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From:	"M. Sean Martinez" <ElBandit@***.COM>
Subject:	Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Wed, 9 Sep 1998 23:13:57 EDT

Message no. 1 Greetings!!

A while back someone mentioned that the rules for covering fire were too weak.
Looking at them, I had to agree so I came up with this mutation of the SR3/FoF
rules.

I am intreasted in knowing what you guys (and gals) think. Is this too hard to
read? Is it too powerful? etc.

Covering/Suppression Fire
When a character is making a ranged attack with a firearm, he or she has the
option to provide covering or suppression fire. This means simply that the
character is directing his or her fire into an area to force his or her
opponents to keep their heads down for fear of being shot.
Each round fired can effectively cover a 1-meter area for a limited time in
the combat turn. Multiple rounds may be targeted into an area to increase the
chances of a hit. All areas covered by covering fire must be directly adject
to each other.
Covering/suppression fire lasts until the next Combat Phase of the character
making the attack. If the character has no more combat phases in that Combat
Turn, the covering or suppression fire will last until the end of the next
initiative pass.
If during that time, any target crosses or exposes themselves to the fire
zone they might be hit. A Ranged Attack test is resolved against the potential
target using a number of dice equal to the number of rounds fired, plus any
dice allocated from the attacking character's firearm related skill that he or
she wishes to add. However, the character just gets his or her base skill
rating to allocate among any number of targets that may present themselves.
Combat pool may be added up to the number of skill dice add. The Target Number
equals a base of 4 modified only by cover and any damage modifier the attacker
must add. Every 2 successes generated results in 1 round striking the target,
up to a maximum of the number of rounds fired into the area.
Damage is resolved normally using the number of successes generated from the
initial ranged attack test to determine the overall number of successes for
damage purposes. However the attacker can not use the successes to stage
damage up. Any character hit and suffers a wound during suppression fire loses
their actions for that Combat Phase.
As an option, the Game Master may require character's to pass a Willpower
Test to move or attempt to act in an area covered by suppression fire. The
Base Target Number should be equal to the number of rounds being fired into
the area and modified by any damage modifier that the character has.

-Bandit

From:	Lars Ericson <lericson@****.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 1998 09:48:50 -0500

Message no. 2 M. Sean Martinez wrote:
>
> Greetings!!
>
> A while back someone mentioned that the rules for covering fire were too weak.
> Looking at them, I had to agree so I came up with this mutation of the SR3/FoF
> rules.
>
> I am intreasted in knowing what you guys (and gals) think. Is this too hard to
> read? Is it too powerful? etc.
>
> Covering/Suppression Fire
*snip house rules on suppressive fire*

Covering fire and suppressive fire needs to be dangerous or else it
won't keep people from diving into fire. The Fields of Fire rules fail
at this. I also want suppressive fire to be less effective than just
shooting at someone for most situations. Here are the rules that are
simple (I'm all for simplicity) and effective.
The attacker fires a weapon and declares the area that is being covered
and what kind of fire (SA, BF, FA). The minimum amount of area that can
be covered is 2 meters. This reflects a sweeping motion of the weapon
while not aiming a specific person. Divide the number of rounds by the
number of meters, rounding up (as per usual rules). Suppressive fire
lasts until the attacker's next phase or the end of the next initiative
pass, whichever comes first.
A target exposing himself or in the firing zone initially gets
attacked. Roll a number of dice with a base TN of 4 modified for cover
only. Every success is a bullet which that target has been hit by. Then
roll a D3 to determine how many successes the burst has been fired with.
Resolve the attacker as per normal from here.

e.g. Sam's been seriously wounded and he needs to cover his buddies as
they escape. A security guard is using a desk as cover and so he wants
to get that bastard's head down. Sam fires a suppressive fire six round
burst from an assault rifle at the 2 meter area. He rolls 3 dice (6
bullets/2 meters) and rolls a 3, 8, 9. To hit the guard he needs an 8 (4
+ partial cover = 8). Sam rolls 2 successes on the D3. That means the
guard got hit by a 10S attack (8M + 2 for 2 bullets, +S for two
successes). The Guard has no combat pool to dodge, so he resists the
attack and ends up getting moderately wounded, falling behind the desk.
Sam escaped and everyone's happy. If the guard had had some combat pool
he would have needed two 4's to dodge the incoming attack completely.
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lars Ericson: Professional Vagabond
Smalley Research Group, Rice University
E-Mail: lericson@****.edu
WWW: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lericson/

