I’ve been running a Weird West game using Burning Wheel rules for 5 or 6 sessions now and we’ve had a couple of fights. In this setting, only a few characters will opt for melee in a killin’ fight - and none of the PCs will. They will (quite reasonably) go for their guns. We’ve had three very-close-range gunfights and I’ve opted to use the Fight rules for them, but they’re a bit of an awkward fit.
There aren’t any actions in Fight that you can take to reliably protect you from ranged weapon fire. You can use a physical action to go to cover, raising the Ob to shoot you, but then if the enemy isn’t coming after you with machetes you’re best off just sitting still in cover and scripting shoot shoot cock the gun shoot shoot over and over.
If I run it as Range and Cover they’ll probably start with a Maintain to grab some position dice, then just Hold Hold Hold and whale away.
My players and I don’t find it as satisfying as we’d like. I can imagine a similar situation in a medieval game if you happen to have a party that favors ranged attacks.
So my idea is to either add a couple options to Fight to allow characters to more dynamically use cover, or else make a new subsystem for point-blank firefights that restores the rock-paper-scissors guessing game that Fight features.
My current mod to the Fight system…
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[li]Start off the Fight by sketching a rough map of the area where the fight is taking place with a few features that would be good cover (according to the fiction).
[/li][li]Characters can use Assess (with Perception or appropriate Wises) actions during the fight to declare cover onto the map where you haven’t drawn any to start.
[/li][li]If characters are in contact with cover, shooting them is at +1 Ob.
[/li][li]All characters with ranged weapons are assumed to be engaged at missile-range with all other characters that they can see from their position. Engagement tests are not made for these engagements (more on melee characters to follow).
[/li][li]When you script Shoot, you must script which enemy you’re planning on shooting. If you script Snapshot you can decide who to target after actions are declared.
[/li][li]You can use Physical Actions to maneuver around the area (with Stealthy, Climbing, Speed, etc.) to try to enfilade your opponent’s position. If you can move to a position where his cover doesn’t screen him anymore, then ducking won’t save him.
[/li][/ul]
New Actions in Fight
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[li]Duck (1 action): usable when you’re in contact with an object giving you cover. You duck back behind the cover completely for a moment. Any Shoot or Snapshot actions scripted against Duck automatically fail and the bullet is wasted.
[/li][li]Cover (1 action): usable when you’re in contact with an object giving you cover. Move completely behind that object. You can’t be shot by anyone on the opposite side of the cover until you take the Uncover action or a Physical Action to move away from the cover. You can’t shoot anyone on the other side of the cover, either. Use this action to reload or cast a spell in relative safety.
[/li][li]Uncover (1 action): usable when you’re completely behind an object giving you cover (see the Cover action above). You can shoot at enemies on the other side of your cover and can be shot at, though you still benefit from the cover Ob penalty to enemy shots.
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It may not matter much in a one-on-one fight, but in a big fight I figure it will put the chaos back into the fight as some enemies are ducking while others are shooting and it’s a guessing game whose head will be up when. How does it sound?