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Ranged Attacks    Ranged attacks are slowing major actions. If you wish to make a ranged attack, choose a target you can see, proceed through the rules for any Ability or device you wish to use in conjunction with the attack, and expend any ammo or charge required for the shot. Next, you must succeed on an offense roll. Your target must then attempt a defense roll. Defense rolls are always on DEX. If your opponent fails their defense roll, the attack hits; proceed into the Damage & Drive rules later in this chapter.

    If you are not competent in the weapon you are currently wielding, you must make an incompetent ranged attack. First, make an offense roll of d20 on DEX. The defense roll is d20 on DEX, and any Marksmanship Abilities you have cannot be used. You may only attack at short range, and cannot fire while mounted.

    If you are competent, you may make a competent ranged attack. The defense roll is still d20 on DEX, but offense rolls will vary with range, depending on rules found in the Study of Marksmanship.

    No more than one ranged weapon (or weapon-equivalent Ability) may be involved in a single attack. Dual-wielding ranged weapons provides no extra benefit, as only one may fire in a given attack.

    If you are in a grapple, you can only attempt to use a non-thrown ranged weapon, and must wield it one-handed. Ranged attacks against characters you are grappling with are the only kind of ranged attack that does not require sight. You must still add melee interference Hindrance (see below).
Hands    All "conventional" ranged weapons are designed to be used two-handed, even small weapons like handguns. If you are wielding such a ranged weapon one-handed, you must add 1 Hindrance to any short-range offense roll, 2 Hindrance for medium range, and 4 Hindrance for long range. Thrown weapons are not included in this rule and neither are any weapon-equivalent Abilities, such as Energy Ranged Attack (Arcana). If any other weapon ignores this rule, it will be stated in that weapon's details.

Unaimed Attacks     In order to make a proper ranged attack, you must take aim, which is why ranged attacks are slowing actions. However, if you are normally competent with your weapon, you may make an incompetent ranged attack as a non-slowing major action. If you are not normally competent, you cannot perform such unaimed attacks.

Blind Ranged Attacks

    Characters who are fully blinded cannot make ranged attacks, except for AoEs targeted at their own engagement. If you make such an attack, you are considered to automatically fail the offense roll for the purposes of AoE hit chances.

    If you are otherwise able to see, you can make an incompetent attack against a character you can't see, but you know is within short range (for example, a cloaked character). You must be normally competent with your weapon, and you must know the location of the character to the level of engagement range; typically, when they have done something to reveal they are engaged with you, or with your allies. Blind attacks cannot inflict critical hits. You will not hit any allied characters, but if there are multiple enemies in the same engagement that you cannot see, your attack's actual target is randomly selected from among all of them. If you succeed on the offense roll, but no invisible enemies are actually in the engagement you specify, you do not know whether they are gone or if you simply missed.

    Ranged attacks cannot be both blind and unaimed.

    These rules do not apply to a non-blinded character targeting an AoE at the general vicinity of a known group, which instead follow 50%-hit-chance AoE rules (see below).

Melee Interference Hindrance     If you have received any kind of melee attack since your last turn, or are currently in a grapple, you must add 2 Hindrance to any ranged offense roll. This is true for any melee attack that succeeded on its offense roll (or did not require one), regardless of whether it hit or damaged you. Even a nimble dodge - or accepting a hit that you know won't damage you - will still disrupt your aim.

    Some other rolls which are not ranged offense rolls are still specified as subject to melee interference Hindrance, following these same rules.

    Thrown weapons are more limited in the Marksmanship Abilities they can use and are often less powerful, but have the benefit of fewer countermeasures (such as kinetic shields or energy shielding). Any melee weapon can be thrown, but it must have the Throwing tag in order to enable a competent ranged attack. Unlike other ranged weapons, your STR is added to damage and possibly drive, in the same manner as if striking one-handed with the weapon in a melee attack.

    All throwable weapons have STR requirements. For items such as grenades and satchels, the stat requirement will be listed. For melee weapons, the stat requirement is the same as their One-Handed wielding stat requirement. The ranged offense rolls of any thrown weapon are d12/2d20/X.

Injury Type     When you damage another character with a ranged attack (except for area effects), the GM will roll a d20 to determine what type of injury will be inflicted (see Injuries):

Full-Auto Fire     Some projectile weapons have a full-auto mode, referring to the capability to rapidly fire multiple shots with one trigger pull. Without Full-Auto Skill (Marksmanship), weapons with full-auto capability can only use full-auto at short range, and can only target a single character.

    When used in this mode, weapons use their listed (much higher) full-auto damage rather than their normal damage, and require 10 rounds of ammunition per full-auto attack. The weapon's drive is unchanged. Weapons without a listed full-auto damage cannot perform full-auto fire.

