Re: [SGII] Nasty Cover

Good topic, Mark!

> Thoughts? You're going to tell me somebody already came up with this
in 1972
> aren't you...?

I don't think anyone has mentioned this, before.

First, think about this: you are in the middle of a street and someone
opens fire on you. Are you better off lying in the open in the street,
or are you better going behind a car?

You're probably better off behind a car.

Second, does the car make it harder to hit you with a projectile?

SG2 models cover in two ways: cover makes it harder to score casualties,
and protects casualties when they are scored by increasing the armour
die. The first part seems to handle the "hiding" effect of cover. If
you're behind cover, it's harder to see your precise outline (aided by
camouflage clothing). It's, therefore, harder to aim at you, as opposed
to the cover area in general. The second seems to handle the protective
ability of the cover and the "harder to aim at you" part. If you are
behind trees, the tree will absorb energy from bullets, plasma fire,
etc. Even if the shots hit you, their armour is decreased. Also, because
the person couldn't aim at your outline very well, it's harder for the
attacker to hit your vital centre of mass area (thorax and abdomen), and
instead the shots are more random. 

Taking these into consideration, I'd be tempted _not_ to downgrade the
armour the target may already have. Splintering may result in more
fragments, which is nasty for unprotected troops, but -- especially in
the case of a car -- it's tempered by the lowered energy in the round
itself. Bear in mind that SG2 squads are science fiction: how would this
splintering phenomenon affect plasma shots, or Phalon pulsers, or laser
sniping rifles? 

I'd be tempted to make a car soft or hard cover for the purposes of
adjusting the range band, and give them _no_ effect on the armour roll.
I'd be tempted to call a car "soft cover" because bullets can go through
it, but hard may be better because of the protective ability of the
engine block. You could call part of it hard, part soft, but that's
getting beyond the scale of SG2. 

This brings up ideas for other armour. Say there's a store front with a
large window made of bullet proof glass. I would give it no cover die
shift for the range band, but treat it as soft or hard cover (depending
on the glass) for the purposes of the armour die.

--
Allan Goodall		   agoodall@att.net
http://www.hyperbear.com   agoodall@hyperbear.com