Dodging bullets

[Edges]

Originally Posted by Icelander

If you manage to charge before the gunman has gotten his gun out and pointed at you, it's not implausible that you manage to slam him before he hits you.

Of course. But we were never talking about that. I think it was clear from the start that the target was charging after one second of aim. And according to your own calculations (minus the additional aim bonuses) it would be quite hard to hit.

Originally Posted by Icelander

True. But the PC has no way of knowing whether the gunman has skill 10, 12 or 20. He doesn't know if he needs those bonuses to hit with all bullets or not.

I don't think the PCs care what the guy's gun skill is. They rely on their huge dodge. After AoD and Feverish, they have 12 (average human), 14 (6 Sp+CR), or higher (exceptional). Some guys have Acrobatics to boot. According to your calculations, the shooter would have to be exceptional just to give the target a -2 to this roll.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Unless he's really sure that the gunman plans to murder him and not just talk to him, charging seems foolhardy to me.

I think that if someone aims a gun at you, it's safer to assume that they're willing to shoot. And if the odds are stacked in your favor, it's not foolhardy to charge.

But yes, as long as you're reasonably sure that the shooter isn't exceptional and/or you're willing to take a -2 to your fat dodge roll, why not have a chat before charging.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Unless he's an expert martial artist trained to deal with armed opponents (not all that common in the real world), his options aren't all that great. The skill 10-12 of Brawling and skill 8-10 in Judo that a realistic soldier probably has are not going to be coming off great against skill 12 in Guns.

The first time this came up in play, the PC had a Zap Glove from UT and a boxing skill. It went pretty well for the PC. But as it came up in different scenarios (both hypothetical and played), mêlée weapons and grappling were favored over no attack options at all. A grapple to the gun arm followed by a feverish dodge isn't flawless, but it's not too shabby. And a knife to the throat with all the fixins will do the job as well.

But this is beside the point. The point is, why is it so easy to dodge a bunch of gunshots?

Originally Posted by Icelander

If the Man with Ice-Water in his Veins is has unarmed fighting skills in the high teens in addition to his enormous brass cojones, maybe he deserves a good chance. He is, after all, one of the few people in the world who have both the guts and the skills to act like a real life action hero.

Play testing showed that unarmed fighting skills in the high teens were not necessary. No PC in the game had them and this trick was pulled off more than once. The PC didn't even really need to be that brave. They just needed to be smart enough to realize what the players know, that the odds were well in their favor.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Given equal starting points, I'd put my money on the shooter, no question. Only if the gunman is a relatively normal person facing a man without fear and with some extraordinarily rare skills does it even begin to approach equality.

In real life, I'd also put my money on the shooter, no question. But in a fantasy game that gives the average cab driver a 74.1% chance of dodging a bullet that was aimed from just a few yards away, the gunman's got his work cut out for him. Considering the numbers, it's the gunman who needs the extraordinarily rare skills to compare with a relatively normal PC.