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Old 11-13-2020, 12:54 PM
swaghauler swaghauler is offline
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Default On managing fire over the course of a round

Quote:
Originally Posted by WTFisGoingOnInHere View Post
The core rules seemed to say that Recoil for all shots should be summed and assigned to every bullet after the first...

Seeing as the spreadsheet makes short work of the math involved, I interpreted it more as each consecutive bullet fired suffered from more recoil.

So you end up with a rapidly reducing target number as the PC fires more shots.

The auto-fire rules gave me headaches figuring out stacked, range and recoil modifiers. So you can get to the point of trying to roll 1's on a single die pretty quick.
The stacking of shots drove me crazy for years, then I came to the conclusion that I should breakdown the round. First I used TW2K13's TIC System modified to V2.2 but I eventually went simpler. My system is actually posted in Admiral Lee's thread "THOUGHTS ON INITIATIVE." I will explain the basics here.

I have every PC & NPC roll 1D6 and add their INITIATIVE Score to it. I then divide by 2 rounding up. So a PC with INIT of 4 who rolls a 6 would have a 5 for their current initiative. If they rolled a 1, their initiative score would be a 3. I then match these scores to the 6 INITIATIVE STEPS presented in the RAW V2.2 game. In my system, EACH STEP IS EQUAL TO ONE SECOND OF TIME. I then allow activity equal to the rolled/calculated Initiative treating each STEP as a sort of "mini-round." Since each phase is 1 second, you can easily determine how many phases something takes you. Some sample times include...

Draw From Holster = 1 Second/Phase
Draw From Concealment = 2 Seconds/Phases
Reloading = 3 Seconds/Phases
Malfunction Reduction/Clearance = 3 Seconds/Phases
Punch = 1 Second/Phase
Kick/Grapple = 2 Seconds/Phases
Block/Parry = 1 Second/Phase
Pump/Lever a Shotgun/Rifle Action = 1 Second/Phases
Operate a Fast Bolt (Lee Enfield or Schmidt Ruben) = 2 Seconds/Phases
Operate a Slow Bolt (Mauser) = 3 Seconds/Phases
Arise From Prone = 2 Seconds/Phases
Arise From Kneeling = 1 Second/Phase
Low Crawl/Quiet Climb = 1m per Second/Phase
High Crawl/Walk = 2m per Second/Phase
Trot = 4m per Second/Phase
Run = 6m per Second/Phase
Snap Shot SHORT RANGE = 1 Second/Phase
Snap Shot MEDIUM RANGE = 2 Seconds/Phases
Snap Shot LONG RANGE = 3 Seconds/Phases
Snap Shot EXTREME RANGE = 4 Seconds/Phases
Snap Shot MAXIMUM RANGE = Not Allowed
Aimed Shot... 2X Snap Shot & 10 Second/Phases for Max Range

The reason for using the 6 Phases as "mini-rounds" is to break down the number of shot/bursts so they occur across the whole 6-Second Combat Round instead of all at once. This mitigates the power of Initiative 6 (or 7) PCs by spreading out their Actions in between the other players and NPCs. It also prevents the GM from suffering a nervous breakdown trying to manage all the PCs and several NPCs at once.

Controlling the Action:

To control the various Actions, I give my players a number of chips (poker chips in fact) equal to their Initiative score. They then surrender these chips as they perform their Actions. The system becomes intuitive pretty quickly.

Rates of Fire:

A typical shooter can normally achieve 1-second splits (the time between shots) on either an autoloading pistol or a double-action revolver. The issue is their skill managing the sights and the recoil. An experienced shooter can muster half-second splits. A true master can fire eight to ten rounds in a second. This assumes a STATIONARY TARGET AND SHOOTER firing at a known distance. Once you get into the real world, things slow down considerably due to variables like movement and range estimation. Thus, I now allow ONE SHOT (and 1 only shot) or ONE BURST per 1-second Initiative Step or Ranged Attack (longer ranges take more time). A player giving covering fire CAN fire a burst every Initiative Step until they run out of ammo.

Autofire & Buckshot:

Since a person fires only one burst or load of buckshot in a single Phase now, you can reduce both the number of dice and the size of the penalties for RECOIL. I give every automatic weapon a ROF equal to their CYCLIC RATE OF FIRE/100. Thus, an AK with a rate of 600 rounds per minute will have a ROF of 6. An M16A1 with a Cyclic Rate of 800 rpm will have a ROF of 8. This represents about 6/10th of a second of fire. The rest of the time needed to fire at the longer ranges can be accounted for with "target acquisition time." I do allow a person to "RAPID FIRE" 2 shots/bursts per second IF they accept a one level difficulty shift.

Recoil In The System:

Since each round is now broken into SIX "Mini-Rounds," Recoil is now figured for shots in a given 1-SECOND PHASE. You will find this system now makes Recoil work ok.

Single Shots = ALL single shots fired in a given Phase are added together and deducted from the shooter's STR. Any total OVER STR becomes a penalty to the 1D20 roll. Penalties are always ADDED to a roll (Bonuses are SUBTRACTED from a 1D20 roll). It is always easier to add 3 or 4 to a roll total than it is to recalculate the Chance of Success.

AutoFire = All excess RECOIL above STR is FIRST subtracted from the number of rounds in the burst. Once you hit 1 Die being rolled, any remaining excess RECOIL is added to the 1D20 roll. This is how I handle RECOIL in my modded Twilight2000.


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