I was looking at Cepheus SRD and a few things struck me:
A) No sign of concealment in the fire combat section, but cover was included (difference: cover is something that'll stop or notably reduce incoming fire, concealment makes you hard to see (as does cover) but if the shot is aimed where you are, the concealment won't stop or reduce the impact of incoming fire)
PROBLEM: If I'm 75% in cover (a berm or leaning around the corner of an AFV), not only is there a limited amount of me to see, but if a round hits my cover, most of the time, it'll be stopped or deflected. If I'm in 75% concealement behind a rosebush, I might be hard to see, but if a round hits the area my body is behind, the round is likely to pass through the rosebush with zero notable reduction in impact. Other example: I'm in a wall of smoke. It can make me harder to see, but there is zero protection from the smoke. So treating concealment and cover identical is a problem IMO.
B) Cover can be rated as a DM of -1 to -6 on the Attack table, but in the section in Cover only goes up to -4. (Discrepancy!)
QUERY: How do I get the -6 DM on the Attack table given what the section in Cover says?
NOTE: -6 is a huge modifier. It must be more than the pillbox level of cover (say 90% cover+). Keep this in mind for the following sections when I look at prone versus cover.
C) Stances: Prone is identified as a benefit (-2 mod) in Medium or further ranges and a penalty at Personal (kissing distance). there is a note that a crouching or prone individual can treat their cover one level higher. But that's about it.
Attack Section
(Stance section)
"Prone A prone character cannot make melee attacks or dodge. He may make improved use of cover like a crouching character and he may still parry melee attacks. All ranged attacks targeting him suffer a –2 DM penalty. At Close range, the penalty is reduced to +0; a prone character being attacked at Personal range grants a +2 DM to attacks against him"
ISSUE WITH PRONE - CONFLICT IN DESCRIPTION:
1) Attack Table reads differently than the Prone in Stances.
2) Stances says: All ranged attacks targeting prone has -2 DM ("all!"). Note is then made that this isn't really true for "all" as at Close this drops to zero and at Personal to a +2 bonus. If "all" ranges are -2 except Close and Personal, then Short and Medium should be -2.
3) The Attack table seems to say -2 for Medium plus and +2 bonus at Personal and that's all - so are the rest all 0?.
These altogether don't mesh. Here's that in tabular form including my suggestion.
THOUGHTS:
1) The attack table and the text for prone should be clearly the same but are not. The two versions (as they read) plus my suggestion for solution appears in the above table.
2) -1 mod should exist at Short for being prone. Yes, you aren't bulletproof, but you've reduced your profileis a tougher (how subjectively tough the shot is depends on many other modifiers) target.
3) At Long+ ranges, prone ought to move to -3 IMO.
4) I'd leave the 'take advantage of cover' aspect as well. Prone and far away is really hard to locate and hit.
I've shot at longer targets with long arms. The size of your target is pretty important out to 300-400m at least. Someone lying down in a field 400m away is harder to hit by a fair peace than a -2 penalty would represent. And is harder to hit that someone at 100m or 50m.
D) No discussion of bracing/rests or kneeling or prone positions. Prone, you can often gain accuracy at range even putting your mag on the ground. In kneeling, you can use your webgear and your mag to help stabilize your shot and the position of kneeling is inherently better (and prone better still) because weapons tend to wobble more standing due to weight. It's a bit fuzzy, because you can try to rest your weapons mag (thinking of M16/M4s) on your web gear while standing too. And having a brick wall or a tree stump or even a rock can give an improvised bench rest.
SOLUTION:
a) Any actual physical rest/brace you can utilize should give you +1 modifier for ranges beyond medium. Depending on weapon, you might be able to claim that by bracing on yourself in kneeling position. (We'll ignore bracing in standing as it is harder to arrange)
b) If you are prone, you are automatically considered braced.
E) -1 per 10m moved... irrespective of range or the vector of the moving target (directly across firer, directly away/toward firer, or some oblique inclination between directly across and directly away/toward).
SOLUTION:
0) Running directly away or towards you should at most be -1 penalty at Long+ ranges. closer than that... you aren't arcing your shot notably for weapons so it is aim where you want to hit... and that means your movement towards you or away from you matters little.
1) Decide how many minutes of arc you want to represent a movement penalty (or what increments of penalty apply at different minutes of arc)
2) For each range band, pick the middle range, figure out how much movement orthogonally corresponds to -1, -2, etc.
3) Take the data you just calculated and create a lookup table of range versus amount of movements that give particular penalties if movement is orthogonal.
4) To simplify the rest (the oblique movements that aren't directly away/toward or orthogonal across), split the difference between the away/toward and the orthogonal values and go with that.
That's my thoughts.
A) No sign of concealment in the fire combat section, but cover was included (difference: cover is something that'll stop or notably reduce incoming fire, concealment makes you hard to see (as does cover) but if the shot is aimed where you are, the concealment won't stop or reduce the impact of incoming fire)
PROBLEM: If I'm 75% in cover (a berm or leaning around the corner of an AFV), not only is there a limited amount of me to see, but if a round hits my cover, most of the time, it'll be stopped or deflected. If I'm in 75% concealement behind a rosebush, I might be hard to see, but if a round hits the area my body is behind, the round is likely to pass through the rosebush with zero notable reduction in impact. Other example: I'm in a wall of smoke. It can make me harder to see, but there is zero protection from the smoke. So treating concealment and cover identical is a problem IMO.
