to the first instalment.

Combat Turn
Each combat turn is 30 seconds long and is divided into six five second combat phases. A player may take one action in a combat phase, and each action takes one phase to complete.
Some actions may take longer than a single phase, such as setting up a mortar or changing a tyre on a truck. In these cases the GM will decide how long it will take, although the character may elect to interrupt the task if the situation warrants it.

Sequence
The six phases of a turn are numbered from six down to one, with Phase 6 coming first, Phase 5 second, and so on. In each phase all characters with an initiative equal to or greater than the phase number may conduct an action. In Phase 4, for example, all characters with initiatives of 4, 5, and 6 may conduct actions.
Actions in each phase are conducted in a specific order. The characters with the same initiative as the phase number go first, followed by the next highest initiative, followed by the next, and so forth. The GM will moderate this flow of actions by calling out initiative numbers in the order that they act. When a player’s initiative number is called, he will tell the GM the action he is conducting (as in “firing at the soldiers behind the wall”). The GM will announce the actions for any NPCs acting at this time, providing that they are detectable to the PCs. The GM then resolves all combats and calls the next initiative number.
The effect of this sequence is to limit the number of actions a player can perform to his initiative and also to regulate the sequence of actions in a turn. A typical turn proceeds as follows:
Phase 6: 6 acts.
Phase 5: 5 acts, 6 acts.
Phase 4: 4 acts, 5 acts, 6 acts.
Phase 3: 3 acts, 4 acts, 5 acts, 6 acts.
Phase 2: 2 acts, 3 acts, 4 acts, 5 acts, 6 acts.
Phase 1: 1 acts, 2 acts, 3 acts, 4 acts, 5 acts, 6 acts.

Agility and Weapons Bulk: If two characters have the same initiative and are conducting actions at the same time which may interfere with each other (such as firing at each other), the character with the highest Agility goes first. However, for the purposes of this determination subtract the bulk (Blk.) rating of the character’s weapon from his Agility.
Repetition: A character who decides to do exactly the same thing for an entire turn may conduct that action in every phase of the turn. All repetitive actions are conducted at the beginning of the phase, regardless of the Initiative level of the characters conducting them. However, if a character interrupts a repetitive action in the middle of a turn, he may not take any other action until his next regular opportunity to do so in the action sequence and his next action must be to go prone or take cover.
Opportunity Fire: If a character is aiming in a specific direction or at a specific area and an enemy character passes through his line of sight, he may immediately fire on the enemy. This is resolved as if it happened simultaneously with the enemy movement. If the enemy soldier was visible at the beginning of his action, the first shot counts as an aimed shot; otherwise, all individual shots are quick shots. (Automatic fire is possible instead, but then no shots count as aimed fire.)
A character may opportunity fire in a phase in which he would not normally be able to take an action. Once he fires opportunity fire in such a phase, however, he may not do so again until he conducts an additional aim action. Once the player fires, he has finished his action for that phase and may not take another, even if it is his turn to do so. In the next phase the character is still considered to be aiming at the same point until he takes some other action.
A player may only conduct opportunity fire once during a phase.
Ambush: An ambush consists of one or more characters firing from previously undetected positions at an enemy force. Since the ambushers are undetected, it is probable that the moving force is conducting regular movement. For purposes of this first combat turn, all characters in the moving force with an Initiative other than 6 are conducting repetitive movement, and thus move every phase. (Players with an Initiative of 6 may act normally.) The ambushers may open fire when one or more of their troops reaches an Initiative point or, if they are aiming, when the moving force enters their line of fire.

Panic
Whenever a character is knocked down by wound damage or surprised, there is a chance that he will panic. This is not blind panic, which send him screaming away, but is panic which causes him to momentarily freeze.
To determine if a PC panics, roll 1d6. If the roll is greater than his Initiative rating, he panics. He may not conduct any action for the number of phases by which the die roll exceeds his Initiative. However, if he is forced to freeze for more than one combat phase, he may go prone on the second phase and remain there until able to move again.
NPCs use the same system as PCs.
Bailout: If an armoured vehicle is penetrated by fire, there is chance that each character inside will panic and bail out. The roll is the same for panic above. If a character fails the roll, he must immediately climb out of the vehicle and seek cover within two metres, and remain there for two phases (in addition to any time spent getting out of the vehicle). After the two phases are over, he may get back in. It takes one phase to get in or out of a side or rear door, and two phases to get out of or into a top or turret hatch.
Charge: If a character on foot is being charged by a vehicle (not a bicycle) or running horse within 100 metres (that is, he is about to be run over by something large and fast), he must check for panic. If he panics, he does not freeze; instead, he runs. Subtract one from the panic roll if the character has a weapon with a good chance of stopping the attacker and is prepared to fire it.

Unarmed Combat
Character must be within two metres to make unarmed combat attacks. There are four types of attacks: strikes, grapples, escapes, and diving blows. Strikes and diving blows attempt to do damage to the target, while grapples and escapes attempt to seize and hold the target or to escape from a hold.
A character may only make one unarmed combat attack per combat phase.
Strike Attacks: A strike attack is a task – Average: Melee Combat (Unarmed). Success means that the attack hits. In the case of a surprise attack (unexpected attack from behind), no roll is made; the attack automatically hits.
Blocks: If a character successfully hits an opponent, the opponent may be able to block the blow. A character may attempt to block an attack at any time when the blow is directed at him, but the block counts as one of the characters actions for the combat turn.
Blocking is also a task – Difficult: Melee Combat (Unarmed). Success means that the attack has no effect. Surprise attacks cannot be blocked (if they could they wouldn’t be a surprise).
Aimed Attacks: A character may decide to concentrate his attacks against a particular body part – Difficult: Melee Combat (Unarmed). If the attack succeeds, the die roll for location is not made; the attacker chooses the hit location.
Hit Location: Hit location is rolled on 1d10 with the result compared to the number on the Hit Capacity chart of the character sheet. Eg if a 1 is rolled, then the location is Head, if a 5 or 6 is rolled then it will be Abdomen.
The die roll for hit location is not made for a surprise attack or an aimed attack. The attacker is allowed to pick his target.
Damage: Damage inflicted from a strike is equal to the attacker’s unarmed combat damage rating.
Armour: Armour absorbs damage points equal to its value from each strike attack and suffers no damage. One hit is inflicted on the attacker on the body part (right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg) used in the attack for every two hits absorbed by the armour (round to nearest whole number).
Grappling: Grappling is a task (Average: Agility). It is somewhat simpler to resolve than a strike. Blocking is not possible; there is no hit location; and armour has no effect. While grappling “damage” is calculated in the same way as for a strike, the results of the attack are termed controlling hits. They are not damage, but rather are a measure of the extent to which one character has physically controlled another (with a hammerlock, by pinning to the ground, etc.). Once a character has inflicted controlling hits on another character equal to or in excess of that characters Strength, the target character is totally controlled and ceases struggling. The controlled character may not move; the controlling character may not move without releasing control (all controlling hits disappear). Until that time, however, the character may attempt to escape or grapple with the original attacking character.
If both characters grapple, the first one to achieve hits equal to his opponents Strength controls the other.
Escape: An escape attempt is resolved in exactly the sae way as a grapple; however, if the attempt is successful, hits equal to the unarmed combat damage rating of the PC making the successful attempt are removed from the accumulated total which the other player has already built up.
Diving Blows: A diving blow is an attempt to throw oneself at the enemy and knock him down. Blocking is not possible, and armour has no effect.
Avoidance: If a character is surprised the attack always hits. If he is not surprised, he may avoid the attack (Average: Agility). If the blow is avoided, the attacker is knocked down. If the attack is not avoided, it automatically hits.
Effects: If a diving blow hits, either the attacker or defender is knocked down and suffers hits. If 1d6 + (2x Constitution) of the attacker is greater than Strength + Constitution of the defender of the defender, the defender is knocked down and suffers hits equal to the difference between the two values. Otherwise, the attacker is knocked down and suffers hits equal to the difference between the two values. If the defender is surprised, only his Constitution is used in the comparison.

A Variety of effects result from wounds, some temporary and some more lasting.
Knockdown: If a character suffers more points of damage in a combat phase than his current Agility, he is knocked down and may not conduct any other action for the rest of the current turn. Concussion damage counts same as gunshot and fragmentation wounds for determining knockdown, but burn damage does not.
Stun: Any damage to the head, including burn damage, has a chance of stunning the character. To avoid stun, roll 1d6 and add the damage suffered from the wound. If the result is equal to or less than the characters Constitution, he is unaffected. If the result is greater than the characters Constitution, he is stunned and remains unconscious for a number of combat turns equal to the amount by which the total exceeded his Constitution.
Wound Severity: The four levels of wound severity are slight, serious, and critical. If one of a characters body parts has taken less than or equal to it’s hit capacity, it is slightly wounded. If it has taken more damage than it’s hit capacity, but less than or equal to twice its capacity, it is seriously wounded. If it has taken damage in excess of twice its hit capacity, it is critically wounded.
Scratch wounds: If one of a characters body parts has taken less than or equal to half of its hit capacity (rounded down), it is “scratched”. Scratch wounds mainly represent the initial shock of suddenly being hurt. The first time that a character takes damage during combat, he losses his next action. Characters never suffer more than one lost action per day (24hour period) for scratch wounds, regardless of how many they suffer in combat.
Slight wounds: A slight wound causes an immediate reduction in the characters Initiative rating by one. A character never suffers more than one Initiative reduction for slight wounds, regardless of how many he suffers. Slight wounds have no other effect on combat.
Serious wounds: A serious wound reduces a characters effective Strength by half (rounding final Strength down) and causes an additional immediate reduction of the characters Initiative rating by two (total of three, including slight). A character never suffers more than one Initiative reduction for serious wounds, regardless of how many such wounds he suffers. Characters whose Initiative ratings are reduced to 0 or less may not take any further actions during this combat.
A character that suffers a serious injury must also make a roll under his Constitution expressed as a percentage on percentile dice to avoid losing consciousness. (Eg. A Constitution of 8 must roll under 8% to remain conscious.) This roll must be made every combat turn that the player attempts to conduct any activity.
A serious injury to the head automatically causes loss of consciousness. An unconscious character makes a roll under his Constitution expressed as a percentage at the start of each combat turn to regain consciousness.
Finally a serious wound to the leg or arm causes the character to lose the use of that limb until it is healed.
Critical wounds: A critical head injury causes immediate death. Critical injuries to other body parts cause immediate loss of consciousness and require medical attention within 10 minutes or the character will die from loss of blood.
To regain consciousness, a character that loses consciousness due to a critical wound makes a roll under his Constitution expressed as a percentage at the start of every other combat turn. Once he regains consciousness, his strength is halved (rounding fractions down), and his Initiative rating undergoes an additional reduction by two. Characters whose Initiative ratings are reduced to 0 or less may not take any further actions during this combat.

