Firearms Refresher, Please

[Haml337]

I'm an investigator. With a gun. Above and beyond that fact that I'm ~already~ doing things wrong, let's explore some combat. Let's say I've bought my handgun up to 45%, with hobby points. I'm also using a Desert Eagle which has a base 20% success, that I spent no points on.

To shoot someone (successfully), I point my gun and pull the trigger, at which point, we start rolling dice like this:

1. Malfunction
2. Handgun
3. D. Eagle
4. Damage

4 rolls for one shot seems excessive? How's this supposed to function, again? And what's the general consensus on the ~best~ way to handle firearms (whether rules-as-written or not)?

[JonHook]

I believe it goes like this...

Your handgun skill is 45%, and while the D. Eagle has a "base" of 20%, it is still a handgun, so your skill in D. Eagle is currently 45%. So from your list above, you roll your Handgun skill to shoot, not the specific D. Eagle skill.

Next, the Malfunction value listed for the weapon is the percent number or greater, (for example: "98%" means 98%, 99%, and 100%). If when you roll your Handgun skill to make an attack, and your Handgun attack roll was a fumble, in the range designated by the Malfunction value, then not only did your shot miss, your handgun has malfunctioned, ie: it is now broken. So you do not need to make a separate roll to check for a malfunction. Thus, so far you have only rolled one set of dice to make your attack.

And finally, Damage. If your shot is successful, then you may now roll the dice for damage. Of course, if you somehow shoot yourself, then you'll also roll damage against yourself. Remember what your mom said, "You'll shoot your eye out!"

So you have an opportunity to roll two sets of dice for your gun, one to attack, and one for damage.

At least that's how I run firearm combat.

[alburet]

Thats the same way my group does it as well Jonhook.

[LoneKharnivore]

That's exactly it; I admire the clarity of your explanation

But...

If when you roll your Handgun skill to make an attack, and your Handgun attack roll was a fumble, in the range designated by the Malfunction value, then not only did your shot miss, your handgun has malfunctioned, ie: it is not broken.

Um... That should read "ie: it is now broken", shouldn't it?

[Mr. Bill]

I'd also add that rolling in the Malfunction range doesn't necessarily mean the gun is *broken*, just that it didn't work the way it was supposed to. You could roll for the result or (hopefully) just pick what you think is the most interesting thing that could happen. Maybe (if you're a particularly forgiving Keeper) it's just a dud round, and the next shot will work fine with no extra player action (of course, the player doesn't know this; they just know their gun went "click" and will most likely panic regardless). Maybe the slide (or hammer, if it's a revolver) is jammed, and they'll have to spend a round clearing it before they can fire again. Maybe the gun really is broken, some serious malfunction has occurred and it will take time (and probably Mechanical Repair) to fix. But it's not a universal "if you roll in this range your gun is dead forever" thing. Just to clarify.

It's ALSO worth noting, to the OP, that while you'll never find a rule in Call of Cthulhu that calls for four rolls to resolve one action (if anything, it's simpler than most other systems), if you ever DO come across something that seems convoluted, nonsensical, or just incompatible with the feel of your game, you can always feel free to change or ignore it. The rules are there to help, after all, not hurt.

[JonHook]

Mr. Bill is correct. I was just simplifying the explanation.

[Gaffer]

I'll note that, if you spent 45 hobby points on Handgun, it is added to the 20% base for all handguns, which you now have at 65% skill. Of course, if you spent 25 points, 45% is the correct answer.

Also, that first-shot malfunction (in the hands of a VERY forgiving Keeper) could just mean you left the safety on.

Oh, and a dud round with an automatic means you have to rack the slide to eject it and bring up a (hopefully) live round.

[Haml337]

Gaffer - Assume your gun jams, or you have a dud round like in your example. Would you have to spend your whole combat round (next round, since this round was spent discovering the jam) to clear the chamber? Or just your first of x firearms turns per round?

[Shimmin Beg]

I'm sure I've heard / seen some discussions where players and Keepers with encyclopaedic knowledge of guns tailored malfunctions to specific weapons. Quite likely the Innsmouth House Players, in fact? So one sort might be prone to jamming, while another has notoriously dodgy ammunition, and in a third the barrel tends to rupture catastophically. Some automatic or semi- weapons should easily eject "fired" rounds (dud or otherwise), and I presume revolvers would cycle them round; a shotgun would need breaking open. So the time required to fix a malfunction might vary, but I would personally tend to go with a full round of action (not necessarily the next one - why not flee for your life instead?) to sort it out as the baseline.

[Noble]

I normally get the player to roll a Luck Roll, if he passes its a dud round one combat round to fix, fail gun jams and needs fixing with a handgun roll and a couple of rounds of combat or the reload time, a critical failure means the round was damaged and backfires damaging the player and the gun is beyond repair, and finally a critical success means something minor happened i.e. safety left on, dud round but without the loss of a round to fix.

[Koakai]

It might also be a hang-fire on a malfunction, where the primer ignited, but not very well, leaving the gun to go off a couple seconds late. A nice keeper might let your gun go off slightly late, givien a luck roll and a second to hit, you might get the target yet.

Hang-fires. The reason you never look down the barrel till sixty seconds after a misfire and only after clearing all ammo.
(slightly disturbing but very lucky shotgun enthusiast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjDu5zwa4rM )

[Gaffer]

slightly disturbing but very lucky shotgun enthusiast

What a dolt!

[ladyaelphaba]

"Slightly" disturbing? I knew what was coming and it still scared me.