Re: Out of Ammo in FMA

>>Untrained civilian who happens to have picked up a carbine from
>>somewhere... fires it and gets good ol' double one.  Lets say that the
>>carbine has a reliability code of d8, but this is modified to a d6 for
the
>>inexperience of our 'marksman'.  This rolls comes up a one, and the
>>hapless civilian discovers that resting the gun barrel down into the
mud
>>was not a good idea!
>
>
>
>Shoot (no pun intended) that's easy.	Just make a task check to "fix"
the
>weapon.   No use adding a new stat to all the weapons.

That makes sense - and the fact that untrained troops use a d4 or d6
ensures that there is a built in extra difficulty for them to
unjam/repair/reload/etc the weapon.

So - we're up to double one's on the shooting rolls produces a stoppage
of
some kind.  It could be unintentional out of ammo, it could be a jam, it
could be another kind of malfunction.  To resolve this, the character
must
take a task check as per normal, and requires one action.

No one is immune to these effects, but better troops are a) less likely
to
suffer from it in the first place, and b) more likely to resolve the
situation immediately if it does occur - and these differences are
inherently built into the system.  No extra mechanic required.

This keeps things simple, requires no extra record keeping.  Maybe a
"jam"
chit or equiv. placed by the figure until it is cleared.  And adds the
potential for the "unknown" or "surprise". 

I know Tom doesn't like the idea of the randomness involved in running
out
of ammo by mistake, but if we say that this mechanism doesn't just
involve
running out of ammo in the current magazine, but also potential jams and
other malfunctions (which are indeed more surprising, if not random
events)
- maybe this will be less disturbing.

Thoughts, anyone?

Adrian Johnson
ajohnson@idirect.com

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To win one hundred victories in one
hundred battles is not the highest 
skill.	To subdue the enemy without
fighting is the highest skill.

Sun Tzu

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