    When attacking with full-auto, critical hits cannot be inflicted. Because the damage comes from many smaller projectiles, full-auto attacks count only 1/4 of their damage against the charge usage and flying-damage effects of kinetic shielding.

Area of Effect (AoE)    Some weapons can affect many characters at once with a single shot or explosive. Area of Effect (AoE) rules are used to determine who is hit, and to what extent. There are two types of AoEs: burst and spray.

    Burst AoEs have two different sets of damage and drive values: impact for a single target directly hit by the main body of the attack, and area for nearby targets within the blast radius. A character directly attacked with a burst AoE takes either the impact or area effect (not both), depending on whether they succeed on their defense roll to avoid the impact effect. If they succeed, they are still guaranteed to be hit by the area effect. In either case, any character currently grappling, touching, or being touched by them is also guaranteed to be hit by the area effect.

    Spray AoEs follow the same rules as burst for their area effect, but have no direct target or impact effect, and do not choose a single impact target that is guaranteed to be affected. Burst AoEs are therefore technically more dangerous; in practice, many weapons are restricted to one AoE type or the other, and those capable of both may have a greater area effect in spray mode. Spray AoEs do not involve a defense roll, but still include an offense roll to determine AoE hit chances (see below).

    Examples of burst AoEs include explosives such as grenades, rockets, and satchel charges, as well as exploding shots from energy weapons. Examples of spray AoEs include a sweeping beam from a light-ray weapon or flamethrower. AoE rules may also be used to resolve non-damaging effects such as adhesive grenades or blinding rays. All weapons, Abilities, or devices that use AoE rules will specify whether they use burst or spray AoE rules, and therefore whether they have a greater effect for a central target. If non-damaging actions use AoE rules, resolve hit chances as if there was a successful offense roll.

    By default, an AoE of either type has an 80% chance to include any individual character in the target group. If you fail your offense roll, the chance is 30% instead (and burst AoEs miss with their impact effect). If the target group is engaged with another group, the same hit chances apply to everyone in the entire engagement, thereby risking allies. If desired, you can use caution, voluntarily altering the 80%-for-all chance to 60% for enemies and 30% for allies, if your offense roll succeeds. Allies you cannot see have hit chances as if they were enemies. For AoEs with beneficial effects (such as solvent or styptic grenades), you may reverse the enemies vs. allies effects of using caution. You cannot use caution with an incompetent weapon attack.

    Unless otherwise stated in the rules for an Ability or device, you are included in the potential allied victims of your area effect if targeting your own engagement with a burst AoE. Spray AoEs do not hit their user. Vehicles are always struck by area effects in their engagement (unless they are instead targeted with a burst AoE's impact effect), regardless of offense roll or caution.

    In some cases, an AoE attacker may be able to hit characters from separate groups/engagements, if those engagements are within short range of one another. This is determined by the GM, but usually involves a small zone, a large amount of groups, or a "pseudo-group" trying to technically avoid grouping-up. In such cases, the attacker cannot attempt to hit anyone with impact effects or be more cautious about hitting allies; all characters have a 50% chance to be hit, or a 20% chance with a failed offense roll. The same rules may be applied if an AoE is fired at the vicinity of groups the attacker can't see (but still knows their approximate position in the zone).

    Characters who are mounted roll AoE hit chances once for both mount and rider.

    Characters who are using cover have the same chances to be hit by an AoE; however, they may add their cover's armor bonus against the area effect's drive. Shield armor bonuses are ineffective against AoEs. Neither shields nor cover have any effect against non-damaging effects that use AoE rules, unless specified otherwise by those effects.

    Flying characters or vehicles whose altitude is higher than engagement range are unaffected by burst AoEs that explode at ground level. They can still take area effects from a burst AoE that impacts another flying character within engagement range. They are affected normally by spray AoEs.

    All area damage causes Core Injuries, and cannot inflict critical hits. The impact damage of a burst AoE makes an injury roll like a normal ranged attack.

    Powerful AoEs have a chance of causing structures to collapse if used in an indoor zone; see Demolition & Collapses.

Energy AoEs     Powerful energy weapons are capable of creating a damaging effect in a wide area. Any ranged energy weapon with a damage of 40 or more (consisting entirely of energy damage) can optionally perform an AoE using the rules above. For burst AoEs, the impact effect is 3/4 of the attack's normal damage, and the area effect is 1/4 normal damage. For spray AoEs, the area effect is 1/3 normal damage. Various weapons and Abilities may alter these proportions, and may also be restricted to one type. Remember that energy drive is equal to damage.

