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Any weapon that can be used to attack someone from a distance is a ranged weapon. In STAR FRONTIERS games, ranged weapons include lasers, gyrojets, needle guns, automatic rifles and pistols and grenades. Bows and arrows, spears and knives also can be used, but are common only on primitive planets.
Skill Modifiers: Characters get a bonus on their chance to hit if they have been trained to use their weapon. Characters learn weapon skills by spending experience points for them (see SKILLS). Skills for beam, gyrojet, projectile and thrown weapons must be learned separately. A character gains a +10% bonus on his chance to hit for each level of skill he has with the weapon he is using. For example, a character with level 3 beam weapon skill and level 1 gyrojet weapon skill gets +30% to hit with beam weapons (lasers, sonic disruptors, etc.) and +10%to hitwith gyrojet rifles and pistols. A character does not need a weapon skill to use a weapon.
Heavy Weapons: Heavy lasers, sonic devastators, recoilless rifles, grenade mortars and rocket launchers are heavy weapons. When a character fires a heavy weapon, he must subtract 1 from his skill level with that type of weapon. A character with no training for that weapon has a -10 penalty. EXAMPLE: A character has level 3 skill with gyrojet weapons and no other weapon skills. He gets a +20 bonus when firing a grenade mortar or rocket launcher, but has a -10 modifier when firing a heavy laser, sonic devastator or recoilless rifle.
Range: Range modifiers in the Expanded Game are the same as those in the Basic Game. The Expanded Game, however, adds elevation differences to range. If the attacker and his target are at different heights, the range is found by comparing the horizontal distance between them and the difference between their heights. The shorter of these two distances is divided by 2 and added to the other. Their sum is the distance to the target.
EXAMPLE: A Star Law marksman on the ground is trying to shoot a sniper that is on the roof of a building. The marksman is 20 meters from the base of the building, and the building is 50 meters tall. The shorter distance is 20 meters, and half of that is 10 meters. The range to the target is 50 + 10 = 60 meters.
Telescopic Sights: Telescopic sights, called "scopes," are small telescopes that magnify distant targets, making them easier to aim at. Using a scope lets the attacker use the range modifier for the next closer range; for example, extreme range becomes long range. Telescopic sights can not be used at point blank or short range. A character using a scope can fire only one shot per turn.
Careful Aim: A character can get a +15% bonus on his chance to hit if he does not move during the turn and takes only one shot. The character must steady his weapon on some kind of solid surface. if he is shot or hit in melee during the turn, the character loses the bonus. This bonus does not apply to bursts or thrown weapons.
Cover: A character has cover if more than half of his body is hidden by a wall, a rock, a clump of bushes or anything else that can protect him from enemy fire or hide him from his opponent's sight. In the Expanded Game, there are two types of cover: hard and soft. Hard coverwill stop or deflect bullets and energy beams. Soft cover hides the character from the enemy, but,will not stop enemy fire. Examples of hard and soft cover are listed below.
Hard Cover: Brick, stone or metal wall, Metal vehicle, Large tree trunk, Hills, sand dunes, rocks
Soft Cover: Plastic curtain, Darkness, Smoke or fog, Tall grass
Sometimes the referee must decide whether cover is hard or soft. For example, a wooden wall that is made of heavy logs is hard cover, but a wooden wall made of thin planks is soft cover.
Darkness does not affect an attack if the anacker is using an infrared or light amplification device. Infrared devices allow the user to see through smoke, haze and fog as well.
Bursts: Machineguns and automatic rifles and pistols can fire a burst of 10 bullets in one shot. A burst can be aimed at up to five adjacent characters in an area up to 10 meters wide, or at just one character. Only one die roll is needed to hit all the characters aimed at. If the burst is aimed at one character it causes 5d10 points of damage. If it is aimed at more than one character, it causes 5d10 points of damage plus 1d10 for each additional target. These points are divided as evenly as possible among all the targets. Any leftover points of damage are lost.EXAMPLE: A character fires a burst from an automatic rifle at a group of five pirates charging toward him. All five are hit, so the player rolls 9d10 for damage. The result is 49 pointsof damage. These are divided evenly among the pirates, resulting in 9 points of damage to each. The extra 4 points are lost.
Target Size: Size modifiers apply mostly to animals, but the referee can allow bonuses or penalties for other targets if hewants. All of the character races are medium sized. The animal size ratings are described in detail in the section on Creating Creatures.
Prone Targets: A character who is Iying on the ground is harder to hit than someone who is standing up, so 5% is subtracted from the chance to hit a prone character. This combines with the soft cover modifier, but not with the hard cover modifier. For example, anyone shooting at a target that is Iying prone in tall grass has a -15 modifier to hit. Anyone shooting at a target that is Iying prone behind a heavy log has a -20 modifier to hit.
Wounds And Anesthetics: If a character's Stamina has been reduced to one-half or less of his uninjured score. all of the character's attacks have a -10% penalty and the character can fire only one shot per turn. Anesthetic drugs, which reduce pain, will cancel this modifier. One dose of anesthetic lasts five hours.
