Ballistic weapons with zero gravity

[arcador]

According the rules, any attempt to fire a ballistic weapon in zero gravity environment requires two Athletic-dexterity checks:

One before the attack, if failed the attack misses.
One after the attack, to avoid the spin due recoil.

My concern is on the first, and it is conceptual one. Why would someone miss his shot with a ballistic weapon due recoil, before he has made the shot? Or is it a different reason than the recoil?

 

[phavoc]

Well, I guess that would depend on the type of weapon. Using a bow would be different than say using a crossbow. But in either case you are having to adjust your body to aim and (usually) pull your arm back in order to toss/shoot the weapon. This would require you to be careful in your actions or else you are going to be drifting farther than you wanted.

So I suppose it's possible, but should be tricky. Which is maybe why they applied the blanket two rolls for the actions.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

According the rules, any attempt to fire a ballistic weapon in zero gravity environment requires two Athletic-dexterity checks:

One before the attack, if failed the attack misses.
One after the attack, to avoid the spin due recoil.

My concern is on the first, and it is conceptual one. Why would someone miss his shot with a ballistic weapon due recoil, before he has made the shot? Or is it a different reason than the recoil?

The first check is to see if a character spins out of control (after making a shot, whether it missed or not)
The second check is to see if a character is able to stop spinning (after they failed to prevent spinning).

 

[arcador]

You are correct, the mistake is mine. The checks are as you stated. First to spin (and miss?), second to gain control.

I am attaching a snapshot of the rules section.

Reading it now it says "completely miss his target". Although it's not specifically pointed, we can assume it is for attacks which require gravity to work effectively - melee attacks, thrown (and maybe bows/crossbows). The check is Athletic-dex which leads to the assumption that it's not so much about trajectory than it is about performing the action correctly in the zero-g.

In this case my wondering diminished.

Thank you guys!

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

The weapons (or anything that has a recoil to it) can still work in zero-g. It's just that using them may leave you in another orientation is all.