As my action point from the Roleplayer's meeting earlier this night,
I am reposting the mini action resolution system I'd developed for AO a while back. There is no suggestion this should be adopted as a standard, I myself have not used it much (or used the combat section at all). But should you find it useful, feel free to avail yourself of its exisitng or any modified form.
The real advantage of this system I think is that it can be totally transparent to the players. The player running the adventure can use this system behind the scenes without drawing the players attention to the mechanics which might spoil the moment or confuse people not from a p&p background.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAOS - Compact Anarchy Online System.
There are some mad people on Anarchy Online who like to roleplay. Often to improve their roleplaying experience they select among themselves a fellow player to act as pen and paper Games Master (which is not to be confused with a Funcom GM). It’s the unfortunate Games Master's task is to come up with stories, give form and voices to the supporting cast of NPCs (again not to be confused with the AO NPC mobs) and basically run the adventure.
While the AO engine works fine for killing nightcrawlers or assembling implants, its not that helpful when it comes to translating an ancient Hebrew text, forging someone's signature or scanning your hotel room for bugs. You can muddle through most of these situations just using Game Master's arbitration and a bit of common sense, and in most cases that is the best way of doing it. But there are times I miss having rules and dice rolls to fall back on. CAOS is a tacky little roleplaying system designed to do exactly this and to do it with minimal fuss, bookkeeping and preparation.
CAOS works using a simple, single six-sided die roll (which incidentally Helpbot supports but you might find it smoother if the Gmaes Master makes all the rolls for the players). In a nutshell when a player wants to do something that is neither trivial nor supported by the AO engine, the Games Master has to determine the difficulty of the task and assign a numerical value to it based on the following scale:
Easy = 2
Average = 4
Hard = 6
Really Hard = 8
You have got to be Kidding = 10
The Games Master is not obliged to disclose the difficulty selected. The player then rolls one die. If he meets or beats the number he succeeds otherwise the attempt fails. Depending on the situation he may or may not get a chance to try again.
The astute reader will have noticed that the range of target numbers goes beyond '6'. This is due to the Bonus System. The Bonus System is designed to reflect the fact that different characters are better at different things. The Bonuses are based on your character’s AO Profession, level and roleplaying background.
The Professional Bonus is +2. This means that any character attempting to do a task directly related to their AO Profession (say an Adventurer tracking prey in the wilderness) will get a +2 added to his dice rolls. Characters also get a +1 Level Standard Bonus on all dice rolls from level 100 onwards and another +1 at level 200. Finally there is a further +2 Bonus is can be awarded to dice rolls for tasks directly relevant to your character's background, subject to the Games Master's approval. All Bonuses are cumulative.
On to some examples: Allsworth is a low level (10) doctor the player has cast as plastic surgeon. To build a sand castle (an Easy task) he would need to roll 2 or more. To treat someone's hangover (Average task) would normally require a 4 or better roll, but as is a doctor and this is vaguely medically related he gets a +2 Professional Bonus so he still just needs to roll 2 or more. Filling in his tax return (a Hard task) requires a 6 as none of the bonuses apply. To perform a nose job, (a Really Hard task) he needs to roll 4 or more as both Professional and Background Bonuses apply.
Rupert is a level 200 Crat accountant. Because he is really uber (level 200), he gets a +2 Bonus on all rolls which means he automatically succeeds at Easy tasks like building sand castles and can treat hangovers as well as the inexperienced doctor Allsworth. Ruppert real uberness though is clearly demonstrated when filling in his tax return as he gets a total Bonus of 6 (+2 for being a Crat, +2 for being an accountant +2 for level). Even though the task is Hard for regular mortals, as a high level accountant he cannot fail. Despite the level difference however, Allsworth still stands a better chance at performing a nose job then as Rupert, who would need to roll a 6 to succeed.
Combat
If you want stage an epic battle, go to a PvP zone and do it right. But if you just want a dirty old bar brawl or you are more interested in the roleplaying rather tactical side of combat, you can use CAOS for this too.
In combat the two characters roll a die each. The one who rolls higher scores the hit. The difference between the rolls is the damage the hit inflicts. The damage gets subtracted from the characters hit points. Nano Mages get 2 hit points, Opiflex 4, Solitus 6 and Atrox 8. All characters get an additional hit point at level 100 and at level 200. When a character’s hit points are down to zero or less he’s is knocked out, hugging the reclaim terminal or otherwise severely embarrassed. Hit points are automatically fully restored once the fight scene is over.
In terms of Bonuses, Soldiers, Martial Artists and Enforcers are the only classes that get to use their +2 Profession Bonus in combat. The +1 per 100 level Bonus applies as normal. Background Bonuses do not apply to combat.
And that’s pretty much it. I am sure these rules will appear utterly unnecessary to some players and way too crude for others, but maybe one little bear out there will find them just right.
unch, punch, kick) counts as one attack, not three or more. But stay within reason, do not execute too many close combat attacks in one combo. That does NOT mean that a rock-shattering flying kick may be counted as part of a combo. 
