This is just something I cooked up between last night and today. I thought it would be fun.
RoboBrawl - the Urban Brawl Drone Division rules
The Playing Field:
The playing field for RoboBrawl is usually though not always identical in nature to those areas selected for the more traditional Urban Brawl - an officially uninhabited sector of a city, usually the local Barrens. Due to the scope and speed possible with the robotic nature of the combatants, the area allowed has been enlarged, though the minimum area has not been increased. Thus, the play area can range from 550 meters by 410 meters to 1,100 meters by 1,000 meters - or a square kilometer.
As is standard operating proceedure for Urban Brawl, many more zones are selected for candidancy than actually needed for the season's matches - to handle both reschueduling, and pre-emptive intelligence gathering. 24 hours before a game is set to begin, the zone is cleared, at the ISSV's expense.
Playing RoboBrawl: RoboBrawl plays like a sick man's vision of a combination of Battlebots, soccer, and no-holds-barred modern warfare. No fewer nor greater than 13 actual players control a maximum of 15 robots on the field of play - the maximum may be ajusted up or down depending on the size of the field.
The goal of the game is simple: Get your team's ball into the opposing team's goal hoop, through any means available to you short of artilliery strikes and orbital bombardment.
The players:
The players are a team of drone riggers with colorful names such as the "Hard Cores", "Speed Demons", and "Ares Dragoons".
Actual players in RoboBrawl are considerably safer than their counterparts in Urban Brawl - a fact which has drawn some derision from hardcore fans of blood, but the fact remains that unlike Urban Brawl, deaths are a very freak occurance, and as a consequence your favorite players tend to appear season after season. The players in Urban Brawl are emplaced behind a fortitied concrete structure, in whatever arrangements their team cares to make - usually this takes the form of an additionally armoured trailor-truck or a mobile command center APC. They are in wireless link to their robots at all times.
As in Urban Brawl, downed robots are replaced at the start of each round - however, a pilot downed by dumpshock is immideately removed from the command zone, and a replacement cycled in as soon as possible.
The Robots:
There are thirteen to fifteen positions on the field for RoboBrawlers. Ten of those positions are offensive, two of them are defensive, one is reconnisance, and the remaining two are discretionary. The rules for the drones being fielded are more diverse than those for Urban Brawlers, and are broken down as such:
Light Defense (1): The drone on the Light Defensive role must meet weight and mobility ratios - no greater than 82 kilograms in weight, and it must be capable of reaching a sustained speed of at least 48 Kilometers per hour. It may be armed and armored however it's designers or builders see fit within those restrictions. The Light Defensive robot may stray as many as one block from it's goal block in any direction.
Heavy Defensive (1): The Heavy Defensive unit, like other RoboBrawlers, must meet specific mass and mobility requirements: It may achieve a sustained velocity (Sustained, in this case, being over a time peroid of ten seconds) of no more than 10 kilometers per hour, and may weigh no less than 150 kilograms. It must be armed with at least one ballistic-kinetic weapon, other armaments are at the discretion of it's fielder. The Heavy Defensive unit may not leave the goal block - it earns a Shutdown if it does.
Recon (1): The reconnisence drone is normally the only permenantly-airborne drone allowed in the field. It's propulsion method may be any method it's fielders so desire to create - thrust-driven or otherwise plane-like designs are allowed to stray up to a kilometre outside the engagement zone in order to turn around and return, though they must do so within a maximum time of one minute. The reconnisence drone may carry any sort of target designation equipment it's owners see fit to equip it, and it may carry as many as three guided warhead weapons, six unguided warhead weapons, or one laser. In addition, it may carry a single kinetic-ballistic weapon. Reconnisence drones are forbidden from engaging one another, though other airborne targets (if any) and ground targets are fair game - and vice versa. The reconnisence drone may weigh no more than 80 kilograms.
Light Offensive (5): The Light Offensive role is filled by a machine that weighs no more than 88 kilograms and can achieve a sustained speed of at least 48 kilometers per hour. It may be armed and armored however it's designers see fit, and may carry any form of target-designation equipment. Not all Light Offensive machines in play need be the same model or carry the same load-out.
Medium Offensive (3): The Medium Offensive role is to be filled by a drone which may weigh no less than 120 kilograms and may achieve a sustained velocity of no more than 39 kilometers per hour. It may be armed and armored however it's owners see fit.
Heavy Offensive (1): The Heavy Offensive Drone is a machine which may weigh no more than 500 kilograms, and may achieve a sustained velocity of no greater than 25 kilometers. It may be armored however it's owners see fit, and it must carry at least one melee weapon and one ballistic-kinetic weapon.
