| From: | Richard Bukowski <bukowski@**.BERKELEY.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Autofire and recoil rules |
| Date: | Wed, 15 Mar 1995 17:37:13 -0800 |
the burst/autofire/recoil problem (that is, the all-or-nothing system
which makes it less likely to hit a target the more rounds are fired).
Mere moments ago I came up with the following, based on the
one-success-means-one-hit suggestions that have been going by, and I
was wondering what y'all would think of it...
When firing more than one round in a complex action, each round past
the first is given an additional +1 modifier. This seems reasonable,
since it represents the hard-to-control walk of the barrel after
ejecting high-speed bits of lead. The flaw is in the fact that the
_entire_ modifier for the _last_ bullet is applied to the target
number for the shot, making _any_ success at all less likely. I
propose the following:
A number of bullets, 1...n (yes, I'm a computer scientist) are fired
this complex action. Say you have r points of recoil compensation on
the rifle. The bullets are assigned target number modifiers on a
bullet-by-bullet basis: the first r+1 bullets get a value of 0, and
subsequent bullets accumulate modifier at 1 per bullet. So, for
example, if you are firing 10 bullets in the round with 3 points of
comp, the bullets get 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
When you fire a burst at the target, you are firing bullets j through
k at the target, with modifiers m_j through m_k. Determine the base
target number for the target as normal, determine how many dice you're
rolling, and roll your dice. Now, you get to assign die results to
individual bullets; the target number to make a bullet a success is
the base number plus the modifier for that particular bullet.
Once the number of bullets that hit has been determined, staging of
the wound inflicted is by the number of hits; for each hit after the
first, +1 power; for each 3 hits, +1 damage step.
So, for example, I decide to fire my second 3-bullet burst at a target
with a firearms skill of 6, from a rifle with 1 point of comp. These
bullets are bullets 4 through 6 in the current round, so they get
modifiers of 2, 3, and 4 (due to the recoil comp). My target is at
close range, and I have a laser sight; base TN is 4-1 = 3. Thus, my
total target numbers for the bullets are 5, 6, and 7. I roll my
6 dice (deciding not to add any pool), getting 2,2,3,5,5,9. I assign
one 5 to the first bullet, making it a hit, and the 9 to the second
bullet, making two hits; the third bullet is a miss. With a base
damage 8M for the rifle, I do a 9M wound. If I had rolled 2,2,3,5,6,9
instead, I could have assigned a 5 to bullet 1, a 6 to bullet 2, and a
9 to bullet 3, getting all 3 hits, for a 10S wound. OTOH, if I had
rolled 2,2,3,5,5,5, I would only be able to make bullet 1 a hit, for a
base 8M wound.
This may sound/look complicated, but (like many CS algorithms) it's
actually very simple in practice, and obeys a very important principle
that the current SR system does not obey; that is, firing a burst of 5
bullets at a target instead of a burst of 4 _strictly increases_ the
expected damage done. It also, as in real life, obeys the law of
diminishing returns; the "later" bullets are far less likely to do
damage than the "earlier" bullets, due to the fact that +1's to target
numbers represent _huge_ statistical penalties when the TNs reach the
5-6 and up range.
To forestall a potential argument: "What if someone with Firearms 2
fires a SMG in burst mode? This makes it _numerically impossible_ for
them to hit with more than 2 bullets!"
I have two responses to this:
Response 1: This is _not_ a problem. Someone with Firearms 2 has
_very_ little skill, and it is unlikely that a snap shot by such a
person would do very much anyway. Furthermore, the person will still
have at least 1 or 2 combat pool dice; they can add those dice to the
attack (forfieting them for defense, but hey, they should have bought
more firearms skill!) to get the extra possibility of having the
rounds hit the target.
Response 2: An optional rule that I have been considering for a while
now, and I'd like your general opinion on this rule as well. A die
with a result greater than 6 counts as _multiple dice_, for multiples
of 6 below the actual result. So, for example, a roll of 15 on one
die counts as if it was 3 dice: one with a roll of 15, one with a 9,
and one with a 3 (multiples of 6 down from the actual result). This
corrects the "not enough dice" problem that seems to crop up in a lot
of places in SR; someone with a sufficiently small skill will be
_mathematically incapable_ of rolling a "n success" result, when there
should be a small chance of success. For example, a person with 2
dice in a social skill makes a roll on that skill, and the table says
you need 3 successes to get a certain piece of information. That
person could roll a 2,234 and a 5,385 on his two dice (unlikely, but
possible!) and still not get the piece of information. This seems
bogus to me.
So, what do you think?
Rick
Richard William Bukowski | Computer Science Department
Bukowski@**.Berkeley.EDU | University of California at Berkeley
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh "BOB" D'lyeh Wgah'nagl Dhobbz f'htagn."
