Aiming

[DougRed4]

Thanks to some input from these forums, we've come up with an alternate rule for 'Aiming'.

A character may aim, taking a penalty of up to -5 to their initiative in order to gain an inverse bonus (of up to +5) to their attack roll. When shooting from the hip, the opposite is true (so a bonus of up to +5 to initiative to gain an inverse penalty of up to -5 for the attack roll). This bonus or penalty lasts for one round.

We ran into a bit of an issue, however, during last session when one of the PCs wanted to use a feature on the blaster (rifle?) he was using, which gave a bonus if he spent an entire turn aiming.

I'm not sure how to reconcile the two. I suppose I could simply give the blaster bonus (specified on the weapon) when a character spends one whole round/turn aiming, and have it be something completely seperate from our above house rule.

Any ideas?
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Ral_Brelt]

What is the benefit that the weapon gives for aiming? Otherwise, I don't mind the idea of the +5 -5 setup...but have you tried it with quickdraw gunslinger stuff yet?

[shootingwomprats]

Well typically shooting "from the hip" sorta makes it impossible to use a scope. I mean DUH! Did that scope get anywhere near his face? If not, then politely tell him to stop being a munchkin and roll his damn dice. Seriously =)
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Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[garhkal]

[shootingwomprats]

At the very best I would think that shooting "from the hip" or a "snapshot" would be +5/+1D Perception and -5/-1D from the skill (blaster, melee, whatever). Also, this action does not allow the use of scopes or aiming bonuses.

SWR&E p.90 states, "A character may draw a weapon from a holster, but it counts as an action ..."

This means a "from the hip/snapshot" is now two actions in one: drawing a weapon and firing it as one action.

SWR&E p.81, "Preparing is often used for blasters by aiming at a target for an extra round." This gives a +1D modifier to the skill.

Unless you want to make a house rule, there is no way to get an aiming bonus without spending at least one round aiming to get that benefit.
_________________
Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[DougRed4]

I somehow missed this earlier (it didn't pop up in my "View posts since last visit" window, which has been happening to me recently). Fortunately, I just remembered about the question I'd asked and hunted it down.

That bit I'd posted about shooting from the hip is our house rule, and now that you mention it, it does make sense that he would have an either/or (he'd need to take a full round to get the benefit of whatever the item was; I'm assuming it was a scope of some kind), if he was shooting from the hip.

But our house rule doesn't just have you hip shooting (getting a bonus to your initiative at the expense of your shot). It also has a built-in aiming mechanism, where you go slower than usual (just the opposite of hip shooting) to get a bonus.

I realize this is contrary to the "take a full round to aim" as per the RAW. Many games do have an aiming mechanic, and I think ours is pretty fair. Instead of getting a 1D bonus (which averages out to a 3.5) our characters can pick any number between 1 and 5 (a little higher on average) - affecting their initiative - to have a corresponding bonus/penalty to their shot. I don't find that to be "munchkiny" at all, but rather think it's a very fair and balanced game mechanic.

As far as the Quickdraw rules, I saw those over on the Google+ group and think they're awesome. In fact, my son just started up a new SW d6 campaign and was asking about them, so I printed them out for him to use (and I believe he's going to incorporate them into his game).
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[DougRed4]

Upon further discussion with my group, one of my players pointed out that our new Aiming rules only works when we do individual initiatives.

Lately, I've been often just using the RAW (where the highest PER on each side rolls), and in those cases our Aiming rule goes out the window (and doesn't even apply).

I'm considering dropping it (which makes the scope found on E-11 stormtrooper rifles make more sense) and also incorporating the quickdraw rules instead.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[DougRed4]

I've officially dropped this from my house rules. I still like the concept, and it worked well when I used it, but lately I've been going with initiative done per the RAW, and this doesn't really mesh with that (nor could I find a smooth way to incorporate the stormtrooper weapon (E-11), which reads:

Game Notes: If the retractable stock and scope are used for one round of aiming, the character receives an additional +1D to blaster.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[vanir]

Just to compare, our House Rule on aiming is that it's basically a called hit location, the act of aiming is an action.
You can aim from a braced firing position for a full round, elect a called hit location at increase difficulty, and fire the next round at +1D skill bonus. It means you really need a stock and scope but things like blaster rifles have them as standard, with a pistol you'll have to brace yourself physically for an accurate ranged fire.

You can aim and fire within the round, shooting off the hip basically but instead of a +1D skill bonus for the aiming action you get a called hit location. Especially useful with things like blaster pistols at close range and if you have a laser sight fitted you can get that +1D skill bonus, with the MAP for aiming it means you fire at normal skill always at specific target locations like vital organs or maiming without killing.

When we aim and fire within the round for specific hit location our other House Rule we actually picked up from these boards, for every 5pts your weapon skill roll exceeds the difficulty you get an extra +1D damage on that shot. Extreme marksmen can kill with one shot and we like that rule, Jedi are still safe with absorb/dissipate or reduce injury if they need it, but I think extreme marksmen should have a place among some of the other 'most extreme combatant' SWU archetypes.

Of course the extra damage rule is only applied to a called hit location and now I think about it I think we said you have to have the weapon specialization, otherwise you can only get the skill bonus when spending a full round action aiming/bracing a weapon for ranged fire (which is pretty RAW).
I can't remember how we came down on the specialization part though, there was some discussion, might be just raw weapon skill.

[DougRed4]

[vanir]

Well these sort of rules are fairly loose at our table, it's pretty circumstantial how/what applies and it shouldn't be too complicated.

You can aim at centre mass but at close range over open sights that's what you do by default. If someone is at close pistol range and they're jumping around you lead with even a hip shot instinctively because that's just what your arm will do as your eyes follow them, they're close to you and it aint hard.
If you specifically aim you don't just follow/predict motion to find centre of mass but you put some lead or precision on the centre of the chest because they're so close, or the face, you're pointing the gun in totally different directions to do this, it's a given if you aim you're picking a called hit location by default.

Now at range, with a blaster rifle shooting a running target you aim to give lead and the slightest move of your hands or firing platform will throw the shot off. You could be shooting at just centre of mass aiming in this fashion and get the normal difficulty at +1D for the shot the following round.
Or you could choose to target a specific location for the aimed shot but the difficulty is raised by the relative size of the target location upon the body (eg. leg +5, between the eyes +10), but it is no extra MAP or penalty for the called hit location because you are already aiming and lining up a shot for a full round.

Whilst at close range, aiming is by default a called hit location, but you only get the +1D if you either fit laser sights or spend a full round lining up the shot. The main benefit is a called location so you might as well aim and fire within the round and get the added effect and possibly higher damage rating of the called hit location at close range.
There's no increase in difficulty under this condition, you get a MAP penalty instead.

PCs could get creative though and try out many ideas of circumstances, buying equipment to work with to modify rolls. Our gamestyle encourages this and we'll try to adapt our rules to benefit immersion. It makes for fun discussions outside gameplay.
Not to mention with the damage bonus house rule it means non-Jedi PCs can be just as tough as the Jedi ones in the right situations, and the way SW tech works techs and stuff are already really tough and cool.



ahh...I think I remember how we ruled the extra damage. On a called hit location you get +1D with general skill and +1D/5pts exceeding the difficulty if specialized (and meeting reasonable conditions for the effect, such as a successful shot to the eyeball of a stationary target from a sniper hide using a macroscope with enhancements and a braced firing position.
you get the idea, I can't remember who came up with these things but they stuck in mind and wound up discussed in our gaming group.