• Suppressive Fire:

* Suppressive Fire is used to cover an area (Fire Zone) with bullets or blaster fire, making the area hazardous to pass through.

You may overlap the fire zones of more then one weapon, dividing the total number of shots to determine the save.

* Two notes:
o 1: Suppressive fire is only useful when you can pour a lot of fire into the area you wish to suppress. Fire teams (characters) should coordinate their attacks and fire at the same time.
o 2: Fire Zones should be as tight as possible. (Minimum width: 2 meters.)

* Saving throw to navigate suppressive fire is a D20 + your PP bonus (raw stat bonus)

* The target number you must beat is the ROF of the weapon(s) being fired into the area divided by the size of the area in meters

* So, two Wraith cannons (ROF 5), firing into a 2 meter area would be 10/2 = 5 so 5 is the target to beat, it's a large weapon and low ROF so…easy enough; but, a rail gun with an ROF of 30 is a 15 so, that’s harder to beat, and if two are firing into the same area it would be 30, which would make it nigh impossible to run thru it unscathed…

* If you decide to brave the hailstorm of suppressive fire, and fail to make your save, you are struck by 1D6 rounds + an additional 1d6 rounds per ever 10 points the saves is failed by.

* The human psyche and self preservation are intrinsically linked. Even in body armor the mind wants to keep the body alive and has a hard time leaping into possible harm. To brave Suppressive fire you must also roll a Morale Check.

And the new additions…

Additional Notes: In keeping continuity with the preexisting suppressive fire rules a strike roll is technically necessary. However any roll BUT a Natural 1 will impact the area the player desires to suppress. The player must state OR ask for (in the event of tight spaces) the area in meters he / she wishes to suppress. At that point the conversion of ROF divided by meters will be applied. (Fractions will be rounded DOWN.) This applies to any enemy ENTERING or trying to MOVE THROUGH the area already under suppression. This save is a roll of a D20 + PP Stat.
For Example: 300 ROF into a 6 meter area is 50, the save to beat is 50. The same 300 into a 10 meter area is 30.

Further Notes: Opening fire into an area requires a normal strike roll that the enemy gets a chance to avoid with a dodge. This reflect the fact that (assuming a successful dodge) they noticed the big gun spinning up and made it to cover. In the case of tight quarters, that means they moved off in a direction which allows them to avoid the beginning of the stream. After the initial attack, the area is considered suppressed. Any enemy that made it to cover is so protected (that is until the cover succumbs to the enemy fire if a vehicle or fortification.)

For note, the 3000 is RPM (Rounds per minute) NOT ROF. If I applied a 3000 ROF you would be able to suppress up to a 150 foot area with no chance of failure. I think that's a bit unrealistic.

The Additional and Further notes are applicable to ALL weapons with sufficient ROF to suppress. (Or multiple lesser weapons fired in concert.)

I'll leave this new 'proposal' open to rewrite, debate, etc. until start of game Sunday. If no changes, better ideas, or concerns are raised before then, the rule gets ratified by act of me. I'll even bang a gavel to make it official.

So to anyone, here is a perfect opportunity to make a mark. If you have a better rule that is balanced, lay it on me.

I'm going to step away from this discussion. The rule is broken, at least as far as last nights tunnel combat. The ROF 3000 was a GM ruling and there are plenty of weapons that have a rof higher than their ammo capacity.

Right now the real issue is if 'continuous' suppressing fire can be dodged and an enemy can still close t
(in a tunnel) then this weapon has NO intrinsic value and is a waste of space on the board.

Just like the rule of 4+ missiles can not be dodged, the same should apply for sustained supressing fire. (And cover is different from a standard dodge)

I have nothing more to add.

"the rule is fine it just can't have a dodge in the target area - either cover or stimultaneous attack - only fleeing the range of the 885 should clear a target after having taken the damage to escape on a continuous Suppressing Fire attack"

There is no need to make it complicated by changing what makes this weapon unique - and given I am the only one that uses it currently.

Althought die roll for number of targets hit should be increased in ratio to GMs previous ruling of an ROF 3000 on the 885.

Otherwise there is NO reason to use this weapon and the upgraded dmg on the HRG-70 makes for a superior weapon system with no negative side effect when needing to do suppressing fire under the current rule or as proposed by Jaron…

SAVE THE 885!

The special rule is fine but the continuing suppressing fire needs to be noted to fit into the normal suppression rule.

So for example

I roll to strike to start the suppression fire with 885; then I roll the 1d4. Those four roll their dodge and I'm suppressing that area now. So then it would fall under the normal suppression rules. When my next turn comes up I spend the two actions again to roll to strike and 1d4 all over again.

So only thing that is needed is a noted Rate of Fire and the user of the suppression to call out target area of the suppression.