D6 System Homerule: Grouping

### D6 System Homerule: Grouping
Individual people or vehicles can group together to act as a single unit for the purposes of pooling their skills or acting as a single cohesive unit. One unit is elected as the leader whose attributes are used as the basis for the entire group, and the number of members contribute a Grouping modifier that is added on top. The leader then rolls with the modifier to represent to combined efforts of the group. If organized into a combat unit, the group acts, moves, and rolls as if they were one individual character, with damage causing casualties that reduce the group size. This can make running a battle between dozens or even hundreds of troops no harder than managing a one on one battle, or allow a team of engineers to work on a fleet of ships with one simple roll.

Members of the group can only contribute if they have no less than 2D lower or higher in the relevant attributes or skills of the leader. Thus, its best to adopt units of roughly equivalent quality and equipment, such as the same vehicle or soldier type and weapons, with the best leader possible. When forming a group for a Skill roll, only that skill must be within the limit and the group separates after. Combat units are covered below.

While grouped, the unit gains a Grouping modifier depending on the number of valid members, similar to the Scaling modifier. The number of members required to increase the modifier doubles each time. This chart is not fully comprehensive, and can be extended by doubling the members required each time, rounding where appropriate (for example: 12 doubled is 24 but rounding to 25 makes future doubling cleaner).

| Number of Members in Group | Modifier |
| -------------------------- | -------- |
| 2-3                        | +1D      |
| 4-6                        | +2D      |
| 7-12                       | +3D      |
| 13-25                      | +4D      |
| 26-50                      | +5D      |
| 51-100                     | +6D      |
| 101-200                    | +7D      |

For combat units, this modifier adds onto to Skill rolls, Attack rolls, Reaction rolls, Damage rolls, and Damage Resistance rolls when fighting a unit at the same scale as the leader. The reason for this is that getting a hit or a wound severe enough to actually affect the cohesion of the entire group is increasingly difficult with greater numbers, and individual injuries or deaths are not worth tracking.

GROUP COMBAT

Combat units are groups with similar skill, damage, and resistance for the purposes of mass combat. When forming a combat unit, the limits for members to join are:
- The Damage Resistance skill (Body/Hull) must be within the limit or they cannot join the group.
- Armour must be within the limit or they cannot join the group.
- Any Reaction, such as Dodge, that violates the limit in Skill cannot be used, but a group may still be formed.
- Any Attack method (Weapon or Martial Art) that violates the limit in Attack Skill or Damage cannot be used, but a group may still be formed. Different attack methods may be combined into one group attack method if they are within the limit and use the same Attack skill, such as different blasters. Use the Leader's attack method as the basis for attack, damage, range, ammo, and fire rate.

Massed fire or muscle will not help when the individuals have no way to overcome the target's defences. Attacks from a group will be ineffective no matter the numbers if:
- The Leader's Attack skill used was more than 4D lower than the Reaction skill of the target.
- The Leader's Damage used was more than 4D lower than the Damage Resistance skill of the target.

If Fixed Defences are used for combat (Ie; Agility x5 = Parry Defence) then the Attack skill is ineffective if it is lower than the Defence attribute by more than 6 minus the multiplier in die rank. Thus, for a x5 multiplier, the skill used cannot be more than 1D lower than the defence attribute (6-5=1D). For a multiplier of x4, the skill cannot be more than 2D lower than the defence attribute (6-4=2D), and so on. Fixed defence scores are much more difficult to overcome even in a group.

While grouped, a unit is treated as a singular one for actions and damage. Combat with a group assumes a small amount of casualties are always taken from stray shots, but not enough to threaten their cohesion until a successful hit and damage is scored.

When a grouped unit is stunned or damaged, its attributes will be lowered as per the normal rules (such as shields lowering or attributes being lowered) as if it were affecting an individual, but a majority of members are affected in reality. Instead of wounds, casualties are taken which reduce the Grouping modifier. If the Grouping modifier is entirely removed, then the group has been totally wiped out. Note that each casualty result occurs sequentially, not as a sum. IE; if two 50% casualties hit a unit of 100 members, the group has decreased to 50, then to 25; not down to 0.

The casualties of a group represent any mixture of destroyed or dead, incapacitated, and mortally wounded members; all incapable of persisting in the fight. Casualties do not need to be tracked, as the Grouping modifier will indicate the viable numbers remaining. At the GM's discretion they may allow the group's leaders or player characters to be the last survivors, allowing them to escape or be taken captive by the enemy.

After a battle, if casualties can be recovered peacefully, you can recover up to 1/3rd of the members after 24 hours, and 2/3rds of the members with 24 hours and medical treatment and/or repairs. 1/3rd of the casualties will always be dead or destroyed in the heat of battle. If the enemy controls the field, they may recover the same amount in captives instead. Otherwise, another battle may ensue if both sides attempt to recover their casualties without a peacefire. If the group consisted of multiple types of units, just assume the same 1/3rd proportions affected each type.

