Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck
But I still think some type of opportunity fire rule is needed in TFT, and that doesn't mean going whole hog for all the other gritty details. I want to play TFT, not another game, even if TFT needs a couple of tweaks here and there.
Consider a row of stationary obstacles, each one a hex wide, and spaced a number of hexes apart that is less than or equal to most figures' MAs. Like trees, columns, or even a picket fence if the pickets are wide enough.
Put a stationary archer on one side, and for the target a running one hex figure on the other. If the target starts behind the left tree, which completely obstructs the archer's shot, and then runs left to right to each of the next trees on a series of movement turns, when does the archer get a shot at him? The archer can't take the shot unless standing still or moving one hex only on a turn's movement phase, but the target flits from being hidden by one tree or column to being hidden behind the next tree or column. Yet on each of the archer's subsequent turns to act, there's no unobstructed target, even though that target comes into view sprinting 4, 5, even up to 10 hexes at a time between turns to act. But the normal turn sequence doesn't allow the archer to fire when the target is in view because that's always during the movement phase.
Allowing opportunity fire on movement phases solves the problem, but it also requires rules for proper DX adjustments depending on the interval between the trees and how fast the target is moving. If the trees are only one hex apart and the target is moving at MA 8, that's a very hard shot because the target is only visible for a split second at a time between each obstruction. If the trees are 8 hexes apart, then the shot should be as easy to roll a hit on as if no trees were there, because the target is now in view for almost the length of the whole turn just as if they were running in the open. But you have to have rules, different DX adjustments, for each of the possible distances and speeds between. A lot of adjustments equates to gritty, no adjustments equates to entirely unrealistic, but the right number and degree of adjustments means the porridge is just right.
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