Dodging bullets

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Edges

A basic "action" scenario is a guy pointing a gun at someone and having a talk. A couple of players at our table have decided that based on the rules, if someone has a gun trained on you and is only a few yards away, the best thing to do is charge them. It sounds strange but using AoD (Dodge) and Feverish Defense, they can usually get to the shooter and attack without getting hit (high RoF not withstanding).

If they AoA (Dodge) and Feverish Defend, sure, they'll get to the gunman and if they are heroic adventurers with Dodge 10, they even have a good chance of not getting hit. Well, 'good' chance being relative. A gunman with a 9mm pistol and skill 12 would be firing at Skill (12-3(Range)+2(Acc)+2(extra Aiming)+1(braced)=14 and would therefore hit with all three bullets on an average roll. Dodge 10+2+2 means that the chance of avoiding all bullets is 73% for the first second. That's a one in four chance of taking a bullet, which is far higher than most normal people are willing to risk. And the gunman gets two such turns before they reach him.

Assume that our heroes have ice-water in their veins. But once they've reached him, they have no Attack actions available since they AoD (Dodged).

The gunman can step back and fire full RoF again. And do this until they disable or disarm him. And if you allow, as I do, for guns in melee range to use melee options (such as AoA (Determined) for +4 or Telegraphic Attacks), he can risk everything on a high effective skill AoA and have a good chance of ending things right then and there.

Remember also that Feverish Defence is a cinematic option and allowing it will lead to cinematic actions being more likely to succeed in your games.

If it was me holding the heroes at gunpoint, of course, I'd have the trigger for my Wait be 'if they draw a weapon or get within 5 yards'. That gives a relative +1 to hit, for 5 yds of range instead of 6. But that's a minor point.