| From: | P Ward <P.Ward@**.CF.AC.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | RULES: RANGES: Battle-Sight Zero |
| Date: | Fri, 2 Jun 1995 11:26:13 BST |
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Here is the first of the house rules I'm going to be throwing onto
the list before they cancel; my account.
I'll be sending Paolo a copy of his own to do with as he will.
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BATTLESIGHT ZERO
(As blatantly stolen from an article in Challenge, but hey, one of the writer's
regular running team was/is on the list, so I'm sure he won't mind)
For the purpose of the rules any individual with a Firearms/Concentration/
Specialisation skill of 8 or greater qualifies to use the increased ranges that
zeroing a weapon gives.
For a technical description of what zeroing a weapon entails, see someone else.
The grist of it is moving the sights so that the centre of the cross-hairs
are lower down, forcing you to raise the point of your aim. Normally your sight
would be set for a 'regular' range, say 100m or so for runners in an urban
environment, a sniper sets it for, say 1km or so, close enough for guvmint work
:-).
A weapon with adjustable sights (100% of ShadowRun weapons as far as I'm
concerned), laser sights, or smartlink-capable may be zeroed, a weapon with
fixed sights may not (note, hold-outs have no sights of any worth, so maybe
zeroing them is not possible :- GMD). You can zero medium and heavy MG's, but
not Rocket launchers, panthers (truly silly), flame-throwers, mortars, etc.
It's GMD (GM's discretion as to whether a grenade launcher can be zeroed, I
believe they probably can. No Narco/DMSO-based weapon can be zeroed :-), or
tasers (drek, there are a _lot_ of exceptions, aren't there), oh, and bows too.
If you have a troll sammy with a zeroed bow, he'd be able to fire further than
he could see (possible anyway, but at least now he can't hit anything).
A zeroed weapon increases it's ranges when used for _aimed_ shots, ie. the
operator has spent at least one Simple Action aiming the gun. As far as I'm
concerned, the first aim action allows you to use the zeroed ranges (including
smart-gun modifiers) and (with my own house rules) the second allows you to
include the bonus of any optical sights (truly lethal qv.).
To find the zeroed ranges of your weapon, subtract 6 from your _natural_ skill
with the gun (no bio or cyber counts, not chips, not reflex recorders, nada!).
take that value and multiply by the upper limit of each range band. As the game
has no upper limits on skills, to avoid silly zeroed ranges, the maximum
multiplier is x4 (x5 for barrets), leading to a maximum zeroed range for people
with firearms 10 (better than the average Bounty Hunter and Company Man!)
WEAPON CLASS REGULAR RANGES MAX ZEROED RANGES
Sht Med Lng Ext Sht Med Lng Ext
Holdout 5 15 30 50 5 15 30 50 (NA)
Light Pistol 5 15 30 50 20 60 120 200
Heavy Pistol 5 20 40 60 20 80 160 240
Shotgun 10 20 50 100 40 80 200 400
SMG 10 40 80 150 40 160 320 600
Light MG 10 40 80 150 40 160 320 600
Assault Rifle 15 40 100 250 60 160 400 1000
Sporting Rifle 30 60 150 300 120 240 600 1200
Sniper Rifle 40 80 200 400 160 320 800 1600
Heavy Sniper Rifle 40 80 200 400 200 400 1000 2000 Barret, etc.
Medium MG 40 150 300 500 160 600 1200 2000
Heavy MG 40 150 400 800 160 600 1600 3200
Grenade Launcher 5-50 100 150 300 200 400 600 1200
The original article has anecdotal evidence of M2-HB's (a .50 cal HMG), being
used to hit VC targets at 3km (HMG as above), and now we have a barret with a
2km top range (the US Marine handbook has their effective range out to 1830m
approx). The above Grenade Launcher ranges allow them to be used pretty
effectively in an indirect-fire mode, as a support weapon (roll on auto-fire
tripod mounted grenade launchers, use one on your PC's today, it's the only way
:-) The above table allows for those ranges.
A weapon zeroed for a specific individual, counts as customised, in that
anyone else using it subtracts -1 dice from their firearms skill when using it.
Weapons may be both zeroed and customised, and in that case, subtract -2 Dice
from any other operator.
To zero a weapon requires access to a firing-range of at least the required
range (this makes it hard for the runners, where _do_ you get access to a 2km
firing-range?), around ten rounds of ammo and say 20 minutes.
Simply make a firearms (natural, as above, no modifiers) check with a TNo of 6.
Divide the time by the number of successes, failure means you can start again.
a fumble indicates you've sighted it totally wrong, GMD as to effect (-1 dice
skill, seems a nice start).
EXAMPLE
Angel-Heart, the (in)famous mafioso assassin has a IWS-assassin (a sniper
rifle) skill of 9, and has zeroed his weapon, subtract -6 from his skill = 3.
All his ranges are multiplied by x3, giving :-
Sht Med Lng Ext
Sniper Rifle 120 240 600 1200
Now he can loft shots into FBI-turned Mafia-informers from halfway across
Manhattan island, assuming he has a clear line of sight (always a problem in a
built-up area).
SUGGESTIONS TO GM'S
1) If you think any _reasonably_ skilled user should be able to increase the
range of their weapon, reduce the subtractor (is that a word?).
2) If you think 2050 firearms should fire further than their modern-day
counterparts, increase the maximum multiple by +1.
3) Mag-scopes can be very nasty at these ranges, so when you make the Firearms
check to zero a weapon, the number of successes you get indicates the level
of optical magnification you may combine with the zeroing.
4) Remember, an external sight, like a smart-adaptor (much more cost-efficient
on a sniper-rifle), or telescoping sight can be pretty vulnerable to
jarring, etc. Use the rules for ruining the sights on the ranger-arms, as
given in the main SR rulebook.
5) At these ranges, double the moving target penalties; after all, at 2km, and
roughly 2-3 seconds to arrive, you have to lead a target quite a lot to
ensure a hit.
6) REMEMBER, the zeroed ranges can only be used from a sniping position, GMD as
to exactly what that means, but it _does not_ mean a sammy running round in
the middle of a firefight spending one simple action and chucking lead 1km
with his Assault rifle.
Oh yeah, and for the record, what should the range of an LMG be? Surely it has
a range _at least_ equivalent to an assault rifle, rather than an SMG?
Phil (Renegade)
