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Old 01-30-2017, 08:29 AM   #21
acrosome
 
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

Even if one is callous, I suspect that there would still be psychological pressure because there is always the risk of some sort of repercussion. E.g., having someone shoot back, or being executed for murder, or a son coming to avenge the father later in life, or whatever. I would propose that overcoming this is one aspect of high combat skill levels.

I'm also not sure that I buy the "neurotypical human" Grossman stuff. But we've been over that before, and it gets ugly, so I'll stop there.
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Old 01-30-2017, 10:51 AM   #22
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

The other thing is that I think 'psychological pressure' is actually a bit of a handwave for the various factors which make combat accuracy low. Yes, that's part of it, but there's also just simple distraction and the fact that combat environments are often a lot messier than a firing range.
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Old 01-30-2017, 11:22 AM   #23
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

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Yes, that's part of it, but there's also just simple distraction and the fact that combat environments are often a lot messier than a firing range.
Which would ideally be treated by making the Aim action much more difficult in combat. If Aim is an All-Out action, and you lose the bonus if you lose sight of your target even for an instant, and if you strictly enforce Perception rolls to find your target, then Aimed shots will become a lot less common, and opportunity fire a lot more common. GMs can legitimately cancel built up Aim bonuses if the target took a Move action near anything vaguely resembling clutter, or someone else took a Move action and broke line-of-sight. Or a grenade went off. Or someone close by opened up on full-auto. If you are aiming at a target, you aren't paying attention to what your comrade is doing, so anything he does could startle you. Oops. Or someone took a shot at you and missed, but not by much.

If a character dodges or moves, the GM can rule that they took their eyes off their target and force them to take an action, with at least their head in the open, to reacquire it. Maybe the bad guys got luckier on their Perception checks than you, and therefore are an extra second into their Aim sequence. Do you feel lucky? Maybe you should just take the unaimed shot and get your head back down.

One major problem with the Range bonuses is that they only make sense when applied to longarms. They allow people to routinely make long range shots with rifles at the range (good and realistic!), but they also allow people to routinely make ludicrously long range shots with bows and crossbows at the range (bad and unrealistic!). You could try to argue that the psychological stress of shooting at a human with a bow is fundamentally different than shooting at a human with a rifle, but I'm not seeing it. An alternative way to the same solution is to dramatically increase ACC values on rifles, but make it much harder to take advantage of those values.
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Old 01-30-2017, 11:31 AM   #24
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

Or, you know, just use On Target.
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Old 01-30-2017, 04:51 PM   #25
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

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Even if one is callous, I suspect that there would still be psychological pressure because there is always the risk of some sort of repercussion.
I believe the lack of psychological pressure trait is Unfazable [15], though Callous [-5] might be needed for the complete lack of empathy?
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Old 01-30-2017, 04:55 PM   #26
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

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I believe the lack of psychological pressure trait is Unfazable [15], though Callous [-5] might be needed for the complete lack of empathy?
Unfazable still doesn't give you +3 to hit; the reasons acrosome states above are still relevant; if I am shooting at targets, I know that I won't be shot back at, or face legal or diplomatic repercussions, or actually be shooting at friendlies, or kill someone's mom; if I am shooting at people I don't know these things with any great certainty. Unfazable shouldn't change that.
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Old 01-30-2017, 05:00 PM   #27
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

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But unlike for shooting humans, it could be right?
If they're harmless, unresisting, taking not the slightest evasive action and are nowhere near people.
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Old 01-30-2017, 05:12 PM   #28
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

You can probably allow the psychological bonuses at appropriate penalties:
  • No risk to self: gain +1 for believing there is no personal risk. You suffer Total Surprise (B393) if attacked.
  • No risk to others: gain +1 for believing that there are no potential friendlies in your field of fire. The GM will not inform you otherwise until after the attack has been made. If you wish to first make a perception roll, the GM makes it for you and does not inform you of the result.
  • No political or military stake in the outcome: I would change this to 'no personal, political, or military stake'. You may claim this bonus if you believe you are shooting at something that has no value, or that you have the legal right to dispose of as you wish. People don't shoot at things of value without a reason to do so.
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Old 01-30-2017, 05:14 PM   #29
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

Combat Reflexes is also not a good reason to get +1 to hit...
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Old 01-30-2017, 05:17 PM   #30
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Default Re: [TS] Lack of psychological pressure and shots at people

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Combat Reflexes is also not a good reason to get +1 to hit...
I would say that combat reflexes not only doesn't give you a +1 bonus, it means you can't get the +1 bonus unless in some way you turn it off.
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