Modern firearms are dangerous, efficient, and deadly. One of the more challenging parts of any roleplaying experience is accurately portraying firearms. Some systems tend to have a heavy set of rules and charts for handling firearm combat. The problem with these types of systems is that they tend to greatly slow down play. A campaign becomes an endless succession of combat round after combat round. Other systems tend to forget reality and just use a very simple means for using firearms. These rules are good for getting combat over fast and moving on to more role-playing, but they often don't allow for the feel of a true gun battle that may be desired by the GM and the players.

The following system has been designed to fit somewhere in the middle. It tries to be light in rules while still maintaining some edge of real gunplay.

A Few Things to Remember

There are a few things that both players and GMs should note when entering a gun battle. The first point is that in most real life gun battles, the majority of the shots fired miss. Most of the time the battle is between two poorly trained or untrained combatants firing poorly placed shots at each other while trying to catch their breath. Elements such as darkness, fatigue, etc. can all have a great deal of effect on a person trying to fire off a shot at an attacker.

Now this is not meant to discourage anyone, feel free to run in head first with guns blazing, just don't be too surprised when you get plugged a few times from a better position. But that's not what you wanted to hear, so here's how to handle firearms.

Determining Range

No matter how fast you think you are, no human being can actually dodge a bullet. Most firearms can fire a projectile at hundreds or even thousands of feet per second, so don't go thinking you can outrun one. For that reason, all firearms attacks are considered to be unopposed actions. Now, that doesn't mean you can't try to dodge the attack, we'll just cover that later.

The first thing to do before a firearms attack can be made is to determine the range to the target. This range is then compared to the weapon's Base Range. A weapon's Base Bange is the maximum range at which a Fair result is required to hit. For every halving of the Base Range, the difficulty of the shot drops one level. For every doubling of the Base Range, the difficulty increases one level. Assuming a Base Range of 10m (35 ft), the following chart shows an example of range to-hit values.

To-hit	Range
Terrible	1m
Poor	2.5m
Mediocre	5m
Fair	10m
Good	20m
Great	40m
Superb	80m

This means that if character A is firing at another character B who is 10 meters away, character A needs a Fair result to hit. If character A was firing at a target 65 meters away a roll of Superb would be needed to hit since the range is above the maximum value for Great.

The following chart shows the general range categories for different kinds of weapons. They are not true to every weapon of that kind. It is more of a general value for simplicity. In many cases a weapon may have a maximum range far above the value for a Superb shot. In this case the chart can easily be expanded by doubling the range value until the maximum range is reached.

To-hit	Handguns	SMGs	Rifles	Sniper Rifles	Shotguns*
Terrible	1m	2.5m	3m	5m	2.5m
Poor	2.5m	5m	6m	10m	5m
Mediocre	5m	10m	12.5m	20m	10m
Fair	10m	20m	25m	40m	20m
Good	20m	40m	50m	75m	40m
Great	40m	80m	100m	150m	60m
Superb	80m	160m	200m	300m	80m
* Shotguns do not double their Base Range value.

Modifiers

There are many factors that can contribute to a shooter's accuracy. Here are a few examples of possible modifiers.

Mod.	Effect
-1	Hurt, injured, etc.
-1	Fatigued, heavy breathing
-1	Low light conditions
-1	Target behind partial cover
-2	Target behind nearly full cover
-1	Firing rifle one handed or from hip
+1	Target in brightly lit area
+2	Target is unaware of attack
+*	Target is dodging
GMs and players may add their own modifiers as they see fit.

* Here is where dodging comes into play. Naturally, a moving target is much harder to hit than a stationary one. Therefore, a dodging target is harder to hit. A character may elect to dodge if they have not already acted for the combat round. They may then add the positive value of whatever trait the GM says is appropriate (Dodge skill, Agility attribute, etc.) to the difficulty of the attack. So what happens if you don't have these skills or have them at a low rating? Don't worry, if you take your action to dodge, you always get at least a +1 added to the difficulty of the attackers to-hit roll.

Damage

Damage is handled normally by adding the relative degree of success to the weapon's damage value.