Armed combat is conducted with melee weapons.
Range: The two general categories of melee weapons are short range and long range. Characters must be within two metres of each other (the same as for unarmed combat attacks) for short range melee attacks and within three metres for long range attacks. If a character with a short-range weapon (including an unarmed character) encounters a character with a long-range weapon, the short-range weapon may not attack in the first phase of contact (although a short-range weapon may block).
Hit Procedure: A melee attack is a task – Average: Melee Combat (Armed). In the case of a surprise attack, no roll is made; the attack automatically hits.
Modifiers: Certain melee weapons add a hit modifier to the characters Melee Combat (Armed) skill. This modifier is added or subtracted from the character's skill; however, it may never reduce the character's skill below 1.
Blocks: If a character successfully hits an opponent, the opponent may be able to block the blow. The character blocking must also be armed with a melee weapon (it doesn’t make much sense blocking a bayonet with bare hands). A character may attempt to block at any time when a blow is directed at him, but the block counts as one of the characters actions for the combat turn. A block is a task – Difficult: Melee Combat (Armed). If the task is successful, the attacker misses. Surprise attacks cannot be blocked.
Hit Location: Hit location is rolled as per usual. The die roll is not made for surprise attacks; the attacker picks the location. The attacker may attempt to pick his target in any melee attack; this is a task – Melee Combat (Armed). If he hits, he chooses where he hits. Additionally, the referee may mandate certain hit locations if the situation warrants it. If an injured player armed with a knife crawls up to an enemy, he is unlikely to hit anywhere but the legs.
Damage: Damage inflicted from a melee attack varies with the weapon used.
Armour: Armour absorbs hits equal to twice its armour level from each armed combat attack, and suffers no damage.

Fire combat can be conducted at considerably greater distances than either unarmed or armed combat.
There are two general varieties of fire combat: direct fire and indirect fire. Direct fire is conducted when the gunner can actually see his target and fires a round directly at it with the intention of obtaining a direct hit. Indirect fire is usually conducted when the gunner cannot see the target and instead fires at a high angle to lob his round over intervening terrain obstacles with the intention of it coming down in the close vicinity of his target. For the most part only certain heavy weapons (grenade launchers, mortars, and howitzers) are capable of indirect fire.
Human Limits: A single character can fire only one weapon at a time (including a tank gunner who usually has both a cannon and a machinegun in his turret). If a character has no skill in the marksmanship skill relevant to a particular weapon, he may not fire it.
Rate of Fire: Each shot in the game represents a single bullet. It is possible to fire more than a single bullet from most weapons in a five second action phase. All weapons in the game have either a reloading (Rld) rating or a rate of fire (ROF) rating.
Weapons with a reloading rating hold only one round in the weapon at a time, may only fire the one round which is loaded during a fire action, and must then be reloaded before firing again. The reload rating is the number of reloading actions necessary to reload the weapon. If the weapon has more than one loader as part of its crew, each loader must spend the indicated number of actions reloading. For each loader missing from the gun crew, add one to the reloading time for the others.
Weapons with a rate of fire listing have either a letter code or a number. The various letter codes mean the following:
SS (Single Shot): This weapon can only fire once per firing action and must then be reloaded.
BA (Bolt Action): Each time the weapon is fired the bolt mechanism must be worked to eject the spent cartridge and move a fresh cartridge from the magazine to the chamber. Bolt action rifles may be fired once per action phase. The working of the bolt is assumed to take place as part of the same action.
LA (Lever Action): Each time the rifle is fired the lever must be worked to eject the spent cartridge and move a fresh cartridge from the magazine to the chamber. Lever action rifles may fire once per action phase, the same as bolt action rifles.
PA (Pump Action): Each time the shotgun is fired the lever must be worked to eject the spent shell and move a fresh shell from the magazine to the chamber. Pump action weapons may fire three rounds per action phase.
DAR (Double Action Revolver): A Double action revolver does not have to be cocked between shots, as the first part of each trigger pull cocks the hammer. (A single action revolver must be cocked between each shot. There are no single action revolvers in the game.) This makes the trigger pull somewhat harder than on a semiautomatic pistol. A double action revolver can fire three rounds per action phase.
SA (Semi Automatic): This weapon will fire one bullet with each squeeze of the trigger, and the force of the firing round is used to re-cock the weapon. Semi automatic weapons may fire up to five shots per action phase.
Automatic Fire: Weapons with a number instead of a letter code are capable of fully automatic fire as well as semi automatic fire. The number shown is the number of bullets in a typical burst from the weapon.
As a practical matter, no character may fire at more than three different targets in the same fire phase due to restriction is changing targets.
Each automatic weapon can fire either up to five individual shots or five bursts per fire phase.
Reloading: All small arms have a Mag listing (for Magazine) which consists of a number, and in some cases, a letter code. This shows the type of feed device used for ammunition in the weapon and the number of rounds in it. The most common form of magazine in small arms is a box magazine, which attaches through the stock or pistol grip. Weapons with no letter code after their Mag value are fed by box magazines, each of which contains the number of rounds shown.
One reloading action is sufficient to detach an empty magazine and insert a full one.
Other forms of magazines are noted by letter code as explained below:
R (Revolver): A revolver’s feed device is a non-detachable revolving cylinder, which usually holds six bullets. If loaded individually, three bullets can be loaded into the cylinder per reloading action. If a quick loader is available (a circular clip holding six cartridges which enables all six to be dropped into the open cylinder at once), one reloading action is sufficient to reload the weapon.
I (Individual): Weapons with non-detachable magazines, particularly under-barrel tubular magazines, often have to be reloaded one bullet at a time. Up to three bullets may be loaded into an individual feed device per reloading action.
B (Belt): The weapon, either a machinegun or automatic rifle, is fed by a belt usually containing from 50 to 100 bullets. Two reloading actions are necessary to replace a belt. However, if the machinegun has a two-man crew (gunner and loader), this requirement can be met by both expending one action reloading in the same phase.
C (Cassette): A cassette is a large, self-contained ammunition feed system which takes one full turn to replace.

Direct fire is the most common form of combat in the game. In direct fire the target is visible to the firing character. Direct fire is conducted with both small arms and heavy weapons.
Small arms are rifles, pistols, machineguns, shotguns, and similar weapons. Their two principal distinguishing characteristics are that they are generally man portable and they fire a simple non exploding round of less than 20 millimetres in diameter. Small arms fire can be directed at any sort of target, but is usually directed against personnel.
Heavy weapons fire rounds which are 20 millimetres or greater and which are capable of containing a significant amount of explosive filler. Some heavy weapons (such as grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and some antitank missiles) are man portable, but many must be mounted on vehicles or heavy field carriages (such as howitzers). Heavy weapons use high explosive (HE) and other similar ammunition to attack troops and soft vehicles, but may have an array of specialised rounds for attacking armoured vehicles.
The chance of hitting a target with individual shots depends primarily on three things: marksmanship, range, and recoil. The combination of these factors will produce a D10 chance of hitting a target. The player or referee then rolls 1d10 once for each bullet fired. If the hit number or less is rolled, the target is hit. Any other roll is a miss.
Marksmanship: All small arms use Small Arms (the appropriate cascade) as there marksmanship skill, except for hunting (long) bows, which use Hunting Bow skill. Crossbows use Small Arms (Rifle) skill. Large calibre guns and howitzers use Heavy Weapons skill. Grenade Launchers use Small Arms or Heavy Weapons skill, whichever is greater. All other heavy weapons use Heavy Weapons skill. The appropriate skill level is the D10 chance of hitting a target with an aimed shot at medium range. This number is known as the base hit number.
An aimed shot is one that takes place after the character has spent one action aiming his weapon. A target must be visible in both the aiming and firing phases for an aimed shot to take place, and the character must declare which target he is aiming at when he conducts the aiming action.
If more than one shot is fired in a phase, only the first shot counts as aimed; all subsequent shots are considered quick shots. In addition, any shot fired which does not follow an aim action, or any which is fired at a target other than that aimed at, counts as a quick shot. All quick shots are conducted with the base hit number halved (fractions of one half or more are rounded up).
Range: The four ranges for direct fire are short, medium, long and extreme. The value printed in the Range column of a weapon is the weapons short range in metres. Medium range is twice short range; long range is twice medium; and extreme range is twice long.
For example, a weapon with a printed range of 50 has a short range of 50 metres, a medium range of 100 metres, a long range of 200 metres and an extreme range of 400 metres.
The base hit number at close range is twice the appropriate marksmanship skill. At medium range it is the unmodified marksmanship skill. At long range it is half the marksmanship skill. At extreme range it is one quarter of the marksmanship skill. Round all fractions to the nearest whole number. Note that a character firing a quick shot at long range would have his marksmanship skill halved twice (once for range and once for a quick shot).
Rifle Scopes: Sniper rifles come with a scope fitted to them. Any other rifle may have one fitted by a gunsmith. The printed range for the rifle is for the rifle without a scope. If a scope is mounted, add 15 to the printed range when conducting aimed shots. In addition, aimed shots at extreme range are considered as if at long range for purposes of hit determination. Note that scopes have no effect on quick shots.
Recoil: Recoil is a measure of how much a weapon kicks when it is fired, which affects accuracy. Recoil affects only small arms in the game, not heavy weapons. Each small arm has a recoil value for a single shot. If it is capable of automatic fire, it also has a recoil value for firing a burst. Whenever character fires a small arms weapon, total the amount of recoil the weapon generates that phase by multiplying the recoil of a single shot or a burst by the number of single shots or bursts fired.
Once you know how much recoil the weapon generates that phase, compare the total to the firers Strength. If the recoil is equal to or less than his Strength, fire is resolved normally. If it is greater than his Strength, reduce the hit number by the difference.
For example: Str 7, two shots from a .45 M1911A1 pistol (recoil 5) for a total recoil of 10 (2x5), and the final hit number is reduced by 3 (10-7). If the character were firing an aimed shot with a chance of hitting on a 7 or less and one additional chance of hitting on a 3 or less, the hit chances would be reduced to 4 for the aimed shot and 1 for the quick shot (all other factor being equal). The same character firing one shot from the .45 would have no recoil reductions in hit chance. While high recoil weapons can physically be fired as quickly as low recoil weapons, it is often counterproductive to do so. The effects of recoil on automatic fire are different and will be dealt with later.
Pistols: Pistols may be steadied by using both hands and bracing oneself. This may only be done while stationary, and reduces the printed recoil by one.
Two Weapons: If a character is carrying two weapons at once (one in each hand), he may fire either one, but not both. For the purposes of controlling the recoil of either weapon, his Strength is reduced by one.
If a target is moving 30 metres or more in the current phase, it is treated as if one range band further away. Firing while mounted is conducted as normal with two exceptions; firstly the movement category is based on the animal and secondly the skill used to determine accuracy is the lower of either the appropriate marksmanship or Horsemanship.
Characters may not fire while crawling. No aimed fire is possible while walking or trotting but characters may fire quick shots or bursts normally. For purposes of controlling recoil, however, a walking characters Strength is reduced by one and a trotting characters Strength is halved, rounding down.
Only bursts may be fired while running and only at close range. Accuracy is treated as though the target is at long range and the firers Strength is halved.

