On "Called Shot" and flechette, Some thoughts Options

[theartthief]

I know that this has been covered before. I have tried to read all of the posts that I found. Here are some thoughts about why "Called Shot" should be allowed for PCs and how to make flechette ammo more interesting.

Called Shot:
While cannon rules do not allow called shot for anything smaller than a vehicle there are some situations where it makes sense that the PC should get the benefit of a called shot. Melee combat is not that spot. I used to play a 60+ year old sniper with a love of all work wet who was allowed to use called shot only for contracts. This makes sense as he would have time to set up and lay out his shot without bullets whizzing over his head. This also works with RL snipers. That said I propose a house rule for "Called Shot" as follows:

Character must have clear line of sight of target and be in a stable position outside of combat. The opposing character (NPC, cyberdog, whatever) should be stationary or walking. No combat pool dice apply to the test.

Someone will no doubt say that this rule favors snipers. Well... it does. Let's face it, the amount of time that would be required for a called shot can realistically only be pulled off by a sniper ... or maybe an ambush. GMs discretion if a handgun in an ambush situation would work with called shot.

One other thought: if called shot as a cannon rule does not work on anything smaller than a vehicle doesn't it make sense that it won't work on bikes? After all a Troll is about the same size as most bikes.


Flechette
Despite my comments earlier on "Called Shot" I have no desire to make flechette bypass all armor, that is just plain broken. I looked up the definition of flechette and found that:

Flechette: A steel missile or dart dropped from an aircraft or fired from an artillery piece.

[French, diminutive of flèche, arrow. See flèche.]

From dictionary.com

This makes sense about flechette doing more damage to an un-armored target if the round is packed with mini-darts, or mini-knives. Given that a knife can be driven through un-reinforced bullet-proof jackets, I don't see why flechette ammo wouldn't pass through the ballistic portion of armor. OK, I grant that these silvers would be tumbling and not flying straight but why not some of them. Therefore I suggest the following:

Flechette ammo keeps its damage and power upgrades against armor but every two points of impact armor deduces its damage code and the rest is resisted by ballistic armor. This would allow that the shear force of the blast - the ballistic portion (after all ballistic pretty much describes all guns) - be resisted by ballistic armor and the damage portion - impact - be resisted by that armor, this would simulate the random nature of darts, knives hitting broad side instead of point on.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
-theartthief