| From: | Nilo Nolasco <nilo@*******.com> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Alternate Rules for Autofire |
| Date: | Tue, 14 May 1996 14:54:17 -0600 (MDT) |
summer. I have fine tuned a few things since then. The reason I made
such rules is due to the increasing modifiers to one's TN due to recoil
from FA-capable weapons. The existing rules are fine when a shooter
targets many targets which lowers these recoil modifiers a bit, but one
that same shooter attempts to shoot just one target at the maximum rate of
fire allowed by that weapon - the TN is often too high to achieve even one
success. All the smartlinks, gas vents, gyros, shock pads, and the
character's high Strength could negate these recoil modifiers, sure. SR
makes each round count when it his the target which raises the power and
staging of the weapons damage code in addition to the shooter's number of
sucesses - all of which makes it nearly impossible to roll against and
above all, just overkill.
I talked to a couple of buddies of mine in the reserves and told
me of their experiences firing at FA. First of all, firing in FA is used
for supression/cover fire to really keep their enemy's heads down. As far
as I was told, they also became proficient in keeping their weapon in
place to reduce recoil and deadly accurate with their rounds when shooting
at one target. So I took this to consideration.
Taking some of the rules on cover/suppresion in FOF into account
as well, this is what I came up.
First, the player determines which targets he wishes to shoot at.
Say, there's two out there he wishes to mow down. The maximum spread in
meters a character is able to cover in FA is Quickness+4 (those Elves).
These two take some cover behind their Ford Americar (giving them 25%,
they're trying to shoot back) cover with Victim One naer the engine block
and Victim Two just behind the car trunk. That's about 1 meters between them
with Victim One at the shooter's left and Victim Two at his right, respectively.
Joe Shadowrunner starts firing his AK-97 at FA and the fun begins!
He rolls 3D6 to determine the number of rounds fired (5D6 for minigun and
super-light machine gun rates and yes - the rule of sixes will apply here
if you wish) and gets 15 rounds. The number of rounds is then divided by
the number of meters the targets are occupying (math says 15/3=5) which
results in 5 bullets per meter.
The player then rolls his character's Firearms (or Gunnery if he
brought something bigger) against a TN and taking cover, recoil modifiers,
visibility modifiers to account. Well give Joe Shadorunner a smartlink (a
level two would be even better :), and gas vent 3 for his gun, it's a
nice day for a killin', and he's only a few meters away in front of the two.
Victim One's at a TN of (short range is 4 + recoil +4, 25% cover +2 MINUS
smartlink -2, gas vent -2) 6 with the first 5 bullets, the second set of
5 pitters the car (smashes the driver, passenger windows, scratches the
paint - it's armored), and Victim Two gets the last 5 rounds at him at a
TN of 8 (+2 for being the second target. The skill rolls' success test
ONLY stages up the damage; if the player fails to make any successes, it
is not necessarily a miss! Player rolls his Firearms of 4 (splitting up
his combat pool for each target, of course) and gets 2 successes (keep
tab of the rolls for an additional affect) for Victim One which stages it up
from 8M to 8S, and only 1 for Victim Two.
The player takes a D6 per bullet and in this case, 5D6 to
determine how many of out of the 5 bullets hit to each target. Bullets
pretty much go to straight to wherever they are aimed and are not hindered
by visibility or recoil EXCEPT for cover and what the shooter, target
might be doing when they are fired. The TN for the bullets would always
be 4, except for the cover which would take it up to 6.
Victim One gets nailed 3 out of the 5 rounds while Vitim Two only
gets one. The target against the damage code for EVERY BULLET that hit
them, so Victim One gets to roll 8S three times (!), and Victim Two
at 8M once (minus any armor and cover). Both are wearing armor jackets
and they are behind a car - the poer level of the damage code would be
taken down to 2. Even with cover and armor, the amount of
rounds that makes contact is the key and unfortunately for Victim One,
he rolls and only gets say, 4 successes for the first one, 3 successes for the
second, and none on the last one - which results in a M, S, D (and rather
dead). Victim Two was lucky, he also rolled 4 successes but since Joe
Shadowrunner didn't stage it up for him - the car and the armor pretty uch
takes care of that round that went his way.
I have been using this extensively in my campaign and it is deadly
as well as survivable. I use to have SO MUCH problems with NPCs who don't
necessarily have the skills or the toys (on their guns) to shoot at the
PCs properly without hurting themselves or shooting somebody accidently on
their own side. My players have learned that once I let my NPCs start
shooting in FA, they take as much cover as they can. This rule allows PCs
and my NPCs to really concentrate all their fire at FA at one target.
If said Joe Shadowrunner had just one target, lets loose the 15 rouns at
him (and although he will never will not stage the damage code per bullet
because it would be insanely high, i.e. +14 recoil modifier) - he still
has 15D6 against a TN of 6 and that's A LOT of 8Ms to resist. And the car
would probably have blown up in Victim One's face too. :)
Any comments, questions, suggestions, confessions are welcome
here.
Nilo "ShouldHaveWroteWar&Peace" Nolasco
