Re: And a Happy New Year!
It looks like the general consensus is to stay with the current system and make it work for us (sorry, Apo - you know how I feel about Night's Black Agents but I also agree that its combat is not quite tactical enough for an XCOM-derived game!).
Speaking of tactical combat, I've been doing a couple of things behind the screen that I probably should state explicitly. First:
Sniper-Spotter Teams
If a spotter is assisting a sniper with a shot, the spotter makes an Observation or Forward Observer (whichever is higher) skill check at the same difficulty that the sniper's attack will use. If the spotter succeeds, the sniper rolls twice for his attack and takes the better result.
And then the slightly more complex one, an attempt to articulate how I usually "eyeball" volume of fire and Recoil:
Rate of Fire
If a character is firing a semi-automatic weapon, I usually assume she's firing a controllable volley - i.e., her cumulative Recoil doesn't exceed her Strength. I handle a semi-auto volley as a single attack roll.
Example: Karolina (Strength 7) is firing a ubiquitous Glock 17 (Recoil 3) at an Attar. The cumulative Recoil for two shots is 6, so I assume she is double-tapping with no penalty.
To determine multiple hits from a successful attack with a volley, I add the weapon's Recoil to the die result. If the modified result is still less than or equal to the target number, that's an additional hit - with location and damage rolled separately. I keep doing that until I'm out of bullets or until the modified die result exceeds the target number.
Example: Karolina needs a 6 or less to hit. The die result is a 2. Adding the Glock's Recoil of 3 yields a modified die result of 5 - still under the target number. Karolina gets two hits.
This game system doesn't differentiate between "regulated" bursts (i.e., two- or three-round bursts controlled by a gun's selector) and full auto fire in any way but Recoil and the number of bullets released per trigger press. I'm okay with that abstraction. For multiple hits in burst fire, I generally look at it the same way: one round automatically hits, then increase the die result by the semi-auto Recoil value for additional hits.
Going forward, if someone fires multiple bursts in a single turn, I'll make a separate attack roll for each burst. Cumulative recoil penalties will apply to each burst past the first.
Example: Karolina switches to a wz.88 Tantal assault rifle (ROF S/3/5, Recoil 2 for a single shot, 4 for a three-round burst, 6 for a five-round "burst" of automatic fire). She fires a pair of three-round bursts at another Attar.
The first burst needs a 10 or less to hit. Karolina's first attack roll yields a 7 on the die. The first round hits. Adding the single shot Recoil of 2 provides a modified die result of 9, so the second round hits. There's one more bullet in this burst, but adding Recoil 2 again modifies the die result to 11, so the third round misses.
The cumulative Recoil of 2 three-round bursts is 8, which exceeds Karolina's Strength by 1. Karolina's second attack roll will need a 9 or less (10 - 1) to hit...
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:00, Sun 10 Jan 2016.
