New optional combat maneuver: BEAM PARRY



Yes, it's hokey, but we've seen this phenomenon in far too many

animes to ignore it. Oftentimes in the more cinematic, or over-

the-top anime, someone will fire a big beam weapon at the hero,

who will counterattack by firing his own big beam weapon. In

complete defiance of physics and common sense, the beams will meet

somewhere in between, waver for a moment, then the more powerful

beam will push the weaker beam back, slowly, to its point of

origin, usually vaporizing the hapless opponent. To represent this

bit of silliness, I give you: the Beam Parry Of course, this only

works if both units involved have beam weapons of vaguely

comparable power. Preferably really BIG beam weapons.



BEAM PARRY :When a mech is attacked by a beam weapon, the pilot

can choose, instead of his normal parry attempt, to counterattack

the incoming beam with his own beam weapon. To do this the

defending mecha must expend one of his actions for that combat

round. This can be a held action, or he can opt to sacrifice an

upcoming action, if he has one left in that turn. The defending

pilot makes a roll of Mecha Gunnery + Mecha REF + D10. If the

total is equal to or greater than the attack roll of the incoming

beam, the two beams will meet. If not, the defender's shot goes

wild, and the attacker's beam strikes him as normal. Once the

beams meet, one of two things will happen: If the beams have

exactly the same kill rating, they will cancel themselves out

entirely. If not, the more powerful beam will push the weaker one

back to its point of origin, and the stronger beam will then do

its full damage minus the Kills of the weaker beam to the mech on

that end. Clearly, this is not something you want to do unless you

are pretty sure you have the bigger gun. At the GM's option, if

both beams are of the same strength, the stronger one can be

considered to be the one with the higher BV -then it will be

considered as a "normal" (i.e., w/out BV) beam.



Note that this parry does NOT include the WA! This tends to goof

those people wanting to parry weak but accurate beams with their

own gigantic beams -they tend to end like Swiss cheese!.



Also note that this maneuver can be used on the VM setting but

CAN'T be used on most "realistic" settings. It could be used on a

"sentai" or "giant robot of the week" campaign, however.