Suppressive fire

[hirch duckfinder]

Forgive me if this is old news. In fact I can't believe it isn't.
I can't find rules for suppressive fire anywhere. They are there somewhere aren't they?
I'm going to be running a very bullety scenario soon so was looking to remind myself of the rules (I'm sure I remember some...) but can find it anywhere....
Please help/enlighten/point me at the 500 threads on the same topic.
Thanks!
Duck!

 

[whulorigan]

MgT Book 1: Mercenary (1st Edition), p.72:

Suppression Fire
Any seasoned veteran will explain that the best way to survive a fire fight is for a combatant to keep their head down and out of the line of fire. However, if a trooper is doing that they are not likely to be hitting any enemies either. The key is to try and get the enemy to keep their heads down more than the trooper. The best way to do this is through Suppression fire. By shooting at an enemy without even trying to necessarily hit them, the impacts of the attacks will likely make them think twice before ducking out of cover.

Suppression fire works by having the character actually target the areas surrounding the target; a wall, a tree or even the ground at their feet are all perfectly suitable. The impact of the character’s attacks are often enough to give pause to a potential attacker. The firing character rolls his shooting attack as normal, except with a –2 DM for trying to hit cover and nearby objects to the target(s). This attack action also uses up double the normal amount of ammunition per attack. Failures are treated as normal misses. Success means that the firer has hit close enough to the target to force them to duck away, stalling their next action by adding an initiative penalty equal to the Effect of the attack. Suppressed targets also receive a –1DM penalty to any skill checks that they try to perform in both the current and following combat round.

Automatic fire can be used for Suppression fire, but no target can be affected twice by Suppression fire on the same action. The target must be allowed to take one action before he can be suppressed again. If multiple hits are used upon the same target, the highest Effect takes precedence.

 

[Timerover51]

I would add that all suppressive fire, if done by personal weapons, must be automatic fire, and burn up a minimum of one full magazine with each fire. Also, if the target is in what would be called hard cover, something like behind a reinforced concrete wall or building, the effects are going to be a bit limited.

 

[hirch duckfinder]

Thanks guys.
But it doesn't seem to be in mercenary 2nd ed??
I don't have 1st ed (used to borrow from another player) so recently bought 2nd. So no suppressive fire in mongtrav now??

 

[whulorigan]

Thanks guys.
But it doesn't seem to be in mercenary 2nd ed??
I don't have 1st ed (used to borrow from another player) so recently bought 2nd. So no suppressive fire in mongtrav now??

1st & 2nd Edition are for all intents and purposes different books.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Another issue created by my least favorite part of the combat rules. The Initiative system. You know someone fired on you and missed so you can do whatever you want now ignoring their "suppression". Or, you know you act first and there is little need to worry about "future suppression" fire.

To me, suppression is more of a thing for a miniatures strategy war game and I've always had issue with forced suppression in a role playing game.

Why can't someone play a heroic figure that ignores the incoming fire and strides forward with their own guns a blazing?

Or just sit behind cover counting off the rounds fired then calmly, with no penalties, pop up and shoot while their opponent is busy reloading?

Why can't someone play a character that knows nothing about combat and thinks the armor they were given will protect them?

A cowardly character that reacts to just the sound of gunfire, not even directed at them, by cowering as if suppressed or worse?

Suppression rules based on role playing and the rules
- Attacker decides whether or not to take a major action and pull the trigger on someone. Decides if it is a single bullet or automatic fire, weapon permitting. Includes situations where there is little or no chance of hitting them.

- Defender decides if they should go for better cover, stay in cover, come out of cover or not. Many actions and DMs are rules based.

It is possible for players role play the situation. To me, adding a suppression rule is just one more game mechanic to discourage role playing by creating less possibilities and only rules based outcomes which people will scrutinize and calculate odds and base their decisions on or roll on a table to decide instead of having characters/players decide.

Possible suppression like rules in the book
- The delayed action is not letting loose in the area of the enemy but is a rules mechanic that somewhat simulates suppression as it makes the opponent think twice about what they should do because bullets could fly in their direction at any moment.

- Using the dodge giving a -DM on skill checks

- And there is always the rule that GMs can create DMs and even change the difficulty of a task based on the situation at hand.

Of course, one should do what they want to make the game enjoyable for them and their group. Just saying that I personally don't think it is something "missing" from the rules.

For those wanting such, perhaps a successful suppression attack forces the target to dodge instead of their being able to choose to do so on their own?

 

[jeffepp]

Part of the problem of turn based games, is loosing site of the idea that everyone goes at the same time, regardless of the turn order. If a character uses automatic suppressing fire, he does so throughout the whole turn, not just on "his". And, if it is a single shot, he is actually doing it on the targets turn, either preventing action, or penalizing it.

One option, if someone wants to go against the suppression, is to risk taking a hit from the suppressing round(s).

 

[hdan]

I agree that a morale based suppression rule doesn't seem right for an RPG.

The way I've seen suppression fire work the best in an RPG or miniatures game is for a character to define a zone of fire (usually a cone or line), and anyone in that cone (or moving into/through that cone later in the turn) who could be attacked by the sprayer gets attacked.

This attack might better be accomplished with a contested Dexterity check of some kind, since it's more of a "zone of flying bullets" than a real attack.

Suppression should require an automatic weapon with a full magazine, and will empty the magazine.

This way, it works as area denial and as a way to make people in the zone keep their heads down, but it's not so suicidal to stand up that you might not take the chance.