MASS CHARACTER DAMAGE CHART

| Damage Roll > Strength Roll by: | Effect                                                                      |
| ------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1-3                             | Stunned: -1D skill & attribute penalty until end of round.                  |
| 4-8                             | Wounded casualties: Reduce Grouping modifier by 1D. (50% Casualties.)       |
| 9-12                            | Incapacitated casualties: Reduce Grouping modifier by 2D. (75% Casualties.) |
| 13-15                           | Mortal casualties: All units incapacitated. (100% Casualties)               |
| 16+                             | Total destruction: All units destroyed.                                     |

MASS STARSHIP DAMAGE CHART

| Damage Roll > Hull Code Roll by: | Effect                                                                                               |
| -------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1-3                              | Shields blown/controls ionized                                                                       |
| 4-8                              | Light damage                                                                                         |
| 9-12                             | Heavy casualties: Reduce Grouping modifier by 1D, and survivors take Light Damage. (50% Casualties)  |
| 13-15                            | Severe casualties: Reduce Grouping modifier by 2D, and survivors take Light Damage. (75% Casualties) |
| 16-18                            | Total casualties: All units incapacitated. (100% Casualties)                                         |
| 19+                              | Total destruction: All units destroyed.                                                              |

JOINT-GROUPING

Groups themselves may further be Joint-Grouped for skill checks if the attributes and skills of each Leader plus their current Grouping modifier are within the 2D limit. Select one of the Leaders with the existing Grouping modifier and treat them as if they were an individual forming a new group. For example; one group of engineers has 12 members (+3D) and a Leader with 2D Skill, while another group has 6 members (+2D) and a Leader with 3D Skill. Since both are within the 2D limit, they can form a joint-group and the chosen Leader would gain another +1D for having 2 members. Combat units cannot be formed this way since the attribute and skill limits above still apply; if they could not form a single group, they cannot form a joint-group.

SCALING DIFFERENCE

Units of different scales may be grouped together but the Scale difference is added when looking at the limit for each attribute or skill. At character scale, a monster with a Body of 6D could group with a Leader with a Body of 4D (difference is 2D, within the limit), but if the monster was Speeder scale (modifier of +2D) the difference would be considered 4D and violate the limit. Note that this is always additive for comparison; the Scale difference that would increase the leader's Dodge is only for when they are opposed. When forming a group, Scale difference is always a detriment to cohesion.

Scaling modifiers are included in determining if attacks and damage can harm the target. An Imperial Star Destroyer (ISD) has Shields of 3D and a Hull of 7D. Against Starfighter scale, the Scaling modifier is +6; meaning they are treated as 9D and 13D respectively. An X-Wing's laser cannons have a damage of 6D, so they could harm the Shields since the difference is less than 4D, but they could not scratch the Hull as the difference is greater than 4D. However, the Proton Torpedoes an X-Wing carries are 9D damage, thus they are considered capable of harming the hull since the difference is exactly 4D.

When fighting a different scale, the Scaling bonus subtracts from any Scale modifiers caused by fighting a larger scale unit, and adds to any Scale modifiers caused by fighting a smaller scale unit. If the Scaling bonus would equal the Scale modifier of a higher scale, they are effectively treated as a unit of that scale until the Grouping modifier is reduced.

A squadron of 12 X-Wings would have a Grouping modifier of +3D. When fighting a Capital Ship scale unit with a Scale modifier of 6, the modifier would be reduced to 3; meaning the Capital Ship would only get +3D to its Resist and Damage rolls rather than +6D, while the X-Wings would only get +3D to their Dodge and Attack rolls.
If that same group of 12 X-wings were to fight a unit at Walker scale, the Scale modifier is 2 but would be treated as if it were 5. The squadron would gain +5D to Resist and Damage rolls instead of +2D, while the Walker would gain +5D to its Dodge and Attack rolls.
If there were 100 X-Wings with a Grouping modifier of +6D, they would be treated as equivalent to Capital ship scale unit until they take casualties.

EXAMPLE OF GROUPED FLEETS

For example:
- The Nebulon B carries 36 Fighters. If these were grouped, they would have a Grouping modifier of +5D. Using the Leader as the basis, this would give the group scores of:
	- Hull 4D, Shield 1D, Grouping 5D = Defence Roll of 10D
	- Skill 2D, Manoeuvrability 3D, Grouping 5D = Dodge Roll of 10D
	- Skill 2D, Fire Control 3D, Grouping 5D = Attack Roll of 10D
	- Laser Damage 6D, Grouping 5D = Damage Roll of 11D
	- Torpedo Damage 9D, Grouping 5D = Damage Roll of 14D
- The Imperial Star Destroy I carries 72 TIE variants. If these were grouped, they would have a Grouping modifier of +6D. Using the Leader as the basis, this would give the group scores of:
	- Hull 2D, Grouping 6D = Defence Roll of 8D
	- Skill 2D, Manoeuvrability 2D, Grouping 6D = Dodge Roll of 10D
	- Skill 2D, Fire Control 2D, Grouping 6D = Attack Roll of 10D
	- Laser Damage 5D, Grouping 6D = Damage Roll of 11D

When fighting at Capital Scale, all of these scores are reduced by -6D for the scale difference. Since the TIE group has a +6, it is effectively a Capital ship scale unit with the lead TIE Fighter's statistics. It will still be reduced if the Grouping modifier is reduced by casualties.