Each character must eat at least three kilograms of food every day to remain healthy. Most of this food can be found in the wild. "Civilised" food - Domesticated animals, cultivated grains and vegetables, canned or packaged food, etc. - counts as 1.5 times it's weight. Thus a man could survive on two kilograms of such food a day.
Specially fortified and prepackaged military rations count as double, and a character could survive on 1.5 kilograms of these a day. The U.S. Army version of such rations is the MRE (meal, ready to eat), although other armies have their own variants. Over the years prepackaged rations of this type have become rare and highly prised for their light weight, ease of preparation (they are pre-cooked), and long storage life.

Effects of starvation:
   If a character eats less than his daily requirement, but at least half the requirement, he suffers one level of fatigue. This fatigue remains (but gets no worse)until he eats his full requirement for as many days as he was underfed (or 10 days at most). A character gains one level of fatigue for each day in which he eats less than half the requirement, until his Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Intelligence are all reduced to 1; they do not fall below 1.
One level of fatigue is recovered for each consecutive day of full rations.
Eventually, a character on less than half rations will starve. This takes about a month of no food or several months of half rations.

SHOTGUNS

Shotguns may fire either slugs or buckshot rounds. Slugs are fired in the same way as any other small arms fire using the ratings provided on the Shotguns Table on page 257. If the shotgun fires buckshot, however, several special rules apply.
Buckshot may only be fired at close and medium range; it may not be fired at long or extreme range.
Buckshot has a penetration of Nil at all ranges.
At close range, each shot is treated as a normal single shot, but it does 9D6 damage. (For an explanation of damage, see the following rules.) At medium range, each shot is treated as a 10 round burst of automatic fire (and is reduced immediately to 7D6 for being at medium range). Each round which hits does 1D6 damage.
Note that an H&K CAW is a shotgun capable of automatic fire. At close range a player rolls 5D6 for hits (as modified by recoil and possibly range, if any factor such as target movement causes a burst to be treated as at a longer range), with each 6 hitting and each hit causing 9D6 damage. At medium range calculate the number of dice normally rolled for a five-round burst (subtracting two immediately for being at medium range). After all reductions are made, multiply the remaining number by seven to determine the number of D6 rolled for hits. Each hit does 1D6 damage.

DEMOLITIONS

Explosives, in addition to providing the bang for high-explosive rounds, are used to demolish structures and breach barriers.
Types of Explosives: For simplicity, the game deals only with the two most common types of explosives: dynamite and plastic explosive. The units used in the game are the quarter-kilogram stick of dynamite and the one-kilogram block of plastic explosive. All demolition effects are resolved in terms of the number of demolition points (DP) used. A stick of dynamite has one DP; a block of plastic explosive has six DPs. Plastic explosive is flexible and may be moulded to any shape desired or broken into smaller charges of one or more demolition points. Several sticks of dynamite and/or blocks of plastic explosive may be joined to form larger charges.
Setting Charges: Each demolition charge takes 15 minutes (30 turns) to emplace. A demolition charge is defined as one or more sticks of dynamite and/or blocks of plastic explosive connected to each other (up to a maximum weight of 10 kilograms). Additional explosives may be attached as extra charges, but require additional time to emplace. If several larger charges are emplaced, several characters may work on emplacing them at once.
Setting a charge requires a detonator and may require fuses or electrical wire. A character must have a demolition kit (see pages 58-59) or must have improvised the required parts (see page 136). Improvised fuses/ detonators will have a mishap on a D10 roll of 8+. Such a mishap is a hang-fire (5-10 1D10) or a complete dud (1 -4 on 1D10). A hang-fire will detonate 1D10 phases later than expected; a dud will not detonate at all. The referee should make these rolls in secret.
Setting a charge is an Easy task using Combat Engineer skill, with failure indicating that the charge does not go off when triggered and with catastrophic failure indicating that the charge goes off while being set.
Tamping: Tamping consists of covering a charge so that the force of the explosion is contained and directed in toward a structure. Tamping must be done with dense or heavy material, such as rocks, sandbags, steel plates, etc. Tamping adds five minutes to the time required to set the charge. The referee may increase this time requirement for difficult tamping jobs. (it is very difficult, for example, to tamp a charge taped to the side of a freestanding girder.)
Effects: Like anything which blows up, explosives have a concussion, burst, and penetration value.
Concussion: It requires progressively larger quantities of explosives to produce a linear increase in concussion. To determine the concussion of a charge, consult the Demolition Table on page 274. This lists demolition points and their corresponding concussion. In reading the chart, you will notice that there are several gaps in the listing of demolition points. The DP value listed for a given concussion is the minimum number of DPs required to achieve that value.
For more precise results, the following formulae can be used to calculate the concussion value of a given demolition charge and the size of charge needed to achieve a given concussion.
To determine the concussion of a charge, divide the DP value of the charge by 2, extract the square root of the result, and multiply by 5. To determine the number of demolition points needed to achieve a given concussion, divide the concussion by 5, square the result, and multiply it by 2.
C=5(DP2). C: Concussion DP: Damage points.
DP=2[(C5)2]. C: Concussion DP: Number of damage points needed to arrive at a certain concussion.
Burst: Once the concussion of the Explosion has been calculated, determine the maximum concussion radius of the explosion the same way as for a high-explosive round as described on page 197. This maximum radius of concussion is also the primary burst radius of the explosion. The secondary burst radius is twice this.
Unlike a high-explosive artillery round, a demolition charge does not contain the material necessary to produce a large quantity of fragments. However, these are usually produced by the destruction of the object being demolished. If the demolition charge, simply lying on the ground or is used to demolish an earthen or timber and earth field work, it does not produce fragments.
Penetration: The base penetration of demolition charge is the same as its concussion value, but is modified by its means all emplacement. If the charge is tamped penetration is doubled. If the charge is simply laying on top of or leaning against a structure (as in the case of a thrown satchel charge or stick of dynamite) its penetration is halved. Unlike other explosions, the listed penetration value of a demolition charge is its actual penetration; players do not add the roll of 2D6 to it.
Breaching Barriers: Breaching a basically means blowing a hole in it. Demolition charges can be used to breach walls, armour plate, embankments, etc.
To determine the size of the breach made by a demolition charge, first determine its maximum penetration. To do so, divide penetration value of the charge by the armour value constant of the material of the barrier This constant is listed on the Armour Equivalent Table on page 274. The result is the number of millimetres penetrated by the charge.
For example, a charge with a penetration of 8 would penetrate 40 millimetres (80 2) armour plate, 267 millimetres (80.03) of brick or concrete, and 400 millimetres (80.02) stone, packed dirt, or wood.
Now determine the actual diameter of the breach made. The diameter of the breach, in millimetres, is the penetration (in millimetres of the charge minus the thickness (in millimetres) of the barrier.
For example, a character wishes to breach a 500 millimetre thick (about a half yard) reinforced concrete wall. The character is using nine one-kilogram blocks of plastic explosive (total of 54 DP). Consulting the Demolition Chart page 274 he uses the 50 row for DPs and notes that this has a penetration of 25. He spends an extra five minutes carefully placing and tamping the charge for maximum effect, thus doubling the penetration to 50.
He divides the penetration value of 50 by the reinforced concrete's armour value constant of 0.04, obtaining a total penetration of 250 millimetres.
Subtracting the thickness of the wall from this leaves a hole 750 millimetres (0.75 metre, or over two feet) across.
Characters should take cover from the blast as an explosion with a concussion value of 25 will injure characters within three eight-metre grid squares (24 meters) of the explosion, and it will throw concrete shards to twice this distance.




ICM

Improved conventional munitions (ICM) are artillery rounds filled with grenades. The round bursts at a high attitude and scatters grenades throughout its listed burst radius. In the case of conventional ICM rounds, these are high-explosive / fragmentation grenades. In the case of ICMDP (dual purpose) they are HEAT grenades capable of penetrating the roofs of armoured vehicles.
When a character or vehicle is in the burst zone of an ICM or ICMDP round, consult the ICM Attack Table on page 259. On the numbers listed under the Close column on a D10, a grenade lands in the same grid square as a character or vehicle. (Roll once per grid square containing one or more characters or vehicles, not once per character or vehicle in the square.) On the numbers listed under the column labelled Adjacent, a grenade lands in the adjacent grid square. The Concussion, Burst, and Penetration columns list those values for the individual grenades in a round.
The chance of a direct hit on a character or vehicle in the grid square is also noted on the ICM Attack Table on page 259. This is rolled for only if it has already been determined that grenade landed in the same grid square.
Roll once for each character and vehicle in the square. If more than one hit is achieved, then the referee should randomly determine which of the characters or vehicles actually suffered the hit.
All direct hits on vehicles are resolved as overhead attacks. (See page 213.)

