SM COMSYS Targeting

Specific Targeting
Specific Targeting uses fine point control, this aims at objects – including specific body parts other than the center mass of a humanoid target (thorascic cavity). The "Time" range indicates a range from untrained to highly trained.

Active Defense
There was a time, in recent contemporary history, that armor had gone completely out of fashion. Material science had simply fallen too far behind ballistic science in being able to keep combatants safe. More recently, with Kevlar and beyond, modern armor is making a comeback.

For genre campaigns, be it powered armor in the future or plate armor in the past, there is plenty of room and rules for armor. Check the armor page for details.

Automatic Fire and "Walking the Shots"
Most 20th-21st century recoil weapons do not have compensation. For automatic weapons or weapons capable of multi-round bursts (2 or 3 shots per trigger pull), each successive round is penalized an average of 5 points on the TDL.

''Certain weapons and/or targeting systems may vary from the 5 point average. This will be noted on the individual weapon systems.''

For automatic or multi-round burst DEW or recoilless weapons, successive shots have no TDL penalty.

For semi-automatic (1 shot per trigger pull) recoiling weapons, it is possible to take successive shots on the same targeting attempt. Each successive shot adds an average of 10 points to the TDL.

''Fast successive shots are generally premeditated and the shooter typically commits in groups of three. Untrained and/or minimally experienced [and otherwise ignorant] shooters will have less awareness of their shots and may well empty a clip with no knowledge that their shots are at best useless and at worst endangering bystanders.''

Alternately, more advanced tactical skills allow smaller commitments – the most common among modern military and LEO professionals is a premeditated two shot succession known as a "double tap."

For a semi-automatic (1 round per trigger pull) DEW or recoilless weapon using a traditional trigger, there is still a 2 point penalty on the TDL, cumulative per shot.

More advanced platforms, hard points or tracking systems (implanted neural interfaces, for instance) may have modifiers but those will be discussed system by system.

If a character is tracking multiple targets for a single attack, secondary+ targets are automatically targeted at 1 PPY each worse than the last. Also, rounds may be wasted between the targets if the weapon is firing a single burst. One walking shot is necessary per 10˚difference of target positions, relative to how much the shooter has to turn. Eyeball it and do your best.

Secondary targets that require a secondary trigger-pull, ie., a pistol (instead of being inside a burst, ie., a submachine gun), are penalized yet another 1 PPY.

The Quick and the Dead
It is possible for a combatant to be hit and killed or otherwise neutralized before his turn to shoot ever comes. That's why they differentiate between the quick and the dead.

...Of course, it was Hollywood that made that distinction. In the real life Wild West, the best shootists were more calm than fast, usually letting the nervous kid get his first shot off (almost invariably wide) while taking the time to aim and drop the target.

By the end of the 20th century, training techniques evolved firearm combat (just as they evolved everything else). With a huge budget for ammunition, facilities and sports-like psychological and physiological study, tier-one counterterror teams (like the "Delta Force" or SEAL Team 6) were able to develop shooters that were both quick and accurate.

For modern-day characters, ability will be profoundly influenced based on what training is available.

Genre Twists
By the middle of the 21st century, the training distinction will be largely  democritized by available technology. Just as in the movie "Matrix" where Neo could learn jiu-jitsu with the push of a button, drawing and targeting techniques will be downloadable assuming access to the technology and the programs to do so.

''Ironic, then, that nobody downloaded the tactics/weapon handling programs. Instead of a thousand bullets, they would've solved problems with about 25 rounds and been home in time for lunch.''

Later points, into the 22nd century, will see lowered restrictions on tactical and combat training (especially the one-shot downloaded version) as most of the cultures that sustain that technology also have robots doing the grunt work of law enforcement and military operations.