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Post by Marnal on May 4, 2010 16:46:41 GMT
If the PC decides to shoot a stationary car that's 3 areas away what's the difficulty? What if its 30 areas away? What if there's a Weeping Angel standing next to the car and they want to shoot that instead? Then what would the two difficulty numbers be? I keep looking through the "GM's Guide" and I'm not seeing rules for hitting things that aren't moving reacting characters. Could someone help out? Where are these rules? Thanks! -Marnal Gate "I was told by the producer that the guiding principle was to make the scripts complex enough to keep the Kids interested and simple enough for the Adults to understand!" -Douglas Adams on writing Doctor Who For everything about the TARDIS check out www.whoniverse.net/tardis/ For all things Gallifreyan check out meshyfish.com/~roo/index.html
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Post by renegadetimelord on May 5, 2010 6:27:24 GMT
There are no specifics, I daresay, because Who shouldn't be about sniping. However, there are two specific references to shooting something that's smaller than ideal - which, in turn, you could extrapolate to cover distance.
GM Guide - page 36: Normal - shooting someone. Improbable! - shooting something very small with a sling.
That's a difference in difficulty of 15.
GM Guide - page 49 - Duck and Cover: Shooting a normal person is difficulty 12. Shooting a normal person you can see 1/3rd less of is -2 to hit. Shooting a normal person you can see 2/3rd less of is -4.
So, I guess you have a choice, increasing difficulty or reducing chance to hit. I'd suggest, you suffer -2 per reduction in size by a third beyond what's shown.
Shooting a lorry: +10 Shooting a minivan: +8 Shooting a car: +6 Shooting a horse: +4 Shooting a call box: +2 Shooting a person: 0 Shooting a dog: -2 Shooting a bust: -4 Shooting a cat: -6 Shooting a toaster: -8 Shooting a brick: -10 Shooting a coffee mug: -12 Shooting a gerbil: -14 Shooting a matchbox: -16
Circumstances like movement increases starting difficulty by a level. Poor visibility changes chance to hit. Wind would up the difficulty like movement of the target.
Distance - well, that comes down to perspective. If you have a weapon with the range for it, hitting someone at 30 areas might be the equivalent of shooting a coffee mug - giving you a -12 to hit.
Does that make sense?
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Post by Marnal on May 6, 2010 1:44:40 GMT
Thanks! I just wanted to make sure that the game really had forgotten to give any proper difficulties for hitting non moving targets! How could they overlook this? They even talk about characters not being able to react to unseen attacks - but NEVER give you difficulties for those situations! All of your suggestions make sense. But it requires a formula invovling sqare roots to work out relative tallness of objects at verious distances. Way to much of a pain to do on the fly. So I guess I'm going to have to make up my own difficulty chart just so I can figure out how hard it is to shoot the broad side of a barn at 100 areas. Sigh.... - Brian “The Storyteller” Swift "I was told by the producer that the guiding principle was to make the scripts complex enough to keep the Kids interested and simple enough for the Adults to understand!" -Douglas Adams on writing Doctor Who For everything about the TARDIS check out www.whoniverse.net/tardis/ For all things Gallifreyan check out meshyfish.com/~roo/index.html
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Post by renegadetimelord on May 6, 2010 11:57:18 GMT
All of your suggestions make sense. But it requires a formula invovling sqare roots to work out relative tallness of objects at verious distances. Way to much of a pain to do on the fly... I suppose it comes down to what sort of game you're playing - but, the average Doctor Who episode never revolves around who can hit what with precision at 300 yards. Unless you're running a UNIT game (or similar) and the adventures depends on it, surely a little imagination and a spot of good gamesmastership should be enough to say, 'The head of a haemovore emerges from the foaming waters of the sea some way out from the beach. If you want to shoot it from here, that's be a -14 modifier to your roll.' How did I decide that modifer - I looked out the window, saw a car, decided it looked about the size of a brick, and then upped the modifer a couple of steps, because the upper torso of a haemovore probably would be that size at the distance I'm viewing. No tables, no formula - just a quick estimate. My rule of thumb probably errs in the players favour, but I'm out to ensure they enjoy the game! In all honesty, as a GM, you're not generally going to be citing modifiers - you're going to tell the player that it's going to be a tough shot to make hitting something that small from this distance. Providing you stick to more or less the same principle of 'in your head' calculation, you're not cheating your players in any way. I suspect the combat rules of DWAITAS provide scant support for the finer details of combat, because the Doctor rarely uses physical violence to make his point and save the day - and even Torchwood don't spend too long shooting stuff. Also, my recollection might be hazy, but I thought an Area represented a fairly flexible distance - being one thing if you were shadowing someone, and another if you engaged in a car chase. Do the rules contain specifics about weapon ranges? (I'll check when I get home, but thought I'd just ask)
