In earlier editions of SR there have been rules for recoil compensations based upon strength, unfortunately they have had requirements that forced anyone that wanted to try using it to be above average to superhuman in strength.

So, a slight revision is in order for the recoil compensation rule. Your average human can stand a slight amount of recoil without a problem, but without proper preparation you will loose your aim rather quickly.

New Free Action: Bracing
The character can prepare himself for automatic firing by bracing himself for the recoil and focusing in holding the gun steady - this have the following bonuses and drawbacks.

Recoil Modifier: Strength Attribute
Negative Reaction Modifier: Loose an amount of dice when doing any kind of dodge test equal to the recoil compensation gained (If you had a STR of 8 and gained 4 in recoil you would have a -4D6 to doge test).

Normal Recoil Modifier for Strength
A character gains STR/2 (Round down) in recoil modifier without bracing.

I think normal human ability to withstand recoil is factored into the modifiers. That's why only superhuman strenght can give additional compencation.

I think it was worst than that. Like 6,9,13 IIRC. I think the writers had been watching "Commando" w/ Shcwarzenneger or something when they wrote that part. Who knows.

I think you missunderstand me. What I'm saying is that normal human ability to withstand recoil is allready factored into the modifiers as they stand, for simplicity. According to the rules, Arnold will still be bothered by recoil, but Predator might have a somewhat easier time. If you give everyone recoil compensation based on strength, you will have to increase recoil modifiers to keep ballance. If you do that you have managed to add a level of complexity in order to destinguish how strong people are better able to fire big guns. It's not a matter of fixing a broken rule here, it's a matter of how detailed you want the rules to be in this area.

I just think that they could have added in one point lower. As it is, there's no distinction in recoil between an 8 year old firing an Ares Predator and a young adult, or even Talon for example. Probably at least in decent shape, but not heavily muscled (6str). But yet each of them would have the same ability to deal with the recoil? I see what you're saying, not wanting to overly complicate it. I just think that if they were going to add it in at all, they should have some level below the 6 str , like one point at 4. YMMV

Well, to me it's not about firign BIG guns, but any gun sicne all weapons regardless of size has the same recoil modifiers.

Someone with a STR of 6 have the same recoil mod firing an autopistol or a Assault Rifle.

Yea, I know, the rules WORK i just find it odd that you need to be a bodybuilder to get 1 FREE point of recoil when shooting.

While I understand the complaint that a child has conceptually no more problem with recoil than an average adult, one must also recognize that the rules make certain assumptions, including this one: your character is not a child. It'd be okay to come up with rules for that (you'd probably also have a shorter condition monitor), but the rules aren't written such that the baseline is "human child". The baseline assumption is that you are an adult with no major physical deformities or muscular problems. The adult does not deserve a recoil compensation bonus; rather, the child (or adult with relevant deformities) deserves a recoil penalty. That's how I look at it. Besides, I'm leery of any rule that gives my players more dice to roll. They almost never miss as it is.

One way of doing it could be to give an additional recoil modifier for each second point above the average attribute. So there would be 1 point of recoil at STR 4 and an additional at STR 6 and so on, that would mean that only those with above average attributes would gain a bonus.

FWIW, here are my recoil-related (experimental) house rules:

Recoil compensation (p. 142) is increased by one for every 2 points of the firing character's Strength beyond 4. When holding a pistol- or SMG-class weapon with both hands, recoil compensation is increased by one for every 2 points of the firing character's Strength instead.

All machine pistols and submachine guns (p. 307-308) have all of their uncompensated recoil halved (round down).

Bye
Thanee

I have to weigh in on the "don't" side. Recoil modifiers are already almost a non-issue for the characters in my game. Their are lots of ways to nix them, and I really don't want to encourage any more blasting away at full auto then there already is.

I do believe letting strength cancel recoil will really encourage players to grab machine guns and blast away with burst fire all the time. If this is the style of game you are looking for, then go to, but I do think it will make the non-automatic weapons comparatively a lot weaker.

I'm with Walter on this... a long burst from a submachinegun loading Standard ammo already rolls in around 11P prior to figuring in net hits, and you want to make it easier than the already-in-place gas venting and folding stocks to reduce recoil?