CHEMICAL ROUNDS

Chemical rounds and grenades are filled with a chemical agent and are intended to do damage by dispersion of their contents rather man by their explosive power.
The listed burst radius of the round or grenade is the width of the chemical cloud it releases. The length of the chemical cloud is four times its width. The actual cloud starts at the point of impact of the round or grenade and extends downwind.
For example, a chemical grenade with a burst radius of 5 would have a chemical cloud five meters wide and 20 meters long.
Characters may suffer fragmentation damage if they are within the burst radius of the round or grenade. But, since such weapons have only enough explosive force to scatter their contents, this is restricted to 1D6/2 damage with Nil penetration to a random location if hit by a fragment (see page 197 for hit procedure). Roll on the Human/ Animal Hit location Chart on page 198 for location.
A chemical round can contain one of five different chemical agents: hexochloroethane (HC) smoke, irritant gas (such as CS), blood agent (such as phosgene), blister agent (such as lewisite), or nerve gases (such as VX).
Hexochloroethane (HC) Smoke: HC smoke causes no damage and is used to obscure vision. There is no smoke during the turn in which the round lands. During the next turn there is thin smoke. For the next four turns there is dense smoke, followed by another turn of thin smoke, and then no smoke.
Irritant Gas: This category covers a variety of compounds usually known as tear gas or riot gas, such as CS or CN. There is no gas cloud the turn the round lands. The next turn, the gas cloud appears, and it lasts for tour turns. Irritant gas causes no permanent damage, but can cause choking and temporary blindness.
When a character first comes into contact with an irritant gas cloud, he must make a panic roll (explained on page 190). Panic indicates that a character will flee the cloud and spend one turn recovering. In addition, each combat turn a character is in contact with an irritant gas cloud, the character must make a 1D10 roll against his Constitution attribute to avoid being overcome by the gas.
If the character passes both rolls, he may function normally. If he fails the panic roll, he flees from the gas and, once out of the gas cloud, spends one turn recovering. If he fails the Constitution roll, he is temporarily blinded and incapacitated (disoriented, confused, and incapable of any movement other than crawling) by coughing.
A character who is incapacitated by irritant gas continues to suffer the effect for 20 turns, during which he need not roll for panic or against Constitution.
Characters in gas masks are not affected by irritant gas.
Blood Agent: This category covers a variety of inhaled poisonous gases. The first turn the round lands, there is no gas cloud. The gas cloud appears on the second turn and lasts for 20 turns.
Each combat round that a character is in the gas cloud of a blood agent, he receives 2D6 hits to his chest. A character in a blood agent cloud can hold his breath for six combat phases (one turn) and only suffers 1D6 hits per combat phase while doing so. (The agent can enter the bloodstream through the eyes as well as through inhalation, but in less damaging concentrations.) Characters wearing gas masks are not affected by blood agents.
Blister Agent: The gas cloud of a blister agent is the same as for a blood agent. A blister agent has the same effect on masked characters as irritant gas does on unmasked characters. If a character is not wearing a gas mask, blister agent has the same effects as both irritant gas and blood agent, Characters in both masks and protective suits are unaffected by blister agents.
Nerve Gas: Nerve gas attacks the central nervous system of the victim, eventually causing convulsions and respiratory failure. It can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. The gas cloud of a nerve gas round is the same as for a blood agent round. Each turn that a character is in a nerve gas cloud he receives 2D6 points of damage to his head and 2D6 to his chest.
If he is wearing a gas mask, he suffers damage only to his chest. If he is wearing a protective suit but no gas mask, he suffers full damage. If wearing both a protective suit and a gas mask, he is not affected.
Once the damage level of a character reaches serious injury (equal to a serious wound) to either the head or chest, he continues to suffer damage from the gas, even if he is no longer in the gas cloud. This damage will continue until the character either dies or receives an injection of atropine.
A character who has suffered serious injury to the chest requires one atropine injection to arrest the effects of the nerve gas. A character who has suffered a critical injury to the chest requires two atropine injections to arrest the effects. Once injected with atropine, the character is incapacitated (disoriented, confused, and incapable of any movement other than crawling) for four hours.
Residual Contamination: The ground covered by a cloud of blister, blood, or nerve gas will remain contaminated for several hours after the cloud disperses, and vehicles exposed to the cloud will remain contaminated for several days. Natural weathering will reduce this, and a rainstorm or thorough washing of the vehicle will remove the contamination. While an area or vehicle is contaminated, unmasked characters who walk through that area or stand near that vehicle suffer 1 D6 hits to the chest every turn.

MINES

Mines are placed in the ground and are detonated when a manor vehicle passes over them. Antitank mines are detonated by vehicles.
Detonation: Minefields are always described in terms of their width and depth in eight-meter tactical grid squares, and their density of mines per grid square. Once this has been calculated, the chance of detonating a mine per grid square entered is determined. For personnel, multiply the density by 0.1; for vehicles, multiply the density by 0.5. The result is the percent chance per square that a vehicle or character will trigger a mine.
It is too time-consuming to roll for every square entered, so the referee should instead note how many squares of the minefield a character of vehicle moved through, multiply this by the detonation chance, and use the result as the chance that a mine was triggered at some point during the move. Since a good many variables are actually at work here other than simple density of the field and distance travelled, the referee is strongly encouraged to make a quick approximation of the chances, round to the nearest 10% (but never down to 0 or up to 100), and roll a few 10-sided dice. This is not an absolutely precise system to begin with, so speed of resolution is more important than precision.
For example, the referee determines that three characters are walking through an antipersonnel mine field with a density of .08 mines per square. One character walks through six squares of the field; one walks through five; and one walks through two. The chance of detonation is 0.008 per square moved through. The referee decides that they have walked through an average of about four squares each, for a detonation chance of roughly 0.04 (4%) each. He decides to roll two dice for 1 or 2 and one die for a 1 (for the fellow who only crossed a small part of the field). If one of the two dice for 1 or 2 triggered a mine, he would roll a die to decide which character triggered it.
Damage: Detonation of a mine has the same effect as any other explosion, causing concussion and fragmentation. However, if a character triggers an antipersonnel mine, the full concussion value of the mine is only suffered by one leg (determine which one randomly), with the rest of the body parts suffering hag concussion. Damage to a vehicle is resolved against the vehicle's suspension. If the mine has a penetration value, then an additional attack is made against the hull of the vehicle using the vehicle's hull rear armour value.
Detection: Detection of a minefield is an Easy task using either Combat Engineer or Observation skill. It may only be attempted while crawling or walking, not while trotting, running, or mounted. Detection of a camouflaged minefield is an Average task, subject to the same restrictions. Conditions of reduced visibility (fog, night, smoke, etc.) raise the difficulty of the task by one level.
Marking and Removal: Once a minefield is discovered (either by detection or by setting off a mine) characters may either probe for the mines and mark their location or may attempt to remove them.
Probing and marking mines is an Easy task using Combat Engineer skill and an Average task using Observation. Failure indicates that a mine present in the grid square has been missed, while catastrophic failure indicates the accidental detonation of a mine. It takes five minutes (10 combat turns) to probe and mark a four-meter wide path through one tactical grid square (eight meters).
If PCs wish to remove the mines from afield, they must first probe and mark the field as explained above. The referee will determine where the actual mines are in the marked part of the field, and each one must be removed. Removing a mine takes 10 minutes (20 combat turns) and is an Average task using Combat Engineering skill or a Difficult task using Observation. Failure indicates a complication in the removal which will take extra time. Spend a second 10 minutes and roll the task again. Catastrophic failure indicates accidental detonation of the mine.
Directional Mines: Directional antipersonnel mines, such as the M18 Claymore, are not buried. They instead are generally emplaced at or near ground level and detonated either by remote control or a 30-metre tripwire. Personnel passing over the tripwire will detonate the mine on a D10 roll of 6 or less. Anyone can detonate a Claymore by remote control at any time, provided he is in possession of the control (which is connected to the mine by a 30 meter wire). Concussion is resolved normally. Fragmentation, however, is suffered only in direction of the blast (predetermined when mine is emplaced). The burst area is a 30-degree cone, so at any given distance from the mine, the cone is half that distance wide. For example, at a distance of 50 meters, the cone is 25 meters wide; at 100 meters, it is 50 meters wide. Two templates are provided on page 257 for use with the tactical grid. The primary burst zone of Claymore extends to 50 meters, and the secondary burst zone to 100 metres.
FASCAM: Field artillery scatterable mines (FASCAM) may be fired by U.S. 155mm howitzers. The two types of FASCAM round are remote anti-armour mines (RAAM) and area denial artillery munitions (ADAM). The first type delivers antitank mines, while the second delivers antipersonnel mines. Because the antipersonnel mines are smaller, ADAM rounds provide for a higher mine field density than do RAAM. The densities of the two types of fields are provided on the FASCAM Density Table on page 258.
Due to the low density of mines delivered by a single round, it is common practice to fire more than one round to make a field. When emplacing a minefield using FASCAM, players should tell the referee how many rounds they are firing into each 30 eight-metre square by 30 eight-metre grid square area (the area covered by the mines from one round). The density of the minefield is the density of one round times the number of rounds fired.
For example, each RAAM round provides a density of 0.01 mines per grid square. A group of players has 12 RAAM rounds and wants to mine an area roughly 500 metres across (roughly 60 grid squares). Each round covers an area 30 squares wide and 30 deep. The players tell the referee that they will fire six rounds into the middle of the left half of the area and six rounds to the right. This will give them a minefield 60 grid squares wide and 30 grid squares deep, with a mine density of 0.06 per square.
Standard Minefields: Standard antitank and standard antipersonnel minefields already in place (i.e., laid previously by NPCs) are assumed to have a density of 0.1. The referee can increase or decrease this, and determine widths and depths to fit the situation. The 0.1 density is an easy rule of thumb, however.

RECOVERY (AND POSTBATTLE DAMAGE)

Each of the seven areas of the body may be damaged to one of three wound levels: slight, serious or critical (for more information see page 199). As wounded body parts heal, their wound level decreases sequentially in severity until they are no longer wounded When the wound level of a body part decreases, eliminate damage points to bring the area down to the midway point of the new level. When a body part goes from slightly wounded to healed, all damage points are removed.
For example, Jane's seriously wounded left leg heals to the point where it is now only slightly sounded. The leg has a hit capacity of 20, and had sustained 40 damage points. It has now healed to 10 damage points (which is halfway through the slight wound level). Penalties to Initiative and other penalties associated with a wound level remain in effect until the wound is healed. Once consciousness is regained, it is not usually lost again except due to special circumstances discussed below.
First Aid: Wounds are best treated within a short time after they are received. First aid must be applied within six turns of the infliction of the wound to be effective. Effective first aid will reduce a critical wound level to a serious one or reduce the healing time of a serious wound by two days. In addition, the successful application of first aid always prevents infection to any wound.
First aid is a Difficult: Medical task. The use of a doctor's medical kit makes the task Average. A personal medical kit will give a person with no Medical skill a default skill of Medical: 4 for the purpose of applying first aid once (after which the personal kit is used up). The first aid task may only be attempted once per body part per injury. Characters who are conscious may apply first aid to themselves.
Stabilising Critical Wounds: Critical injuries (other than to the head) must be stabilised within 10 minutes or the injured character dies. Stabilising a critical wound is Average: Medical.
The use of certain equipment adds to the effective Medical skill of the person attempting the task (but he must have Medical: 1 to begin with): Plasma, +1, or whole blood, +2; strong sedative, +1; doctor's medical kit, +1, or personal medical kit, +1.
Moving the Wounded: Critically wounded characters suffer one additional point of damage to each wounded body area for each period in which they are moved, either by hand or in a vehicle. Transportation may cause changes in wound level to other wounded body areas of a critically wounded character (or even death).
Basic Healing Rate: A character without medical attention may recover from a slight wound level in one body area to healed in three days; from a serious wound level to slight in four days; and from a critical wound level to serious in one week.
Healing of all body parts goes on simultaneously.
Medical Care: Medical care and supervision will increase the basic healing rate of an injured character. If a character is under successful medical care while he is healing, two days of healing time are subtracted from each stage of healing.
Thus, critical wounds become serious in five days; serious wounds become slight in two days; and slight wounds are completely healed in one day.
For a person to receive successful medical care, the person administering the care must spend a half-hour per wound level per body area damaged per day tending to the patient's wounds. (For example, two hours for a person with a critically wounded abdomen and a slightly wounded leg), and must make an Average: Medical task roll once per day. Use of a doctor's medical kit in conjunction with this task reduces it to Easy.
Failure means that a day of potential healing time savings at this wound level is lost. Failure to receive successful medical care will never subtract from the basic healing rate of a character, but will only reduce the possible healing bonus.
Catastrophic failure (only) will add one day of required healing time if the entire possible healing bonus due to medical care has already been lost.
Adequate Diet and Shelter: Inadequate diet (as discussed under Food Requirement on page 148) and inadequate shelter can affect healing adversely. Add one day to the basic healing time per wound level when either of these conditions exist.
For example, with both inadequate diet and inadequate shelter (including drafts, leaky roofs, damp rooms, or sleeping bags on rough, cold ground) healing from a serious wound level in a character's right arm to a slight wound level would take six days rather than four.
Surgery: Surgery may reduce a character's critical wound drastically in severity. A character must have at least Medical: 3 and a set of surgical instruments to perform surgery. Converting a critical wound level in one body area to a serious wound is Difficult: Medical; the conversion is made the morning after the successful completion of the task.
The use of certain equipment adds to the effective Medical skill of the person attempting the task: Plasma, +1, or whole blood, +2; local anesthetic, +1, or total anesthetic, +3. Only one attempt at surgery may be made per critically wounded body area.
Failure means that the wound remains critical.
Critical failure may result in doubled basic healing time, permanent loss of use of a limb, or death, depending on the body part surgery was attempted on and the severity of the critical failure.
Infection: Every time a character suffers damage from melee combat, fire combat, or burns, there is a chance of infection. After every firefight (or accident) each injured body part has a chance of becoming infected on a roll of 2 or less on 1D10. If a person with at least Medical: 3 treats the wounded body area with antibiotic within eight hours, the chance of infection is reduced to 1 or less on 1D10.
If anyone uses a personal medical kit in an attempt to prevent infection, no infection results (but the kit is, of course, used up). This use of a personal medical kit may be combined with its use in a first aid attempt, above.
Infection is a major danger. Any time a character's wound is infected, healing (in all body parts, not just the infected one) stops until the infection is dealt with. In addition, for each week an infection lasts, the character takes an additional 1D6 damage points to the infected injured body part.
A character with a critical wound caused by an infection loses consciousness and remains that way until all wounds (even those not caused by the infection) are recovered to slight or he dies.
If, for example, a character takes nine points of damage in the left arm (a slight wound level) and that wound becomes infected, no healing takes place. After one week, the character takes an additional 1D6 hits in that arm (which may increase its wound level); after two weeks, another 1D6 is taken, and so on.
Treatment of Infection: Treating an infection is an Average: Medical task. If any antibiotics are used in the treatment, the task becomes Easy: Medical. One attempt may be made per week.
A successful treatment means that the treated body part is no longer infected, and healing may take place if no other body areas are infected.