Energy Overeffect     Some Abilities and weapons - such as high-tier arcanists or vehicle attacks - generate such a high amount of energy damage that they cannot avoid damaging their target's surroundings. Any ranged energy weapon that inflicts at least 120 damage causes an overeffect burst AoE using the same rules as energy AoEs above, except that the area effect is equal to 1/6 normal damage, and the impact effect is identical to normal damage. Such a weapon can use the normal AoE rules above; it simply causes the 1/6 damage overeffect whenever it is not deliberately used in AoE mode. Caution and Area Tactics (Marksmanship) can be used in either mode.

    Overeffect rules cannot be avoided with such powerful weapons; overeffect may in fact be a beneficial effect when attacking a powerful foe surrounded by weaker cohorts, but it can also be detrimental if your own allies are engaged with the target. Overeffect rules include even weapons that cannot produce burst AoEs in their deliberate AoE mode.

Projectile AoEs     Powerful automatic firearms (such as those of vehicles) are capable of creating such a volume of fire that they can affect a whole area instead of using normal full-auto rules. Any projectile weapon with a full-auto damage of 150 or more can optionally perform a spray AoE. The area effect is equal to 1/4 full-auto damage. The weapon's normal drive is used.

Zonewide Area of Effect (ZAoE)    Some attacks spread damage over so large an area that even AoE rules are too narrow in scope. Examples include many aircraft weapons such as bombs and rocket pods, a bombardment by airships or artillery, or the broadest energy attacks of dragons or powerful arcanists. Events such as these affect at least one entire zone with damage, and are called zonewide areas of effect.

    Unlike AoEs, there is no general rule that allows any powerful energy weapon to use ZAoE rules. Unless a weapon, Ability, or device explicitly states that it can (or must) use ZAoE rules, it never does. Unless a rule refers to ZAoE (with the Z), any reference to areas of effect uses only the normal AoE rules above.

    Similarities between AoE and ZAoE rules include countermeasures: cover, armor, and kinetic or energy shielding are the only potential defense, with shields made useless and no defense rolls allowed. Unlike a normal AoE, there is no percentage chance to be hit, or an option for the attacker to use caution. A ZAoE affects all characters within a zone, with larger ones affecting all characters in adjacent zones as well.

    ZAoEs are not considered to inflict impact damage. However, they will always list two different values for area damage, simply called high damage and low damage. Which one is brought to bear against each character depends on the type of ZAoE. ZAoEs come in two types, cluster and point, and each one of those comes in lesser and greater varieties.

    Point ZAoEs originate from one point within the zone. Examples include a huge bomb, or a massive fireball from an arcanist or dragon. A lesser point ZAoE affects a single zone, and may involve an offense roll - if it does, it will be to hit a specific group/engagement with its high damage value, with the rest of the zone is hit with its low damage value. If there is no offense roll or the roll is failed, a random group/engagement might receive the high damage; roll d6 on the number of separate groups/engagements within the zone. If equal to or below the number, roll another die to randomly select which group/engagement; otherwise, only the low damage value applies throughout the zone. A greater point ZAoE simply hits an entire zone with its high damage value, and every adjacent zone with its low damage value. It does not have an offense roll.

    Cluster ZAoEs describe many smaller bursts within the zone, rather than a single origin. Examples include an aircraft's rocket pods, an airship bombardment, or a wide torrent of energy from an arcanist. For all cluster ZAoEs, simply roll a d6 for each character; on a result of 5 or 6, the character is hit with the high damage value, while any other result hits them with the low damage value. Vehicles, as well as creatures of at least 25 WGT, are always hit by the high damage. A lesser cluster ZAoE affects 1 zone, while a greater cluster ZAoE affects 1 zone, plus every adjacent zone. There are never any offense rolls.

    Until the end of the attacker's next turn, all ZAoEs consisting entirely of energy damage count as a bright light source in any zone they affect.

    Flying characters or vehicles are unaffected by cluster ZAoEs if they are at a higher altitude than engagement range. They are affected by point ZAoEs only if they are at an altitude of medium range or lower; they take the low damage unless they are over the center zone of a greater point ZAoE, in which case they take the high damage.

Cover     Cover is an important concept in ranged battles, and many Abilities from the Study of Marksmanship are impacted by it. Of course, any character can make use of cover, as it is not a complicated concept - simply putting something between yourself and the enemy, exposing less of your body to incoming ranged attacks. Cover describes everything from going prone in a field, to ducking behind a tree, to setting up behind a castle's battlements. Environments entirely without cover are extremely rare, although more cluttered battlefields provide more durable cover.

    You are able to begin using cover as a slowing minor action, and continue using it without an action on subsequent turns so long as you make no rolls on SPD. You cannot use cover while grappling, flying, or mounted. You cannot touch grouped-up allies unless they are also using cover. In many situations, such as when one side is defending a position, or otherwise were expecting trouble and not moving when a fight broke out, the GM may allow characters to begin combat already using cover.