"Raisin Hell -- a million raisins in every can."
-- Sifl & Olly Show

From:	Bob Tockley <zzdeden@****.ASGARD.NET.AU>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Fri, 11 Sep 1998 02:10:16 +1000

Message no. 3 Well, here's my take on the covering/suppression fire rules. They're a
-lot- more deadly than the published rules and fix up some of the rate of
fire problems with Shadowrun technology (I hope), but they work well
enough - especially if you want characters ducking behind cover ASAP.
Basically the rules work as follows:
It requires a Complex Action to initiate covering/ suppression fire,
after which a character must spend consequtive free actions maintaining the
fire zone (not spending a free action means that the fire zone ceases to
exist - the character is no longer covering the area). A character may not
use Combat Pool for any reason while maintaining the fire zone. Doing so
automatically halts the covering/ suppression fire. In addition, a
character cannot use smartlink hardware while engaging in
covering/suppression fire. A Free Action must be spent to disengage the
hardware before the covering/suppression fire attempt.
A weapon is capable of firing a number of 'rounds' equal to the maximum
number of attacks it can make either in a Complex Action or in two Simple
Actions (1 for SS, 2 for SA, 6 for BF, etc) OR equal to one-fifth the
remaining ammunition total of the weapon (rounding down), whichever is
lower. For example, this means that someone using an Uzi III with an
almost-full 25-bullet clip could use suppression fire with 5 'rounds'
(because of the ammo limitation), while someone using a belt-feed LMG (say
250 rounds) could fire the full 10 'rounds' allowed in a Complex Action
(because there are no effective ammunition limits).
Each 'round' fired covers a 10 degree arc of fire. Multiple rounds may
be targeted at a single 10-degree fire arcs to increase the effectiveness
of the covering/ suppression fire. If the attack covers multiple fire
arcs, those areas must be directly adjacent to another covered area.
Each Free Action that a character spends maintaining the fire zone
reduces the ammunition left in the weapon by fives times the number of
'rounds' fired. This means that a character firing an Ares Predator (SA
with a 15-round clip) would be able to maintain a 2-round suppression fire
zone for 1 full combat phase and would then be able to maintain a 1-round
suppression fire zone for another full combat phase before his clip was
emptied. This means that weapons will go through ammunition EXTREMELY fast
(as they should).
If, during the time that the area is cover, a character either moves into
the fire arc or moves about in the fire arc, and thereby exposes himself to
the covering/ suppression fire, or presents his body to fire within that
area in any manner, he may be hit. If line of sight can be drawn from the
attacker to any part of the target during the time the area is covered, the
target is potentially vulnerable.
To determine if the covering/ suppression fire strikes the target
character, resolve a ranged attack against the target by rolling a number
of dice equal to the number of rounds fired at the area. The target number
for this test is 4 modified only by cover. Each success results in one
round striking the target, up to a maximum of the number of 'rounds' fired
into the fire arc.
If one or more rounds hit the target, the attack is treated as a burst
(or short burst) per those rules with a number of successes equal to the
result of a single die Open Test. Damage and doging are handled normally,
though characters receive one additional Body dice for the Damage
Resistance Test for every target between them and the source of fire. This
means that the clostest character to the barrel receives no additional
dice, while the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th closest receive +1, +2, and+3 dice
respectively.
SR3: To work these rules in with the pass system of Initiative, simply
assume that the Free Actions have to be taken on the other combatant's
combat phases.
Feedback? Flames? THWAPS?

- ARKHAM
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste somebody with..."

From:	Bob Tockley <zzdeden@****.ASGARD.NET.AU>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Fri, 11 Sep 1998 02:19:14 +1000

Message no. 4 Okay... Mistake... Got the wrong ammo capacity on the Uzi III... Don't
point it out already... It's hokey I know. Change the term "Uzi III" to
"Ingram Smartgun" for the example.

- ARKHAM
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste somebody with..."

