A-Cost Rules

Attack Cost

Major Principal: You only pay full points for your most expensive attack. For additional attacks of equal or lower A-Cost you pay 1/3^rd the normal cost.

Multiple Attacks for One Character

When testing characters who had more than one attack against characters of the same points but with only one attack, the greater flexibility that more attacks (say one ranged and one hand-to-hand) allowed didn’t make up for the fact that the characters with multiple attacks had to split their points up.

We felt that encouraging characters to have some flexibility in their attacks was more interesting and good for the game.

To help with this we decided that there would be a rule that gave characters with more than one attack a cost break (they pay only 1/3^rd the normal cost) on subsequent attacks of equal or lesser cost.

These rules will tell you how to:

v  Determine what each attack you may have costs in terms of APs (the “A-Cost” of the attack)

v  How to buy additional attacks of equal or lesser cost for 1/3^rd the normal APs

v  What to do when an ability combines elements of both attack and something else (the same way that many Super Strength-style abilities combine STR and DP)

v  Some special cases

Attack Cost (A-Cost)

A-Cost is the number of APs that an attack costs. For most “attack” abilities this is very simple: the cost you pay is exactly equal to the A-Cost of the ability. If you paid 12 AP for Plasma Blast it has an A-Cost of 12 AP.

In some cases, though, it’s more complex. Let’s look at why:

v  Some Archetype Abilities add to the damage done by other attacks. These “additive” abilities aren’t examined as separate attacks—their A-Cost must be added up to see what the total, final, A-Cost is for the attack in question. This is usually important for a character with several traits that improve their Base Damage (HTH Damage) score.

v  Weapons Generally Don’t Add to Each Other. A character with super strength, claws, and a stabbing tail will add the cost of the claws to the Super Strength and will add the cost of the stabbing tail to that of the Super Strength—but they won’t add the cost of the claws and the tail to each other. If the character has several different weapons calculate the cost separately for each one.

Additive Powers: Base Damage

Consider a character who has both cybernetic muscles and hyper-dense metallic bones as two separate abilities. Both of those give the character extra hand-to-hand damage—they both make him hit harder. If the A-Cost of cyber-muscles is 8 and the A-Cost of hyper-dense bones is 4, the character will have spent 12 AP total (8+4) on their hand-to-hand damage and, when calculating to see which attack is most expensive, that’s the total that should be used.

The Rule: Any A-Cost listing with a ‘+’ sign in front of it or any power whose description says that it adds to another attack should have its A-Cost added to any attack it can be combined with to for purposes of figuring out which attack is the character’s most expensive. Those additive powers will not have their cost reduced.

Weapons Generally Don’t Add To Each Other

Consider a character playing a dragon: they have flame breath, Claws and Teeth (which count as one power), and a smashing tail. The character is also of great size and strength, which increases the damage done by the hand-to-hand weapons (but not the flame breath). The list of abilities looks something like this:

Attack	A-Cost	Weapon?	Ranged?
Great Size and Strength	+32 AP	No	No
Flame Breath	18 AP	Yes	Yes
Claws and Teeth	+8 AP	Yes	No
Smashing Tail	+10 AP	Yes	No

In this example the calculation looks like this:

Attack	Total A-Cost
Great Size and Strength	32 AP
Flame Breath	18 AP
Claws and Teeth	32 + 8 = 40 AP
Smashing Tail	32 + 10 = 42 AP

The character’s most expensive attack is the Smashing Tail. It has a total A-Cost of 42 AP where as Claws and Teeth (plus Size and Strength) come in at only 40. Flame Breath is the least expensive at 18 with nothing adding to it.

What about Size and Strength? Does it count as an “attack?” It does: if the dragon wants to “just hit something” without using claws or teeth—or using the tail bash—it’ll use its basic Size and Strength. Note that because Great Size and Strength is part of the cost of the Smashing Tail attack it won’t have its cost reduced.

However, the character would be due a cost-reduction for the 8 AP spent on Claws and Teeth and the 18 AP spent on Flame Breath.

Final Costs (Adjusted)

Attack	Total A-Cost	Adjusted AP Cost
Great Size and Strength	32 AP	32 AP
Flame Breath	18 AP	6 AP
Claws and Teeth	32 + 8 = 40 AP	3 AP
Smashing Tail	32 + 10 = 42 AP	10 AP

NOTE that the A-Cost for the attacks all remain “unchanged.” What changes is the AP’s paid for them. If the GM (or anyone else) wants to know what the A-Cost is for the dragon’s claws and teeth the answer is 40 (the 32 for Size and Strength + 8 for the bio-weapon).

