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Two Weapon Combo Rules

by Thomas Whateley

There is some stuff in SRII (p90) and FoF(p81), but my players didn’t feel that that was detailed enough, so we came up with the following system for gun combat, we haven’t worked on melee weapon, melee weapon/gun combos yet, but they would probably work in a similar manner.

(Note the following are adaptions/expansions of the actual rules in: ShadowRun II - p90 and Fields of Fire - p81)

Off hand penalty

This is the penalty for using a weapon in your off hand (ie. left hand if right handed), either by its self, or with another weapon in your other hand.

penalty: +3 target number.

Reducing Off hand penalty

**Purchasing weapon skill in the off hand. ie. as opposed to Firearms(pistols) you develop Firearms(pistol) - right, and Firearms(pistol) - left.

This will reduce the off/hand penalty (for that weapon group) by 1 for every 2 levels (round down).

ie. a 5 in Firearms(pistol) - left will reduce the penalty by (5/2) (round down) = 2 , resulting in a targent number increase of (3-2) = +1.

**Purchasing the special skill Ambidexterity (as per FoF p 81). (inshort: only at character creation time and for 3 time the cost of a normal skill. ie 2 levels in Ambidexterity costs 6 skill pts)

This will reduce the Off hand penalty on a one-for-one basis, for all weapons. eg. A character with a Firearms(pistol) skill of 5 and Ambidexterity of 2 will be able to fire a pistol in his off hand with 5 dice (+ combat pool) with a +1 to the target number.

Notes:

1) the penalty can NEVER be changed into a bonus. At most it can be reduced to zero.

2) bonuses are cumulative between (a) & (b) eg. Ambidexterity(2) and Firearms(pistol) -left (2) = 2 + 1 = 3 ie reduces the penalty(3) to zero(0).

Using Two guns

  • A +2 target number is applicable to BOTH weapons, non reduceable.

  • Only pistols and smgs may be used.

  • Bonuses from Smartgun links, lasers, scopes are NOT applicable.

Examples:

A right handed character with Firearms(smg) - 5 wants to fire two uzies: right hand penalty = +2, left hand penalty = +5

The same character with Firearms(smg) - Right = 5 and Firearms(smg) - Left = 3 would get: left hand penalty = +4

And with additional Ambidexterity = 2: left hand penalty = +2

Optional Rules

  • One smart gun link can be used. If the character has two smart gun links, only one may be activated at a time.

Optional Option

Any bonus from a Smartgun link/laser/scope in one hand counts as an additional penalty to the other hand.

  • Recoil modifers are cumulative between both weapons.

  • Exceptional strength may be used to fire larger weapons.

  • Exceptional strength may be used to reduce recoil (cumulative) modifers.

  • Increase the +2 for using 2 guns, and introduce a two-weapon-combo skill (that must be taken in each specific combination) to reduce this. ie. Penalty +6 - two-weapon-combo(smg/pistol) 4 = +2