Alternate Rapid Fire rules

Jovus · 11-29-2008, 12:23 PM

I was dissatisfied with the Rapid Fire rules given in the Basic Set, because, as has been discussed, they terribly marginalize high-RoF weapons. Here is my homebrew variant:

The magic number is 5. Keep that in mind.

Multiply the weapon's Recoil statistic by five. This number is the amount the shooter must make his roll by in order to hit with "all" of the bullets. Conversely, each +1 in the range of success needed to hit with "all" indicates a certain number of bullets. However, many RoFs are not multiples of Recoil*5. In cases like this, round up to the nearest RoF that is a multiple of Recoil*5, and treat the weapon as though it has that A pair of examples:

GI Joe is firing his M4A1. It has an RoF of 15, and a Recoil of 2. Since the Recoil is 2, he needs a success by +10 to hit with "all" of the bullets. For purposes of this rule, the RoF is considered 20, meaning that for each point he makes his skill roll by, 2 bullets hit the target, until he runs out of bullets. His Guns(Rifle) skill is an effective level 13, and he rolls a 7, making it by +6. Twelve bullets hit.

Bruno is firing a Minigun with RoF 66 and a Recoil of 2. Since the recoil is 2, he needs a success by +10 to hit with "all" of the bullets. For purposes of this rule, RoF is considered 70, meaning that for each point he makes his skill roll by, 7 bullets the target, until he runs out of bullets. His Gunner(Machine Gun) skill is an effective level 20, and he rolls an 11, making it by +9. Sixty-three bullets hit.

Finally, using this rule with more sane RoFs behaves exactly as in the Basic Set, as shown below.

Sam Spade is firing his .38 Special with RoF 3 and a recoil of 1. Since the recoil is 1, he needs success by +5 to hit with "all" of the bullets. For purposes of this rule, RoF is considered 5, meaning that for each point he makes his skill role by, 1 bullet hits. His Guns(Pistol) skill is effective level 12, and he rolls a 9, making it by +3. Three bullets hit. Had he made it by +4, still only three bullets would have hit, because he only fired three.

Generally, with an RoF less than 5, you don't need to worry about doing it this alternate way.

A few things of note: going from +9 to +10 results in fewer extra hits than any other interval. This is from rounding the RoF up as shown above. If you wanted, you could do precise calculation with the exact RoF, but I found that too cumbersome during play (unless you can do decimal multiplication in your head as quickly as you can speak). You might also choose to round off the RoF instead of rounding up, requiring a success by another +1 to hit with the extras, but that's a little more calculation as well.

Why'd I choose 5 as the magic number? Gut feeling. Feel free to change it however you please, but I wouldn't go lower than 4, or higher than 6. Furthermore, multiplication by 5 is easy. Finally, it scales nicely with the old idea of a critical hit giving you a hit with all of the bullets, in cases where Recoil is 2 (the majority of high-RoF weaponry).

11-29-2008, 12:23 PM	#1
Jovus Join Date: Sep 2008	Alternate Rapid Fire rules I was dissatisfied with the Rapid Fire rules given in the Basic Set, because, as has been discussed, they terribly marginalize high-RoF weapons. Here is my homebrew variant: The magic number is 5. Keep that in mind. Multiply the weapon's Recoil statistic by five. This number is the amount the shooter must make his roll by in order to hit with "all" of the bullets. Conversely, each +1 in the range of success needed to hit with "all" indicates a certain number of bullets. However, many RoFs are not multiples of Recoil5. In cases like this, round up to the nearest RoF that is a multiple of Recoil5, and treat the weapon as though it has that A pair of examples: GI Joe is firing his M4A1. It has an RoF of 15, and a Recoil of 2. Since the Recoil is 2, he needs a success by +10 to hit with "all" of the bullets. For purposes of this rule, the RoF is considered 20, meaning that for each point he makes his skill roll by, 2 bullets hit the target, until he runs out of bullets. His Guns(Rifle) skill is an effective level 13, and he rolls a 7, making it by +6. Twelve bullets hit. Bruno is firing a Minigun with RoF 66 and a Recoil of 2. Since the recoil is 2, he needs a success by +10 to hit with "all" of the bullets. For purposes of this rule, RoF is considered 70, meaning that for each point he makes his skill roll by, 7 bullets the target, until he runs out of bullets. His Gunner(Machine Gun) skill is an effective level 20, and he rolls an 11, making it by +9. Sixty-three bullets hit. Finally, using this rule with more sane RoFs behaves exactly as in the Basic Set, as shown below. Sam Spade is firing his .38 Special with RoF 3 and a recoil of 1. Since the recoil is 1, he needs success by +5 to hit with "all" of the bullets. For purposes of this rule, RoF is considered 5, meaning that for each point he makes his skill role by, 1 bullet hits. His Guns(Pistol) skill is effective level 12, and he rolls a 9, making it by +3. Three bullets hit. Had he made it by +4, still only three bullets would have hit, because he only fired three. Generally, with an RoF less than 5, you don't need to worry about doing it this alternate way. A few things of note: going from +9 to +10 results in fewer extra hits than any other interval. This is from rounding the RoF up as shown above. If you wanted, you could do precise calculation with the exact RoF, but I found that too cumbersome during play (unless you can do decimal multiplication in your head as quickly as you can speak). You might also choose to round off the RoF instead of rounding up, requiring a success by another +1 to hit with the extras, but that's a little more calculation as well. Why'd I choose 5 as the magic number? Gut feeling. Feel free to change it however you please, but I wouldn't go lower than 4, or higher than 6. Furthermore, multiplication by 5 is easy. Finally, it scales nicely with the old idea of a critical hit giving you a hit with all of the bullets, in cases where Recoil is 2 (the majority of high-RoF weaponry).