OK it makes a bit more sense now. Thank you for breaking it down like that
But 10 completely looses me...
10. If the recoil modifier is greater than zero, subtract it from your pool.
A good rule of thumb is that the recoil penalty is equal to rounds fired so far in this phase* (including the shot you're now taking) -1. Or, the first bullet is "free" but every other bullet fired costs you a die.
Let's say I'm firing two short 3 round bursts on my phase. The first 3 round burst has a -2 recoil penalty (3 bullets fired so far -1 for 2). The second 3 round burst has a -5 recoil penalty (6 bullets, 3 from the first burst, -1 for 5).
You can negate the recoil penalty by using recoil compensation. A sample thing that reduces recoil is installing gas vents on your firearm. The recoil compensation reduces the penalty you suffer from recoil. In effect, you get more free bullets before you start to suffer from recoil penalties.
Let's look at the previous example of me firing two short 3 round bursts. This time, I have Gas Vent 3 on my firearm. Gas Vent 3 provides three points of recoil compensation. So my recoil penalty is now Number of Rounds fired this phase - 4 (-1 base -3 from the Gas Vents) with a minimum of 0. My first burst now has -0 recoil penalty (3 rounds -1 base -3 Gas Vent 3= -1 which is raised to 0). My second burst has a -2 recoil penalty (6 rounds - 4 = 2).
Weapons in the Heavy weapons (such as machine guns and grenade launchers) have worse recoil modifiers than this. Once you calculate the recoil penalty, you double it.
Let's say that the firearm I've been firing is a Light Machine Gun with gas vent 3. Now, on my first three round burst, the recoil penalty is still 0 (3 bullets fired - 1 base -3 Gas Vents = -1 raise to 0, 0 times 2 equals 0). On my second three round burst, the recoil penalty is now -4 (6 bullets fired -1 base -3 Gas Vents = 2, 2 times 2 equals 4).
*- A phase is basically your actions in a pass. You get 1 free action and either 2 simple or 1 complex action per phase.