Sniping Skill, Or: is every Street Sam w/ a smartlink a god of extreme range shooting Options

[Kerenshara]

In SR4X, and especially 4A, there is a big discrepancy between “progression” for Awakened characters and the Sammies and their brethren. The Karma for Cash rule helps right this to some extent, but being a Mage isn’t really cheap, either. We saw in a recent campaign that, short of just piling dice pools up to the heavens, the Sammy winds up going into other things because they can’t rationalize buying that 6th level in Firearms.

The issue is, having know a few snipers, short of the actual trigger pulling, sniping is a skill set all to itself. It’s precise and methodical. When you’re good enough, a lot of it becomes automatic, and the right tools help tremendously. But essentially what it all boils down to is negating the difficulties (read: DP Penalties) associated with range-to-target and / or target movement.

So, here’s my idea:

Offer a custom skill called “Sniping”. It’s a Combat Active Skill not in any group. It’s tied to Logic (take THAT Mr. “I don’t need a brain to geek drek” Sammy!), can NOT be used untrained and benefits from an Encephalon and a Math Coprocessor like a Hacking skill. Specializations would include “Cold Bore” (First shot), “Rapid Re-engagement” (Follow-up shots), “Rapid Preparation” (read: quickly control breathing after running) and “Precision Targeting” (Bypassing cover, armor, etc). The entire point of the skill is that when attempting a shot beyond close range, as part of the “Take Aim” action make a Sniping roll. Any successes are applied against the negative modifiers at the target’s end of the shot. You need not be stationary, buy you can not be in motion yourself (you can snipe from a moving vehicle if you’re stationary within the vehicle). All penalties which would normally affect a shot from the shooter’s perspective (lighting, self motion, wound penalties and so forth) apply to the Sniping roll.

The maximum number of hits on the roll is capped at Skill x2. The result of the roll replaces the usual +1 for Take Aim, but the sniper can choose to keep aiming. They also may take a consecutive total of 3 + Hits “Take Aim” actions, Max = 3 + Sniping Skill.

This way, you can have somebody who really is JUST a sniper and excels at it without having to be Annie Oakley. After all, if you negate YOUR penalties, are highly skilled in Sniping, and can negate the target side penalties, all you’re doing is squeezing that trigger nice and soft. Plus, if they're Aiming all the time, they're not taking double shots constantly, right? If they're using SS weapons, moreso.

Oh, spotters: Another person who has the same LOS and Sniping skill can assist, making their own roll and contributing their net hits to the trigger-puller’s Sniping roll subject to all the same rules. Maximum one person helping.

Thoughts?

-Kerenshara