TACTICAL VISIBILITY

Normal daylight visibility is effectively unlimited, restricted only by intervening terrain and the curvature of the earth. (For a person of normal height standing on a flat plain, the horizon is about five kilometres distant.)
Smoke, adverse weather, and night reduce visibility severely. Dense smoke blocks visibility completely. Light smoke obscures characters and vehicles in and beyond it. In poor weather (light fog, drizzle, and light snowfall), maximum visibility distance is 2000 metres for moving vehicles, and very large objects and structures (such as villages, woods, etc.). For stationary vehicles, small structures (such as bunkers), and moving people, the maximum spotting distance is 1000 meters. For stationary people, it is 500 meters. In bad weather (dense fog, rain, and heavy snowfall), these distances are quartered.
Visibility at night varies considerably, depending on the amount of background light. The referee should assign a background light level of from one to five, with one representing a cloud-covered, moonless night (in other words, pitch black) and five a clear night with a full moon high in the sky. Visibility for large structures and moving vehicles is 400 meters times the background light level. Visibility for small structures, stationary vehicles, and moving people is 200 meters times the background light level. Visibility for stationary people is 100 meters times the background light level. Halve the distance for poor weather at night; quarter the distance for bad weather at night.
Encounter Ranges: In poor weather halve all encounter ranges (except in woods). In bad weather, quarter all encounter ranges (except in woods). At night, multiply all encounter ranges (except in woods) by background light level and divide by 10, then modify for poor or bad weather. (Woods are unaffected by reduced visibility, as visibility is already so limited that encounter range depends as much on hearing the encounter seeing it anyway.)
Vision Enhancement Devices: A number of vision enhancement devices are available. They have the following effects.
Binoculars: Binoculars are useful only during periods of good visibility (daylight and good weather). A character who is equipped with binoculars and is in a good observation position (building roof, treetop, hill) has his Observation skill increased by one. If he spots a group before they spot him or the rest of his party, double the range of the encounter.
Starlight Scope: A player using a starlight scope can see twice as far at night as he could without the scope. In an encounter situation, this would allow characters with starlight scopes to begin rolling for spotting before hostile groups would be able to attempt to spot them. Starlight scopes have no effect in woods, smoke, or poor or bad weather.
Image Intensifier: An image intensifier has same effect as binoculars, except that the character adds two to his Observation skill. The device incorporates both telescopic and low-light intensification, and has a maximum range of 900 meters. Image intensifiers have no effect in woods, smoke, or poor or bad weather.
IR Goggles: Infrared goggles allow a character to see moving or stationary personnel or other heat sources at a distance of 300 meters at night. In addition, a character wearing infrared goggles can see the beam of an IR spotlight. IR goggles have no effect in woods, smoke or poor or bad weather.
IR Spotlight: An infrared spotlight can illuminate an area 20 meters across at a range of up to 1000 meters. Only characters wearing IR goggles can see the light.
However, any character wearing IR goggles will see the searchlight if he is within 3000 meters of it. IR spotlights have no effect in woods, smoke, or poor or bad weather.
White Light Spotlight: A white light spotlight will illuminate an area 20 meters across at ranges up to 2000 meters. The light itself can be seen by any character at any distance who has a clear line of sight to it. White light spotlights have no effect in woods, smoke, or poor or bad weather.
Thermal Sight: A thermal sight is a very advanced form of infrared imaging. It allows characters to see vehicles out to 3000 meters and people out to 2000 meters through darkness, smoke, and fog. This range is halved in drizzle and rain, and the device has no effect in snowfall and woods.
Illumination Rounds: An ILLUM round will illuminate the area within its burst radius as if it were full daylight. ILLUM rounds have no effect in woods, smoke, or poor or bad weather.

This section contains a consolidation of material relevant to animals.

TRAVEL MOVEMENT
Travel movement is accomplished using the rates for animals in the Animal Data Charts 216-217), and as discussed in the Time and Travel chapter (page 147).
Animals: Horses, elephants, and oxen should not be made to travel more than two periods per day mules and camels should not be made to travel more than three periods per day. They can travel more than that, but the suffer an increased chance of going lame (see below). Horses and mules may be force marched. It force marched, a horse's travel distance is multiplied by two, and a mule's by one and a half. However, this also increases the animal's chance of going lame. Elephants and camels may not be force marched (they refuse to move when too tired).
Any animal except camels and elephants may be burdened (carrying up to twice its load.) Unlike a human, the animal's travel distance is not reduced, but burdening increases the animal's chance of going lame. A burdened animal may not be force marched. Camels and elephants refuse to move when overloaded. Animals pulling wagons or carts may not be force marched or burdened, but maybe forced to travel more than their usual number of periods.  Camels and elephants are not usually used to pull carts or wagons, and no harness has been developed for them to do so.

TERRAIN EFFECTS ON ANIMAL MOVEMENT
Travel on a good road is largely unaffected by the terrain through which the road passes but good roads are becoming scarce. Furthermore, good roads are still fairly well settled and are often infested with military patrols and convoys. Most characters will spend much of their time on back roads and travelling cross country. When travel on a good road is practical, however, it is done at the road rate. A poor road (one which is breaking up, partially washed out, or just hasn't seen a road crew in three or four years) allows travel at the full cross-country rate for animal-drawn vehicles regardless of terrain
Aside from roads, there are four main type of terrain encountered in the countryside: woods, swamp, hills, and open terrain.
Woods: All travel through wooded areas is assumed to be along only paths and roads and through clearings whenever possible. Movement by animals through woods is at the full off-road movement rate.
Swamp: Animals move at half their off-road movement rate in swamp.
Hills: Hills are relatively steep but regular rolling ground. All movement is reduced by half in hills. Hills may also be wooded. If so, determine the movement rate for woods first and then apply the hill terrain reductions to the result.
Open: Open terrain is generally flat or
gently rolling grasslands, and for the most part consists of former cultivated lands which have reverted to the wild but are not yet wooded. Open terrain also includes cultivated ground in the area of settlements. All movement through open terrain is at the full off-road movement rate.

ANIMAL COMBAT MOVEMENT
As mentioned in the main combat movement section, any scale may be used; movement rates and weapon ranges are given here in metres. Combat movement rates, in metres per combat round, are given on the Combat Movement Table on page 252 and on individual animal (vehicle) data cards.
Animals have three rates: walk, trot, or run some do not run). Horses and mules may be ridden in combat. Anyone may ride a walking animal safely. Riding a trotting animal is safe for anyone with any Horsemanship skill and is Easy: Agility for other characters. A character with Horsemanship skill has a maximum safe speed on a horse equal to 20+ Horsemanship; round fractions up. Riding at the safe speed is automatic.
A character may ride at greater than the safe speed-up to 40 meters per round (full gallop) at the risk of falling off. Avoiding a fall is Average: Horsemanship or Difficult: Agility, rolled once per turn. A fall results in 1D6-3 hits, with location rolled on the Human/ Animal Hit Location Chart (page 198).
If a catastrophic failure occurs (see page 135), a serious mishap happens. Serious mishaps include breaking a horse's leg in a chuckhole, tearing a muscle from leaping, or becoming bogged in mud so as to injure the horse. The referee should determine the exact nature of the mishap according to circumstances. A mishap of this sort will probably result in a fall, as noted above.

INITIATIVE
All animals have an Initiative of 6, except as noted below.

ACTIONS
Ride: The character is riding an animal. He must specify the speed (and whether or not it is the safe speed) to the referee. (See Combat Movement above).

