Shooting in Hallways

[Jeminai]

I'm assuming that maximum range on a missile weapon is including the idea that you are aiming high to take advantage of arcing your missile. (bows, slings etc)

If someone is shooting in a hallway (cavern etc) with a cieling that realistically only allows a small amount of aiming high, what should be done?

I was thinking of saying that 1/2 damage range is pretty much the extent of flat trajectory. I tend to play fanatsy games but I would like a solution that works for guns as well.

[vesper]

If your using a missile weapon in a hallway unless its a very very long highway you shouldn't need to arc your shot much. I have a friend who regularly use to practice indoors in a pretty low ceiling building at 75 yards or more. So unless your talking 200+ yards shouldn't be a problem.
Vesper

[hal]

The thing to remember is this:

Gravity will cause an object to fall 32.16 feet per second per second. For some bullets, the velocity is in excess of 400 feet per second (and slowing due to air resistance). A rifle bullet that is travelling at 2154 feet per second at a target that is about 200 yards away, the drop of the bullet will be less than 12" from point of aim. Few corridors will be even close to 30 yards in distance unless we're talking about a warehouse kind of thing ;)

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Jeminai

I was thinking of saying that 1/2 damage range is pretty much the extent of flat trajectory. I tend to play fanatsy games but I would like a solution that works for guns as well.

For guns, it's a non-issue, you don't arc bullets significantly and expect to hit anything anyway, though I suppose you could theoretically learn Artillery (Small Arms). It's clearly irrelevant for beams.

Generally speaking, if you are shooting in 1 gravity and it arrives at the target the same turn you fired it, I'd ignore it. Technically it'll fall 16 feet in the first second, so it's possible for something that could arrive this turn to hit the ceiling of a corridor, but for the most part it's only an issue for attacks using indirect fire, or for which you are *already* ignoring the physics of the situation by handwaving time of flight.

If you insist, well, if you can stand up in it, there's pretty much got to be 4 feet of clearance above the lowest reasonable firing point (and the vital locations of the target), which is the drop for 0.5 seconds, so you could use half the normal maximum range I suppose. No effect on 1/2D of course, unless half the maximum is less than that, in which case they're equal at 1/2 Max.

Edit - Oh, and you can't use a sling or a spearthrower *at all* in something you'd normally call a corridor, since the arc of the swing would hit a wall or ceiling.

[Ulzgoroth]

Note that some projectile weapons used at long but potentially effective range only hit the turn they're fired in order to simplify gameplay.

[Kale]

I'd say 1/2D range would be a good 'off the cuff' number to use.

[Jeminai]

The reason this came to mind was because I was at my school over the weekend and there is an inordinately long, straight, hallway in one wing of the school. It is just over 230 feet. (I used to be a surveyor so I paced it off, so I am within a few feet of the actual distance)

I started thinking about throwing a hatchet or rock down the hallway at a target near the maximum distance I could throw. I realized that I probably could not throw the rock or hatchet as far as I could outside due to the ceiling, so i figured for game purposes the 1/2 damage might become the max damage also, or you bury the hatchet in the ceiling tiles.

[Edges]

1/2D seems fine for DF.

After a very quick search (and no personal expertise in arrow speeds), it looks like average arrow speeds are around 70-80 m/s. If you've only got enough clearance for a 0.5s drop, that's around 37.5m range. That's 1/4 of 1/2D for someone of ST 10. Higher ST would give a faster arrow. So I'd figure 1/4 of 1/2D in a low hallway.

There are not too many hallways that are 40+ yards anyway. But it could be a fun moment if it ever did come up in play.

Note that this suggests that a realistic arrow would take about 2 seconds to go 1/2D (and only slightly more to go Max). In a realistic game, the GM could call for a hit roll/active defense on the turn following a bow shot for shots past say 1/2 of 1/2D range.

[cosmicfish]

Well, it takes any ballistic object 0.45 sec to drop 1 meter, 0.64 sec to drop 2 meters, and 0.78 sec to drop 3 meters. Given speeds of 80-140 m/s for anything from a thrown rock to an arrow or crossbow, you can multiply the speed by the distance to see how far you can go. A rock at 60mph (80m/s)can hit someone in the chest at 0.45*80=36m. A crossbow bolt scraping a 3m ceiling at 105mph (140m/s) can hit someone in the foot at 0.78*140=109m.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Note that some projectile weapons used at long but potentially effective range only hit the turn they're fired in order to simplify gameplay.

People annoyed by this sort of thing should keep their eyes peeled for GURPS TACTICAL SHOOTING; then you too can return fire with an x-ray laser on a distant muzzle flash and still duck for cover from the bullet without bribing the GM.