This is something of a old subject, not just for HERO but for RPGs in general. It came up this weekend during our game session as something desired by a character at one point, but we moved on without really examining it. So I thought it would be worth a couple of blog posts.
Suppressive Fire is important in real world and genre firefights, i.e. shooting to keep someone's head down rather than directly kill them (even if such fire may manage to do just that).
Few games take it into account, and for good reasons. It may be something of a game breaker providing a huge advantage to whichever side has greater numbers. For example, if the game mechanic simply applies a modifier for someone declaring Suppressive Fire (up to preventing their 'target' from returning fire), it's easy to see how the more numerous side can suppress 'one for one' and then take complete tactical advantage with their remaining people.
It's not that easy in the real world, Suppressive Fire doesn't just have to be used- it must be effectively used and different targets of such fire may react differently. Numbers don't tell the whole story, individual troop quality and morale is often far more important.
Also from a game design PoV, it's generally counter-productive to remove player action from the game. All these factors must be weighed before selecting a mechanic.
Next post I'll cover the different ways Suppressive Fire can be represent in HERO System.
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5 comments:
I can't comment on how it would work in HERO because I don't know that system well enough, but I've considered the issue with other games I've designed.
My conclusions on how to handle it were derived in a game that had hit locations and fairly realistic trauma rules so that colors things a bit.
See, we treated cover as stationary armor and things like dodging bullets wasn't possible without super powers so moving fast created penalties for the person shooting at you and cover became pivotal.
Essentially when someone hunkers down in a bunker they're taking themselves out of the fight, which means new initiative roll to join in again. Meanwhile the guy doing suppressive fire is still very much in the game and zeroing in. Meaning functionally that character is going to have to stick his most vulnerable body-part out of protection and then locate and take a shot at the guy doing suppressive fire. Time-wise that's similar to a draw-and attack scenario, so that's 2 actions the suppressive shooter has to hit his head when he's already sighted in. Not great odds.
I find this way keeps things simple and minimizes lots of extra rules that may or may not be applicable in various situations.
An excellent topic! Though I am not very familiar with HERO, I am looking forward to your next post on the topic. I have been terribly uninpressed with the handling of suppressive fire in rulesets, as you state, it is a very important concept in real world fire fights.
I had never considered the reasons for this before, some of those made some good sense. I do think that a side at a numerical disadvantage needs to prevent the enemy from completely suppressing them by using stealth to keep their positions unknown.
I will throw out one unasked for idea, which is to make suppression a voluntary reaction on the player's part. When coming under fire, a player may "hunker down" to reduce the chances of being hit or seriously wounded by giving up their next action or taking a negative modifier.
Morale and training is key, I think. What if it cost some sort of willpower/composure/psychic point or check to expose one's self to fire?
In NWOD terms maybe you need to spend a willpower point to act, or pass a Composure + ??? test or something.
The best suppressive fire rules I've ever encountered were from Two Hour Wargames. If a target was missed by direct fire then the target rolled a reaction to the fire which could result in being suppressed, driven towards cover, or even returning fire. The basic rules for Chain Reaction are available for free from their website. If for nothing else I'd recommend them for ideas.
Good stuff. I may need to hang around after all. :)
Reports of my demise are somewhat exaggerated, Brian. I'm just cutting wayyyy back. :)
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