Saturday, September 22, 2012

House Rules: Snap Shots



So I was just out mowing the lawn and sweating my butt off, which is a good time for thinking about stuff (not as good as the shower or the crapper, but not bad).  And what I was thinking was how much I didn't like some of the restrictions on the new snap shots rules.  Of course there's always something to complain about with a new edition, that's half the fun of it, but here's my logic...

Weapons that fire blast, large blast, or template patterns cannot snap shot under the new 6th edition 40K rules.  Snap shot's a great idea that allows some units that went to waste in previous editions to get their weapons to bear more often.  I'm all for that, but let's say you have a missile launcher.  If your marine fires a krak missile on the move, no problem, pull the trigger and let fly.  But if he fires a frag missile, coming out of the same steel tube and pushing the same little red button, whole different ball game, can't do it.  The missile no doubt looks the same, it's just the effect on detonation.  So here's my proposed solution...

Blast and Large Blast weapons fired as snap shots:  The firer rolls 3D6 (instead of 2D6 as usual) along with the scatter die and must discard the lowest result.  Do not subtract 1 for the BS 1 -- it's too wild a shot.  If a hit is rolled on the scatter consider it the same as a 6 for a normal snap shot: right on target.
(Technically there's a 2 out of 6 chance of rolling a hit, rather than 1 of 6 of rolling a 6, but we'll just consider it off-set by the more extreme deviation when it does scatter, okay?)

Flamer Template weapons fired as snap shots:  Similar concept.  Jerking that thing around in a hurry may be dangerous for everyone around you--and even for you!.  Place the template where you would like it to land.  Roll a scatter die and 1D6, but do not subtract the BS 1 from this total. Measure from the circle at the center of the template's business end and scatter as rolled keeping the pointy end pointing at the firer as much as possible.  This may hit friends as well as foes, the firer himself, and even separate the pointy end of the template from the weapon barrel -- that's fine.  Consider it the wild arc of the flame (or whatever energy or chemical), jumping up and coming down hard.  This is the risk you take if you choose to snap shot such a weapon.  (And if it deviates backward at all, guess who's getting hit...?)

I think that would work great and make for more exciting games.  What do you think???





3 comments:

  1. Blast: No Hits, always scatter. The hit symbol has a little arrow for the scatter direction. otherwise you get very strange distribution with 1/3 smack one and 2/3 wildly far away.

    Template: Place Template. Roll scatter die and 1 d6. Use scatter die to tell you whether to move clockwise or counterclockwise (alway scatter) rotate template so the large end moves d6 inches around the arc.

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    1. You know what, I like both those ideas! I forgot there was an arrow on the hit symbol of the scatter die. Are you using these ideas already or branching off from here?

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