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Post by Marnal on May 6, 2010 15:50:29 GMT
I understand the rules aren’t supposed to emphasize combat. But when they give you all the rules for an ambush EXCEPT the difficulty to hit the target, that’s a pretty big omission. It wouldn’t have required much if they wanted to keep it simple. Just “A stationary man sized object has a difficulty of 10 to hit at average ranges. To modify this for extreme distance see the table on page 40 of the Gamemaster’s Guide.” That’s TWO sentences they’d have to add. (The table is already in the book on page 40.) It would be less then I want (I like things a little more ‘realistic’). But I would not be able to claim that there was a HOLE in the rules. For me I’ll probably use 10 as the difficulty for man sized targets and rip off something from the GURPS Speed/Range/Size Table (dividing the GURPS mods by 2 seems to make a perfect fit with AITIS example modifiers). - Brian “The Storyteller” Swift "I was told by the producer that the guiding principle was to make the scripts complex enough to keep the Kids interested and simple enough for the Adults to understand!" -Douglas Adams on writing Doctor Who For everything about the TARDIS check out www.whoniverse.net/tardis/ For all things Gallifreyan check out meshyfish.com/~roo/index.html
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Post by renegadetimelord on May 7, 2010 7:40:29 GMT
For me I’ll probably use 10 as the difficulty for man sized targets and rip off something from the GURPS Speed/Range/Size Table... As I mentioned in the original post, the rules do contain specific references for combat in the difficulty table - with the basic difficulty being 12 for hitting a standing target, 15 for a moving target, and 27 for hitting a small target with a sling.
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Post by Marnal on May 8, 2010 3:48:22 GMT
[Looks back over post] "Shooting a normal person is difficulty 12." Right, there it was. I must have missed it the first time I read your post. Apologies! It is on page 36 (most of the rest of the combat rules are on pages 39-48; but still it IS in the book). So the system isn't missing rules. Just has the poorly placed. Thanks! Tomorrow is my first AITAS session - wish me luck! -Marnal Gate "I was told by the producer that the guiding principle was to make the scripts complex enough to keep the Kids interested and simple enough for the Adults to understand!" -Douglas Adams on writing Doctor Who For everything about the TARDIS check out www.whoniverse.net/tardis/ For all things Gallifreyan check out meshyfish.com/~roo/index.html
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Post by Chrono Sapien on May 8, 2010 3:50:25 GMT
I don't do distances and mods as much as I take into consideration the situations and each part of what makes up said situation. Then I assign a value to each part and average it. As an example..
Hitting a person who is moderately close is usually considered Normal (Normal=12) But he is running so that would be a little trickey. (Tricky=15) And the fact that he is across the street and cars are coming between you and your target makes it Difficult since you don't wanna hit anyone else who is passing. (Difficult=21)
Take the average... 12+15+21=48... 48 divided by 3 (taking the average) = 16
So my target to hit is 16!
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nathanbrazil
2nd Incarnation
Simulationist in a Storytelling Game
Posts: 19
Favourite Doctors: 3, 4, 11, 12
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Post by nathanbrazil on Jul 22, 2010 19:48:23 GMT
Aliens and Creatures now has Size Traits, so you may wish to adjust some of your to hit calculations
Tiny (Major Bad Alien Trait) (rat or smaller) -4 Tiny (Minor Bad Alien Trait) (large dog) -2 Huge (Minor Good Alien Trait) (a van or elephant) +2 Huge (Major Good Alien Trait) (T-Rex or larger) +4
I am assuming that these mods are on rolls to hit and not a modifier to the difficulty itself.
Also, I think you might want to take the Alien part out of the trait as I think rats, dogs, elephants and vehicles are not aliens (unless they talk ;D)
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Post by Curufea on Jul 23, 2010 5:59:58 GMT
I tend to follow narrative rules rather than simulation.
An ambush nearly always works unless it would kill a PC.
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Post by da professor on Jul 24, 2010 19:32:32 GMT
Also, I think you might want to take the Alien part out of the trait as I think rats, dogs, elephants and vehicles are not aliens (unless they talk ;D) Well, they're not human, and some of the bees are alien, so...
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