Thinking more about it, I can't believe metagaming didn't save C.

One of the reason most SR players can make a vague approximation of professionalism is that we usually have more information available and more time to process it than someone would in a real life situation on the field.

How do you mess up this bad? Aren't A, B and C all sitting at the same table? Aren't A and B sitting right next to C when he annunces he's making a commando roll? And they still decide to shoot him?

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I can see how you could make that blunder in real life, tough. Even worst happened to me in a paintball game. I had seen five team mates stuck behind a cover, apparently pined down. I run in zig zag to join them and quickly saw that they were pinned by a grand total of two snipers when they opened fire on me. Big whoop. In RL I'd be nervous but in paintball sniping isn't quite as threatening. Anyway, I join my team mates and it goes like this : "Hey, you pin them down and two people come with me, we'll flank them and flush them. No? One person? Oh go to hell, I'll do it alone".

So they shoot at the snipers, I go back into the forest, circle their position, kill one, flush out the other. Whoopdidoo, life is good to me. But wait, their friends are coming in force toward me. I got 4 or 5 yellows moving toward me. So I rush back toward my five formerly pinned team mates. They open fire on me (and miss). My bad, they were paranoid, just heard gun shot and obviously I can't count on 5 person who'd let 2 other pin them down in a paintball game to make much effort to ID their target even though they know one of their own has moved precisely into the area they are firing in. Anyway, I should have been IDing myself at the top of my lung when I was rushing toward them but didn't think of it. So I duck, find the best cover I can, and shouted twice something like : "I'm team blue you &%&* buffoons, don't shoot!". And when I moved back in the open I had my hands in the air and was still shouting "I'm team blue!". They still shot me, for crying out loud! And this time I caught three bullets. Man was I pissed.

If I wasn't pressed for time (enemies breathing down my neck were soon to pin me) I'd have stayed covered until one of my dumbasses team mates had acknowledged me. Considering that I got shot anyway, perhaps a few more seconds of shouting at them would have helped. Or I could I have just let them rot in their bloody hole and move away from them and the enemies. But, oh well, hindsight is 20/20. I made sure everybody knew what good players they were, though.

Anyway, the point is, with adrenalin pumping, idiotic things can happen. But around a gaming table? I don't get it. How do you not know it is your buddy doing the commando roll? Even if the GM did something wacky like split the players into two room and move back and forth, you'd still suspect something, no?

Intelligence test to ID the target?

Happened to us.. got jumped by a comrade who'd been hunting us in a war zone. Intelligence check to id us in the split second before she attacked. We figured it out after the first pass.

Then again, the comrade was an NPC.

All of this is true, however, if you are going for realism, A & Bs actions make sense. Just as Charon said, in real life, this is what would happen.

Charon, I believe it is referred to as roleplaying.

Just because you know something and would act a certain way doesn't mean your characters have the same knowledge or would react the same as you would.

WhoaHo! New info has floated my way via the players themselves:

As it turns out, Character A charged his rifle when he picked it up, which Character C heard, and then C proceeded to charge his own weapon (which A and B heard) before Character B opened the door.

That makes a bit more sense. The commando roll doesn't sound quite as foolish now.

Heh then it's A&B's fault definately...because they charged their rifles first

If C was on the run from hostiles, why wasn't his weapon charged in the first place?

~J

Why wern't their weapons already charged? I think they watched to many old movies. In all the new movies guys just push the slide back to see if a round is in the chamber.

What new movies would those be? Spartan is the only recent movie I can think of where a press check was used, and it wasn't really mainstream. Proper firearm usage is becoming more common (SWAT), but realism's still a long way off, and people still cock guns all the time 'because it's cool.'

You asked me that and now I have to think. Both Jason Bourne movies had it, and the last Bruce Willis movie had it to, I think it was called Hostage.

Press Check? I'm assuming you all mean a chamber check? At least that's what we always called them (for both pistols and rifles).

I have no idea why Character C didn't have his pistol charged, but I believe Character A was playing IC when he charged his rifle. He wasn't carrying it at the time, it was standing up next to the couch.

Generally, with AR's you'll carry the thing uncharged even when it's with you, unless you intend to be using it very shortly. It's easy to wipe off the safety on some types as it moves around on your gear, and then if you have a round in the chamber, you're 2 pounds away from a round in the floor (or worse).

I think it depends on the weapon, care, and manufacturer.

Let me give you an example. I recently got to play with a home made G3. Man it was cool. The safety was a very heavy lever that really had to be pushed because it was not in alignment with the metal.

Same kind of gun, but manufactured (not by HK) out of plastics. The safety was smooth and easy and only had to over come the little bump indicating each firing position.

Anyhoo my two cents. I would carry it charged and just keep the safety on. Especially in the day and age of electronic safeties disabled by smartlink.

again depends on the weapon. with some of my hunting rifles, I only carry them with the bolt open (round in the chamber) or bolt closed (chamber empty) or on the winchester 94 chambered, locked and half cock. if I'm ready however, the hammer is back. If I was hiding, I wouldn't have to cheack my rifle, because I'd know that the saftey was off (I rarely ever use them) and a round was chambered. all my SR characters carried with a round chambered mostly because they never stowed the main unless it was dry. and when we were hiding there was always an AR covering the door. still, fault goes all around. that's the way it is in any blue encounter

Wait, what? Open/closed bolt has nothing to do with the chamber being loaded or empty. It refers to whether the bolt is locked back (open) or locked forward (closed).

I think he's indicating that the two states are always simultaneous for him rather than that they're linked in any mechanical fashion.

~J

I meant bolt closed on an empty chamber or open with a round in the chamber as a "pre-ready" state. and yes, none of the four conditions are linked, just those are the pairs that normaly occur

Since I reload most of my own, I don't worry much about soft primers (they don't get past the press and all the others are .22lr, so the round going off when the bolt is closing isn't going to be terrible (painful yes, but not that bad) Don't worry about the sound of your questions, I'd guess that few people on this board have had accsess to a 6.5x55 huskivarna swedish mauser, where the chamber is tight enough to hold the shell, but if you bring the bolt back too far the next round will pop out of the magazine and get in the way. most bolt action rifles are tight enough to hold the case, but I don't know about automatics, I dont have much experiance with them, and givien that they are all mag fed of some type, you wouldn't be able to have to bolt locked back with a round in anyway, the top round in the mag would be pushed into it by the bolt.
each persons expertise is limited by their experiance. one can't know it all.

I voted all of the above. I so wouldnt want to have to pick up the peices after this adventure in my game.

Voted All. The team should have tried harder to remain in contact with each other, sharing position, status, intent, etc. In 2060's information sharing should be central to any group of individuals who claim to be a "team", otherwise they are just a group of ignorant nubs running around bumping into things. (and as evident here, bumping each other off!)

Definately C's fault. The others tried to keep in contact, but he wasn't answering his phone. Even when you hear a gun charge, you shouldn't do any sort of threating manuver. Having your gun ready isn't what I'd call threating, just don't have it pointed at anyone.

This is almost as bad as the time two of my group got seperated from us and ended up disgusing themselves as guards without informing the rest. Ended up with the run being a clusterfrag because someone just had to use a shotgun to bring them down.

"Dear Darwin Awards..."