Firing with the Wrong Hand: Every player-character race except the Vrusk have "handedness"; either their right or left hand (or paw or pseudopod) is stronger and more coordinated, and is used more often. If a character shoots a pistol with his weaker hand for any reason, the shot has a -10% modifier. Vrusk are ambidextrous and can use either hand with no penalty.
Firing Two Weapons: Characters can fire two pistols at once, but they must take a -10% modifier on each shot. This is in addition to the -10% modifier for shooting with the wrong hand. These guns can be fired at different targets, if the targets are adjacent to each other.
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Opportuniity Shots: Characters can fire opportunity shots while their opponents are moving, if the opponent moves through the attacker's field of fire. (Anything in front of a character is in his field of fire.) A character can fire an opportunity shot at a running or dodging target if the target moves at least 5 meters while in the attacker's sight. A character can fire an opportunity shot at a walking target if the target moves at least 2 meters while in the attacker's sight. Characters can not fire opportunity shots at targets that are not moving. A character that declared he would fire two shots during the turn can fire only one opportunity shot. A character that declared he would fire three shots during the turn can fire one or two opportunity shots. A character that declared he would fire one shot, and all characters with weapons that have a rate of fire of 1, can not fire opportunity shots.
Area Fire: Characters who are firing more than one shot during the turn can aim at an area instead of an opponent. This area can be no more than 5 meters wide. If an opponent moves through the area, the aiming character can fire opportunityshots at him. Thistactic is useful if opponents are hidden at the start of the turn.
Automatic Hits: There are two kinds of automatic hits. The first is a shot that can not miss. An example of this is a character who holds a gun next to a canister of compressed air and pulls the trigger; there is no way the character can miss the canister. The referee must use his common sense to decide when a shot can not miss. The second type of automatic hit happens when a player rolls 01 through 05 on his roll to hit; a shot always hits on these rolls, no matter what the character's modified chance to hit is. Referees should be careful to prevent their players from abusing this rule, however. If automatic hits are always allowed, it is no harder to shoot an insect at extreme range than it is to shoot a Sathar at extreme range. Some shots are just impossible to make. The referee must use his common sense to judge these situations.
Automatic Misses:. Any shot will miss on a d100 roll of 96-00, no matter what the character's chance to hit is. This rule applies even to shots the referee has decided can not miss; the player must roll the dice anyway, and on a roll of 96-00 his weapon has malfunctioned and failed to fire.
Shooting At Targets In Crowds: If a character fires a gun at someone who is standing in a crowd, the target is treated as if it had soft cover (-10 to hit). If the shot misses, there is a 25% chance it will hit someone else. The referee decides who the shot hits. This rule also applies to shots at targets that are in melee and attempts to shoot past someone who is partially obscuring a target.
Ammunition: Players must keep track of their character's ammunition. Weapons that require powerpacks can be operated from powerclips or from power beltpacks or backpacks. Beltpacks and powerpacks can power other equipment besides weapons, however, so players must keep accurate records on their power supply.
Reloading: A character can reload a weapon with a fresh clip or attach it to a different powerpack in one turn if he does not run or dodge. A weapon can not be fired on the turn it is reloaded.
Grenades: Grenades (and other thrown weapons) are treated as ranged weapons when determining hits and misses. A character's chance to hit his target with a grenade equals one-half of his Dexterity score plus 10 x his Thrown Weapons skill level. The only other ranged weapon modifiers that apply to thrown weapons are range, movement, wrong hand and wound modifiers. Other modifiers should be ignored.
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EXAMPLE: A fragmentation grenade explodes and catches three characters in its blast radius. The grenade causes 8d10 points of damage to each character. The first rolls 40 points, the second rolls 63 points and the third rolls only 17 points.MELEE
The distance the grenade bounces depends on how far it was thrown. The table shows how far grenades will bounce if they are thrown from different ranges:
Doze Grenades. Very large creatures can not be knocked out with only one doze grenade. The number of doze grenades needed to knock out a creature is equal to its current Stamina divided by 50, rounded down (but never less than one). For example, an animal with a Stamina of 120 could be knocked out with two doze grenades. If its Stamina was reduced to 90 by wounds, it could be knocked out with one doze grenade.
Grenade Effects: Grenades affect areas 6 meters in diameter. Every living creature in the area is affected, but damage is rolled separately for each. This means a grenade can seriously injure one character and have very little effect on others. EXAMPLE: A fragmentation grenade explodes and catches three characters in its blast radius. The grenade causes 8d10 points of damage to each character. The first rolls 40 points, the second rolls 63 points and the third rolls only 17 points.
Explosives: Characters can throw up to 500 grams of explosives as though it was a grenade. Anyone inside the blast radius takes full damage. Anyone within twice the radius of the blast must pass a Reaction Speed check or be stunned for one turn. More information on explosives is given in the Skills section and Equipment section.
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