Demanda y oferta

There are two forms of attacks; ranged and melee. Ranged combat is any form of attack that is performed where the attacker never touches the defender directly; guns, thrown weapons, grenades, etc. Melee combat

represents all forms of close quarter combat from hand- to-hand to sword fights.

The basics of ranged combat are simple: attack a target at a distance so as to minimize the effectiveness of his counterattack. Basically stay out of the reach of his attack. The basic flow for ranged combat is as follows:

I. Determine the Starting Difficulty based on the characters skill level with the range weapon and the range from the attacker to the target II. Is the target capable of dodging the attack (i.e.,

is the attack originating from within their Combat Mode)

III. If the dodge was successful, raise the difficulty by 2 Steps

IV. If they were not able to dodge or the dodge failed, proceed to the next step

V. Determine if there are any intervening items (Cover and Concealment)

VI. Determine if there are any difficulty modifiers due to weapon fire mode

VII. Apply any other modifiers

VIII. If the Skill Check is greater than or equal to the final difficulty, then the attack was successful Line of Sight (LOS)

For all actions, except In-Direct Fire, Line-Of-Sight is needed from the attacker to the target. This means that the attacker must see some portion of the target in order to attack it. Line of sight (LOS) is determined by drawing an imaginary line from the center of the attackers Square, to the center of the targets Square.

Any Square that the LOS passes through or travels along the edge of may or may not intervene. Any objects within an intervening Square may provide cover for the target whether it wants to or not, in the case of another character. Once an item is determined to be intervening in the Line of Sight, use the rules for Cover to determine if the Attacker still has a valid LOS.

• A = Attacker

• B, C, D, E & F = Targets

o Attacker A has a valid LOS to Target D, and Target E.

o Attacker A has a valid LOS to Target C, because the wall only provides a 50% cover penalty to any attack from A to C

o Attacker A has no valid LOS to Target B since it behind the wall.

o Attacker A has no valid LOS to Target F, since the target is in the Rear of Attacker A.

Cover

"Cover" acts to block ranged attacks. When a target is covered by some means, be it a wall, a door or other characters, they become increasingly harder to hit. To determine the appropriate penalties to attack a covered target, you must first determine how much of the target is covered.

Available cover modes with examples

• 1 (25%) Quarter Cover - An arm or leg covered • 1 (50%) Half Cover - both legs are behind cover • Three Quarters (75%) Cover - peeking out from behind

a wall to attack where one whole side of the body is covered (only an arm and the head visible, etc.)

Cover Penalty Chart

Cover Penalty

25% Cover -1 Step

50% Cover -2 Step

75% Cover -3 Step

100% Cover Not a valid Target

To calculate the total penalty from multiple objects that interfere with the LOS, then simply add together their individual cover percentage. The final percent will indicate the total penalty.

Example

• Chair = 25% • Desk = 50%

• Total penalty = 75% or -3 Step Penalty

One interesting thing to note here is the use of intervening Squares. Any character may provide cover for a target whether they wish to or not. Anyone in the direct Line Of Sight (LOS) of the target is considered to provide 100% cover for the target. Unfortunately when you are targeting an opponent with other characters intervening, you will be shooting through them with the hope of hitting the target and not them. Any character standing, sitting or crawling in those Squares are to be considered intervening for the target Square. Any character within direct LOS will provide 1/2 cover each, two or more such intervening characters will provide 100% cover.

When attacking someone behind cover, if the attack roll is successful, then the target is hit with the attack. If the roll fails, then one of two things happens, either the attack was off target completely or it hit the items providing cover for the target. If the cover was another character, any intervening characters can opt to dodge, however, they need to declare their intent before the attack roll and have the appropriate combat mode in order to dodge this attack.

To determine whether the items providing cover were hit, subtract the cover penalty from the difficulty. If the attack roll is greater than this new difficulty number, then the attack hit the cover. This can be bad news for any character “accidentally” providing cover for the target. Do not roll a new attack; use the attack roll for the target. If more than one object is providing cover then begin with the item/person providing the largest cover penalty. Recalculate using the modifiers appropriate for this target. If the attack fails proceed to the next target until all possible targets in the direct LOS are eliminated.

Example

Using the Line of Sight Example

• A = Attacker

• B, C, D, E & F = Targets

o Attacker A has an uninterrupted LOS to

Target D.

o Target E receives 50% cover (-2 Step

Penalty) bonus from Target D when being attacked by Attacker A.

o Target C receives 50% cover (-2 Step

Penalty) from the wall.

o Target B is not a valid target for Attacker A

since it has 100% cover from the wall.

o Target F is also not a valid target for

Attacker A, since F is in the Rear of Attacker A.

If only a small body part is exposed (let's say a hand which is holding gun shooting from behind a wall), treat this instead as an aimed shot and not a shot which involves cover or concealment.

Concealment

Concealment works much the same way as cover does, as cover interferes with Line-of-sight to a ranged target. The one difference to cover is that concealment is only a visual interference (it hinders the attackers ability to see the target), concealment does not hinder the ranged attack from hitting the target.

Concealment uses the same penalties as cover, however, a target can have 100% (maximum of a -4 Step Penalty) cover and still be a valid target for attack. Use the full hit location chart, or which ever chart is necessary due to the any of cover, if applicable.

Movement Modifiers

Thanks to "Kentucky Windage", unless a target is actively dodging, a targets movement is not a factor in this game. A target that is not dodging is not actively interfering with the attack itself. However, when the attacker is moving it will become more difficult to aim.

The only penalties that are applied to ranged combat are due to the Movement Mode of to the attacker.

• Walking: No modifier • Jogging: -1 Step Penalty • Running: -2 Step Penalty

• Sprinting: No Ranged attack possible Weapon Ranges

Unlike the use of most skills, Ranged Combat starting difficulties are based solely off of the distance from the attacker to the target. However, accuracy at varying

Weapon Ranges per Skill