Can scatter weapons like for example shotguns be dodged?

for example if you are being shot at point blank by a scatter shotgun, can i dodge it ?

Yes, in the same way as you dodge automatic fire.

Success means you dodget 1 hit, and every DoS lets you dodge one more.

Darth Smeg said:

That's wrong. The rule for dodging an extra hit for every DoS (p. 193) applies to full and semi automatic fire only. There's another difference between the Scatter quality and burst fire, namely the ability to assign the extra hits to other targets within 2 metres. I assume this is because Scatter gives way less control over where each individual pellet hits (very close to the others at PB range). Whereas there's some control in the area covered by automatic fire. Therefore I think they intentionally left out Scatter in the rule on p. 193 and a simple successful Dodge test is enough to dodge all of the Scatter hits.

How would you handle automatic scatter fire then?

Which hits are dodged, and which are scattered?

Pretty straight forward? The errata explain that only the first hit spawns a series of Scatter hits (as to not increase number of hits quadratically with DoS). So either you dodge all of the (semi or full) auto fire due to DoS on your Dodge test and get not hit at all. Or you are hit by at least one with the full effect of its associated Scatter.

(And I realize that the errata'ed version is very inconsistent, especially if you consider assigning some of the subsequent auto fire hits to other targets within those 2 metres who would then not be affected by Scatter at all despite being hit with the very same type of ammo. They probably had game balance and combat abstraction in mind when writing the errata. If I were to houserule it, I'd in fact spawn a series of Scatter off each hit... an automatic shotgun at 3 metres IS deadly. But the RAW are crystal clear.)

I do not think it's at all crystal clear

From the Errata v 3.0:

The Actions section starting on page 190 should include a
special note concerning combining semi-auto and full-auto fire
with the Scatter quality, which reads “When firing a semi- or fullauto
burst at point blank range with a weapon that has the Scatter
quality, the extra hits for rate of fire and scatter are worked out
separately and both applied. For example, Horatius Kane fires
his combat shotgun at Heretic X. Kane is at point-blank range
and fires a semi-automatic burst. Kane rolls 01 with his modified
Ballistic Skill of 70 (30 BS, +30 for point-blank range, +10 for
firing semi-auto) and hits by an amazing six degrees of success. He
gets one hit at 70, one hit for semi-automatic at 50, and a third hit
for semi-auto at 30 (he does not get a fourth hit at 10, because the
combat shotgun’s rate of fire is 3). He would get additional hits for
scatter at 50, 30 and 10, for a total of 6 hits on Heretic X, most
likely shredding the cultist to bits in the Emperor’s name.”

It does not state that only the first shot is affected by scatter.

The Core rulebook specifies that Scatter scores additional hits, and specifies the use of the Multiple Hits table as for automatic fire.

Neither Core book or Errata specifies how the dodge skill applies to Scatter hits, so while you are correct that the Raw do not state that the same rules apply as for auto fire, it does not state explicitly that a simple success avoids all hits.

I'd say that the only thing that is clear is that the rules are unclear

That leaves it to the GM I guess. I'd say that dodging a scatter weapon should be harder than dodging a single-shot from a SP weapon (larger area of death to avoid). So I'd go with my original interpretation

It does not state so specificallly, but if you read it a few times you see that's how they do it. They do not calculate scatter for each hit, only once. But yeah they could have been clearer as always.

Realisticly speaking getting hit at point blank by an automatic shotgun is devestating. Realisticly speaking though, a shotgun scatters more the longer it is away from the target, not if it's closer. Being closer means that the pellets are less spread out and more likely to hit the target. This I think the rules represent fairly correct (except for the arbitrarily 3 meter range and no chance of hitting other characters longer ranges.). Also, being hit by a shotgun pellet is not nearly as dangerous as being hit by a bunch of them (which I suspect is the reason why shotguns have d10+4 damage).

Friend of the Dork said:

Only once, but not necesarily from the "first hit". It's the DoS of the Attack Roll that determines the number of extra hits from scatter, just as for Auto Fire. As such, the two effects are similar: They both represent the target area filled with several projectiles, making it deadlier to occupy and more difficult to avoid.

I really cannot see why you would need a "better" dodge to avoid a burst but not a "spray".

As for the RAW, the Dodge test specifies "a hit", and the Scatter description states "additional hits". So one might equally well say the RAW will let you Dodge just one hit, leaving any scatter hits to cause damage regardless. This is obvioulsy not what anyone intended, but I doubt the "one standard dodge, all dodged" was the intention either.

Darth Smeg said:

Realistically dodging gunshots does not represent dodging the bullets/pellets but not being where the gun points at at the time of shooting. As Friend of the Dork explained there isn't really a wide spray at 3 or less metres. It is still very much a single shot.

The difference to burst fire: burst fire is not just some area of bullets (depending on how much the gun gets panned while firing). You have to dodge multiple shots (!) for 3 seconds (!) making it much harder to not be in the line. Represented by a bonus to hit and penalty to dodge (as in requiring DoS to evade all of them).

It's a fair Cop

Chester said:

Thank you for writing my response