Post by aardvark892 on Aug 15, 2016 11:58:07 GMT -8
I recently was creating a character who very luckily ended up with a relic SMG. I decided to take a good look at the ruleset for burst fire and auto fire rules, and found only fairly vague information on that type of attack as it applies to carefully aimed shots. It mentions Immediate Attacks penalties, but none of the charts specify what those penalties would be if the attack was not part of a carefully aimed shot.
Also, in my three decades of gaming I have seen and played hundreds of different types of RPG's, many of them that include weapons capable of burst (a standard, modern three round burst) or fully automatic (FA) fire (hold down the trigger, and just keep spraying bullets). Unfortunately, many of them have it backwards, i.e. the burst or FA is penalized as being less accurate with the chance of doing more damage.
Realistically, the only reason for burst weapons (I'll get to the FA part in a moment) is that they are MORE accurate, that is they give the shooter a better chance of hitting his target at the expense of some wasted bullets. It's almost like a very limited scope shotgun blast... more bullets in a burst has a wider area of hitting the target, but some of the bullets miss.
I have created my own house rule for burst fire (three round): When the attacker states that he is going to fire a burst, the SV is increased by 15: +15 to hit. If they hit, the damage done is for only a single bullet. The other two rounds are wasted (although you could use the TME rules about missed bullets hitting other targets, if you want to crunch more numbers.) This rule is very similar to how Palladium Games does it in Rifts and the rest of the Megaverse.
Fully automatic fire consists of two different types of attacks:
1) The shooter is spraying lead at a particular target in hopes of just destroying him, or
2) The shooter is spraying lead into an area in hopes that multiple people, or a person that they know is there but can't see in the area might get hit.
For the first, it is unusual because any recoil is offset by the tremendous amount of lead hitting on or near the target. Sure, the gun barrel is kicking all over the place (unless mounted solidly) and a LOT of bullets are wasted, but if the shooter is aiming basically at a single target in view, chances are really good that the target is going to get hit by quite a few rounds.
The rule for the first category is: The shooter rolls and tries to get below their SV after all other modifiers have been placed. If they hit, a single bullet hits the target. For every 5 percentile they roll below the SV, an additional bullet hits. Roll damage for each bullet. Every bullet not accounted for is wasted.
In the second case, count it as suppression fire. The firer just rolls his stock SV with no modifiers and tracks his roll. Anyone in the area, or enters the area between when the firer shoots and his initiative on the next round has to roll below what the shooter rolled (subtract their AGL DV modifier) or take a random number of bullets. The random scale is based on how many bullets fired. Just pick a die range closest to that number. Each bullet does damage. This is deadly, but then again waltzing into suppressive fire will probably kill most anyone anyways.
SO TO REVIEW, now that I've over explained stuff as usual:
Burst Fire: +15 SV, damage for one bullet
Full Auto at One Target: Roll to hit, if successful one bullet hits, plus one additional bullet for every 5 points below SV
Full Auto at an Area: Roll unmodified SV. That roll if successful becomes the roll to beat by anyone in the area or entering the area. Add any Agility DV to that roll. Randomly decide how many bullets hit if any.
Yea, I know that's a lot more to track in combat... vaguely realistic rules always take more work. But hey, if you like it, use it and if not, don't.
Cheers!
Also, in my three decades of gaming I have seen and played hundreds of different types of RPG's, many of them that include weapons capable of burst (a standard, modern three round burst) or fully automatic (FA) fire (hold down the trigger, and just keep spraying bullets). Unfortunately, many of them have it backwards, i.e. the burst or FA is penalized as being less accurate with the chance of doing more damage.
Realistically, the only reason for burst weapons (I'll get to the FA part in a moment) is that they are MORE accurate, that is they give the shooter a better chance of hitting his target at the expense of some wasted bullets. It's almost like a very limited scope shotgun blast... more bullets in a burst has a wider area of hitting the target, but some of the bullets miss.
I have created my own house rule for burst fire (three round): When the attacker states that he is going to fire a burst, the SV is increased by 15: +15 to hit. If they hit, the damage done is for only a single bullet. The other two rounds are wasted (although you could use the TME rules about missed bullets hitting other targets, if you want to crunch more numbers.) This rule is very similar to how Palladium Games does it in Rifts and the rest of the Megaverse.
Fully automatic fire consists of two different types of attacks:
1) The shooter is spraying lead at a particular target in hopes of just destroying him, or
2) The shooter is spraying lead into an area in hopes that multiple people, or a person that they know is there but can't see in the area might get hit.
For the first, it is unusual because any recoil is offset by the tremendous amount of lead hitting on or near the target. Sure, the gun barrel is kicking all over the place (unless mounted solidly) and a LOT of bullets are wasted, but if the shooter is aiming basically at a single target in view, chances are really good that the target is going to get hit by quite a few rounds.
The rule for the first category is: The shooter rolls and tries to get below their SV after all other modifiers have been placed. If they hit, a single bullet hits the target. For every 5 percentile they roll below the SV, an additional bullet hits. Roll damage for each bullet. Every bullet not accounted for is wasted.
In the second case, count it as suppression fire. The firer just rolls his stock SV with no modifiers and tracks his roll. Anyone in the area, or enters the area between when the firer shoots and his initiative on the next round has to roll below what the shooter rolled (subtract their AGL DV modifier) or take a random number of bullets. The random scale is based on how many bullets fired. Just pick a die range closest to that number. Each bullet does damage. This is deadly, but then again waltzing into suppressive fire will probably kill most anyone anyways.
SO TO REVIEW, now that I've over explained stuff as usual:
Burst Fire: +15 SV, damage for one bullet
Full Auto at One Target: Roll to hit, if successful one bullet hits, plus one additional bullet for every 5 points below SV
Full Auto at an Area: Roll unmodified SV. That roll if successful becomes the roll to beat by anyone in the area or entering the area. Add any Agility DV to that roll. Randomly decide how many bullets hit if any.
Yea, I know that's a lot more to track in combat... vaguely realistic rules always take more work. But hey, if you like it, use it and if not, don't.
Cheers!