ANIMALS IN COMBAT
All animals attack as if engaging in melee combat. An animal attack cannot be blocked by an unarmed combat attack, but may be blocked with a melee weapon. The animal data charts give the base hit number (used the same as a PC's Melee Combat skill), melee damage, and hit capacity (hits) for all animals.
Morale: Whenever an animal first suffers damage from a combat, there is a chance it will flee. The original chance of the animal attacking (see Encounters, page 158 and the animal data charts) is also the chance that it will continue the attack once wounded. By the same token, whenever an animal is killed or rendered unconscious, there is a chance (the same chance) that the attacking group will flee. This die roll is made each time an animal is killed.
Bears: A bear makes two melee attacks per round, one with his claws and one with his jaws. After the first successful claw attack, the claw attack becomes a grappling attack (which cannot be blocked by either Melee Combat skill). This grappling is special, and each successful phase of grappling inflicts controlling hits upon a target and inflicts 1D6 points of damage to the chest area. Once a bear has inflicted enough controlling hits on a target to completely subdue (control) it, the jaw attacks automatically hit and do double damage. A bear's Strength is equal to its Constitution. A bear's Agility is 4.
Bison, Wild Cattle: Wild cattle include the African gnu, the Asian water buffalo, and other large feral bovines of various types. These make only diving attacks. Bison have an Initiative of 1D6/2.
Dogs: During the first round in which a dog attacks, it is allowed two simultaneous attacks: a diving blow and a melee attack. However, no more than two dogs can make diving attacks per character per combat phase. Any remaining dogs will just make a melee attack. Once a dog has made a diving blow or a regular melee attack, it may not try any further diving blows. This same rule applies to wolves as well.
Large Cats: Large cats include lions, leopards, and cougars. (Tigers are huge cats.) The first phase in which a large cat attacks, it is allowed two simultaneous attacks: a diving blow and a melee attack. Once a large cat has made a diving blow or a regular melee attack, it may not try any further diving blows. Lions suffer the same numerical restrictions on diving attacks as dogs. All large cats make one melee attack per phase after the diving attack is done.
Rhinos, Elephants: These make only diving attacks, and each counts as a charge for the purposes of panic. Rhino attacks on vehicles are counted as a direct-fire attack with an armour penetration of 2 for damage purposes and attacks on vehicles.
Tigers: Same as bear. A tiger's Agility is 6; its Strength is also equal to its Constitution.

ANIMAL MAINTENANCE
Animals, like vehicles, require "maintenance" if they are to perform properly.
Feeding: All draft animals need to graze for two four-hour periods per day. Horses and mules also require grain if they do any work that day (including being ridden). The amount of grain required is given on the Food Consumption Table on page 273. If they do no work, they need not be fed grain, but must spend all day grazing to make up for it.
Each day in which an animal does not receive enough to eat it receives a hunger level increase of one. If it is also forced to work, it receives a hunger level increase of two. All animals start at a hunger level of 0. If an animal's hunger level reaches 20, it dies. The animal's hunger level also increases its chance of going lame (see below), For every day in which the animal gets all the food it needs and is not required to do any work, it receives a hunger level decrease of one.
Care: Maintenance is a task (Easy: Horsemanship) and takes 20 minutes per animal after its work is completed each day. Failure to conduct animal maintenance (or a failed roll) causes the animal to suffer a hunger level increase of one, but this addition does not occur more than once per week. (The animal is not really hungry, but the effects and remedies of inadequate care are the same as for hunger. For simplicity, they are treated the same.)
Going Lame: Each day in which an animal travels, it may go lame. Roll 1D10. A 1 indicates a potential injury. For each potentially injured animal, roll another D10 for 1 or less. Subtract one from the die roll for the following: each hunger level, each forced march, each period burdened, and each period travelled that day in addition to the normal allowed number. If the PC rolls less than -3 on the second die roll, the horse has either broken a leg or collapsed from exhaustion and, in either case, must be put out of its misery. An animal carrying no load at all has no chance of going lame.
Recovery: An animal can recover from going lame. In order to recover, it must not carry any load and may not be force marched (although it can move at the normal travel speed). It must receive its full care and be well fed. If so, it will recover in two weeks automatically. There is a chance it will recover in one week if the character caring for the animal does his job well (Average: Horsemanship). If any of the above requirements for recovery are not met, the animal is permanently lame and is of no further use (except for food or sale to the gullible).

The main use of skills and attributes is in determining the success or failure of actions the characters attempt. Actions depending on the use of skills and attributes are called tasks. Most of a referee's job will consist of adjudicating character attempts to accomplish various tasks.
Some tasks are obviously impossible, such as building a new truck engine from scratch without a machine shop and a storehouse full of materials. Other tasks, such as filling a gas tank with gasoline, are so simple that it is assumed any character can carry them out successfully. In between these two extremes, however, lies a multitude of tasks, which the referee will be called on to adjudicate. Some tasks used repeatedly during the game (such as foraging or firing a rifle) are covered in detail in the rules. Others are up to the referee to determine.
When determining the success of a character's attempt to carry out a task, the referee should ask himself two questions: How difficult is the task, and what skills or attributes are important to the task? Each task is a D10 roll against (equal to or under) the character's relevant skill or attribute.
Difficulty: While there are numerous shades of difficulty in tasks, for game purposes all tasks are broken down into three categories: difficult (Difficult), average (Average), and easy (Easy).
For example, a mechanic needs to repair a villager's tractor. The referee first decides roughly what the vehicle's problem is (not strictly necessary, but it helps both players and referee visualise the situation), then decides if repair is Difficult, Average, or Easy. If the engine needs a short length of wire cut and fitted into place, the mechanic's job is Easy. If it needs a hole in a metal tube soldered, the task would be Average. If the engine needs a new timing gear filed from a piece of sheet metal, the task would be Difficult.
The referee may further decide to break the task into two parts. Using the above example, the referee may decide that the vehicle needs a part the mechanic does not have and cannot make.
In this case, determining the problem would be an Average task, but repair would be Difficult, and perhaps impossible (which might lead to an adventure to locate and obtain the proper part).
Useful Skills and Attributes: The referee must decide which skill or attribute is important to performance of the task. In the above example, the character's Mechanic skill is obviously the important one.
For ease of description, in the remainder of this rules section, skills and attributes are collectively called assets.
Abbreviations: The chance of success in a task is completely described by its difficulty the asset used. The many tasks described in these rules are sometimes expressed in an abbreviated form as Difficulty: Asset. For example, Easy: Swimming refers to a task using Swimming skill as an asset.
Determining Success: Once difficulty and the relevant asset have been determined, the task is resolved as a roll against the Character’s asset. If the task is Average, roll against the asset itself. If the task is Easy, multiply the asset by two; if it is Difficult, divide the asset by two, rounding fractions down,
Thus, returning to the mechanic in the example above, if he had a Mechanics skill level of 4, he would need to make a D10 roll of 2 or less to succeed at a Difficult task, a 4 or less to succeed at an Average task, and an 8 or less to succeed at an Easy task.
For another example, suppose a player character wants to break down a door. The referee decides this is Difficult: Strength. The character has Strength: 7; dividing this by two gives the character a target number of 3 for success.
More than One Asset: Sometimes more than one asset can be applied to a single task. In most cases, both assets are necessary to performance of the task; whichever one the character has least of should be used to determine success. For example, the referee may decide repairing a range finder is a difficult task requiring Computer and Electronics.
There are other possibilities too. Easy (Biology or Medical) means an Easy task in which either Biology or Medical skill is sufficient by itself; use the higher of the two. Average: Civil Engineer or Difficult: Combat Engineer means the same task may be performed using either asset, using different difficulty levels. Finally, various mathematical formulas may be used: Difficult: (AGL + Thrown Weapon) uses the sum of two assets; Difficult: Metallurgy + Mechanic)2 uses the average of assets.
Additional Difficulty Levels: It is also possible for the referee to describe tasks more or less difficult than the three categories used here, or intermediate in difficulty. Simply multiply or divide the character's asset by larger, smaller, or intermediate numbers. For example, a "very difficult” task might require dividing the asset by three to determine the chance of success. A task intermediate between Easy and Average might multiply by 1.5,
Opposition: In some cases attempts to complete a task will be met with opposition from other characters. There are three types of opposition.
First, a character may be trying to succeed at a task and another trying only to prevent him. One or the other must succeed. If a character were trying to break down a door for example, a character on the opposite side might try to keep the door in place In this case, the asset used is the asset of the character making the attempt minus the asset of the character trying to prevent him. Obviously, if the second character's asset is higher, the attempt fails automatically.
Second, two or more characters may be trying to succeed at the same task in a competition in which it is not certain that anyone will succeed. For example, two characters are racing to solve a complex mathematical problem. Both characters roll, in this case Difficult:  (Intelligence and Education), and the one who succeeds is the one who rolls the furthest below the roll he would need for success without opposition. (Of course, it is possible for all contestants to fail.)
For example, suppose two characters are rolling with 2 and 4 target numbers; the first of them rolls a 2 and the second rolls a 3. Since the first character rolled two less than required for success, while the second character rolled only one less, the first character wins.
The third case is like the second, but this time one of the characters must succeed. An example would be a footrace or determining the winner of a hand of poker. Characters roll as above. It none of the characters rolls success, the winner is the character who failed by the smallest amount. Roll again in case of ties.
Outstanding Success: If a character attempts to complete a task and beats his target number by four or more, he has achieved outstanding success. If for example, a character needed to roll 8 or less, and rolled a 2, that would be an outstanding success.
How the referee handles outstanding success is dependent on the situation. Generally the task is done much more quickly than would usually be the case, or some extra bonus is awarded. A mechanic might not only repair a tractor, but also improve its functioning in the process and gain particular gratitude from the villagers. The man trying to break down the door might also knock the man holding it shut unconscious, or knock it off its hinges with such noise and force that the occupants of the room are forced to roll for panic.
Catastrophic Failure: This is the opposite of outstanding success. If a character fails in a task and fails by at least four, roll again with the same required roll. If the character fails again, he has suffered a catastrophic failure. (If he succeeds, it's just a regular failure.) The mechanic in the previous example might not only fail to repair the tractor, but he would also break some other important part. The man trying to break down the door might hurt himself in addition to not breaking down the door.
Catastrophic failure should not be overused. In a great many tasks there is no obvious effect of a catastrophic failure, and it should not be rolled for - a geologist who fails to find an iron deposit should not also break his leg. Catastrophic failure's major purpose is to deter characters from attempting tasks (especially dangerous ones) far beyond their abilities.

