Combat in Alma Mater

Art by Owen Oulten

Sometimes fights occur in high school.  As such, Alma Mater includes rules for combat.  Characters can commit up to two “options” in each five second turn.  An option is defined as “Any form of attack, defense, or other maneuver.”  The rules also explain that “Any option which is not an attack is considered to be a defense.”  In a turn, a character can commit two attacks, two defenses, or one attack and one defense (in either order).  Although a defense counts as one option, the defense – if successful – can last for the entire turn.  A character can also move during a turn.  Movement rates are shown in terms of entire turns, so it does not seem that movement can be performed in the same turn as attack and defense options.  One of the movement types is “Run & Dodge,” which could be interpreted as incorporating the 'Dodge' defense; however, this movement type seems to have an attack modifier against all attacks (instead of a single attack).  (Speed of movement, incidentally, is based upon a character's Constitution – the sum of Strength and Willpower.)

The beginning of combat happens somewhat differently than a standard turn.  The Courage attribute of each combatant is modified according to Table 44.  Examples of possible modifiers include “Must turn around to attack” (–4) and “Attacks from above/below without warning” (+2).  The modified Courage scores are compared.  “The combatant with the highest modified [Courage] gets the first attack, consisting of one action,” the rules state, “while the other character does nothing.”  Some complications are not explained, such as what to do if the modified values are tied.  Perhaps more importantly, what if there are more than two combatants?  Also, does this “First Strike” occur as the first of two options of a turn or does the fist turn have only one 'option'?
 
“Options occur simultaneously,” meaning that “first options are compared first...[with] the second options being compared second.”  Although options occur simultaneously, there is no provision for when options are declared.  It would seem that the person who declares first is at a disadvantage.  “In each turn,” according to the Combat section, “defenses are determined first.”  (Does that include determining second option defenses before first option attacks?)  Defenses are successful if the character succeeds with a Coordination roll.  The defensive options are Advance, Block, Dodge, Grab, and Retreat.  'Block' imposes a –3 modifier against one close attack (or –1 against two).  'Dodge' acts as 'Block', except against ranged attacks.  With 'Grab', a character may either take hold of a limb (or object) or place an opponent in a wrestling hold.  'Retreat' allows a character “to move out of an attacker's effective range.”  Decide for yourself what “effective range” means.  “Advance is the opposite of Retreat,” the description tells us, “Combatants resume close combat.”  Apparently, 'Advance' isn't used to engage in combat, only to resume it.

Before discussing attacks, it is practical to talk about damage.  “Each weapon attack is rated for either type A or B damage,” the rules state.  Type A damage is less severe than type B.  Presumably, unarmed damage is type A but this is never explicitly stated.  Type A damage is recovered at a rate of one point “per hour not spent in strenuous activity” while type B is healed at one point “per day not spent in strenuous activity.”  (More type B damage can be healed in a day with successful application of the First Aid skill.)

For any successful attack, damage is determined by rolling 1d6 and applying appropriate modifiers.  The Strength modifier “applies only to forms of attack where the physical power of the attacker is important.”

Inflicted damaged is subtracted from the target's Constitution.  If the amount of damage from a single attack is less than two-thirds of a character's (original) Constitution, 1d20 is rolled.   If the result of the roll is greater than the character's original Constitution, then the character “is stunned and unable to attack or defend for a number of options equal to the amount by which the roll was missed.”  If a single attack inflicts more than one-third, but less than two-thirds of (original) Constitution, then the character must – in addition to checking for stunning (as above) – succeed in a 1d10 roll against Coordination to avoid falling down.  Strangely, if a single attack inflicts more than two-thirds of a character's (original) Constitution, there is no possibility of being stunned or falling down.  Upon losing all of his or her Constitution, a character becomes unconscious.  Death occurs should a character's Constitution be reduced to –5.  Whenever a character's Constitution is reduced to less than zero as a result of type B damage, then the character loses an additional point per number of minutes equal to the character's (original) Constitution.  First Aid can prevent this loss.

Similar to defense options, attack options succeed with a successful Coordination roll; however, there are many possible modifiers.  Situational modifiers typically regard aiming, obscured vision, and movement of either attacker or defense.

While there are only five defense options, the are a plethora of attack options:  Bite, Claw, Elbow, Head, Kick, Knee, Punch, and Slap.  These are just the standard options; there are also several additional attack options.  The only differences among these standard attack options are the hit location modifiers associated with them.  For instance, a bite has a –3 modifier for hitting the head and a –4 modifier for hitting the chest or abdomen while a punch has a –1 for the head and a –2 for the chest or abdomen.  If the an attack hits and the attacker did not aim for a specific location, then the 'Hit Location' table is used.  Different hit locations apply different modifiers to damage.  For instance, +3 for a hit to the head, –1 for a hit to the foot.

An entire page is devoted to weapon listings.  Each weapon has a damage type, a damage modifier, and range modifiers (short, medium, and long) to the attack roll.  Among the more unusual 'weapons' are electric fans, paper shredders, oranges, chalk, chalk erasers, doors, marbles, medicine balls, rubber bands, yardsticks, bottle caps, dinner forks, cigarettes, hot liquids, wet towels, and spitballs.  Also covered, of course, are 'usual' weapons like switchblades, baseball bats, pool sticks, scissors, pellet guns, and M-16 rifles.

