A ranged weapon must be Ready before it can be Fired.
To Ready a weapon:
Certain Features like Archer allow combining Drawing, Loading, and
Aiming into a single action.
Aiming must occur during the Missile Phase by spending a Quick Action. It eliminates certain penalties as outlined below.
You can aim at any target in your line of sight, or aim at a Hex where you expect a target to appear. If you look away or break concentration (i.e. by being Engaged or performing another action), you lose Aim.
Some Features like Marksman allow to further improve aim.
Firing is always a Quick Action.
You cannot fire at all:
Reaction Fire is Fire during a Side's Passive Movement Phase, as a Reaction to Movement. Only the target that just moved (or any target in a Formation that just moved) may be fired at.
Attack Result = DR
+ Finesse
+ Weapon Skill
+ Weapon Attack Modifier
+ Target Size / Cover
+ 2 IF Point Blank UNLESS Evading
+ 2 IF Aimed at Stationary
- 2 IF Unaimed
- 1 IF Wounded
- Range Penalty
- Range Penalty AGAIN IF target is moving, min. -1
- Target's Missile Evasion IF Evading (cumulative)
- 1 FOR EACH Obstacle (special)
- 2 IF Firing into Melee (special)
OR -1 IF target in Formation
Range Penalty = 1 FOR EACH range increment exceeded
Missile Evasion =
Finesse
+ Combat//2 OR Stealth//2
+ Shield Missile Defense
- 2 if Wounded or Encumbered
- 2
min 0
Damage is calculated as usual.
Human-like creatures have a Size of 0. Every doubling/halving changes Size by +/-1 logarithmically.
A target is considered moving if it is Engaged, actively Evading, or actually moving in its current Movement Phase.
To be considered Stationary, a character must be unaware and at rest, not engaged in any notable physical activity at all.
Point Blank Fire is fire within 2-4 Hexes range, adding +2 to the Fire Result.
It is not available if:
Cover is simulated by reducing the target's Size Modifier. For each halving of the body size exposed, apply -1, i.e. -1 for light cover, -2 for heavy, -4 for arrow slits.
The required Result to hit the head/helmet is lowered to 3 for -1 Cover, and to 2 for Cover lower than that.
Targets in Full Cover are out of sight and cannot be Fired at. However, if Aimed at the right location, they can be subject to Reaction Fire as soon as they emerge.
Firing from Cover incurs no penalties, but you must momentarily expose yourself sufficiently in order to take Aim and Fire. This is implicit and doesn't cost anything, but may incur Reaction Fire.
Adjacent friendlies may intentionally provide cover to the firer. This is typically Half Cover (-1) and never counts as an obstacle from the firer's perspective.
Active Cover provided to the target does count as an obstacle. If Misfired upon and using a shield, Missile Evasion applies.
Sometimes another target than the intended one might be hit. In that case, recalculate the Result as though you had been firing at the new target, but keep the DR and Line of Fire as is. Treat a second Misfire as a miss.
Each character located in a Hex the Line of Fire passes through is considered an Obstacle (as well as certain inanimate objects; GM's call), except for Active Cover provided to the firer.
At the end of determining the Fire Result, after applying all other modifiers except Firing into Melee, subtract 1 from the intermediate Result for each Obstacle one by one, in order from closest to furthest from the firer. The Obstacle that causes the Result to drop to 0 is subject to Misfire.
Firing into Melee incurs a penalty of 2, or 1 if the target is part of a Formation.
This penalty is applied last after all penalties. If this causes the Result to drop to 0 or -1, an adjacent Hex is hit instead of the target. Roll a d6 to determine the Hex. Any possible target inside is subject to Misfire.