Inspec-SHAN!! #3 – Figure 11

Figure 11 is not something you would be familiar with unless you serve in the military. If you do serve then you would know this as a certain size of target when on the shooting range, but in our little gaming group Figure 11 is a surprisingly great home-brew set of skirmish rules created by our resident Scot, Ray.

Ray originally started work on the rules about 10+ years ago and a few years ago thought it would a good time to resurrect them for our group. He’s since given them some proper TLC and only has vehicle rules left to review.

So what is Fig 11 all about? Originally based on trying to replicate the Fallout PC game series, the rules are a skirmish RPG and have been designed so that any period of history or fiction can be played. Similar to other RPGs, players generate stats for their characters which then translate in numerous checks, saves and health details. Players can pick from a plethora of skills and traits which grant the ability to use various items or perform specific tasks. Don’t have the driving skill? Then you’re not gunna be able to drive any vehicle. Don’t have the grenade skill? Well you’ll be to throw it but whether you know to pull the pin out or not is a different matter all together!

Obviously, no good skirmish game is complete without tabletop violence! Fig 11, spends a bit more time on the details of combat trying to faithfully model the real world, which is the result of Ray’s hard work researching and applying experience.

During combat, obviously there is an initiative system, firstly the player needs to make sure his character is holding the correct weapon. He then checks his skill in using that weapon plus any trait bonuses. This generates the base To-Hit percentage. After that, the base To-Hit is modified by the target profile (size/prone/standing/moving/cover etc), the firing mode (rapid/snap etc), the firers position, distance and any optics on the weapon. Two D10s later, one for the “tens” and one for “units”, and if you scored equal to or less than the modified To-Hit percentage, then you hit the target! But what happens then?

The next part of trying to kill your target is all down to ammunition, and yes, a little bit of dice luck. As the firer and weapon confer accuracy, the ammunition confers damage. A 5.56mm round will obviously hurt a less than a 7.62mm or even a .50cal round. In Fig 11, each type of ammunition has a Damage Modifier (DM) and an Armour Penetration (AP) value. If you managed to hit your target, you then roll a D10 to see where. Then you roll a D10 to see badly injured the target is – it’s at this point you add the DM. Roll an “8” and add a DM of “2” and you’re guaranteed to either rip a limb off or out right kill the target! Where the AP comes in is about if the round can get through the target armour.  A .50 cal round will easier penetrate a flak jacket but a 9mm round will have a hard time with full plate. If the round doesn’t penetrate the armour then the target start taking stun damage instead, getting bruised and battered.

The next part of combat in Fig 11 relates to the various medical stats a character has, these being Stun Points, Flesh Wounds, Sanity Points and Life Force. Stun points is just that, how many times you can be stunned before you’re knocked unconscious. Flesh Wounds is where the bulk of a characters injury will take place, noting down any injury that doesn’t kill you and how many wounds it takes off you. Losing all your Flesh Wounds isn’t the end of the world, but it is the start of the end. Not only are you incapacitated but without first aid you start losing Life Force, and lose all of that and your character is dead. Sanity Points relates to anything mentally traumatic that happens to your character and the only way to recover these is with therapy (yep, there’s a character skill for that). Run out of Sanity and your character is too wibble to play on.

Needless to Ray, who often GMs for us, does his best to kill off our characters where possible. So far I’ve been stunned to death, survived a shotgun to the head, dodged .50cal area fire and faced down a charging mutated brute-thing. Others have fared better, but they often play weak-ass snipers!

Figure 11 Rules – The current rules by Ray Lowe for playing a game of Figure 11

Example Characters – A couple of example characters that I was playing a few years ago. Some stats are left blank so I could pencil them in later as they were change fairly frequently.

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