"Mark Power" [email removed] writes:
>
> I've been working on my combat system, and I need to make a decision about
> automatic weapons. There are several ways to handle auto fire weapons.
>
> 1) Increase the chance to hit.
> This is how Azhanti High Lightning and Striker handled them. Since
> these form the basis of ranged combat in my system, I'd been planning
> to use this.
Striker does two things. You get a bonus on the to-hit roll, and for every
2 by which the roll exceeds the required number, you get an extra hit. For
example, to hit with an ACR at effective range requires a roll of 8+. If you
fire on full automatic, you get a +2. I roll the dice and get a 9; with the
bonus, that's 11. This is 3 above the required number of 8, so I score two
hits.
> 3) Allow multiple hits on the target, rolling seperately for each one.
As I say, Striker allows multiple hits without separate rolls. What I would
then do is roll again for any shots that missed, to see if they hit the next
nearest character in the field of fire. In the above example, the ACR fires
a burst of 4 rounds, of which 2 have been accounted for; the other 2 roll
again if there's anyone standing near the main target. This is effectively
a burst of 2 rounds, not 4, so I'd give it a +1 DM instead of the +2. Striker
has a table listing the bonus for a given number of rounds in a burst; it's
normally used to find the auto-fire bonus for a user-designed auto-cannon,
but can equally well be used here.
Striker also allows you to specify a group as a target, rather than a single
individual. In this case, you roll once to hit the group; any hits are
divided as evenly as possible between the members of the group. I don't
recall any bonus for aiming for a cluster of people rather than a single
person, unless you allow the one for target size - in which case a large,
spread out group makes an easier target than the same number of people in
a tight cluster.
> This is perhaps the most accurate way, but you pay a cost in playing
> time. It can also unbalance the game -- if you allow a player to roll
> 10 seperate attacks for a burst from a gauss rifle, the target is
> almost always going to be chopped into hamburger.
That's the whole point of using a gauss rifle! >:-)
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Adrian Hurt | JANET: [email removed]
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