Still more FMA!

> Questions first:

Personally, if the characters are there and prepared, why not? This allows for
an ambush situation where some poor sod moves into a trap and everyone unloads
on him.

However, this down side of this is the Reaction Firing force has now
used many/all of it's activations for the turn and the other player can
proceed to maneuver and fire the rest of his troops more or less unopposed
until all his activations are complete.

I think it's a self-limiting mechanic: trading of the flexibility of
further action for one overwhelming burst of fire; realistic when a troop (or
commander) is panicky or needs to put out a 'punch' and can only pray that the
enemy can't follow up.

> As for shotguns, I like the idea of taking a string and placing

Personally, I'd say let's just make up a template.

> However this may be more detailed than desired. Perhaps something

Better yet! None of those nasty templates!:)

But, I'd say instead of *allowing* additional targets, anything to the
specified distance (2"/4" or 2"/4"/8")left/right of the target point
should *be* a target. This prevents shotguns from being used selectively:
"Well, at that range everybody in the group is in the radius of the shotgun.
So I'm going to roll to attack the gunmen and either side, but not the hostage
in the middle."

Like St.Jon said, seems bloody obvious, but it's got to be spelled out..

Another thing, the effectiveness of a shotgun drops off pretty radically with
range. I'd say its impact die should drop off with range much like a grenade's
OR (this is simpler) the accuracy die drops by two types for every range band
(yes, the pattern covers a wider area, but there are a
lot fewer pellets in that area. 12ga 00 buck only has 12 pellets/shell
IIRC.)

Someone else had a question about Strength in relation to throwing grenades,
etc. Here's an idea: Strength is a multiplier... Untrained: x0.5 Normal: x1.0
Hero/Stud: x1.5
Powered/Borg: x2.0
Special beasties, etc. x2.5 and up...

This multiplier could be applied to both grenade range, and HTH combat damage
(for purely physical weapons, but 'powered' things like
vibro-blades and lightsabers do damage more or less idependently of user
strength.)Note that an untrained character attacking another civilian will
have a much reduced chance to do fatal damage in one stroke, making simulating
riots and bar brawls fairly simple.

No ideas for costing, although I'm assuming x2.0 strength is included in the
cost of a PA suit. In general Normal stregth should be predominant. Untrained
doesn't necessarily mean weak, rather persons unused to grenade throwing (or
baseball) and HTH combat and don't know how to use
their strenth. Hero/Stud strength is for cinematic games, or to
represent Joe Recruit (Green/3) who was drafted from the major leagues;
hides like a rabbit and throws grenades from his hole, when sarge is within 4"
of him.:)

Haven't done any playtesting yet, but will (got some Star Wars and Terminator
ideas in mind.) Whadda ya think, sirs?

> is quite spectacular to say the least) and I took a look at the FMA

Amen. It's got me thinking about blowing the dust off those 25mm figs I've got
laying about and maybe even painting a few...
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