Scrambler (1): The Scrambler is the only drone on a team which may carry ECM and ECCM gear, and in addition may carry any Recon gear it's owners wish to put on it. The Scrambler's pilot is allowed to use the Scrambler interfere with the other team's drones through any means except outright jamming their signals. It may use it's equipment in any other way it sees fit - Spoofing the Recon drone's signals and directing enemy fire on their own machines is a favored tactic. Since the match between the Ares Dragoons and Mitsuhama Machines in January of 2070, it has been acknowledged as a legal tactic for the Scrambler's pilot to hack into the control rigs of an opposing team's machine, engage it's pilot in cybercombat (provided that this bout of a fight-within-a-fight is also televised [Matrix combat == big ratings]) and steal control of his machine - however, the Scrambler must be able to get within 10 meters of the intended target drone in order to do this. Should the opposing pilot chicken out instead of being defeated in cybercombat, or if the Scrambler's attempt to capture a drone goes unopposed by a live player (as in, a drone without an active pilot does not recieve cybercombat assistance,) the rules state that the captured machine is not captured temporarily; it becomes the property of the capturing team. The rules for cybercombat provide for no biofeedback-generating programs - only crashing your opponant's persona. There are no limits on size or speed of the scrambler, or even the method of locomotion; however, it may not be armed with more than one heavy-pistol equavilent kinetic-ballistic weapon.
A stolen Drone remains under the control of the team which stole it until the end of the game, where it is returned to it's original owning team. Deliberately destroying a stolen drone just before the end of the game is a penalty offense, which runs the game into an overtime quarter.
Exotics (as many as 2): Depending on the size of the field, a team may be allowed to field up to two additional drones; these may be of any class previously mentioned except the heavy and medium offensives. In addition, it may include a dedicated airborne attack drone, which must weigh no more than 135 kilograms, and may be armed with a maximum of eight guided warhead weapons (or ten unguided ones). It may feature any other weaponry it's owners see fit.
In addition, to promote research (and ratings), any biped anthroforms on the field feature loosened restrictions on weight and speed; They may be as much as double the weight of the non-anthroform drones of their class, and may achieve sustained speeds of up to ten kilometers an hour faster. In addition, they are the only drones which are allowed to field more than one form of propulsion simultainously - Biped anthroforms may have whatever provisions for becoming airborne that it's owners see fit to work into it.
Any machine that is not permenantly airborne may carry the Ball.
The Ball
The Ball in RoboBrawl is not a physical ball as in Urban Brawl - rather, it is computer code that is stored with any given pilot's drone. When a drone has the ball, it appears as an AR overlay of an appropriately-colored ball above that drone. It is permissable for one team to steal another's ball; only a non-airborne drone of a lighter weight class than the drone that currently has the ball may do so, and it must make physical contact with the carrying drone to do so. The lightest class on the field cannot have the ball stolen from it, obviously - for this reason, they are often picked as ball carriers. The ball may begin with any non-defensive, non-airborne drone. Players on one team may instantly pass the ball to any non-airborne drone within 5 meters that is has Line-of-Sight to, however once passed there is a five-second cooldown before it may be passed again.
The conditions for the ball being dead are when the ball-carrying drone was destroyed, but no friendly drone passed within 5 meters of the largest portion of it's wreck (or it's last recorded location, if there are no appreciable pieces remaining) within 30 seconds.
The Officials
Unlike in Urban Brawl, there is no need for the game officials to actually enter the field of combat themselves. They operate much like their Urban Brawl counterparts, though they do so through telepresence, through the many survielance drones that flit through the area. Survielance drones are pure airborne camera drones, and are marked by their AR tags as illeagal targets - these tags switch to mark them as "REF" when a referee is jumped into them.
Game Structure
Much of RoboBrawl is a spinoff of Urban Brawl's rules - the game structure is no different.
A game of RoboBrawl is divided into four quarters, each lasting thirty playing minutes. each play lasts a maximum of five minutes or until it meets one of the followig conditions:
* One team scores a goal.
* The clock runs out on a quarter.
* The ball is declared dead.
* A wipeout takes place.
If one team scores a goal or the clock runs out on the play, both sides begin the next play back in their home goals. If the ball goes dead, the opposing side (the side whose ball did not go dead) has the option of starting over at their goal, or resuming play with all their brawlers staying in their present locations. In this case, the opposing team starts back at its home goal. If a wipeout ends play, the team making the wipeout wins hands down.
