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Co-ordination
I just recalled that our use of "Co-ordination" as a general "teamwork roll" is a house rule. Co-ordinated attacks for purposes of stunning [HSR p149] and multiple attacker bonuses [HSR p150] are automatic, though the referee can call for a PER roll in "noisy" situations.
We used the Co-ordination roll to represent the level of co-ordination between team members. I would give characters a base roll determined by how long they had been working together, using the time chart [HSR p18]:
8- Anybody 9- 5 hours 10- 1 day 11- 1 week 12- 1 month 13- 1 season 14- 1 year
Adjusting the interval would be easy, moving the base roll up or down the time chart.
If a character had been with "the team" for at least the specified period, this became their base roll. Notice that the higher rolls took quite some time to acquire. This also assumed that they were spending time working out with other members, sparing, doing research or other activities designed to promote teamwork.
Characters that did not participate in certain types of activities received penalties (or no roll) based on their participation. "Physical" characters got their full roll duing combat or other physical activities. "Cerebral" characters got their full roll during detective work or research.
I also let chracters acquire levels with their teamwork roll at +1/1pt. My rule of thumb was that they could buy one level for each step they were up the chart. Someone with a base 11- could buy (one at a time) up to three levels with teamwork.
The teamwork roll got used in a lot of ways:
- Combined maneuers that required multiple characters to do "the
right thing" at just the right moment. For example, when a character
was doing a "Grab By" to snatch someone out of combat.
Both characters would roll. The grabbing character could apply half their success to their OCV only for grabbing the teammate. (A complimentary skill roll applied to OCV.)
The target could apply half their success to their DCV only for being grabbed by that teammate. (A complimentary skill roll applied to DCV.)
Modifiers could be applied to the roll by the referee for difficulty. The acting character or the target might have their roll reduced based on the number of attackers, how well they see the target, etc.
- When tossing fragile/dangerous things from character to character.
- When trying to guess what an character would do/want when they were "off-stage." (For example: "Can I ask Collie if Moriah would want us to rescue the hostages or wait for backup?")
- Deciding how well some other character "got" a subtle signal from another character. Sometimes the "bonus" from the time chart got added to the PER roll instead. For example, somone with a Co-ordination roll of 11- (a bonus of +3) might get that +3 added to their PER to "get" the subtle hand signal that points out the super-villain in disguise at the lunch counter.
- During dogfight combat as a complimentary skill roll. The character making their skill roll by the least could apply half their success to the dogfight roll.
Basically, it was a great point sink and, when the team wanted to do something special based on their long association and practice together, the roll gave me some guidelines on how much slack I should give them... :-)
© Copyright 1999 Bob Simpson. All Rights Reserved.