Mixed Abilities And More Complex Additive Powers

Many abilities, especially the GATs, give you not only extra damage but also other things—such as Damage Points. In these cases the A-Cost is just part of the total cost (for example, each half-Level of Gunslinger cost 4 AP and gives +2 PEN Damage with a gun and +7 Damage Points: the A-Cost per level is 2 AP).

Also, to add a bit of complexity, many traits add damage but only under certain circumstances such as Cleave, which gives a damage bonus once per Round.

Let’s look at an example character:  a gunfighter character with several additive traits, who also happens to carry a magical samurai sword.

Gunfighter

Attack	Cost	A-Cost	Damage	Damage Pts.
.45 Six Shooter	9 AP	9 AP	13 PEN Ranged	+0
Gunslinger L1	8 AP	+4 AP	+4 PEN w/ Gun	+14
Dead-Eye Cleave L½	4 AP	+2 AP	+3 PEN 1x per Round	+6
Magical Katana	12 AP	12 AP	18 PEN HTH	+0

In this case the math looks like this:

Attack	A-Cost	Total A-Cost
.45 Six Shooter + Gunslinger, + Dead-Eye	9 AP + 4 AP + 2 AP	15 AP
Magical Katana	12 AP	12 AP

So the final cost, pretty simply, comes out like this (the only change is the Katana’s cost)

Attack	Cost	A-Cost	Damage	Damage Pts.
.45 Six Shooter	9 AP	9 AP	13 PEN Ranged	+0
Gunslinger L1	8 AP	+4 AP	+4 PEN w/ Gun	+14
Dead-Eye Cleave L½	4 AP	+2 AP	+3 PEN 1x per Round	+6
Magical Katana	4 AP	12 AP	18 PEN HTH	+0

Reducing The Cost of Mixed Abilities

Now, let’s look at the more complex case: suppose the Katana in the example above was the character’s most expensive attack? In this case we would reduce the cost for the attack portion of each of the additive components.

Think of it this way, the GAT Gunslinger consists of two pieces: The extra damage part and the Damage Points part. Our rule only reduces the first part (the damage part).

Example Where the Katana Is an 18 AP Power

Attack	A-Cost	Total A-Cost
.45 Six Shooter + Gunslinger, + Dead-Eye	9 AP + 4 AP + 2 AP	15 AP
Magical Katana	18 AP	18 AP

Attack	Cost	A-Cost	Reduced Cost	Non A-Cost	Final Cost
.45 Six Shooter	9 AP	9 AP	3 AP	0 AP	3 AP
Gunslinger L1	8 AP	+4 AP	1 AP (4/3)	4 AP	5 AP
Dead-Eye Cleave L½	4 AP	+2 AP	1 AP (2/3)	2 AP	3 AP
Magical Katana	18 AP	18 AP	Not Reduced	0 AP	18 AP

Attack	Adjusted Cost	Cost
.45 Six Shooter + Gunslinger, + Dead-Eye	3 AP + 5 AP + 3 AP	11 AP
Magical Katana	18 AP	18 AP

After adjustment the character pays 29 AP for the combination of his gun fighting traits and the katana. Note that the character will still get the full +20 DP for the traits Dead-Eye and Gunslinger.

What If The Traits (Dead-Eye and Gunslinger) Were Somehow Usable With The Katana?

Just to double-back and check to make sure we’re clear, the traits Gunslinger and Dead-Eye apply to Ranged PEN attacks—not Hand-to-Hand attacks—and the costs and exact numbers wouldn’t work out. But let’s say that somehow they did and the player could add the damage bonuses from those traits to the damage dealt by either the sword or the gun? How would that affect things?

The answer is that in this hypothetical the costs for Dead-Eye and Gunslinger are not reduced at all. Only the cost for the gun itself is reduced (from 9 AP to 3 AP). This is because both traits can be used to augment the katana making the most expensive attack 18 AP + 4 AP (Gunslinger) +2 AP (Dead-Eye) = 24 AP.

A Note On Rounding Unless otherwise specified you always round normally so if you have a GAT that is total cost 4 AP and 2 AP is Damage Points and 2 AP is damage and you are reducing the cost of the damage the total cost becomes 2 AP (Damage Points) + 2/3 = .66 = 1 AP (Damage) = 2 + 1 = 3 AP.