Re: [DL] Swarm Question

["William Ogden" <w_ogden@hotmail.com>]

(Note, I play in Ivan's game)
I would look at the range for a shotgun and fudge the spread, once you've 
lost a die or two, the spread is probably enough to hit several rats.

I'd be tempted to fudge even a pistol, rifle, or sabre attack as being able 
to hit more than one, depending on the density of the swarm.

If the swarm fills a large area, I would guess you'd use the size of the 
area they fill, not of an individual critter (unless for some reason you're 
trying to hit that one albino rat with an evil gleam in his eye or 
something).

>From: Ivan E <ivan_gaming@yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: deadlands@gamerz.net
>To: deadlands@gamerz.net
>Subject: [DL] Swarm Question
>Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 10:25:48 -0700 (PDT)
>
>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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