High Rate of Fire and Automatic Weapons

Some weapons will be able to fire more then one shot in a single combat round. This means the weapon has a Rate of Fire higher than 1. In the case of such weapons, each shot is fired as a separate to-hit roll against the target. Each shot past the first suffers a cumulative -1 penalty. So the second shot is at -1, the third at -2, etc.

Some weapons have the ability to fire a tremendous amount of shots in a single combat round. These are Automatic Weapons. For automatic weapons their rate of fire is broken down into bursts. Each burst is three rounds (rounded normally). A weapon that can fire ten rounds will fire three bursts. The tenth shot is lost. But a weapon that can fire eleven shots would fire four bursts (the twelfth shot is not needed). A burst adds +2 to the damage of the weapon. Each burst is considered a separate attack and is rolled separately. Each burst past the first suffers a cumulative -1 penalty. So the second burst is at -1, the third at -2, etc.

Bursts can be also be used to spray an area hitting multiple targets. Each burst is considered to fill up a 1 meter (3 foot) area. Each burst past the first can fire either 1 meter to the left or right of the first. So firing five bursts could fill up a five meter area.

Firearms at Close/Long Range

Guns tend to do more damage at very close range and less damage at long range. A gun striking a target at Terrible range adds +1 to its damage. On the other side, a gun striking a target a Superb range is -1 to damage.

Shotguns

Shotguns using shot have the ability to spread at range making them more accurate. Shotguns receive a +1 to hit at a range of Fair and Good, but are also -1 to damage as the shot spreads. The shotgun is +2 to hit and -2 to damage at Great range and +3 to hit and -3 to damage at Superb range.

Example Firearms

The following is a list of some common modern firearms as well the damage for various kinds of weapons.

Revolvers
Name	Shots	RoF	Caliber	Notes
Colt Cobra	6	2	.38	Double Action
Smith & Wesson M12	6	2	.38	Double Action
Colt Python	6	1	.357	Double Action
Ruger Blackhawk	6	1	.44	Single Action
Automatic Pistols
Name	Shots	RoF	Caliber	Notes
Glock Model 17	17	2	9mm
Walther PPK	7	3	.32
SIG-Sauer P230	8	2	9mm, .32
IMI Desert Eagle	9	1	.357
Beretta M92	15	2	9mm
Colt M1911a1	7	1	.45
Smith & Wesson 4006	10	2	.40
Submachine Guns
Name	Shots	RoF	Caliber	Notes
Skorpion M61	10, 20	3, 20	.32	Folding Stock
H&K MP5	15, 30	2, 20	9mm	Folding Stock
UZI	25, 32, 40	2, 20	9mm	Folding Stock
Thompson M1	20, 30, 50	1, 20	.45
Ingram MAC-10	32	1, 20	.45	Folding Stock
Rifles
Name	Shots	RoF	Caliber	Notes*
FN FAL	20	1, 20	7.62mm	Bipod, Bayonet
FAMAS	25	1, 3, 20	5.56mm	Bipod, Bayonet
H&K G3	20	1, 20	7.62mm	Bayonet
M1 Garand	8	1	30-06	Bayonet
Armalite AR-15	20, 30	1, 20	5.56mm	Bipod, Bayonet
Colt M16a1	20, 30	1, 20	5.56mm	Bipod, Bayonet
Colt M16a2	20, 30	1, 3	5.56mm	Bipod, Bayonet
Kalishnikov AK-47	30	1, 20	7.62mm	Bayonet
Sniper Rifles
Name	Shots	RoF	Caliber	Notes
PSG1	5, 20	1	7.62mm
SSG2000	4	½	7.62mm	Bolt Action
Dragunov SVD	10	1	7.62mm
Barrett M82a1	11	1	.50	Bipod
Shotguns
Name	Shots	RoF	Caliber	Notes
FN Riot	5	1	12ga
Benelli M1	7	1	12ga
Mossberg 590	9	1	12ga

Damage Values
Handguns/Submachine Guns
.32	+3
.38	+3
.357	+4
.40	+4
.44	+5
.45	+5
9mm	+3
Rifles
30-06	+7
.50	+8
5.56mm	+6
7.62mm	+7
Shotguns
12ga Slug	+5
12ga Shot	+4