kreynolds
First Post
I've been kicking around an idea about cover penetration. In Ultramodern Firearms, there is the CS penetrator round that is designed to punch through doors and walls less than 4 inches thick. The mechanics are simple. If the round deals damage equal to or greater than the hardness of the wall or door, it punches through and effects the square on the other side.
I've been thinking of expanding something like this to all ballistics. Here's my idea. If a bullet, slug, etc, deals enough damage to equal twice the hardness of the object, the round penetrates it and continues on.
The reason I was thinking of this is simple. Say you're in a gun fight, and across the room, there's another guy who's ducking for cover just outside a door. Well, you've got a pretty darn good idea where he is behind the wall next to the door, so, why not just shoot the wall and hope that a round hits him?
Basically, it ends up working just like attacking an invisible target. You take aim (i.e. you pick the square where you think your target is located), shoot, and if your round deals enough damage, it penetrates the wall. Now, if you're attack roll is good enough to also hit the target (who effectively has total concealment because you can't see him at all), you roll your 50% miss chance, and if you get lucky, your round might hit him.
Now, if those mechanics are simple enough and make sense, let's jump ahead a little bit. Damage. My thinking is that a round is going to lose a lot of momentum after it passes through a solid barrier, such as a wall. Ball ammo will slow quite a bit, hollowpoint will slow down tremendously, and armor piercing will hardly slow down at all. So, I was thinking that when a round penetrates a solid barrier (that has a hardness score) that you receive some kind of damage penalty to illustrate that the round has lost enertia. Something like Ball, -1 damage penalty; Hollowpoint -2 damage penalty, Armor Piercing -0 damage penalty. The drawback to this simple damage penalty setup is that it doesn't take into account the material in question and how much it might slow the round down.
The other method for illustrating the loss of enertia is a little more complicated. When you attempt to fire a bullet through the wall, roll the damage. If the damage is equal to or greater than the hardness rating of the wall, the bullet goes through. Apply the damage to the hit points of the wall as well, if applicable. Use the hardness rating of the wall as a damage penalty to the bullet if it hits anyone or anything on the other side. For example, if your bullet hits the wall (hardness 3, for example) and you roll 12 for damage, the bullet penetrates the wall and the wall suffers 9 points of damage (12 minus the hardness of 3). If the bullet successfully hits anyone on the other side of the wall, it will only deal 9 points of damage (12 minus the hardness of 3).
In the case of the later system, armor piercing rounds may receive a penalty reduction of 1 or 2, meaning they ignore 1 or 2 points of hardness in regards to both penetrating the wall and the damage penalty.
Any thoughts?
I've been thinking of expanding something like this to all ballistics. Here's my idea. If a bullet, slug, etc, deals enough damage to equal twice the hardness of the object, the round penetrates it and continues on.
The reason I was thinking of this is simple. Say you're in a gun fight, and across the room, there's another guy who's ducking for cover just outside a door. Well, you've got a pretty darn good idea where he is behind the wall next to the door, so, why not just shoot the wall and hope that a round hits him?
Basically, it ends up working just like attacking an invisible target. You take aim (i.e. you pick the square where you think your target is located), shoot, and if your round deals enough damage, it penetrates the wall. Now, if you're attack roll is good enough to also hit the target (who effectively has total concealment because you can't see him at all), you roll your 50% miss chance, and if you get lucky, your round might hit him.
Now, if those mechanics are simple enough and make sense, let's jump ahead a little bit. Damage. My thinking is that a round is going to lose a lot of momentum after it passes through a solid barrier, such as a wall. Ball ammo will slow quite a bit, hollowpoint will slow down tremendously, and armor piercing will hardly slow down at all. So, I was thinking that when a round penetrates a solid barrier (that has a hardness score) that you receive some kind of damage penalty to illustrate that the round has lost enertia. Something like Ball, -1 damage penalty; Hollowpoint -2 damage penalty, Armor Piercing -0 damage penalty. The drawback to this simple damage penalty setup is that it doesn't take into account the material in question and how much it might slow the round down.
The other method for illustrating the loss of enertia is a little more complicated. When you attempt to fire a bullet through the wall, roll the damage. If the damage is equal to or greater than the hardness rating of the wall, the bullet goes through. Apply the damage to the hit points of the wall as well, if applicable. Use the hardness rating of the wall as a damage penalty to the bullet if it hits anyone or anything on the other side. For example, if your bullet hits the wall (hardness 3, for example) and you roll 12 for damage, the bullet penetrates the wall and the wall suffers 9 points of damage (12 minus the hardness of 3). If the bullet successfully hits anyone on the other side of the wall, it will only deal 9 points of damage (12 minus the hardness of 3).
In the case of the later system, armor piercing rounds may receive a penalty reduction of 1 or 2, meaning they ignore 1 or 2 points of hardness in regards to both penetrating the wall and the damage penalty.
Any thoughts?
Last edited:
I'll go add that in there really quick.
