| From: | David Hoff <dlhoff@**.NETCOM.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Weapons and stuff (Long) |
| Date: | Wed, 15 Mar 1995 08:34:32 -0800 |
are for streetfighting situations" view of the range tables. As it has
been said, you don't have a lot of time to aim at stuff in SR. I realize
that there is the thought that "3 seconds is a long time in combat" or
something similar, but that is only true in the sense that it seems to
take forever. As for aiming at and hitting a target, 3 seconds is
nothing.
As an example, let me give some info on the U.S. Army and their
Marksmanship test. [Those who are going "Oh no! Not another Army story!
should take a second to pay attention anyways.] For this test, soldiers
have 40 targets that they need to try and hit. These targets are at
distances of between 50 and 400 meters. The targets start out in a
lowered position, then raise up so the soldier can see them. The soldier
has to see the target come up, aim, and fire, all before the target is
lowered again. The close trargets (50 meters) stay up for about 5
seconds (if my memory is correct), while the ones at 400 meters stay up
for something like 9 seconds, maybe longer. Each target comes up a
certain number of times, with the 400 meter target showing up 4 times.
Now, to be an "Expert", a soldier has to hit 38 of the 40 targets. This
means that even an "Expert" is expected to miss the 400 meter target up
to 50% of the time.
Now lets put this in SR terms. This "Expert" soldier has probably got a
firearms skill of about 5 or 6, and can allocate another 5 or 6 dice
from their combat pool to the shot (as there is nothing shooting back at
them). They also have about 3 combat turns to do _nothing_ but aim. The
army expects this person to hit only 50% of the time. So, lets figure
that the TN's for this shot have got to be rather high. If out of 12
dice, you are only supposed to get even one success every other shot,
the number you would need to get must be a bit higher than a 6, as a 6
would come up twice out of 12 dice. Now, if the person had 3 turns to
aim (thats 6 simple actions, so -6 tn), and was firing at a stationary
trarget (-1), then even if his modified TN was a 6, that would mean the
original TN would have to have been a 13! That is just a bit higher than
the 9 for the long range of the weapon.
So, after all that, here is my point: The ranges for firearms may seem
like they are wacky, but when you consider the _time frame_ for taking a
shot, I think you will see that the ranges are more realistic. If your
character wants to shoot at something that is past the "long" range of
your weapon, do what I do in my games; add a category like "Extreme
Range" onto the weapon range table. Make it something like twice the
long range, and give it a higher TN.
For example, in my games, Sniper rifles have an Extreme range category
of 401-800 meters, Assault rifles are 251-500, etc. The TN for extreme
range is 12. So, if you have a nifty sniper rifle with mag 3 and a
smartlink, you can still drop a target at 800 meters with little
problem. And if 800 meters still isn't far enough for you "realists" out
there, then make a category of "Super-extreme" or something, with say a
range of 801-1200, TN's of 15, and so on.
Sorry for the long post, but I feel that this will get some people to
realise how accurate the SR range tables really are in most cases.
--Dave
dlhoff@**.netcom.com