    While using cover, you gain an armor bonus against ranged attacks. The amount of the armor bonus depends on your environment:

    In special circumstances, the GM might vary the armor bonus from what is listed on the above chart (for example, in a field of stout boulders, or a forest of particularly thin trees).

    Critical hits have an option to prevent the defender from gaining the armor bonus from cover against that attack; the attacker simply shoots an unprotected area. Clear Shot (Marksmanship) can also make such critical hits easier.

    The main downside of fighting from cover is your increased vulnerability when enemies close to melee distance. You do not receive cover's armor bonus against ranged attackers who are engaged with you, unless you are being defended via group defense (and the ranged attacker is not bypassing it). While using cover, you also have 2 degrees of melee disadvantage against all attackers, and are not counted for defending others in group defense, nor for outnumbering dice.

    You can leave cover as a free action, or as part of your movement phase. Rolling on SPD immediately removes you from cover, unless you voluntarily fail the roll. Any event that moves you at least short range also removes you from cover. Knockdowns do not remove you.

    Creatures of 25 or more WGT cannot use cover, unless it is improved cover designed for such use.

Cover, Shields, & "Hits"    Note that the rules for cover are similar to those for shields (see Armor & Shields). The armor bonus from a shield cannot be used at the same time as the armor bonus from cover; you must choose which one you are using against a given attack. Typically, cover is more useful; unlike shields, an attack that fails to cause damage through a cover armor bonus is not considered to have truly "hit" you, just as if you had succeeded on your defense roll. This means that cover always protects you against ranged attacks with an effect other than damage on their target (for example, adhesive points) unless your cover bonus is lost to a critical hit. Cover is also superior to shields during AoEs (see above). Choosing to use a shield's armor bonus instead of a cover armor bonus does not change your using-cover status nor remove its melee disadvantage.

Improved Cover    Improved cover refers to deliberately constructed cover intended to be used as such. Examples include castle battlements, arrow slits, sandbag bunkers, pillboxes, or trenches. Improved cover is distinguished by a much higher armor bonus of 100. It also has a greater effect on Weapon Bracing (Marksmanship). Improved cover usually has some sort of location-based limitation - for example, castle battlements would be ineffective against characters already on the wall, and a bunker would be ineffective against others inside the bunker.

Flight vs. Cover    By default, cover is ineffective against ranged attacks that originate from a flying character or vehicle, if that source's vertical height above you is at least equal to its horizontal range from you. This rule does not apply to the effect of cover on AoEs and ZAoEs, nor to certain types of improved cover (for example, a bunker with a roof). It may also not apply (or may require greater height) in zones with tall cover, such as trees or pillars.

Ranged Flanking     Splitting up can enable a group to make more effective ranged attacks, especially when dealing with enemies in cover. It is much harder to defend against ranged attacks when they can come from markedly different directions.

Basic Flanking    Basic flanking refers to a situation in which you can attack the enemy from two directions which, from the enemy's perspective, are at least around 90 degrees separated. The possibility or difficulty of maneuvering to flank in this way may be affected by the zone(s). A character flanked according to these rules must add 1 Hindrance to all ranged defense rolls.

Severe Flanking    Severe flanking refers to a situation in which you can attack the enemy from two directions which are virtually opposite each other. The possibility or difficulty of maneuvering to flank in this way may be affected by the zone(s), but it will likely require significant movement. A character flanked according to these rules must add 3 Hindrance to all ranged defense rolls.

Prioritizing a Flank    Defending characters may choose to "ignore" a flank, prioritizing defense rolls against the other direction. For example, the group in one direction may be far less of a ranged threat, or may not even be making ranged attacks at all. This choice is made by each character individually, but must be decided at the end of the movement phase. If done, flanking rules are ignored for ranged attacks coming from the prioritized group, but flanking Hindrance is doubled for attacks coming from any other direction.

Multiple Groups    If more than 2 groups are flanking an enemy, the most severe type of flanking applies to all groups. For example, if there are three groups, but two are on opposite sides of the enemy enough to count for severe flanking, then attacks from all 3 groups follow severe flanking rules. If two of those groups are in very similar directions from the enemy, however, the enemy can prioritize both of them at once.

What Doesn't Count    Ranged attacks at engagement range never add Hindrance from flanking, and a group that is engaged with an enemy group does not count for the purposes of helping anyone else flank that group. They may or may not be on opposite sides of a given character during the course of a round, but this is offset by the hectic close-quarters movement and the need to avoid hitting allies. Similarly, strafing aircraft do not count in regards to flanking rules.

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