Bullet flight time conventions

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

I am building scenarios where PCs will be shot at from beyond 1/2D or TS's 600 yard range and notice the thermal bloom in their hyperspectral goggles and must decide on racing that round to the nearest cover or grabbing the bad guy as a human shield... So what would you do about that?

If they can percieve a threat they may use an Active Defense agisnt it but other actions require that they get their full Turn. That's more like 2 seconds flight time than 1. Still if they have their full Turn before the projectile reaches them they can take any legal Action in that Turn.

If they do move to another hex I'd probably just declare an auto-miss. Very long range sniping requires the target to be unaware of the coming attack.

However, do check the Vision mods for noticing the firing. When the Mythbusters messed about with "dodging" bullets they found no realitic way the target could spot the firing at any distance (i.e.hundreds of yards) where he'd have time enough to act. 1000 yards is -16 to Vision rolls as well as Guns Rolls. Even if you give the firing the -10 for "in plain sight" s a suppressor (or maybe just a"dry" one there's text about "wet" suppressors reducing IR flash too) doesn't hide the flash from the target
there's still another -6 to make up.

I have done some rifle combat in a Cliffhangers game but that resolved itself as "Aim" and "Fire" on alternating Turns at about 100 yards. Nobody would have hit anything at 1000 yards even if they had spotted anyone that far away.

If I did want to make PCs wary about long range sniper fire I'd proceed dirsectly to "the "crack!" sound and a bullet hitting a rock a few yards away. Force a PC to spot a firing rifle a long way away and you could end up killing him for failing a Per Roll.