The clock stops between plays to give the players enough time to walk or roll a couple of blocks (only perpendicular to the goal facing, or else back towards their own goal), bring new drones into goal blocks, make pit stops, and so on. The rules call for play to resume five minutes after the previous play ends. An average game of RoboBrawl runs about four to six hours from start to finish, including a ten minute rest peroid between quarters, and the fifteen-minute halftime break.
The Reconnisence drones' cameras and sensors are blanked during the game pauses, and it automatically flies back to the goal.
Scoring
Scoring
A circle eight meters in diameter, marked by colored Neolux and glo-paint, appears somewhere on the street at each end of the brawl zone. This circle serves as the goal. The block of the street it lies in becomes the goal block. A team may move its goal to a diffrent block on the same street at the beginning of each quarter, to keep the opposition guessing where they want to hit the street when each new quarter starts.
A circle four meters in diameter, marked as a glowing AR tag, appears somewhere on the street at eacj end of the brawl zone. This circle serves as the goal. The block of the street it lies in becomes the goal block - blocks are also delenated with AR boundaries. A team may move it's goal to a different block on their edge of the playing field, to keep the enemy team guessng, at least for a short while. More often, goals may be repositioned for defense - the goal may be placed anywhere on the street except narrow allyways or indoors - it may have solid structures bondaring at most two of it's sides, though the first and last quarters must always have it in the middle of the road.
A team scores one point if a ball carrier gets the ball into the opposing team's goal. The ISSV's rulebook, which was largely absorbed from Urban Brawl, still has the 2044 and 2053 decisions on the books - this has created some interesting situations with electronic, AR balls. To resolve these situations, an official is constantly monitoring each goal - even if the machine which was the ball-carrier goes dead, if it makes it into the goal before it ceases to move (and before ball dead is declared), it counts as a goal. Likewise, if the machine is blown into the goal, as happened in 2053, it counts.
Offense vs. Defense
The traditional offense versus defense used in other sports does not work in RoboBrawl any more than it does in Urban Brawl; both teams play offense and defense at the same time. Each team carries a ball and tries to score while preventing the other side from scoring. Once play starts, each team has thirty seconds to get the ball out of its goal block. If they fail to move the ball beyond the goal block, the entire team earns a freeze penalty. After the penalty expires, the team has another thirty seconds to get the ball out of the three blocks adjacent to their goal block. During the remainder of the play, if the ball stays in the same block for more than sixty seconds, or a player carries it back into his own goal block for any reason, the team earns another freeze penalty that lasts until the ball carrier moves into a legal block.
A team must decide how to divide its forces to protect the ball as it travels through the brawl zone toward the opposing goal, without leaving their goal wide open. Split the team evenly, and risk succumbing to a heavy offensive push? Leave the ball or the goal more lightly defended? Such questions of strategy take the ability to think things through, predict the flow of the game a few plays ahead, and react fast.
As outlined above, ball passes may take place at any time between friendly machines within five meters of one another. If the machine carrying the ball becomes dead, the friendly team has 30 seconds to pass by it's wreck and recover it. The opposing team cannot salvage the ball from a wreck, but it may steal it after the owning team has had ten seconds with it. Unlike Urban Brawl, stealing the ball from the enemy team is a perfectly valid tactic in RoboBrawl, this does not declare the ball dead. Rather, it becomes a stolen ball, and is visible on everyone's AR overlay regardless of intervening terrain. A Stolen Ball behaves like the stealing team's ball, and may be scored with - stolen ball scores count for double.
Robot Down
Unlike Urban Brawl, the issue of a robot being downed is much simpler. That robot simply lays where it lays until the end of the game - full replacements may be brought in at the end of each quarter, or any time play ends through a goal (from any side). Additionally, one machine may be replaced at the end of each play regardless of how it ended.
Robots, not being people, are subjected to salvage rights, rather than eacuations to machine shops. The rules for salvaging are fairly simple: You keep your own drones, unless they were destroyed in the other team's goal block - in which case, they become the property of that team. Drones destroyed that wind up outside of the play field (as happened when one airborne drone was shot down in February of 2070) go to the winning team. In the event of a wipeout, the winning team keeps everything. In addition, after the losing team's salvage team has departed the field, any remaining drone parts that they did not pick up become the property of the winning team.
Penalties
The penalties in Urban Brawl have been mostly carried over into RoboBrawl. They are as follows:
Freeze Penalty:
Freezes effect the entire team. They last until officials decide to end them, and are mostly earned for minor errors - such as failing to get the ball moving fast enough.
Wound Penalty:
Wounds effect individual players. They are earned for more serious rules infractions than those warrenting Freeze penalties. They shut off the controls of the player who earned the penalty, and shut down his drone, until the end the play.
