Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Clash957]

As someone in RPGs tends to be the battlefield 'controller' type, I like the suppressive fire rules. However, I also wanted a technique that that would deny an opponent part of the battlefield. Here's my idea:

Cover Fire
Characters with a RoF: 3 or greater weapon with at least ten times the ROF in ammo in the magazine or otherwise fed places a MBT in the desired spot. The player the rolls their shooting with a -2 penalty (The Rock and Roll Edge negates this penalty). All opponents must make opposed roll as per suppression fire rules. Until the end of the round, the MBT remains. Any character attempting to take an action requires another Spirit roll. Any character wishing to enter the MBT template also requires a Spirit roll. The attack uses the weapon's ROF x10 in ammunition. A roll of a 1 on the Shooting die means the weapon overheated (with a chance of warping the barrel) or jammed.

Example:
Sgt Rook is trying to keep a squad of Nazis (6 of them) pinned down in a pill box with a M2 Browning machine gun until one of his allies can get into position to toss a grenade in. He wants to make sure that none of those jack-booted thugs can take a pot shot at the poor Private Pawn ordered to toss the grenade. He decides to lay down some cover fire rolling an 9. After the -2 penalty it is a 7. The machine gun uses 30 rounds this round, but since it is belt fed, Sgt. Rook isn't concerned with reloading anytime soon. All the Nazis roll Spirit vs. a 3 (they all have heavy cover). The Nazis roll as per Suppressive fire. One is hit, 2 Shaken but the other 3 have no effect.
On the Nazis turn most of the Nazis decide to keep their head down while Sgt Rook keeps the lead blazing. One of the Nazis notices Private Pawn moving in to throw the grenade. The Nazi decide to take a fighting stance and take a shot at Pawn. The Nazis cover is only medium and he has to make the Spirit roll at TN 5 (since he only has medium cover now) if he wants to get fire at Private Pawn.

Other than the tactic being a little complicated, can anyone see how it could problematic? I think it is rather balanced, it uses allot of ammo to perform (requiring a reload with most small arms afterward).
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Playing: Deadlands Noir, Planescape via D&D 4th ed
Running: Nothing at the moment

[ValhallaGH]

Well, the writing is awkward and full of unintended oddities.
Example: Targeting Able Squad with Covering Fire will force every single foe on the battlefield to roll Spirit, even if they are 300 yards away from Able Squad.
And why is it (arbitrarily) limited to ROF 3+? Why can't I use a ROF 2 machine gun to provide cover fire?

With that in mind, I'd rewrite it like this:
Cover Fire
A character, with a RoF: 2 or greater weapon with at least ten times the ROF ammunition, may make a Shooting roll to place a Medium Burst Template within range. The roll suffers recoil, range, lighting, and cover penalties as normal, and can deviate if the roll fails.
All characters in the affected area must make an opposed Spirit roll, modified by cover. Failure of the Spirit roll means the character is Shaken. A 1 on the Spirit die means the character was hit by a bullet (roll damage).
The template remains on the field until the shooter's next turn. Any character in the template attempting to take an action requires another modified Spirit roll, against the original TN. Any character wishing to enter the template also requires a Spirit roll.
The attack uses the weapon's ROF times 10 in ammunition. A roll of a 1 on the Shooting die means the weapon has malfunctioned and requires a Repair check to get back in action.

[MagusRogue]

could just say Covering Fire requires an Automatic (as in the special weapon ability) firearm...
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Freelancer and Proofreader (check me out in the Noir books!)
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand this rant is over.

[Clash957]

[ValhallaGH]