Guns: Hand/eye cross-dominance. Problems, solutions, traits?

[Calvin]

HUZZAH! Something I know something about!

I actually have this problem, and a pretty good amount of experience with guns for a civilian. Almost entirely rifles, but this has held true for pistols. At an out door range I can hit a target the size of a playing card and get a 2 inch grouping rather reliably. My left eye is dominant, and I am right handed.

GURPS does have a penalty for using the offhand, but not the non-dominant eye. So, -4 vs 0, but at least anecdotally this seems off. At first I solved this mismatch by simply shooting left handed, and hitting the target became much easier.

By now however it has turned to my advantage, I've learned how to deal with both the off-hand and off-eye penalties and I've now probably got Ambidexterity (Guns Only)-40% for 3 points.

It's kind of hard to stat out the disadvantage and assign a points cost to it. The way I'd do it (And how it felt to deal with it in real life) would be give them a disad that changes the main and off hand weapon penalties for ranged weapons only. -2 for the offhand -3 for the main hand (I'd only go up to -3 on the main because for me switching to my off-hand made things WAY easier). From there the player buys off each of the penalties as a technique.

Only difficulty is the point costs, what does the disadvantage cost, and what about the fact that once you've bought the technique you've basically got Ambidexterity (Ranged Only)-40% for [0] instead of [3]

[Phantasm]

Being cross-dominant myself, I would treat it as a Physical Quirk. It's not Incompetence, but it is a penalty to shooting when trying to aim with your non-dominant eye. It also makes aiming a thrown baseball (and any thrown weapon, for that matter) a pain.

I'd treat it as a -1 penalty to ranged skills if you don't use Off-Hand Training or properly-adjusted sights. I shoot my guns left-handed naturally, which raised some eyebrows in boot camp when I asked for a left-handed gun. Shooting right-handed just doesn't feel "natural" to me. Rifles are easier to shoot left-handed than pistols, as those require two hands to steady; pistols are shaky, but I've learned to adjust the sights to compensate when firing right-handed.

As for how I got to be cross-dominant.... my mom was right-handed/right-eye dominant, and my dad is naturally left-handed/left-eye dominant. Genes got crossed for me and my older sister, and we both ended up right-handed/left-eye dominant; my younger sister shoots right-handed with ease, but she takes after mom in a lot of respects.

[vicky_molokh]

So . . . let's try to recap, as far as game mechanics go.

There have been at least two offers to give a -1 to Acc or Skill when shooting with a non-dominant eye.
There seems to be at least some agreement of cross-dominance being a Quirk, which forces the abovementioned -1 to apply to all ranged attack skills where OHWT isn't involved. There's been some mention of a custom scope, but I have a hard time imagining how does one shoot with the right hand on the trigger and the left eye to the scope; as far as I understand, that would ruin cheek weld and other stuff.

All this does raise the interesting point that the abovementioned -1 should apply to right-hand right-eye people even if they have OHWT when shooting left-handed. Unless OHWT is supposed to negate both the minuses for the wrong hand and the minuses for the wrong eye; in the latter case, a cross-dominant character should reasonably benefit from OHWT negating both the left-hand penalty and the right-eye penalty too (assuming right-handed for simplicity).

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

...
As for how I got to be cross-dominant.... my mom was right-handed/right-eye dominant, and my dad is naturally left-handed/left-eye dominant. Genes got crossed for me and my older sister, and we both ended up right-handed/left-eye dominant; my younger sister shoots right-handed with ease, but she takes after mom in a lot of respects.

I don't think dominance heredity works like that.

I'm extremely left handed, footed, and plain everything, except eyed.
Both my parents were extremely right everything.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

. There's been some mention of a custom scope, but I have a hard time imagining how does one shoot with the right hand on the trigger and the left eye to the scope; as far as I understand, that would ruin cheek weld and other stuff.
.

The scope needs to be in front of the dominant eye and even moreso needs to be (nearly) parallel with the rifle barrel.

Putting the shoulder-stock on the "wrong" shoulder so you can use the "good" eye is itself no big deal. Having to work the controls with the "wrong" hand or even the dominant hand on the "wrong" side is a minor nuisance.

The possible problems are ejection and the bolt on bolt-action rifles. Backwards ejection is sort of an OPH no mater the hand. Depending on length of stock and pull of the bolt-action with the rifle on the left shoulder you could end up working the bolt right in your face.

Cross-eye dominance is much more of a pistol issue.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I don't think dominance heredity works like that.

I'm extremely left handed, footed, and plain everything, except eyed.
Both my parents were extremely right everything.

By saying you are left-footed, do you mean that your left foot is your landing foot and your right foot is your pushing foot, or vice-versa? The footedness terms are not as clear as handedness terms, so I'm asking for a clarification. Reportedly, it is typical that the pushing foot is the opposite to the dominant hand.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I don't think dominance heredity works like that.

I'm extremely left handed, footed, and plain everything, except eyed.
Both my parents were extremely right everything.

That just means that you drew the luck of the draw and got the recessive genes that skipped your parents. My mom probably had the left-eye-dominant gene recessive, but my dad probably lacked the dominant right-eye-dominant gene completely. Luck of the draw that my older sister and I both ended up cross-dominant.

As it turns out, one of my nieces - my younger sister's kid - is also shaping up left-eye dominant.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

By saying you are left-footed, do you mean that your left foot is your landing foot and your right foot is your pushing foot, or vice-versa? The footedness terms are not as clear as handedness terms, so I'm asking for a clarification. Reportedly, it is typical that the pushing foot is the opposite to the dominant hand.

If something requires coordination, it must be done with my left foot.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

If something requires coordination, it must be done with my left foot.

But some actions require two legs and coordination. Such as a running long jump over an abyss with continued running afterwards (what GURPS calls a Running Broad Jump). Which is why I'm asking whether your left leg is the one used to push off, or the one used to land onto. Both require coordination to pull off without misstepping or the like.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

That just means that you drew the luck of the draw and got the recessive genes that skipped your parents. My mom probably had the left-eye-dominant gene recessive, but my dad probably lacked the dominant right-eye-dominant gene completely. Luck of the draw that my older sister and I both ended up cross-dominant.

As it turns out, one of my nieces - my younger sister's kid - is also shaping up left-eye dominant.

Handedness is not remotely a single gene trait. It's complicated, probably along the lines of sexual orientation. Eye dominance heredity is almost certainly fuzzier.