From:	Lars Ericson <lericson@****.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 1998 11:40:17 -0500

Message no. 5 Bob Tockley wrote:
> If one or more rounds hit the target, the attack is treated as a burst
> (or short burst) per those rules with a number of successes equal to the
> result of a single die Open Test. Damage and doging are handled normally,

The rules up to this pointed seemed reasonable, if not a bit
complicated, but the Open Test for successes is going to make the attack
incredibly deadly. Keep in mind that suppressive fire should almost
never be better than firing right at the target and using an Open Test
for successes makes a single light pistol round potentially lethal.
These are rounds fired psuedo-randomly into an area of space as opposed
to aimed right at a target. I'd go with a simply D3 so that attacks can
still be staged, but that they are not super-lethal and are dodgable.

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lars Ericson: Professional Vagabond
Smalley Research Group, Rice University
E-Mail: lericson@****.edu
WWW: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lericson/

"Raisin Hell -- a million raisins in every can."
-- Sifl & Olly Show

From:	Bob Tockley <zzdeden@****.ASGARD.NET.AU>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Fri, 11 Sep 1998 02:46:13 +1000

Message no. 6 >The rules up to this pointed seemed reasonable, if not a bit
>complicated, but the Open Test for successes is going to make the attack
>incredibly deadly. Keep in mind that suppressive fire should almost
>never be better than firing right at the target and using an Open Test
>for successes makes a single light pistol round potentially lethal.
>These are rounds fired psuedo-randomly into an area of space as opposed
>to aimed right at a target. I'd go with a simply D3 so that attacks can
>still be staged, but that they are not super-lethal and are dodgable.

Well, I don't know if they're anymore complicated than the rest of the
combat system (at least in my opinion), but it's a matter of personal
taste, so...
As to why I use the incredibly deadly single die open test - because most
of the time the damage can be staged down. Only on occasion do the number
of successes become astronomical (like 8 or 10 or whatever). Ever seen
someone spray autofire into a room? Sure it won't get everybody bad - but
there's always at least one guy who'll get completely creamed by a stray
round (at least in the movies, anyway). Maybe it's just my EvilGM streak,
but I like it...

- ARKHAM
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste somebody with..."

From:	Steve Eley <sfeley@***.NET>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 1998 13:40:32 -0400

Message no. 7 Lars Ericson wrote:
>
> The attacker fires a weapon and declares the area that is being covered
> and what kind of fire (SA, BF, FA). The minimum amount of area that can
> be covered is 2 meters.

The only question I have with this is what you mean by "covered area."
Presumably your "2 meters" would have to be square meters since you're
talking about area.. Do you mean that if a runner decides that his
"covered area" is a .5-meter-by-4-meter lane of floor space directly in
front of him, the bullets would drop just short of anyone standing 5
meters away?

Covering fire doesn't happen in terms of floor space, unless it's from
above; it happens in arcs. Deciding that a minimum coverage would be,
say, 30 degrees of arc and dividing everything in those terms would
actually make it *easier* to determine who's in the covered area and who
isn't, provided you've got a map of the fight scene. (You'd need a map to
be completely fair in any shootout where people are taking cover, so...)

Otherwise, I like these rules and will probably adapt them for my
campaign. Thanks!

Have Fun,
- Steve Eley
sfeley@***.net

From:	"Ojaste,James [NCR]" <James.Ojaste@**.GC.CA>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 1998 13:43:08 -0400

Message no. 8 Steve Eley wrote:
> > The attacker fires a weapon and declares the area that is being
> covered
> > and what kind of fire (SA, BF, FA). The minimum amount of area that can
> > be covered is 2 meters.
[snip]
> Covering fire doesn't happen in terms of floor space, unless it's from
> above; it happens in arcs. Deciding that a minimum coverage would be,
> say, 30 degrees of arc and dividing everything in those terms would
> actually make it *easier* to determine who's in the covered area and who
> isn't, provided you've got a map of the fight scene. (You'd need a map to
> be completely fair in any shootout where people are taking cover, so...)
>
Even when dealing with a map, while an angle may be the most appropriate
measurement, it's hard to actually measure unless you happen to carry
around a protractor. Why not specify it in terms of a "1 meter spread
at 10 meters range" sort of thing? You can still define arcs, they're
just a lot easier to measure out than 25o...

James Ojaste

From:	Steve Eley <sfeley@***.NET>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 1998 14:23:03 -0400

Message no. 9 Ojaste,James [NCR] wrote:
> [30 degree arc multiples for Lars's covering fire rules]
>
> Even when dealing with a map, while an angle may be the most appropriate
> measurement, it's hard to actually measure unless you happen to carry
> around a protractor. Why not specify it in terms of a "1 meter spread
> at 10 meters range" sort of thing? You can still define arcs, they're
> just a lot easier to measure out than 25o...

