[DL] Swarm Question

[Ivan E <ivan_gaming@yahoo.com>]

Question for our own swarm o' Marshals: I'm running
the Revised Edition, using the Swarm rules from
Rascals, Varmints & Critters II. The posse's been set
upon by a swarm of rats in a mineshaft at night.
Looking through the combat rules, I get the following
"to hit" modifiers:

-10 due to size
-4 due to torchlight
-2 due to Fear Level

That's a -16 to hit any of the rats! Combat will take
at least two weeks on a PBeM basis with numbers like
that.

My initial thought was to reduce the number of rats to
5 or so per posse member from an initial 12, but at
that point they're only doing 1d6 damage - not enough
to hurt any posse members w/o my spending chips or
rolling Aces.

My question is this: When attacking swarms, should I
reduce or eliminate the Size penalty? Thanks to the
Accumulated Rulings, I know that Shane said "I'd
figure out a swarm rule, say bullets and the like do
no good, and talk about how you have to use
flamethrowers or the like. [Shane Hensley, DL
listserv, 8/20/98]". But since that was in '98 and
RVCII came out in 2000, I assume the RVCII swarm rules
supercede this statement.

A second question along the same lines: One of the
posse members fired a shotgun into the swarm. In that
case, I think you almost have to eliminate the size
penalty, since the buckshot's going everywhere.

Thoughts? I really need your help on this, so thanks
in advance!

- Ivan
http://www.gamesgroove.com/ivan/DustAndBones/index.html

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