Scatter Rule

[CRMcNeill]

So, this started as part of the Auto-Fire Rules, but I’m thinking of applying it to coordinated fire from capital ships, too. The idea is that, when firing multiple shots at a target (either with a repeater or multiple weapons firing), the shots have a tendency to scatter, which increases in direct proportion to the distance to the target.

Here’s the general premise:

At Point Blank Range, any Auto-Fire or Coordination dice may be put into either Damage or Gunnery (or a combination thereof) with no restrictions.

At Short Range, the amount of dice that can be placed in Damage is capped at Max -1D.

At Medium Range, the Damage Cap is max -2D, and at Long Range it’s Max -3D.

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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Naaman]

I tried resolving this issue as well.

The factors I considered were:
Distance to target
Density of fire
Base damage vs multiple impact damage.

In the case of capital ships, you'll also have to decide what a damage roll should be when all of the shots hit it but are spread out across the ship's hull such that they register as individual hits rather than clustered fire.

Your version is more streamlined than mine, but the following may spark some ideas:

I handled it by applying either a bonus to the attack roll at base damage (effectively "wasting" ammo to increase the chance of a hit) or increasing damage with a higher difficulty to hit (the first round to leave the barrel has the same chance of hitting as a single shot does, but the attacker must roll sufficiently high enough for any other shots to impact; a roll that is exactly eaual to the difficulty lands one shot. 5 over lands another hit, 10 over lands 3 hits, etc.). Regardless, any additional rounds fired are "wasted" if the attack roll isn't high enough to manage recoil control. The minimum rounds fired in a single attack roll was givin in the weapon's profile.

Also, for burst weapons, at point blank range, I doubled the damage bonus to represent the shots impacting closer together.

[CRMcNeill]

I proposed a rule elsewhere for a cluster missile that, for every 5-10 points of success (I forget which, exactly) on the Gunnery roll, a second roll was made on the appropriate Damage table. So, if a Star Destroyer was making a massed-fire attack on an MC80, inflicting Light Damage, but beating the DN by more than 10 points, the GM would roll twice on the Lightly Damaged table. That might work here, but I'd need to put some thought into how exactly to apply it alongside the RoE Accuracy Damage rule...
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Mamatried]

Can the grenade scatter pattern be used somehow?

Now if we look to anti aircraft fire these are in all essence grenades that explodes in air causing a burst (or scatter) of shrapnel.

I can imagine that some bolts will explode on impact, and some even act as anti "aircraft".

[CRMcNeill]

[Naaman]

[CRMcNeill]

Depends on which version you use. I've long been partial to a 3/1 ratio on the Accuracy Damage rule (1/1 is too effective, and 5/1 isn't nearly effective enough). Using the 3/1 ratio, the trade-off just isn't worth it. A weapon with 3D Auto-Fire that puts all three into Gunnery will only get an effective +1D to Damage. I think it's reasonable that a good Gunnery roll with a repeater inflicts some additional damage by dint of hitting with additional shots. However, repeaters mostly get used in character scale combat, and character-scale damage results lack the granularity of effect seen in the vehicle and starship damage charts. It isn't possible, for example, to hit a character in the leg and the arm with the same attack, inflicting both a Move penalty and a penalty to any skill rolls using that arm.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index