0-hr
Starship Cartographer
A hero with a crossbow fires at a bad guy fleeing down a crowded street. He misses. Now, this street is packed and that bolt has to go somewhere. How does one figure out which innocent bystanders (if any) have a chance of inadvertent perforation?
As a follow-up, assume the DM just rolls an arbitrary die and says "Ok, it went wide to the left, which is where the old school marm and her charges are awaiting the noon day coach..."
Now if I need to roll some attacks against bystanders, what modifiers would I put on the d20? I would at first think that I'd just toss on the normal modifiers assuming a generic shot (BAB+DEX+masterwork or such). But really, a person who is a good shot should be less likely to hit the wrong target no? Then again, if firing into a charging line of orcs, if you miss the guy you are aiming for, you'd really like to hit one of the guys next to him "by mistake". So a good shot in this case would want to be more likely to hit someone (anyone). As a final alternative, I could just use an unmodified d20, but then anyone with a moderate AC is nearly immune to stray shots.
Anyway, it seems to get complicated awfully fast. Does D&D say anything about the situation? If not, surely d20 Modern with all of it's gunplay must address the issue right?
As a follow-up, assume the DM just rolls an arbitrary die and says "Ok, it went wide to the left, which is where the old school marm and her charges are awaiting the noon day coach..."
Now if I need to roll some attacks against bystanders, what modifiers would I put on the d20? I would at first think that I'd just toss on the normal modifiers assuming a generic shot (BAB+DEX+masterwork or such). But really, a person who is a good shot should be less likely to hit the wrong target no? Then again, if firing into a charging line of orcs, if you miss the guy you are aiming for, you'd really like to hit one of the guys next to him "by mistake". So a good shot in this case would want to be more likely to hit someone (anyone). As a final alternative, I could just use an unmodified d20, but then anyone with a moderate AC is nearly immune to stray shots.
Anyway, it seems to get complicated awfully fast. Does D&D say anything about the situation? If not, surely d20 Modern with all of it's gunplay must address the issue right?
