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Old 09-27-2012, 12:23 AM   #38
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: What use is Suppression Fire?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Polydamas View Post
And that roll takes an aim bonus, and you will normally want to aim to have a decent chance of hitting and avoiding over-heating your weapon. At 100 yards, for example, the range penalty is -10 so a skill-12 gunner with RoF 8 (+1) will be at skill 3 unless he aims for a turn at which point it rises to skill 7. The actual machine-gunners here can comment on whether this is realistic, but the GURPS rules are clear and simple. I don't understand how who rolls the dice is relevant to anything.
Who rolls the dice? What's relevant is that, Icelander's houserules aside, nobody rolls the dice for the important effect. You just say what area you are suppressing, and it is so.

The Tactical Shooting rules, meanwhile, refer to 'anyone under fire', for the 'stay down' effect under Fire and Maneuver, and 'coming under suppression fire' for Cool Under Fire. Anyone in the suppression zone is under suppression fire, even if it's outright impossible for any bullets to actually hit them due to low effective skill.

The important effect, to be clear, is not hitting anybody with bullets. With suppressive fire, that was never at all likely anyway. The important effect is making the target make a fright check, plus a will roll if they want to poke their head out.
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