Re-Discovered after 20+ years, have some rules questions

[fogrob]

Hello all. As I said in the title, I had first edition many years ago when I was in high school. I've recently thought about trying to run it and while doing some solo play testing, I've come across some rules questions. (I'm sure I'll have more which I'll just add here)

1.) I have 2 NPC's taking cover behind an unarmored cargo vehicle. They are being shot at by the PC's. I'm unsure how to work this. Does it count as an armor equivalent cover and I just work through the vehicle damage chart? Or, should I just make it easy and count it as target obscured and just halve their die roll?

2.) I have an NPC running from one cover area to the next in an attempt to flank the PC's. How do I handle that? My idea was to give the PC a choice...They can shoot at the target without cover, but with the obscured target penalty. If they choose not to take the penalty, they have to deal with the targets end move cover.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by fogrob

Hello all. As I said in the title, I had first edition many years ago when I was in high school. I've recently thought about trying to run it and while doing some solo play testing, I've come across some rules questions. (I'm sure I'll have more which I'll just add here)

1.) I have 2 NPC's taking cover behind an unarmored cargo vehicle. They are being shot at by the PC's. I'm unsure how to work this. Does it count as an armor equivalent cover and I just work through the vehicle damage chart? Or, should I just make it easy and count it as target obscured and just halve their die roll?

Easiest is better: count it as target obscured, halve the roll.

2.) I have an NPC running from one cover area to the next in an attempt to flank the PC's. How do I handle that? My idea was to give the PC a choice...They can shoot at the target without cover, but with the obscured target penalty. If they choose not to take the penalty, they have to deal with the targets end move cover.

That's the best way to handle it if I'm reading right.

[fogrob]

Great! Thanks for such a quick response.

[Adm.Lee]

2. You could also split the PCs' shots, 1/2 against cover and 1/2 against moving target.

[Legbreaker]

And don't forget the penalty for a fast moving target!

[fogrob]

I guess if they were running (30m/round) they would qualify for that AND still get the bonus for cover. That'd be a tough shot...They'd probably just want to get out the grenades.

Funny, for some reason, I remember this game as being far more difficult to figure out. After being more involved with story type indie rpg's, I expected to come back to some head scratching. I guess the time I spent playing ASL paid off!

[Legbreaker]

And who wouldn't be running (or crawling) from cover to cover when somebody is shooting at them?

Grenades, both thrown and launched, are ALWAYS crowd pleasers!
If it's HE, near enough is good enough!

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by fogrob

Funny, for some reason, I remember this game as being far more difficult to figure out. After being more involved with story type indie rpg's, I expected to come back to some head scratching. I guess the time I spent playing ASL paid off!

Ha, ha! I had the same thought after looking at the books after a long time away, too. After playing ~10 years of D&D 3rd edition, I looked at the less than 100 pages in both books and thought, "We used to think this was hard?"