Kill Penalty:
A Kill penalty is earned for the most severe rules infractions. The pilot is removed from play, and may not be replaced for the rest of the game, although his drone remains in play after one play's shut-down time. Pilots who suffer Kill Penalties may face additional censure at the decision of the ISSV. (Drones may remain on the field, but they may not be replaced if they are destroyed.)
If all players on a team suffer Wound penalties at the same time, the team suffers a Wipeout - obviously, they also so do if they all earn Kill penalties.
RoboBrawl communications, to and from the field, are routed through an ISSV switching unit - this enables penalties to be enforced. In addition, RoboBrawl drones must be equipped with hardware kill switches that the ISSV can use to shut them down - any tampering with these switches to disable their effect is grounds for an automatic team disqualification.
A frozen drone remains immobile until the penalty's duration expires. A wounded player's drone remains immobile for the rest of the play in which the penalty was recieved. The drone of a player who earned a kill penalty also remains immobile for the rest of the play, and that player is removed from his command arrangements and escorted away from the field by the ISSV.
If officials call a freeze penalty on a team, it cancels any wound penalties in force against the opposing team, but not any kill penalties - however, a Killed player's drone starts up immideately and may be issued orders by another member of the team.
Specific Penalties
Arson: Deliberately setting a fire in the brawl zone earns a kill penalty, and means an automatic loss for the team if the game must be cancelled. An unfortunate incident in Buenos Aires gave rise to this rule.
Deliberate Attack on Brawler Under A Penalty: If the attack misses, the player earns a wound penalty; he earns a kill penalty if it succeeds.
Illegal Intelligence: Any team receiving information from outside the brawl zone during a game, forfeits that game. The ISSV can jam almost all technological means of cheating, but magic posses a problem. An astral magician, or even a spirit, may relay information to brawlers. Though the ISSV employs astral security firms to prevent such spying, certain ISSV officials indulge in a paranoid fantasy that overly skillful or lucky teams owe their achievements to reports from astral space that help them find (or avoid) opposing brawlers. (In the history of urban brawl, the EBMM scandal in Bonn in 2043 remains the only verified case of magical cheating.)
Insufficient Offense: If the ball carrier remains in his own goal block sixty seconds after the game begins, a freeze penalty is called on every member of the team except the ball carrier. The penalty stays in effect until the ball carrier leaves the goal block. The penalty also applies if the ball carrier is in any of the three blocks adjacent to his goal block two minutes after the play begins. If the ball carrier spends sixty seconds in the same block, his team suffers a freeze penalty until he moves into a different block.
An official can also call insufficient offense if he believes the ball carrier is not making sufficient effort to get the ball to the opposition's goal block. Though loosely enforced, this rule prevents ball carriers from going to ground in basements, or skipping back and forth between the two same blocks in an effort to avoid contact with the opposing team.
The clock stops on insufficient offense if the ball carrier is enagaed in combat. For example, if a ball carrier spends thirty seconds in a block and then gets caught in a fight, the clock stops until the ball carrier gets out of combat. At that point, he has thirty seconds remaining to vacate the block.
Leaving the Brawl Zone: Leaving earns the guilty player a wound penalty. Airborne drones of forward-thrust design do not suffer this penalty, as they may require turnaround room. Weapons fire from outside the brawl zone by an airborne drone earns a kill penalty, however.
Roughing Officials: Any official who attacks a telepresent REF drone automatically earns a Kill penalty.
Unnecessary Destruction of Property: This penalty rule is designed to save the ISSV money by cutting down on damage in the brawl zone. Shooting at a car because an opposing player is using it for cover is fine. Doing it just for the frag of it draws a wound penalty from the brawl officials.
Unsportsmanlike Conduct: This type of action earns either a wound or a kill penalty, at the discretion of the referees. Unsportsmanlike conduct includes arguing with a decision, interfearing with a media device, and so on.
Notes on weapons
While weapons rules are much more loose than in Urban Brawl (a fact upon which RoboBrawl earns much of it's ratings), there is still one guideline to be observed.
No warhead weapon may pack an explosive with an energy output greater than 1.1 kilogram of TnT. This explosive output may be unleashed through any means the warhead is capable of, but it may not exceed 110% the energy of a kilogram of TnT. Additionally, no warhead weapon may pack an incindiary charge, nor may incindiary weapons be employed. Lasers are allowed, as are electrical weapons. There is no restriction against monofilament weapons in RoboBrawl, though they are mostly useless against armored drones. Melee weapons are perfectly acceptable.
In addition, drones so equipped to do so may improvise any weapon they please from the surrounding environment, including weapons that violate the rules of what may be brought onto the field.