Burst/Autofire House Rule Proposal (using Effect)

[apoc527]

Hey all, let me know what you think of this Effect-mechanic based Burst and Autofire rules.

1. Effect only adds to damage on single shot attacks.

2. Burst Fire gives two options: (1) Wide Burst and (2) Focused Burst.

(1) Wide Burst -- On a wide burst, you spray your weapon in an attempt to score at least one hit. You receive a DM equal to half the weapon's Auto value. On Effect 6+, you hit with a second shot. Damage of either shot is not modified by either Effect or the Auto value.

(2) Focused Burst -- On a focused burst, you receive a +1 DM no matter how many shots you fire. Effect is not added to damage, instead for every 3 points of Effect, you hit with an additional round/attack, up to the Auto number. You may choose to limit a weapon to Auto 4 or 6 if the Auto value is higher (which would be a waste of ammo really).

Basically, imagine a table as follows:

Effect 0-2 = 1 shot hits
Effect 3-5 = 2 shots hit
Effect 6-8 = 3 shots hit
Effect 9-11 = 4 shots hit

3. Autofire acts normally, except that Effect is never added to damage. Instead, each pair of autofire dice are treated as a Burst above. So, an Auto 6 weapon, on a seriously amazing attack roll, could hit with potentially between 3-9 shots.

4. Designer Notes. The reasoning behind this change is that (1) I don't like the magical armor penetrating effect of the standard Burst fire rules. An SMG is no more able to penetrate armor with a 3-round burst than it is by firing one shot. A single aimed shot, however, can be rationalized to be aimed at a weaker armor spot or something. (I suppose in some science fiction, weapons have such amazing rates of fire that multiple impacts actually weaken the armor structure...but that's not the case with anything in existence today.) Another thing is that I would prefer the two types of attacks to be mechanically unified. A "burst" is basically a single pair of autofire dice, while an autofire attack can be considered a number of burst attacks.

 

[Golan2072]

These rules seem very good, though I'd like to see them in actual play before deciding whether or not to adopt them.

Generally speaking, I tend to ignore the burst rule and just go for either single-shot or full-auto for simplicity's sake and in order to avoid the "magical penetration" issue mentioned above.

 

[Klaus Kipling]

I use a system that's very close to that.

I halve AUTO and use it a a + modifier to regular bursts (easier to hit), or for focused bursts (more damage), double this add for additional damage/penetration (exactly the same as RAW). For full auto, the mod becomes additional attacks, ie: AUTO +2 (4 RAW), roll 4 attacks (max +1 bonus from skill). Doing it this way allows +1 (which would be AUTO 2 RAW). I think the multiple dice thing is bit of a relic from T/E.

 

[apoc527]

I use a system that's very close to that.

I halve AUTO and use it a a + modifier to regular bursts (easier to hit), or for focused bursts (more damage), double this add for additional damage/penetration (exactly the same as RAW). For full auto, the mod becomes additional attacks, ie: AUTO +2 (4 RAW), roll 4 attacks (max +1 bonus from skill). Doing it this way allows +1 (which would be AUTO 2 RAW). I think the multiple dice thing is bit of a relic from T/E.

I don't know much about the T/E thing since that was before I started looking at this game, but the one thing I really like about the multiple dice thing is that it actually improves your chances of scoring a couple of hits by quite a bit. The reason is, of course, that you can actually choose how to pair up the dice. I think that's an interesting enough mechanic to keep, so I'll retain it for now.