SKILLS AND ASSOCIATED TASKS
Not all skills and tasks are discussed here many are described in other rules and are not repeated. Other uses are fairly obvious most uses of attributes, for example. However, some skills require further explanation, and some common tasks are worth describing in more detail here. The following are intended as general guides only; there are too many tasks to list more than a small fraction, and difficulty may be increased or decreased by too many factors to cover in detail.
Aircraft Mechanic: Tasks using this skill are similar to normal Mechanic skill tasks, but are applied only to aircraft.
Biology: Make antibiotics: Difficult. Assess condition of animal before purchase: Average. Detect disease in animal: Average.
Chemistry: This skill can be used to synthesise many useful substances; many have military uses: gunpowder (Easy), dynamite (Average), smokeless powder (Average), primer (Average), plastic explosive (Difficult), blood agent (Average), blister agent (Difficult), irritant gas (Average), HC smoke (Easy), white phosphorus (Difficult). (Gunpowder can be used in appropriate single shot weapons, while smokeless powder and primer are needed to reload ammunition.) Catastrophic failure when making these substances is truly catastrophic. Many other compounds of a less violent nature can also be synthesised, given the right equipment (or something close to it) and the proper raw materials).
Civil Engineer: This skill is used to construct things, mostly bridges and buildings. Failure results in time and materials overruns. Catastrophic failure may sometimes result in collapse, but generally it results in just a need for emergency repairs to forestall a collapse. Most tasks will require additional labour. Direct construction of simple bridge: Average. Build small shed: Easy. Reinforce lightly damaged structure (bridge, house, etc.): Average. Direct reinforcement of heavily damaged structure (bridge, house, etc.): Average. Assess condition of structure: Average.
Combat Engineer: Place demolition charge (with engineer demo kit): Easy. Improvise detonator/fuse, etc. (in absence of engineer demo kit): Difficult. Improvise antipersonnel obstacles: Easy. Improvise anti-vehicle obstacles: Average. Camouflage position: Easy.
Detonating explosive by radio is a risky business, not because it is hard but because it is so easy (some electrical blasting caps can be accidentally detonated by induced current from stray radio signals, and must be specially shielded to prevent this). Rigging an explosive to be radio-detonated requires an explosive charge, a standard electrical blasting cap, and a radio detonation receiver (all with the charge), plus a broadcast unit to send the required signal. The task is Average: (Combat Engineering / Electronics) given proper equipment, Difficult: (Combat Engineering/Electronics) given improvised equipment. Ordinary failure means the charge does not detonate. Catastrophic failure means the charge detonates prematurely (at a time determined by referee, at random if desired).
Improvising a radio detonation receiver or transmitter from a normal radio is an Average: (Combat Engineering/Electronics) task. The task becomes one level more difficult without an electronics tool set.
Disguise: The main ingredients of this skill are not greasepaint and false moustaches, but acting skill and confidence. Its most common use will be to impersonate a foreign soldier or national. In combination with Language skill, it is used to mimic an accent. Fooling a native speaker of the language is Difficult: (Disguise and Language); fooling a non-native is Average: (Disguise and Language level of speaker Language level of listener); fooling someone who doesn't speak the language at all is Easy: (Disguise or Language). Disguise can be used to gain a cursory examination for documents (Average); see Forgery for the importance of this.
Electronics: Make a radio receiver (Average) or transmitter (Difficult) if spare parts are available.
Fishing: Catch fish without adequate equipment: Difficult. Catch fish with adequate equipment: Average. Fabricate equipment: Average.
Forgery: Forge signature if an example is available: Easy. Alter a document (Average), or create a new document (Difficult). These tasks are one level easier if the document is expected to survive only a cursory glance (see Disguise).
Geology: Locate workable ore and mineral deposits of coal or iron: Average; other metals: Difficult.
Gunsmith: Fit telescopic sight to rifle (includes sighting in): Average. Fit starlight scope to rifle (Easy: Gunsmith). Fabricate zip gun: Average. Make crossbow or crossbow bolts (Average). Reload cartridges, given brass and powder: Average.
Horsemanship: Saddle break unbroken horse: Difficult. Failure results in slight injury to the rider. Assess condition of horse before purchase: Average. Conceal condition of horse before sale: Difficult.
Hunting Bow: Make arrows (Average) or bows (Difficult).
Interrogation: Interrogation involves two major factors: the state of the prisoner and the nature of the information the interrogator is seeking. Rather than try to combine the two, here are some tasks to use as guidelines. Prisoner is: demoralised and frightened (Easy), fatigued, stupid, or boastful (Average), security conscious (Difficult). Information sought: name of unit (Easy), scraps and hints requiring player interpretation (Average), strength and location of unit or major secrets: (Difficult).
Language: Communicating in a given language is Average: (Language of speaker and language of listener). Communicating in a language the character does not speak, using his skill in another language of the same group is Difficult: (Language of speaker and Language of listener). (For example, using knowledge of Polish to speak to a Czech.). Both the previous tasks become one degree easier if attempting to communicate very simple concepts ("I'm hungry"), especially if sign language is used to help ("Where are we?” while pointing at a map). Identifying languages: one the character speaks (Easy); a language of the same group (Average); a language of the same family (Difficult). Groups and families are shown on the Language List.
Leadership: Inspire NPCs to obey your orders: Average. Recruit NPCs: Difficult.
Lockpick: Pick simple key locks (like those on desks, briefcases, and some doors) and hot-wire vehicle: Easy. Pick key locks on jail cells, handcuffs, and deadbolt door locks: Average. Open combination and key locks on padlocks, safes, and strongboxes: Difficult. Difficulty levels assume lockpick tools are available. They become one level more difficult if lockpicking tools are not used. Improvise lockpick tool: Average. Locks on vaults and high security establishments (in espionage missions particularly) require tools and are always Difficult.
Mechanic: Assess condition of vehicle before purchase: Easy. Conceal condition of vehicle before sale: Average.
Medical: In addition to the tasks outlined on page 203 and 244 245, this skill can also be used to treat diseased animals; add one difficulty level to all tasks.
Melee Combat: Knock a surprised opponent unconscious without killing him: Easy. Disarm opponent: Average.
Melee Weapons Expertise: During the character generation process, players may wish to pick a melee weapon as the object of their character's single-minded training and practice sessions. That weapon then becomes a sub-cascade of the Melee Combat (Armed) skill on their character sheet. The detriment to this is that Melee Combat (Armed) skill for other melee weapons will be considered half of the specialty weapon. The benefit is that the character may be able to do extra damage with the weapon. This damage is applied as an additional modifier to the damage roll for the weapon, and it is equal to the skill in the specific weapon, multiplied by the character's strength, and the result divided by 10 (rounded down). In equation format, the formula is: Damage Modifier = [Melee Combat (Armed: Weapon Speciality)xSTR]÷10.
Metallurgy: Smelt ore into metal, given smelter: Easy. Make simple alloys, given forge and proper raw materials: Average. Forge and cast metal objects, given raw materials, forge, and tools: Average. Construct forge / smelter, given excavating and construction tools: Average. Lack of a smelter makes conversion of ore into metal impossible. Lack of a forge makes other tasks two levels more difficult.
Meteorology: Predict weather later today: Easy. Predict weather tomorrow: Average. Predict weather the day after tomorrow: Difficult.
Mining: Operate open surface mine without mishap: Easy. Operate deep shaft mine without mishap: Average. The skill can also be used to make tunnels in rock (Average but slow) or soil (Difficult but fast). Ordinary mishaps represent slight injuries. Catastrophic failure in deep shaft mining represents a cave-in; in open surface mines, it represents a serious wound. Additional labour is required for most mining operations.
Motorcycle: Jump a five meter wide ditch: Difficult. Assess condition of motorcycle before purchase: Average. Cross soft ground without bogging down: Average.
Mountaineering: Climb steep slope or sheer rock face with good handholds: Average. Climb sheer, mostly smooth rock face or building wall: Difficult. These tasks assume no special equipment. If equipment is used, the difficulty levels are one lower. Rappel down: Easy. (A character may also help others to climb by climbing up first and lowering a rope; difficulty for them is the same as climbing with equipment.)
Observation: Spot tripwire or boobytrap: Average.
Parachute: Land safely in most terrain is Easy. Land safely in woods, cities, swamp, or water: Average. Land in a particular spot: Difficult with a parachute, Average with a paraglider. Rigging or checking a rig: Easy. Flying a hang glider: Average. Repairing a parachute or hang glider: Easy. Making a parachute or hang glider: Difficult.
Pilot (Fixed Wing): Take off or land using open field: Average. Take off or land multi engine plane using open field: Difficult.
Pilot (Helicopter): Hover in a helicopter: Average. Hover in a helicopter during a brisk wind: Difficult.
Scrounging: When a character attempts to scrounge a specific object, he looks in a particular place. The referee determines difficulty based on his opinion of the likelihood of the object being in such a place. The higher a character's Scrounging skill, the more likely he is to find useful things in unlikely places.
Scuba: Avoid a mishap while using an aqualung or rebreather is Easy: (Scuba + Swimming). Navigate underwater is Easy. Avoiding detection from watchers on the surface is Average with an aqualung or Easy with a rebreather.
Small Arms: A catastrophic failure at firing any small arms indicates the weapon jammed. Clearing a jam is Easy.
Small Arms Expertise: Characters may specialise in a particular type of firearm. This specialisation is indicated in a different manner from melee weapon expertise, and its benefit is not increased damage, nor is there a decrease in skill levels of Small Arms (Pistol) or (Rifle). Rather, the expertise is recorded with the weapon stats, in the equipment section of the record sheet; and the benefit is enhanced chances to hit, as detailed on the table below. The only detriment is expenditure of experience points (see Skill Improvement in the basic game) to "purchase" the enhancement, again as indicated on the table below:

SMALL ARMS EXPERTISE
Level	XP Cost	Auto Miss	STR Bonus
Default	-	17-20	-
I	10	18-20	1
II	12	19-20	2
III	14	20	3

The "level" number is merely a convenient way of keeping track of what effects have been bought. The "XP Cost" is how many experience points must be spent to buy the enhancement (each level must be paid for separately). The "auto miss" column indicates any change to the automatic miss rule for fire combat (see the basic game). The "STR bonus" column indicates effective additions to the firer's strength for purposes of withstanding the specialty weapon's recoil.
Example: Vanna has a Strength of 5, has a Small Arms (Rifle) skill of 10, and has spent 9 experience points to purchase a level I expertise with the AK-74. Her skill is listed as "Small Arms (Rifle) 10: AK-74, I." Her skill with all rifles, including AK-74s, is 10, but she gains two benefits when firing an AK-74. First, if she fires with quick shots at a short range target and rolls a 9 and a 10, she will hit with the first (despite the auto miss rule) and miss with the second (despite her skill level). Second, her adjusted strength of 6 (5 plus the expertise bonus of 1) is sufficient to handle the recoil for two shots with the AK-74.
Small Boat: Rolls to avoid mishaps are necessary only in combat (Easy) or during unusual situations like overloaded boats, bad weather, or white water (Average). Sailboats are one level more difficult. Operating a small boat at all requires some skill but does not require a roll under good conditions. Navigate to within 10 kilometres of landfall (per 100 kilometres sailed): Average. Ditto in bad weather or at night: Difficult.
Snow Skiing: Avoid mishap under normal conditions: Easy. Avoid mishap at night, in bad weather, on steep slope or when burdened: Difficult.
Stealth: Approach to within one meter of a sentry in daylight: Difficult. Ditto at night: Average. Approach to within one meter of animal: Difficult. Conceal trail (so as to make tracking one level more difficult): Average.
Swimming: Floating is Average when wearing clothes and Easy without clothes. A loaded character (one with other than light personal equipment) cannot float (or swim). If the task is failed, the character sinks (and will drown if he remains in the water). If successful, the character floats and may swim. Each character has a swimming endurance equal to five times his Constitution. Floating without clothes uses zero endurance points; floating while wearing clothes uses one endurance point per minute. Maximum swimming speed is meters equal to Swimming skill per combat round. A character uses five endurance points per minute when swimming at full speed and one endurance point per minute at half speed. If the character is wearing clothes while swimming, double the endurance cost and halve the speed. Swim while towing another person: Average. Dive without aqualung to depths of one to five meters: Average. Ditto to six to 10 meters: Difficult.
Thrown Weapon: Pin target's sleeve to wall with thrown knife while barely nicking skin: Difficult.
Tracked Vehicle: Cross rocky terrain without throwing track (minor suspension breakdown): Average. Cross soft ground without bogging down: Average.
Tracking: Follow in snow, loose soil, or sand: Easy. Follow across rock: Difficult. Detect disease in animal from carcass: Average. Determine time since quarry passed through: Difficult. Determine number of animals or people in party: Difficult. Night increases all tasks by two levels of difficulty.
Warhead: Arm/disarm weapons from the character's own army: Easy. Arm/disarm foreign weapons: Average. Repair a faulty nuclear weapon: Difficult. Catastrophic failure results in accidental detonation.
Wheeled Vehicle: Cross soft ground without bogging down: Average. Cross rocky ground without damaging suspension: Average. Heavy rain makes all driving tasks one level more difficult.

