Violence Universal

Violence Universal is a genre-agnostic universal hack that combines Luke Gearing's Violence with mechanics from various hacks and supplements, primarily Fantasy Violence and Wasteland & Warzones. It also has a smattering of personal additions to make them all work together.

Features

• Revised Multi-Shot and Burst Fire Rules: An elegant compromise between Violence's old and new multi-shot procedures, combined with my take on the burst fire rules from Reece Carter's Stay Back Crew.
• Refined Melee Procedures: Using Fantasy Violence's melee combat rules as the foundation, melee rolls allow situational Dis/Advantage and conditional 2d6 rolls.
• Weapon Standardization and Property System: Weapons follow Wasteland & Warzones' table formatting. Weapon Properties codify different weapon quirks into a system that still leaves design space for unique procedures.
• Armor and Shields: Inspired by Fantasy Violence, Armor is sorted into different protection classes (Light/Medium/Heavy/Powered). Shields allow redirecting certain attacks towards them, causing Shield Checks instead of Injury Checks. Both types of items cannot protect forever due to degradation and damage.
• Optional House Rules: These increase lethality either by returning old rulings (e.g. Violence's old melee thresholds) or creating new ones (e.g. making one bullet shots deadlier).
• Extra Content Sorted into Modules and Supplements: All basic rules fit in 9 pages. Everything beyond that is optional, used only for specific interactions (power armor subsystems, fighting giant creatures, etc.)
• Other Changes: The Down table may result in mere incapacitation. There are procedures for managing cone effects for stuff like flamethrowers. New weapons and armor not found in the source lists. Black Hack-style usage dice inspired by Stay Back Crew. Catastrophic Damage clause for when attacks are too destructive to survive. Guidelines for weapon attachments and special ammo.

History

I fell into the Violence rabbit hole by the end of March of 2026. At that time I looked at the catalogue and saw what everyone else did with the ruleset. I also researched the different version of Violence Luke Gearing has put up (Violence Combined & Revised vs Violence `26). Several weeks of sporadic editing later, here I am.

I'm well aware this strays from Luke Gearing's design intentions for a lean, ruleslite system for occasional high-lethality combat. I apologize for that. I think there is still merit in this modular, compact framework that can be easily added onto. I already imagine myself using this for games set in the world of Reverse: 1999.

I want to add more but it won't be soon given how often life makes me re-prioritize. Still, I hope you enjoy it.