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Murrdox
1) Can you dodge explosives? The rules don't explicitly state that you can or can't.

If a grenade lands 10 feet away from me, do I get to roll my Reaction + Dodge to avoid the damage? Or since I'm caught in the blast, do I have no choice but to just roll Impact Armor + Body to resist the damage?


2) Melee Combat is a bit confusing to me in terms of how to disengage from it... I don't see any clear rules on this. On top of that, this came up during Astral Combat.

Engaging in Melee combat is a complex action. If I start the turn engaged in melee combat and want to run away, am I just allowed to use a complex action to simply run away with no consequences?

What about the person who is in melee combat with me trying to kill me? He just needs to spend his entire action running after me and can't try to hit me again?

I'm a bit unclear on the whole entering/exiting melee combat thing.

3) How to Acquire Gear

I'm a bit unclear on how to acquire gear.

I understand that if an item has a ® it's restricted and (F) it's illegal, and that you have to acquire it on the blackmarket. This involves an extended CHA + Negotiation roll.

What if an item just has a number, but no R or F? Do you still have to go to the Black Market to get these items? What roll do you have the character make to try and find the item? Can't the character just hop on the Matrix and search for a local store selling the item, or an online shop where he can purchase it and have it sent to him? How do other GMs run things like this?
DireRadiant
FAQ can help with the grenade damage.

Base movement itself does not use an action. So if PC A moves their move away, then NPC B moves to keep up with them, neither of them are using up their complex actions that can be used for melee combat. If PC A uses a complex action to use their Running Skill, then they can move far enough away with extra hits on the test to get out of range of melee combat.

Buying gear is a bit tricky if you don't want it tracked. the key question is do you want that bit of normal easily available gear to be tracked to you? You may be better off having your Fixer get it, in which case you use the availability number to determine how long it takes.
Murrdox
I think I need to re-read running and movement regarding your point...

Mostly what I found is that it seems like there is no mechanic in the game that prevents someone from forever running away from melee combat, even if that person is running away from 10 opponents.

PC 1 spends a complex action and runs away from 10 NPCs. NPCs all spend complex actions to keep up with him. Unless the PC and the NPCs have different numbers of Initiative Passes - then it's a tie. The PC runs away, and the NPCs catch up with him but don't have any actions left to engage him in melee, so they can't actually do anything to stop the PC from running away.

Now, if you have NPCs that have 2 initiative passes and a PC with only 1, then the NPCs can all catch up to the PC, initiate melee combat, and beat the snot out of him. However, assuming the PC wasn't beaten unconscious, all the PC has to do to escape from this epic brawl is spend a complex action and keep running?

My intuition wants the PC to have to make some kind of disengage roll, but I don't see any mechanic in the game for this. You're just allowed to run away.

Thanks a lot for the tip on acquiring merchandise regarding the black market. I see what you mean, good point.

For explosives, I see the bit on the FAQ... it just seems to me that if you toss a grenade at multiple people, then EVERYONE should get a chance to dodge, and not just the one poor guy you threw it at. If you throw it at NPC 1, but it actually lands 10 feet away at NPC 2's feet, then NPC 2 doesn't get to dodge?
DireRadiant
You might want to look at the Intercept Action. P. 151. the person running away will tend to get attacked twice. This should solve most of what you are concerned with.

Another item to think about in combat is Held Actions. This can be used in both avoiding the grenade damage, and in the running away scenario.

Grenades go off on the next IP. Most PC can use the action, if they get one, to move away from/Active Dodge the blast.

You can't outrun bullets.
RunnerPaul
QUOTE (Murrdox @ Jun 30 2008, 12:42 PM) *
1) Can you dodge explosives? The rules don't explicitly state that you can or can't.

Actually, yes they do state such:
Attacker Using Area Attack Weapon
Dodging explosions is not as easy as it seems in the movies. Apply a -2 modifier when trying to defend against weapons like grenades, rockets, or missiles with a blast effect.
p.151, SR4 Core Rulebook





QUOTE (DireRadiant @ Jun 30 2008, 12:50 PM) *
FAQ can help with the grenade damage.
But only if you're using a non-standard definition of the word "Help". The FAQ's entry on grenades tries to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place. Whoever was responsible for that entry seemed to be of the mindset that characters opting for the easier throw of targeting a point in space rather than an opposing character is getting an easier test without any drawbacks, and chose to fix it by introducing the morass of "player intent" into the mix.

The simple fact is, under the base rules, targeting a point in space with your grenade does bring a drawback for any grenade thrower/firer with a sufficent level of skill. When scatter has been reduced to 0, any further successes let you stage up the damage of the grenade against your nominated target. If your nominated target is a point in space and not something with a condition track, the potential extra damage is wasted.



QUOTE (DireRadiant @ Jun 30 2008, 03:06 PM) *
Grenades go off on the next IP.
Unless the attacker is using an airburst link.
Murrdox
Thanks, I'll look into all those. Actually I didn't realize that net hits increased explosive damage after scatter was reduced to zero. We had an interesting situation a few sessions back where a samurai hit an adept NPC square in the chest with a grenade from a grenade launcher with airburst. It blew up, destroyed a large chunk of the wall he was next to, and also heavily wounded another NPC next to him.

The interesting thing was that the NPC standing next to the adept was actually much more horribly wounded by the blast.

I just reduced the scatter to zero though, I didn't increase the DV of the explosion.

If the DV of the explosion is 10, and you get enough net hit to reduce the scatter to 0, and then say 3 more, does that increase the DV of the explosion that the bystander has to resist as well? Doesn't quite seem to make sense to me that if you're really dead on with where you want the grenade to go... it does more damage to someone 10 feet away from it. I can see it working though.
RunnerPaul
QUOTE (Murrdox @ Jun 30 2008, 04:47 PM) *
If the DV of the explosion is 10, and you get enough net hit to reduce the scatter to 0, and then say 3 more, does that increase the DV of the explosion that the bystander has to resist as well?

Only if a skilled throw or grenade launcher firing somehow increases the amount of explosive inside the grenade's casing in your game's setting. My games obey the Law of Conservation of Mass for all situations where magic isn't involved, so we use the grenade's base damage to determine blast radius and power level drop-off.

Think of it this way. What a skilled throw with staged up damage represents is the difference between a grenade that goes off 0 meters from its primary target because it landed at his feet, and a grenade that goes off 0 meters from its primary target because it catches a lucky bounce and detonates while in contact with his chest only a few cm away from various important vital organs. His buddy the secondary target, 2 meters away, won't feel any difference, because he's stading two meters away from the grenade in both cases. The damage is only staged up for the primary target.
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