Sex and Drugs in Alma Mater

Art by Owen Oulton

Alma Mater describes six 'Social Situations' in detail:  dancing, flirting, date request, date success, seduction, and love.  While not a situation (I guess it's more of a condition), 'going steady' is also described.  A table listing various modifiers for the die rolls involved with these situations takes up nearly half of a page in the 48 page rule book.  The beginning of the section about Social Situations states that the presented details are “guidelines.”  In other words, they are a set of game mechanics divorced from any notion of role-playing.  I'm not sure which is worse, role-playing high school romance or 'simulating' the same by calculating numbers and chucking dice.

A successful dance requires a Coordination roll (with levels of the Dancing skill as a beneficial modifier) and earns the character a number of Success points equal to one-third of the Appearance of the dancing partner.  Presumably both characters attempt to succeed at dancing, so is it possible for one dancer to succeed and the other to fail?  Perhaps rolls aren't made for NPCs, but what if two player characters dance?  Regardless, a successful dance provides positive modifiers for subsequent attempts at dancing, flirting, date requests, and date successes; likewise, a failed dance provides negative modifiers for the same activities.  These modifiers apply “for the rest of the situation or day, whichever is greater.”

Before any flirtation, date request, or seduction attempt, the character must succeed with a Courage roll.  According to page 26, “Flirting includes any activity short of of seduction, including making out.”  To flirt, a character must attempt an Appearance roll (with half of the target's Willpower as a negative modifier “if the target is unwilling”).  If successful, the character gains an amount of Success points equal to half of the target's Appearance; failure causes a loss of the same amount.  A successful flirtation grants beneficial modifiers to subsequent flirt attempts, dance requests, date requests, date successes, and seduction attempts.  A failed flirtation causes negative modifiers likewise.  Again, this is just for the remainder of the situation or day.

A request for a date succeeds with an Appearance roll by the asker.  The sum of the asked person's Appearance and Intelligence is subtracted from the sum of the asker's Appearance and Intelligence.  Modifiers are applied to the difference; no roll is made.  If the final result is at least three, the date is successful; otherwise, it is not.  A successful date improves the chances of subsequent dance and date requests as well as flirtation and seduction attempts; an unsuccessful date impairs those chances.  With a successful date, the asker gains a number of Success points equal to the asked person's Appearance; otherwise, the asker loses the same number of points.  Evidently, the asked person is not entitled to Success points.

Seduction requires the would be seducer to roll against the average of Intelligence and Appeal.  If the person being seduced passively resists, then that person's Willpower acts a a negative modifier to the chance of success.  The rule book tells us “it is almost impossible to seduce a character who is actively resisting (fighting back), but if your character does, it is called 'rape'.”  Also, “If two characters wish to have sex, a seduction roll is not necessary...”  Without a seduction roll does the 'seducer' get the Success points (equal to twice the seduced person's Appearance)?  Failing the seduction roll causes a loss of Success points.  A successful seduction provides generous positive modifiers to all Social Situations including further seductions; a failed seduction does the opposite.  Thus, a cumulative cycle of Social Situation modifiers is perpetuated.

After a successful seduction, pregnancy will occur 20% of the time.  (The rules assume that seductions are heterosexual.)  Birth control devices have a 10% failure rate, upon which pregnancy is checked normally.  “Birth control pills will always work,” say the rules, “but if a '1' is rolled there was an oversight.”  Is that one out of ten or one out of a hundred?  These things are important.

In terms of sexually transmitted diseases, “The SchoolMaster must designate which NPCs have [them], there should not be very many, but in a large school there are sure to be at least a few.”  The specific STD is determined randomly with 1d10, “A result of 1 - 7 means Syphilis; 8 - 10 indicates Gonorrhea.”  What about herpes and chlamydia?  Anyway, “The SchoolMaster should have knowledge of these diseases, and explain to the players what symptoms their characters experience.”

With regard to game mechanics, 'love' manifests only as a set of modifiers to the other Social Situations; there are no Success points associated with it. According to the rule book, “Love is checked if an Individual Reaction (Table 31) requires it, after a certain number of dates, after a successful seduction, or whenever the SchoolMaster thinks that it is appropriate.”  A 'check' for love is made for NPCs; apparently, players determine when and with whom their characters fall in love.

The effects of alcohol and drugs are based partially on the 'potency level' that the game assigns to various substances.  Table 70 (displayed above) shows the 'average' potency rating for one dose of the listed substances.  (I assume that Thai stick is meant when the term “tye stick” is used.)  “Watered drinks or shared joints have half effect,” the rules inform us.

The combined potency of intoxicants that a character consumes is compared to the character's Constitution.  When determining the effects of alcohol, “Overweight characters add 1” to Constitution and characters that are “underweight, and all females have -1 [Constitution].”

The first three levels of intoxication are Slight (potency up to one-third of Constitution), Moderate (from one-third to two-thirds), and Great (from two-thirds to total Constitution).  The different levels proportionately affect Coordination, Intelligence, Courage, Willpower, and “reaction to others.”  The effects are negative modifiers – except for Courage, for which the modifiers are positive.  A potency total in excess of a character's Constitution causes the character to become comatose; a potency total greater than twice the character's Constitution causes death.  Intoxication is worth Success points; specifically, one point per level.  Thus, becoming comatose is worth four points.  (Dying awards no points.)

Although the game provides no rules about addiction, it is possible for a character to suffer permanent damage as a result of using “strong drugs (potency 4 or 5).”  A roll of 1d20 is made.  If the result is greater than Constitution +5, “half of the value for each negative attribute modifier...becomes permanent (damage to the nervous system).”  Also, “Any character who has an attribute permanently reduced to 0 or less is dead.”