I still want better rules for shotguns

kdtipa · 03-25-2016, 11:36 AM

In 2013, I started this thread...
Shotguns and RoF... is there a better way?

It's a long thread which might shed some light on Shotgun rules for you if you want, but in case it's too long, I'll just summarize it with a couple important points.

I don't like the mechanic for handling close range shotgun shots
I was told many times that it doesn't matter which shot the pellets come from when figuring out how many pellets hit with the rcl number. I tried to argue that if you want to hit separate targets, it would be important, but that brought up a whole bunch of other rules and penalties, and didn't really answer my question.

I still think it's important to know which shot is providing the pellets, and I finally thought of a scenario where it would matter. Let's use the Auto Shotgun on page 279 of the basic set...

RoF: 3x9 (or just 3 for slugs right?)
Shots: 6+1
Rcl: 1 (or 4 for slugs right?)

Let's say my player decides to get creative and puts a buck-shot round in first, and follows it by 2 slugs. The character he's playing fires three shots at a single target. If it doesn't matter which of the shots hit when figuring out how many shots hit based on margin of success and rcl number, the player could just say the two slugs hit, plus however many pellets the margin of success allows. But that makes no sense to me. I might need to work to explain why a character would want a buck shot round followed by two slugs, but it's possible, and depending on setting, there might be plenty of good reasons (first one is silver to negate a werewolf's regen, and then the next two are slugs to just do a ton of damage).

My next problem with the way shotguns are handled is this: If we don't allow the user to pick the order to apply their margin of success, we end up with needing a margin of success of at least 8 (so ALL the buckshot hits) before we can consider a possible hit with the next slug. There's no way to have some but not all of the buck shot hit and still have the following slugs hit. And an effective -8 before the slugs might hit seems way too punitive.

I guess I'm saying again that I don't like the shotgun rules.

To keep from just being negative, I'll suggest something along the lines I'm thinking of in a new post on this thread. In the meantime, I'm hoping to hear thoughts on this, even in support of RAW if you have logical arguments.

03-25-2016, 11:36 AM	#1
kdtipa Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Southern New Hampshire	I still want better rules for shotguns In 2013, I started this thread... Shotguns and RoF... is there a better way? It's a long thread which might shed some light on Shotgun rules for you if you want, but in case it's too long, I'll just summarize it with a couple important points. I don't like the mechanic for handling close range shotgun shots I was told many times that it doesn't matter which shot the pellets come from when figuring out how many pellets hit with the rcl number. I tried to argue that if you want to hit separate targets, it would be important, but that brought up a whole bunch of other rules and penalties, and didn't really answer my question. I still think it's important to know which shot is providing the pellets, and I finally thought of a scenario where it would matter. Let's use the Auto Shotgun on page 279 of the basic set... RoF: 3x9 (or just 3 for slugs right?) Shots: 6+1 Rcl: 1 (or 4 for slugs right?) Let's say my player decides to get creative and puts a buck-shot round in first, and follows it by 2 slugs. The character he's playing fires three shots at a single target. If it doesn't matter which of the shots hit when figuring out how many shots hit based on margin of success and rcl number, the player could just say the two slugs hit, plus however many pellets the margin of success allows. But that makes no sense to me. I might need to work to explain why a character would want a buck shot round followed by two slugs, but it's possible, and depending on setting, there might be plenty of good reasons (first one is silver to negate a werewolf's regen, and then the next two are slugs to just do a ton of damage). My next problem with the way shotguns are handled is this: If we don't allow the user to pick the order to apply their margin of success, we end up with needing a margin of success of at least 8 (so ALL the buckshot hits) before we can consider a possible hit with the next slug. There's no way to have some but not all of the buck shot hit and still have the following slugs hit. And an effective -8 before the slugs might hit seems way too punitive. I guess I'm saying again that I don't like the shotgun rules. To keep from just being negative, I'll suggest something along the lines I'm thinking of in a new post on this thread. In the meantime, I'm hoping to hear thoughts on this, even in support of RAW if you have logical arguments.