Firearms combat?

[Daeglan]

Can some people walk me through some examples?

How does cover work?

What happens if you miss a called shot but still make the number for a generic hit?

Any tips for helping speed up gun combat?

[PK]

Originally Posted by Daeglan

How does cover work?

In general, it limits your targets. For example, if a subject is hiding behind cover with only his head and one hand sticking out, you have to attack either the face (-5) or hand (-4). Or you can just attack at no penalty and roll random hit location -- but unless you happen to roll face or that hand, you hit the cover.

There's a little more to it than that, but if you just understand and remember the above, you'll do fine. Tactical Shooting has far more details on using cover, but that may be overwhelming for you at first.

What happens if you miss a called shot but still make the number for a generic hit?

By "called shot" do you mean you're aiming for a particular hit location? If that happens, you miss. Guess you should've gone for a torso hit.

Note that a few hit locations in Martial Arts have a note like "missing by 1 hits the torso," which changes this slightly, but the principle remains the same -- if you miss by 1, you hit the torso, if you miss by 2+, you just miss.

Any tips for helping speed up gun combat?

Feel free to estimate penalties and bonuses. I know what an American football field looks like in person, so I know how far 10 yards (-4) is and about how far 100 yards is (-10). I use those as my benchmarks when visualizing distances. "He's already half a block away running, so that's . . . let's say -7 to hit." The target is running behind a metal-bar fence? Let's say that's an extra -2 to hit to represent the need to avoid hitting a bar. Maybe those numbers match the RAW ones exactly, or maybe they don't, but in the middle of a fight, I'm not going to flip through pages.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Daeglan

Can some people walk me through some examples?

How does cover work?

What happens if you miss a called shot but still make the number for a generic hit?

Any tips for helping speed up gun combat?

Seek out the mook you must. Examples he will provide.

[jacobmuller]

I believe Vicky is directing you here
The examples, links at left of screen, are really good

[Dustin]

As a player, I find it useful to make a table with the ranges from the Speed/Range table, and my adjusted chance to hit before Aiming (no Acc bonus) and after Aiming (inc Acc bonus). For a skill-16 character with an Acc 2 weapon, this would look like:

2yds 16 18
3yds 15 17
5yds 14 16
etc.

For a GM, with sufficient prep time, you could extend the table for multiple NPCs, something like

range Alice(SMG) Bob(Pistol) Charlene(Rifle)
2yds 16/19 18/20 15/21
3yds 15/18 17/19 14/20
5yds 14/17 16/18 13/19
etc.

[mook]

If you mouse over the Example Number in the left navigation bar, the pop up will tell you what the example covers ... the three that have firearms at the moment are:

Ranged Two: Sniper Rifle, .338/Normal Clothing VS. Unarmed/Tactical Vest w/ Trauma Plates
Ranged Three: Revolver, .44M/Ballistic Vest VS. PDW, 4.6mm/Normal Clothing
Ranged Four: Sniper Rifle, .338 (APHC)/Normal Clothing VS. Unarmed/Tactical Vest w/ Trauma Plates

Hope they help a bit!

[vierasmarius]

I've got a question about your Sniper example. You state that the Acc bonus for the scope only applies after equal seconds of Aim. I thought that a scope provided +1 per second of Aim, up to its rating. So if you have Acc 6+3, you get (1s) +6 for Acc, +1 for scope, (2s) +1 for Aim, +1 for scope, (3s) +1 for Aim, +1 for scope (the maximum). Am I wrong on that? Am I remembering a house rule instead of the RAW?

[Sable Wyvern]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I've got a question about your Sniper example. You state that the Acc bonus for the scope only applies after equal seconds of Aim. I thought that a scope provided +1 per second of Aim, up to its rating. So if you have Acc 6+3, you get (1s) +6 for Acc, +1 for scope, (2s) +1 for Aim, +1 for scope, (3s) +1 for Aim, +1 for scope (the maximum). Am I wrong on that? Am I remembering a house rule instead of the RAW?

Variable power scopes offer +1 per round of aim, up to the maximum.

Fixed power scopes offer their full bonus after an equal number of aiming rounds, but no bonus for anything less.

[mook]

We discussed scopes a bit when I was writing up that example, the consensus seemed to be that they work the way it's currently written.

[willfreedo]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

By "called shot" do you mean you're aiming for a particular hit location? If that happens, you miss. Guess you should've gone for a torso hit.

Note that a few hit locations in Martial Arts have a note like "missing by 1 hits the torso," which changes this slightly, but the principle remains the same -- if you miss by 1, you hit the torso, if you miss by 2+, you just miss.

It's also mentioned in the basic book's hit location table: miss the groin, vitals, or any part above the torso by 1, and torso is hit instead. Nice rule imo; weird thing is, I only found this info on that one small table in 552, not in the longer explanation (?)

One day I tried to figure out a houserule to condense the different options for called shots (or lack thereof) into a normal roll, having the called body part occupy the highest chunks of that big ol' fat bell curve (e.g. 10-11) and the rest of hit locations shift appropriately. Needless to say I stopped trying pretty fast :'<