[imthedci]

I'm calling this a stupid question because I think I know what the answer is already, but I'd like verification.

If a weapon (like, say, a machine gun) doesn't have Single Shot mode listed, then it can't shoot that way, right?

Second bonus question - The SA and BF modes say that they increase damage. That means that it increases the weapons DV (or at least adds to it), right?

[Michael Chandra]

SS mode may receive errata in future. You may want to function under assumption that any SA weapon has an SS mode.

Bonus damage comes on top of base DV yes.

[imthedci]

SS mode may receive errata in future. You may want to function under assumption that any SA weapon has an SS mode.

I'll do that. It'll make life a lot easier.


Let me add a third question to that list though - With the way that Full Auto is worded, it makes it sound like if you want to use Burst Fire mode to hit two targets, you have to spend a Multiple Attack Minor Action. Is that correct, or am I reading too much into it?

[Michael Chandra]

That is correct.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Let me add a third question to that list though - With the way that Full Auto is worded, it makes it sound like if you want to use Burst Fire mode to hit two targets, you have to spend a Multiple Attack Minor Action. Is that correct, or am I reading too much into it?

No, part of the point in FA is that you don't have to spend the action to split your attacks up.

[Michael Chandra]

Ah did I read the term wrong? BF to multiple attacks requires Multiple Attacks. FA is excepted.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Ah did I read the term wrong? BF to multiple attacks requires Multiple Attacks. FA is excepted.

NM I misread imthedci's question.  He wasn't asking about FA.. he was saying FA makes BF's rules look ambiguous as to whether you need to spend the Multiple Attacks on a Wide Burst attack via BF.

And THAT is indeed ambiguous, still needing official clarification.  My personal view is that no, you do not need to spend the minor action to apply a Wide Burst on exactly two targets.  You want to get fancy, and do multiple wide bursts?  Or split the 4 bullets across more than exactly two targets? Yeah, then in my non-official view you'll need to expend the minor action for Multiple Attacks.

[skalchemist]

SS mode may receive errata in future. You may want to function under assumption that any SA weapon has an SS mode.

Bonus damage comes on top of base DV yes.

I think the wording around modes is a bit confusing.  The mode descriptions (pg 109) say...

SS: You fire a single bullet. There are no changes to a weapon’s attributes with a single shot.
SA: You fire two rounds rapidly with two trigger pulls. Decrease the Attack Rating of your weapon by 2 and increase damage by 1.
BF: You’ve got a fancy gun that pumps out multiple rounds with a single trigger pull. You can fire four rounds in an attack.

Now, the "'Change Device Mode" and "Use Simple Device" actions would seem to imply that the different modes on firearms are literally settings.  You flip a switch (electronic or manual, using a DNI link or your finger) to change between them.  But the wording of the SA and SS modes above suggest that they really aren't different "modes", per se, just different firing techniques of the same mode.

In our game, we are treating each mode as an actual setting. That is, SA mode would be "you fire two rounds with each pull of the trigger".  But I'm not really sure what the original intent was.  From the way they left off SS on a lot of weapons, I feel like the implication was there is no separate SS and SA modes, really, there are just weapons that have a fast enough firing mechanism that you can snap off two shots in one attack action without using Multiple Attacks, and weapons that aren't fast enough.

EDIT: in the fiction, treating SS and SA as the same "mode" makes a bit more sense, because it would seem really weird for a weapon to have a "2 round per trigger pull" AND a "4 round per trigger" mode.  What is the point of that?  Why not just a single "3 round per trigger" mode?  From that perspective, maybe a better house rule is to get rid of SA mode entirely, but add an "*" or something to SS mode for some weapons that leads to a note that says "this weapon may fire two rounds at a single target without using a Multiple Attack action, -2 to AR, +1 to damage".  The reason it matters is using actions to switch modes is a pretty big deal, even a minor action used for that purpose on a smartgun is an action you couldn't use for something else.

[penllawen]

The reason it matters is using actions to switch modes is a pretty big deal, even a minor action used for that purpose on a smartgun is an action you couldn't use for something else.

