Chain Reaction House Rules

Updated March 25, 2006
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Two Hour Wargames produces miniatures games in a variety of skirmish (man-to-man) and battle scales. Their (brilliant) innovation is the two-dice "Rep Check", which is the basis for a surprisingly rich basic game system. My own personal favorite of their line is Chain Reaction, which is a man-to-man game of any firepower-related era, from about the Old West (in America, that is) through the present, out to some science fiction genres. We have played quite a few Star Wars shoot-em-ups with Chain Reaction.

The following is my own variations on some of the Chain Reaction tables, just because I am an inveterate tinkerer, and can't leave well enough alone, even with my favorite games.


Shooting (1D6 vs. Shooter's modified Rep)
Each Pass result is one Hit.
Two or more sixes is Out of Ammo.
Modifiers to Shooter's Rep (cumulative):
Shooter or Target is fast-moving: -1
Target is prone (not in cover): -1
Target is in cover: -2
Second target: -1
Third or subsequent target: -2
Shooting two weapons: -1

Damage (2D6 vs. Weapon's Impact)
Pass 2Killed
Pass 1Knock Down
Pass 0Scratch

Armor Save (2D6 vs. Target's Armor)
Pass 2Reduce Damage by two levels
Pass 1Reduce Damage by one level
Pass 0Damage unchanged

Recover from Stun (2D6 vs. Rep)
Pass 2Recover from Stun, continue activation
Pass 1Recover from Stun, end activation
Pass 0Remain Stunned, end activation

Scratch Recovery (2D6 vs. Rep)
Pass 2No effect, end activation
Pass 1Stunned, end activation
Pass 0Lose 2 Rep, Stunned, end activation

First Aid (2D6 vs. Casualty's Rep)
Pass 2Lose 2 Rep, Stunned, end activation
Pass 1Out of the Fight
Pass 0Dead

Reload Weapon (2D6 vs. Rep)
Pass 2Reload, continue activation
Pass 1Reload, end activation
Pass 0No reload, end activation


Some things to note about these changes:

The shooting table is easier to use, and also allows Rep-3 shooters to hit a target in cover; however, as a result, there are more hits than there are with the standard rules. On the other hand, since mods are now cumulative, some "Hollywood shots" are more difficult than they used to be. (For example, in the classic rules, if a Rep-5 shoots at three targets that are in cover while fast-moving, all will be hit on a 5 or 6 (33%); now, the first target will be hit on 1 or 2 (33%), the second on 1 (17%), and the third will be a Received-Fire Test only.

Compensating for this, each hit will be considerably less lethal; as a matter of fact, an Impact-1 weapon is pretty much a "non-lethal" weapon more like a Tazer or a rubber bullet. You may want to consider jacking up all weapon impact numbers by one.

The Armor table is also new (body armor was part of the shooting table before). I consider body armor to reduce the severity of a hit, not prevent a hit from happening. Armor of 1 or 2 is reasonable; armor of 3 or higher should be reserved for science fiction, monsters, dinosaurs, and the like.

The "Scratch" and "Walking Wounded" rule (lose 2 Rep) are new results. (Actuall, the "Scratch" is a revival of a Chain Reaction 1 result.) Note that a Serious Wound must be checked by a different figure (First Aid Table), while a Minor Wound is checked by the wounded figure itself. The "Walking Wounded" result is intended to be intermediate between the stun and out-of-the-fight results.

Finally, reloading and stun-recovery are probablistic, which can lead to some way suspenseful situations.