Automatic Weapons, Graceful Degradation Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Outline Switch to: Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Lilt]

It's irked me for a while that narrow bursts and full auto shots are all or nothing things, surely there must be some way to hit with just a few bullets?

This idea came to me just now. How about, if a character misses, they're allowed to roll the dice they sacrificed for recoil and see if that allowed them to hit. If it did, they treat it as a single bullet hitting and can stage it up with any net successes they score. If not, the whole burst missed.

This doesn't help Sam McSamurai, however, as only dice sacrificed to recoil can be re-rolled. If someone has recoil mods that completely negate recoil, then missing simply meant they were aiming in the wrong direction. It's also not usable with wide bursts, although statistically the chances are the same (+5 dice for attacker instead of -5 for defender) yet this mod can be used against stationary targets).

The real effect of this is to make automatic weapons more versatile for people with less recoil compensation. Is that a lofty goal, or is it something that should be discouraged?

[crazyconscript]

actually, the bullet per net hit idea doesnt hold up as a narrow burst if it hits involves all the bullets hitting (hence the extra damage), while a wide could be anything from 1 to number of bullets fired. Plus the number of shots is only 3 for short, 6 for long and 10 for full bursts.

[Lilt]

As for how cheap recoil compensation is: Sure. I don't intend this rule to be for Sammy McSamurai. It's for Gavin McGanger, who wants to pump out a lot of lead without a SOTA gas-vent system on his SMG, but to still stand a good chance of hitting. This rule is also (and is indeed intended) for use with NPCs.

The problem is that uber recoil compensation has become the norm, rather than the exception, because the rules punnish uncompensated recoil so much.

As for wide bursts, I'm fully aware of their existence. The rules for using them are, however, poorly designed. They give no real advantage to a character that's using no recoil compensation, as you have a -2 penalty to hit and they have a -2 penalty to dodge. Net gain: 0, or -3 if they try and do a second wide burst in the same phase.

If someone is firing an automatic weapon, and the first bullet is aimed in the right direction, then a hit should be scored. Fully automatic weapons were developed because they gave an advantage to the attacker, and recoil compensation was developed afterwords to make them more effective. Ergo, firing a weapon in an automatic mode should give some form of advantage rather than a net loss or an all-or-nothing damage boost.

actually, the bullet per net hit idea doesnt hold up as a narrow burst if it hits involves all the bullets hitting (hence the extra damage), while a wide could be anything from 1 to number of bullets fired. Plus the number of shots is only 3 for short, 6 for long and 10 for full bursts.

That's essentially what I'm going for. Given that a net hit on attacking means all bullets hit, surely there is a middle ground between all hitting and all missing? If you've sacrificed 9 dice to fire 10 bullets, then perhaps you could say each die represents a bullet. If, on such an attack, you *just* miss, you could perhaps consider each die to be a bullet, and so if all 9 dice score hits then you've hit with 9 bullets. If the defender had net hits, they'd cancel bullet hits normally.

As for adding extra time to combats, it doesn't need to add much. Particularly if the group has differently colored dice that could be rolled at the same time.