SKILL IMPROVEMENT
As a person grows older and more experienced, it is natural that he will polish his existing skills and learn new ones. In a sense, Twilight: 2000 picks up the threads of the lives of the characters in midcourse. Thus, they already have considerable knowledge of the world, but as time passes they will learn more.
Experience: As players find themselves in situations which require the use of skills, they will gradually learn to use them better. In the game, this is represented by experience points.
Award one experience point per session unless the player really screwed up, plus a bonus point for any particularly dangerous, or particularly intensive, skill used. Referees can award an additional bonus point for a player who is particularly good at staying in character during the session or who performs a notably heroic deed. Referees should not award points for easy or mundane tasks, even if they are especially successful. The option in all cases is the referees, but he should be guided by two simple principles. First, the reward should fit the task. Random and meaningless use of skills should not be rewarded by experience points. Rather, experience should be gained only when the task at hand needs doing. Second, skills are acquired gradually, and experience should reflect this. If players begin zooming up in skill levels, the game will soon lose its challenge.
At the same time, each player should note (perhaps with a pencil checkmark, so it can be erased before the next session) the skills used during the session. The experience points awarded can then be converted to levels in any one or more of the skills used.
Conversion: Experience points are converted to increases in skill levels during a lull in the characters' activities, perhaps during a day spent in rest and maintenance (the periods between active adventuring, in other words). When the referee thinks the time is right, the characters' accumulated experience points may be converted to increased skill levels.
To do this, the character spends experience points to buy levels in a skill. To buy a level costs points equal to its numerical value: to buy Mechanic: 5 costs five experience points (assuming the character has Mechanic: 4 already). A character must already have achieved the level immediately below the one sought, although a character can advance more than one skill level at a time (to go from Mechanic: 3 to Mechanic: 5 would require 4+5=9 skill points, which could be expended at the same time).
If the character's experience points for the skill are not converted, they may be accumulated. Points acquired may be used to build up any skill.
For example, Monk has accumulated six experience points by the time the referee lets his party assimilate its experience, and he decides he needs to improve his Small Arms (Rifle) skill. His current skill level as a rifleman is 4. To advance to Small Arms (Rifle): 5 requires five points, leaving him one point left over for another use on another skill or to save for a later time.
Option: If the players don't mind the bookkeeping involved, referees may award points in specific skills, for use only in that skill (Mechanic experience points, for example, or Chemistry experience points).
Initiative: A separate point system exists for improving Initiative. Referees should award one point for each session in which there is a firefight, awarding an extra point for a particularly outstanding shot or a superior feat of hand to hand combat. Initiative points are used to buy increasing levels of Initiative just like any other skill, but Initiative experience points can only be used for Initiative. Additionally, it requires the square of the next level in experience points to increase level. For example, to go from level 1 to 2, requires 4 Initiative experience points, from 2 to 3 requires 9 points, etc.
Advance by Observation: If a player observes another player successfully accomplishing a task, the observing player gains one experience point. This observation must be a close up examination of the task and must have the cooperation of the character actually performing the task. If the referee considers the skill sought to be a complicated one (such as Mechanic), the task should take longer than usual (perhaps substantially longer), as the character performing the will often have to pause to explain what he is doing or to answer questions. A character may gain experience points from observation if the observed character's skill level is at least twice as great as the skill level of the observing character.
Some skills are used for tasks which do not take specific time periods and which cannot be explained or taught except by direct example. (Observation is a good example of this.) Characters may gain experience through observation of these tasks. For example, if a group of characters encounters a group of NPCs, the character ' Observation skill is that of the character with the highest skill, modified downward for having people along. If the group is successful in surprising the NPC group, characters gain an experience point in Observation by watching an expert at his craft.
Instruction: A character may be taught a skill. Teaching a skill is Average: Instruction. The instructor may teach a number of students equal to his Instruction skill level and must have a skill level in the skill being taught. An instructor cannot teach a student whose level in the subject taught is equal to or greater than that of the instructor. The task takes one period per day for one week (seven consecutive days). Successful completion of task (rolled for at the end of the week) results in experience points for both the students and the instructor. The instructor gains experience for accomplishing a task as explained in experience rules. Students gain a number of experience points (in the skill being taught) based on the number of students taught.
If the number of students is less than half the instructor's skill level, each student gains three experience points. If the number of students half or more of the instructor's skill level, each student gains one experience point.
New Skills: A player who has a skill level of 0 in a particular skill may attempt to learn the skill. This may be done either through observation or through instruction. Since the character has a skill level of 0, his experience cost will be one. However, he must either observe the skill in operation or be taught it by someone with Instruction skill.

FUEL
After years of war and a breakdown in the transportation system, Europe is for petrochemicals, and most machinery is grinding to a haft. Isolated wells and oil fields are still pumping, but the need for lubricants is so great that virtually no one afford the luxury of actually burning the oil. As a result, the most common fuel in use alcohol A few vehicles were originally equipped with multi-fuel engines that could, in a pinch, burn alcohol. Over the last several years virtually all remaining vehicles have converted to alcohol burners.
The advantage of alcohol is that corn and waste vegetable products can be turned into alcohol, and these resources are plentiful and renewable. In addition, most have made stills they carry on trailers, which enable them to live off the land with respect to fuel as well as food.
The disadvantage of using alcohol for fuel is that alcohol has less than half the energy value per Litre of gasoline (in most engines, anyway). Thus, alcohol burners tend to have much higher fuel consumption to get the same performance. Also, since an engine has to be modified to burn alcohol, it would have to be modified back before it could again burn gasoline or diesel fuel. Finally, certain high performance engines cannot be modified to burn alcohol. Aircraft designed to fly on aviation gas cannot get off the ground on alcohol. Thus, air power is mostly a thing of the past to the secret relief of many infantrymen).
Consumption: Each vehicle card gives the vehicles fuel consumption rate (litres consumed per period spent travelling or in combat) and fuel capacity (in litres). These values are repeated on the Travel Movement Table on page 273. Additional fuel, of course, can be carried in supply vehicles or strapped on the outside of the vehicle, but this can be dangerous in combat. The card also states all the types of fuel the vehicle can be modified to burn.
All vehicles initially should be set up to burn either ethanol (grain alcohol) or methanol (wood alcohol), whichever the players prefer. The fuel consumption of a vehicle assumes gasoline or diesel fuel. Fuels with over energy properties are consumed at a higher rate. The Fuel Energy Table lists fuel consumption multipliers for each type of fuel. To determine a vehicle's actual fuel consumption multiply its listed fuel consumption by the consumption multiplier of the fuel being used. For example, the Ml tank has a fuel consumption rate of 550. Thus, it would consume 550 litres of gasoline per period, or 1650 litres of ethanol, or 1925 litres of methanol.

Fuel Energy

Fuel		CM
Gas		1
Avgas		1
Diesel		1
Ethanol		3
Methanol	3.5
Wood		5
Coal		2

The fuel burned by a vehicle may be altered from its current choice to any of the other choices given in the vehicle card. This task is Easy: Mechanic and takes four hours.
Vehicles, which are listed as burning all types of fuels (gasoline, aviation gas, diesel, and alcohol), have multi-fuel engines and do not need to be adjusted.

Distilling Alcohol: If a character has a still, he can distil alcohol for fuel. The equipment list contains a variety of stills and their prices. The list and the Alcohol Output Table on page 273 give the two values controlling distillation: kilograms of vegetable matter required (input) and litres of fuel produced per day (output).
These figures are the same whether the still is to be used to produce ethanol or methanol.
Distilling alcohol takes three days from start to finish. The first day is spent gathering material for the still, pulverising it, and combining it with water to make a "mash." For the next 24 hours the mash is cooked over a constant low heat. It is during this time that fermentation and other chemical processes create alcohol.
On the third day the mash is distilled to separate the alcohol from the rest of the mixture.
The still needs to be stationary for the distillation step and while the group is gathering material for the mash, but the group can move while the mash is fermenting. Alcohol making can be a continuous process, with all three steps going on at once.
Gathering Material: Material gathered anywhere can be used to distil methanol. One person can gather, pulverise, and turn into mash 100 kilograms of material per period, on the average. This is halved in winter and halved in non-wooded hills. If both conditions are present, the amount gathered is quartered. Only cultivated grain (or other edible plant matter containing carbohydrates or sugars) may be used to distil ethanol. Material gathered for ethanol consists of the edible food weight foraged from a field in summer or fall. (Thus the above figures on material gathered apply only to methanol.) Alternatively, grain can be purchased or bartered for.
While the above rules go into some detail, considerably less detail is necessary in actually administering the process.
Since the material for methanol is plentiful everywhere and easy to gather, the referee should normally allow players to run a methanol still full-time without bothering to require an exact accounting of time and material.

This thread has been mainly superseded by the Yahoo site and the files therein.

I have decided that I will be using everything http://www.pmulcahy.com/
I've found that he's done a hell of a lot of very good work and it would be a shame not to make use of it.

Ok, based on current prices, and taking a bit off just because I feel like it, 1 gram is equal to $20. Therefore, $2,000 only weighs 100 grams or 0.1 kg. As one gram is next to nothing, gold will be in coins of a value no less than $200 each, and more likely $500 each. Anything smaller and they're very likely to get lost.

However, gold dust is sometimes available, but unlikely to be taken in trade.

Silver is also much more likely to be in coin, or ingot form rather than dust. It's value is assessed at $500 per kilogram, or $0.50 per gram. The smallest coin commonly available as pure silver is worth just $5.00 but bear in mind it's still relatively tiny at 10 grams (about the same as 10 drops of water).

Additionally, the rules state a character may take no more than 10% of their starting allowance in Gold. This 10% includes such trade items as bulk supplies of ciggarettes, drinking alchohol, precious metals of all types, and other luxury items as determined from time to time by the GM.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:49, Sat 16 Aug 2008.