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Revised autofire rules

by Unknown

As they stand, the autofire rules on page 92 of the manual for Shadowrun 2nd Edition are unfair to both players as well as non-player characters, and are also unrealistic.

Why should it be possible for a full-auto burst to become more deadly than a normal three-round burst? Yes, there are more rounds going down range, but the effects will be the same if the target is hit by consecutive, single shots or with simultaneous, multiple impacts. In the game, the reason for raising a weapon’s power level and its damage rating when firing multiple shots with a single action is to simulate the effect of those multiple rounds hitting the target, but past a certain point, it becomes unrealistic as well as prohibitive, and can become a crutch for both players and the GM.

With the rules as they are, a single gunman with a single success can initiate a damage level of Deadly upon an opponent, and also give that opponent an inconceivably high number to resist against. The ability of modern armor to absorb damage is destroyed by a seven round single auto-burst, but not by two, three-rounders and a single shot! Since autofire is nothing more than several bursts, it should be handled as such. This brings the damage to a more tolerable(term used loosely)level, yet keeps it relatively deadly, and also removes autofire as the all-powerful weapon and puts it back in its place as wasteful and highly inaccurate.

The new rules should be:

Autofire is still considered a complex action. A minimum of six(6) rounds must be expended from the weapon, and declared before any dice are rolled. The autofire will be divided into groups of three, and are resolved as individual bursts, with cumulative recoil effects, but not more than an addition of +3 to the power level and an increase of one level to the damage level. Rounds left after the division will be treated as short bursts(see page 92). Combat pool dice will be allotted to each individual division of three rounds.

In other words, an Ingram Smartgun being fired for a full auto burst of 9 rounds would be divided into 3, 3rd bursts, with recoil modifiers to of +3, +6, +9 respectively and a damage code of 10S.

If these rules are implemented, autofire remains a deadly situation, but not legendary(or ludicrous)in its effects. Any street samurai will still cringe.