Combined Fire

[McKinley]

Can someone explain the rules for Combined actions, in particular, Combined Fire?

Can you explain with an example? I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly.

Cheers
_________________
-The Wookie has no pants-

[garhkal]

With combined fire you first need a commander. For every D in his command skill he can co-ordinate 1 person, but those who are considered extordinarily skilled, or used to team work can go beyond that.
Then he has to make his command roll.

For 4 people with an average skill of 5d, his roll would be moderate to combine them.

With revised and expanded, when commanded successfully the HIGHEST SKILL of the group combined gains a bonus from all the others.
2 people give 1d
4 give 2d
6 give 3d
10 give 4d
15 give 5d
25 give 6d and so on..

If they get combined successfully, BOTH the to hit roll and the damage gain that bonus.

NOTE: When combined, those in the 'group' can only do reaction skills in addition to the combined shot.

So lets say we have a group of 6 players who just stormed into an imperial camp. The leader is under orders to take prisoners, but with the armor and 2 wookies present, he knows that is a tall order. Seeing one wookie and both the armored humans peal off to go into another area, he decides to combine his 7 remaining stormtroopers onto the last wookie in his sight.
He has 5d command, but as he is commanding stormtroopers he can go over the 5 he would normally get. He has called that he is taking a command, and is saving an action for a dodge. So that takes one D of his 5d command. His troops have an average 5d+2 blaster and so he needs a moderate roll to combine thhem.

He makes the roll with a 16, and so his 7 troops combine their single shot onto the wookie. The lead trooper (who has 6d+1 to shoot) gains 3d more, which makes their shot hit. Then they roll ONE Damage check with 3d bonus (now giving them 8d) against the wookie's 5d strength.. He drops.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[DarthMortis]

[cheshire]

My understanding was that it was an increase either to damage or to hit, not both.
_________________
__________________________________
Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Delkarnu]

From page 83 (R&E):
If a group of characters are combining actions on a
combat task, the bonus can be split between the attack roll
and the damage roll. Likewise, if the task requires two or
more skill rolls, the bonus can be split up among any of these
rolls.
So in Garhkal's example, they could add the full 3D to hit or damage, or split it, giving say a +1D to help make sure they hit, and +2D to damage

[garhkal]

I never noticed that got changed...
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Delkarnu]

Just looked at it again, and, it would only be +2d+1 bonus, not 3D

In R+E 1D per 3 involved + 1 pip for each extra person commanded, so:

3 people give 1D
4 people give 1D+1
5 people give 1D+2
6 people give 2D
7 people give 2D+1
9 people give 3D
12 people give 4D
15 people give 5D

Looks like they rebalanced it to make it less of an insta-kill for small numbers of people

[garhkal]

I did notice that..

In our sparks group we have a mix up of the 2nd ed base combined fire.

2 people get 1d
4 get 2d
6 get 3d
10 get 4d
15 get 5d
25 get 6d...
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[garhkal]

Bringing this question back to the forefront for some of our newer folk

When pcs or npcs combine fire (or other actions) do you go by the 2e way (where the # of people scales up as i wrote, 2=1d 10=4d and so on) or by the 2e revised where each person adds +1 (so 4 is +1d+1)?

Do you go by the 2e way for combining shots where its added to both the to hit AND damage pool, or by the revised way where its split (shooters choice)?
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Fallon Kell]

2E way, but with split dice.
_________________
Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[atgxtg]

I actually like the doubling method that somebody (I forgot who deserves the credit) came up with a couple years back. It's easier to do in my head.

2 people are worth 1D, 4 are worth 2D, 8 is worth +3D, 16 is worth +4D and so on.

25% over the number is worth +1
60% over the number is worth +2

So 10 people would be 3D+1, and 13 is 3D+2

With such a progression I think splitting the bonuses works best.

Oh, and the cap from Command gets upped to the bonus equal to the Command Dice, not people. Otherwise it is either not worth the trouble or gets silly with lots and lots of people all combining and trying to overlap bonuses.

[jmanski]

I use the double method, and so does cmrneill, iirc.
_________________
Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

A question I have never had adequately answered is how to combine actions of characters with unequal skill levels, or weapons with unequal damage ratings. Like on the ISD II, it has 50 turbolaser cannon that hit for 7D and 50 heavy turbolaser batteries that inflict 10D. If you try to combine the two for a full broadside, how do you stack the damage and the combined fire bonus?
_________________
"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

[atgxtg]