This is really confusingly written IMO but in the Gear section under Smartgun (pg261), the Wireless bonus is "Wireless bonus: ... Gain a bonus Minor Action on a turn when you use the Reload Smartgun or Change Device Mode actions to eject a clip or change fire mode."

(Why wasn't this mentioned under the Change Device Mode action? Why are rules about actions buried in footnotes in the gear chapter where they're easy to miss? Why are the rules written in such a way as to require this awkward "gain a bonus minor action" mechanic? Dunno.)

I completely agree with you that narratively SS and SA aren't distinct firing modes; they're firing mechanisms that support different fire rates. I wouldn't make a player use actions to switch between them.

[skalchemist]

This is really confusingly written IMO but in the Gear section under Smartgun (pg261), the Wireless bonus is "Wireless bonus: ... Gain a bonus Minor Action on a turn when you use the Reload Smartgun or Change Device Mode actions to eject a clip or change fire mode."

(Why wasn't this mentioned under the Change Device Mode action? Why are rules about actions buried in footnotes in the gear chapter where they're easy to miss? Why are the rules written in such a way as to require this awkward "gain a bonus minor action" mechanic? Dunno.)

I think because this is a distinct benefit of using a smartgun in particular in Wireless mode (versus Wired mode I guess?)  Like, you can always use a minor action to swap modes or reload a smartgun (instead of, I think, a major action if it is not a smartgun), but if you have it in Wireless you get that minor action back.

[penllawen]

I think because this is a distinct benefit of using a smartgun in particular in Wireless mode (versus Wired mode I guess?)  Like, you can always use a minor action to swap modes or reload a smartgun (instead of, I think, a major action if it is not a smartgun), but if you have it in Wireless you get that minor action back.

Well, the rule itself is at the intersection of "gear" and "action economy", so could fairly be mentioned in either. But it's quite a key rule, for smartguns, and too easy to overlook IMO. I think in this case, I'd have campaigned for it to be mentioned in both. Maybe under the Change Device Mode action, say "...unless it is a smartgun in wireless mode (see page xxx.)" Just a tiny extra heads-up that there's more to know here.

5e had the exact same problem. I think you need to look in four places to get the full picture of what a smartgun does, and based on posts here and on reddit, a lot of people miss one or more of those sections.

Also weird, though, is the "you get a free minor action back", which is there because there's no concept of free actions in 6e. It's clunky though, and it crops up a few times. I think it might have been cleaner to just keep free actions around.

[skalchemist]

Also weird, though, is the "you get a free minor action back", which is there because there's no concept of free actions in 6e. It's clunky though, and it crops up a few times. I think it might have been cleaner to just keep free actions around.

Does it actually use the word "free"?  I think the concept is pretty straightforward, it just might be worded a bit awkwardly.  The word "extra" would maybe have been a better choice.  There are few other Wireless benefits that do the exact same thing, I think, in other circumstances. 

As a basic framework, it seems like:

* If you are doing the thing without a direct neural interface, it takes a major action.
* If you are doing the thing with a direct neural interface, it takes a minor action.
* If you are doing the thing wirelessly with a direct neural interface, it takes a minor action but you then earn an extra minor action.

If that had been written up as a general rule I think a lot of other bits in the rules might have been easier to explain and make consistent.

[Michael Chandra]

To be precise, there are two spots that say you gain a free Minor Action during any turn where you do X, instead of an extra Minor Action. None say you gain a Minor action back. And there's a limit to only getting 1 freebie per kind of thing, based on the "during any turn" rather than "after you do".

[imthedci]

I'm gonna add another question in here since it still, kinda, sorta, somewhat applies to the subject at hand....

If you attack multiple characters (like with FA), can you possibly gain Edge for each character you attack? (Remembering the 2 Edge per round limit, that is)

[Michael Chandra]

For the one action, you can only earn Edge once based on AR-DR:

At the beginning of
an Attack or hack action, compare the Attack Rating
and Defense Rating of the opponents (or, if there are
multiple targets, the highest of the combatants). If either
is 4 or more greater than the other, that player
gets a point of Edge. If the attack is area-effect or attacking
multiple targets, compare to the highest Defense
Rating among them.

So you compare your AR to the highest DR, and that determines if you get a point of Edge. Same likely applies to other advantages such as thermographic vision.