B) Cover can be rated as a DM of -1 to -6 on the Attack table, but in the section in Cover only goes up to -4. (Discrepancy!)
QUERY: How do I get the -6 DM on the Attack table given what the section in Cover says?
NOTE: -6 is a huge modifier. It must be more than the pillbox level of cover (say 90% cover+). Keep this in mind for the following sections when I look at prone versus cover.
C) Stances: Prone is identified as a benefit (-2 mod) in Medium or further ranges and a penalty at Personal (kissing distance). there is a note that a crouching or prone individual can treat their cover one level higher. But that's about it.
Attack Section
| Target Stance |
|
|---|
"Prone A prone character cannot make melee attacks or dodge. He may make improved use of cover like a crouching character and he may still parry melee attacks. All ranged attacks targeting him suffer a –2 DM penalty. At Close range, the penalty is reduced to +0; a prone character being attacked at Personal range grants a +2 DM to attacks against him"
ISSUE WITH PRONE - CONFLICT IN DESCRIPTION:
1) Attack Table reads differently than the Prone in Stances.
2) Stances says: All ranged attacks targeting prone has -2 DM ("all!"). Note is then made that this isn't really true for "all" as at Close this drops to zero and at Personal to a +2 bonus. If "all" ranges are -2 except Close and Personal, then Short and Medium should be -2.
3) The Attack table seems to say -2 for Medium plus and +2 bonus at Personal and that's all - so are the rest all 0?.
These altogether don't mesh. Here's that in tabular form including my suggestion.
| Range | My suggestion | According to the Attack Table | According to Stances (Prone description) |
| Personal | +2 | +2 ("+2 if attacking a prone target at Personal range") | +2 ("a prone character being attacked at Personal range grants a +2 DM to attacks against him") |
| Close | +1 | 0 | 0 ("At Close range, the penalty is reduced to +0") |
| Short | 0 | 0 | -2 ("All ranged attacks targeting him suffer a –2 DM penalty") |
| Medium | -1 | -2 ("-2 if attacking a prone target at Medium or greater range") | -2 ("All ranged attacks targeting him suffer a –2 DM penalty") |
| Long | -2 | -2 ("-2 if attacking a prone target at Medium or greater range") | -2 ("All ranged attacks targeting him suffer a –2 DM penalty") |
| Very Long+ ranges | -3 | -2 ("-2 if attacking a prone target at Medium or greater range") | -2 ("-All ranged attacks targeting him suffer a –2 DM penalty") |
THOUGHTS:
1) The attack table and the text for prone should be clearly the same but are not. The two versions (as they read) plus my suggestion for solution appears in the above table.
2) -1 mod should exist at Short for being prone. Yes, you aren't bulletproof, but you've reduced your profileis a tougher (how subjectively tough the shot is depends on many other modifiers) target.
3) At Long+ ranges, prone ought to move to -3 IMO.
4) I'd leave the 'take advantage of cover' aspect as well. Prone and far away is really hard to locate and hit.
I've shot at longer targets with long arms. The size of your target is pretty important out to 300-400m at least. Someone lying down in a field 400m away is harder to hit by a fair peace than a -2 penalty would represent. And is harder to hit that someone at 100m or 50m.
D) No discussion of bracing/rests or kneeling or prone positions. Prone, you can often gain accuracy at range even putting your mag on the ground. In kneeling, you can use your webgear and your mag to help stabilize your shot and the position of kneeling is inherently better (and prone better still) because weapons tend to wobble more standing due to weight. It's a bit fuzzy, because you can try to rest your weapons mag (thinking of M16/M4s) on your web gear while standing too. And having a brick wall or a tree stump or even a rock can give an improvised bench rest.
SOLUTION:
a) Any actual physical rest/brace you can utilize should give you +1 modifier for ranges beyond medium. Depending on weapon, you might be able to claim that by bracing on yourself in kneeling position. (We'll ignore bracing in standing as it is harder to arrange)
b) If you are prone, you are automatically considered braced.
E) -1 per 10m moved... irrespective of range or the vector of the moving target (directly across firer, directly away/toward firer, or some oblique inclination between directly across and directly away/toward).
SOLUTION:
0) Running directly away or towards you should at most be -1 penalty at Long+ ranges. closer than that... you aren't arcing your shot notably for weapons so it is aim where you want to hit... and that means your movement towards you or away from you matters little.
1) Decide how many minutes of arc you want to represent a movement penalty (or what increments of penalty apply at different minutes of arc)
2) For each range band, pick the middle range, figure out how much movement orthogonally corresponds to -1, -2, etc.
3) Take the data you just calculated and create a lookup table of range versus amount of movements that give particular penalties if movement is orthogonal.
4) To simplify the rest (the oblique movements that aren't directly away/toward or orthogonal across), split the difference between the away/toward and the orthogonal values and go with that.
That's my thoughts.
