Mission Critical: House Rules for Next Week’s Game

Recently I was contacted by a guy from our Club who was interested in playing Mission Critical. Now with a game lined up, this weekend I've been tinkering again and documented some house rules to try. 

Here's a picture of my go bag, fully of everything needed for an evening of cyber punking:

The bottom-left includes four recycled VHS Cases that I use to store all the 'bits' like tokens, dice, cards, pens, miniatures. What I've done now is summarise lots (not quite all) of Mission Critical's rules onto six pages, all the while using nice big print so it's easy to read. This will give you a sense of how it looks:

As to my 'House Rules', they include some mechanics borrowed from Black Powder Red Earth (another game I really rate), while others are just tweaks and clarifications that I’ve been chewing on for a while. What I wanted to do was level up my go bag - I really like to have my games ready to travel, such that I can pull them out of my shed, jump on my bike and be ready to game in a moment or two. By having the rules, minis, dice, terrain, and everything boxed... there's less fussing and more gaming. Here’s what I've changed:

Terrain

Good terrain-related mechanics in tabletop wargames is critically important - striking a balance between simplicity, tactical sophistication, and ease of application... well more than a few of my gaming experiences have been compromised by terrain-related issues.

It took me a little while to appreciate how Mission Critical's terrain rules tie together, how they impact movement and Line of Sight (LoS). I particularly like the stacking of ranged shooting modifiers coupled with the Obstruction-Concealment-Cover levels and how they degrade when shooting from the higher ground struck me as an elegant mechanic.

What I found harder to embrace was the definitions of each level of terrain. Why is a Jersey Barrier different from the corner of a building? What about a window ledge? How dense is dense? This is where I've landed:

Obstructions interrupt an attacker’s LoS, resulting in a -1 Action Test penalty per Obstruction. Concealment describes an Obstruction in base contact with an Agent.

Cover (e.g., walls, jersey barriers) that materially protects an Agent in base contact, providing +1 to their DD test and a -1 Action Test penalty to the attacker.

Obstructions, Concealment, and Cover all stack.

Shooting and Throwing when elevated reduces any terrain modifier by one degree i.e., Cover becomes Concealment, Concealment becomes Obstruction, and Obstruction becomes Open.

Tactical Assets are indestructible, are now considered Obstructions, meaning they interrupt but don't block LoS, and can be surmounted.

Move Actions

I like the manner by which Units can climb any wall, however, in order to clarify gameplay a bit, I've now described it as follows:

Climbing terrain costs of 2"of Move for every 1" of vertical distance. Agents cannot end a Turn Climbing.

The thinking being that an Agent might want to attempt to climb a particularly high wall and to do so would need to string several Moves together. I will play that they need to declare their intent pre-climb and will take falling damage if they don't quite make the climb with falling damage is 1d6 per 3", save on a 4+.

I don't like the crossing low terrain costing an additional 1" I find the additional measurement annoying. Black Powder Red Earth has a surmount action that, if failed, leaves the Unit Staggered (like Prone). Borrowing from that some, I came up with the following:

Surmounting terrain requires a 2nd Action Test after the Move has been declared. A failure sees the Agent finishing the Move in contact with the terrain's far side, otherwise the Unit vaults the terrain without penalty.

I with another sentence I could spell out the that the "...2nd Action Test after the Move..." means that the Agent rolls the same Action Die twice: once to lock in a successful move (then they declare where they want to get to) and then surmount the terrain. I'm keeping this ultra condensed so I can fit it all on a QRS I'm preparing. While surmounting conjures up images of Agents leaping over things, I'm interpreting it a bit more broadly, such that it encompasses any movement attempting to address terrain-related obstacles.

Line of Sight (LoS)

I've borrowed this from Black Powder Red Earth, which I found worked really well:

Direct LoS is established by drawing an uninterrupted line by any walls or waist-high obstruction from any part of the attacking Agent’s base to the centre of their target’s base. 

Obstructed LoS describes (1) an uninterrupted line between attacker’s base to the Target’s base but not base centre) and/or (2) where the line crosses terrain features.

So that means Units can hide around corners some, because if their centre line cannot be targeted, they are automatically Obscured, and (see Terrain above) if they're in contact with a building's edge, they also get the Cover bonus buff. 

Combat Augmentations

Suppressions, Berserker Mode, and Hard Drops now affect enemies and allies alike - if you’re in the blast radius, you’re feeling it! We've had a few games where the Agents tend to move together as a blob - think swat team etc - but I like the idea that employing EMP blasts, crazy amp'ed up cyborgs, and massive amounts of suppressive fire are dangerous for everyone in the vicinity!  They read as follows in my QRS.

Suppression applies a 5” Blast to a point within LoS and range. Agents caught in the Blast must Move 3” toward Cover, moving away from the Ronin's line of attack. Agents already in Cover can stay put. Then, Agents not in Cover within the Blast zone become Prone.

For the remainder of the Turn, Agents cannot Move into, through, or out of the suppressed area. Finally, all Agents in the Blast must test their Action Dice Pool.

BRZKR Mode causes all Agents within 1” of the Razor to suffer 1 automatic wound and enemies make another modified DD roll.

Hard Drop Agents caught with a 5” Blast area of the Hacker automatically falls Prone and must test their Action Dice Pool at a -2 modifier.

Oh yeah, I'm calling the Specialist a Hacker - it's cyberpunk after all!! 

Dodge Defend (DD)

Agents may optionally pull dice from their Action Pool to bolster defence rolls. Not mandatory, but available. It reads as:

Whenever hit by an attack, Agents make a DD roll. 

Standard DD rolls are made using 1D6, however an Agent may increase their chances of avoiding wounds by including one unused ADP die with their roll.

DD rolls are modified by Terrain, the weapon’s Damage rating, and when Prone (-1 penalty).

The unmodified DD target is 4+. 4+ means the hit was ineffective and <4 means the Agent suffers a Wound.

Regeneration and Field Repairs Mechanics

This might be the most interesting House Rule, being Agents that are KIA may regenerate in their deployment zone on the following turn - bring in the reserves! Given the game is limited to 6 Turns, I think it wouldn't compromise the enjoyment any.

We've also had a few games where Agents were reduced to a Move, without access to Med-kits etc. We had debated whether there should be a 'push your luck' type Action that kept the Unit in the fight. I thought about this a lot. Given the setting, I think it could work. Maybe like this with the introduction of a new Repair Action:

Repair using Free Move to attempt to remove Wounds.

Wounds reduce an Agents AAP by one Action, first their D10, then D8, D6, and finally Free Move. A successful 4+ 1D6 Repair Action restores a Wound but inflicts a Wound upon failure. Agents are KIA upon their 4th Wound.

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That’s the lot. Should make for a tighter, more tactical session. I’ll post a follow-up after the game with how it all played out.