It's not that hard when you consider that most runners will be laying down
90-degree arcs. Just about anyone can eyeball a right angle. For
narrower arcs, it'd be three minutes work to make "covering templates" to
lay down over your map.. Anyone who folds paper airplanes should know how
to come up with 30 degrees.

You're right, a scale of lines at certain distances would work, but I'm
not sure it'd be simpler. At a 10 meter radius, 30 degrees would be
roughly five-and-a-quarter meters of circumference. That's NOT five
meters on grid paper; you'd have to have a means of measuring that curve,
or else do nastier calculations to work out the intersection of the arc.

(Or did you mean something like the shotgun choke rules? Those *would* be
straightforward, but I've never really liked having to count squares that
way. I'd rather just glance over and say "Yeah, that's inside the zone.")

Have Fun,
- Steve Eley
sfeley@***.net

From:	"Ojaste,James [NCR]" <James.Ojaste@**.GC.CA>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 1998 14:28:26 -0400

Message no. 10 Steve Eley wrote:
> > [30 degree arc multiples for Lars's covering fire rules]
> >
> > Even when dealing with a map, while an angle may be the most appropriate
> > measurement, it's hard to actually measure unless you happen to carry
> > around a protractor. Why not specify it in terms of a "1 meter spread
> > at 10 meters range" sort of thing? You can still define arcs, they're
> > just a lot easier to measure out than 25o...
>
> It's not that hard when you consider that most runners will be laying down
> 90-degree arcs. Just about anyone can eyeball a right angle. For
> narrower arcs, it'd be three minutes work to make "covering templates" to
> lay down over your map.. Anyone who folds paper airplanes should know how
> to come up with 30 degrees.
>
Huh? How? Without eyeballing it, I mean?

> You're right, a scale of lines at certain distances would work, but I'm
> not sure it'd be simpler. At a 10 meter radius, 30 degrees would be
> roughly five-and-a-quarter meters of circumference. That's NOT five
> meters on grid paper; you'd have to have a means of measuring that curve,
> or else do nastier calculations to work out the intersection of the arc.
>
I didn't mean measuring curves, but a segment of the tangent to the
circle with a 10 meter radius centered on the PC. So, you're basically
down to measuring right triangles - and 90o is the easiest measurement
to make aside from 360o and 180o. ;-)

> (Or did you mean something like the shotgun choke rules? Those *would* be
> straightforward, but I've never really liked having to count squares that
> way. I'd rather just glance over and say "Yeah, that's inside the zone.")
>
More like the choke rules in that I wasn't intending to deal with
curves, but with a separation from a centerline.

James Ojaste

From:	Lars Ericson <lericson@****.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Covering/Suppression Fire (House Rule)
Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 1998 16:05:52 -0500

Message no. 11 Steve Eley wrote:
>
> Lars Ericson wrote:
> >
> > The attacker fires a weapon and declares the area that is being covered
> > and what kind of fire (SA, BF, FA). The minimum amount of area that can
> > be covered is 2 meters.

> Covering fire doesn't happen in terms of floor space, unless it's from
> above; it happens in arcs. Deciding that a minimum coverage would be,
> say, 30 degrees of arc and dividing everything in those terms would
> actually make it *easier* to determine who's in the covered area and who
> isn't, provided you've got a map of the fight scene. (You'd need a map to
> be completely fair in any shootout where people are taking cover, so...)

I understand where you're coming from. However, I'm a big fan of KISS
(Keep It Simple Stupid). In almost all combat situations, people are
suppressing a very well defined 2 dimensional region (ie a hallway
entrance). I guess that is what I was thinking of when I said 2 meter
area. The degrees might work out, though. I'll probably create some
templates and try them out for my next session.

> Otherwise, I like these rules and will probably adapt them for my
> campaign. Thanks!

Any time. If you are interested in some more of my house rules, check
out:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lericson/sr3house.html
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lars Ericson: Professional Vagabond
Smalley Research Group, Rice University
E-Mail: lericson@****.edu
WWW: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lericson/

"Raisin Hell -- a million raisins in every can."
-- Sifl & Olly Show

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