Now for some light hearted poking at the rules....


Actually they got a mod for that now...

Just Download the 'Breaking Thoth-Amon's Mirror'(BTAM)™ App for your Smartlink System.

Normally when you are designating targets for your shooting solution the system utilizes the One Target, One Lock feature which is designed to prevent you from assigning two different target designations on the same individual while dual wielding.
This is of course to avoid doubling up while shooting in a target rich environment, so if you are facing mooks A,B,C, and D and you set the firing system to calculate for four targets you don't end up with a spread pattern of A, B,C, and B again because you accidentally assigned B as both B AND D, which in turn left the real Mook D out of the killing loop because you only called up for a shooting solution involving 4 highlighted targets, leaving this last mook standing and able to get a shot in on you before your next pass.

Breaking Thoth-Amon's Mirror™ allows you to override this One Target, One Lock feature to 'mirror' the same target on the shooting solution list of valid targets.
This has the effect that now you can designate Mook A as Target A AND Target B for any shooting solutions, thus freeing you up to blaze away merrily
at just Mook A alone exactly as if you were shooting actual seperate parties while dual wielding without running into targeting conflicts and other cosmic restrictions particular to the SR universe.

It can be easily toggled on and off with a Simple Action (Free Action if using Wireless ON) for when you are shooting at groups and do not want to accidentally focus fire on just one target.

Consult your local Gunsmith or Fixer today about whether BTAM™ may be right for you.

Side Effects of BTAM™ may include Faux Slow Motion Shooting, obscure Gun Fu references, white doves flying away just before the shooting starts, and increased ammo consumption.

Don't install BTAM™ if you are prone to Spray&Pray, only target large crowds or suffer from moral qualms about blowing the absolute hell out of a single target.

Please use Responsibly.




F.A.Q.


Well it's the darndest thing.

Research to date show that if you are dual wielding and try aiming both firearms at the same guy using just the iron sights when you pull both triggers at the same time it's nearly a 99.999999999% certainty one of the guns will jam, suffer hangfire or otherwise fail to discharge, though this problem strangely resolves itself once alternate targets are acquired.

The same happens when using laser/holographic sights, but it gets even weirder.

Several shootists surveyed during this study on this have claimed one of the two light beams actually bent away from the targeted individual, though this effect has not been reproduced in the lab at present.

In the case of the holographic sight, there were reports ranging from one holo sight failing entirely all the way to overlaying a totally separate target with the AR image with the round from that weapon following suit or simply failing to discharge as above.

So don't let Mother Nature tell you who or how often you can or can not shoot someone, get BTAM™ today and take back your gunbunny's life.

And thus some really stupid restrictions in SR are resolved. I like how it isn't really your choice who you shoot, just some algorithm on your smartlink. Makes as much sense as anything else.

Where does it say you can't attack the same target while dual wielding?

It's a running joke.

To be able to use both weapons you have to split your dice using the Multiple Attacks Free Action along with a relevant action like Fire Weapon.

Now common sense tells you that you should be able to use both weapons on one character, but if you read it by RAW the Multiple attack free action only states multiple targets.

Plus if you consider the whole 1 attack per IP rule if you go dual wielding on one guy this technically violates the 1 attack rule as it is two separate dice rolls and thus counts as two attacks.
Kind of like if I shoot you in the face with one simple Action and reckless cast Ice sheet with another simple action directly under your feet, that constitutes two attacks since Ice sheet forces a roll to remain standing and thus it's two attacks and that is a no no.
Whereas I CAN shoot you in the face with one simple action and cast Ice Sheet across the road with the reckless simple action because it doesn't violate the 1 attack rule as the Ice sheet across the road does not directly affect you that phase.
Or you can use the Multiple Attacks free action as written to allow you to split your dice so you can shoot two different targets because that is how it reads and is thus allowed.

Again we are just poking a bit of fun at this by creating a workaround in the form of an app.

OK,I'll agree that RAW says you can't attack the same target with multiple attacks but doesn't multiple attacks allow you to make more then 1 attack in a IP to begin with?

Technically, the Multiple Attack Action is still just a single attack (it is a single action, even if you are roiling multiple dice pools simultaneously), just split amongst more than one target.

Yes, you can make multiple attacks via the use of the Multiple Attacks Free Action,
However, again by RAW you have one dice pool that you then split up among your attacks,whether it is shooting multiple times with one weapon or making an attack with a weapon in each hand.

Thus even if you have two weapons, by RAW some cosmic force normally prevents you from aiming both those guns at the same guy and opening fire at the same time because you would have to split the dice to make the two attacks (granted using a single action) and two attacks with each having their own damage against the same target in the same IP is a no no.
These same cosmic forces do not hinder you if you choose to shoot different targets, just no double dipping on the same guy.

You have to remember how multi-round shots are handled in 5th. Rather than being hit 3 times by a 3 round burst, you take dodge penalties and other effects to determine if you got hit or not.
So a 3 round burst does not do 3 actual bullets worth of damage, but instead you take a -2 to your defense test (Core pg 180) to see if you get hit.
If you get hit they only count 1 bullet worth of damage plus whatever bonuses from your difference in hits, but that same boost applies to a single round or a burst.
So in a sense, even burst fire and the other shooting modes adhere indirectly to the 1 attack per phase since you are only take 1 bullet worth of damage per attack.

If you could use dual wield to bypass this and shoot the same target with both guns in a single IP, which under RAW as currently written you can't and was what I was trying to accomplish via the BTAM app by creating a humorous workaround, there would be no sense firing a 3 round burst from a single weapon when you can fire a single round from 2 separate weapons and do more damage ( 2 bullets worth of damage vs the burst's single bullet worth of damage) and save 33% more ammo doing so.

So there is a bit of logic to it, but it doesn't stop us from mocking it just a little bit.

OK, I guess that sort of makes sense rules wise. But I think you'll all agree if I said the game need dual wielding rules that allow you to attack the same target.

Needs more than that but sure, let's start there.