One of the more common situations isn't mentioned by the rules:

Suggestion: +1 black die per additional figure in the engagement.

2 Banes: Hit random target in engagement instead of chosen target.

I've just been adding a .

I'm going to say the target is randomly chosen before resolving the attack unless the attack is made from close range if the archer takes the prepare action and an ally engaged with a desired target spends a manuever to position the enemy they attack into a position for the archer to get a good shot on them. If the desired target gets to act before the archer gets his shot off, the manuever was wasted, and all targets are random.

Harsh, but having fired weapons in close quarters before it's the best I can come up with.

The exception will be that any shooter engaged with an enemy, who can still make a ballistic attack, can do so without worrying about hitting anyone else.

Still going to let misses just miss everyone.

I would add a <P> per character in the melee. With the roll of a Chaos meaning the character hits an unintended target (a random eligible target other than the one he was aiming at).

Boris Hochloff said:

Badly written. Let's try this; my thought process will be in italics:

A shooter firing into a melee of both friendly and enemy who are engaged with each other must randomly determine the target before building the dice pool. Unless the targets are jumping, lunging, spinning, etc., in a whirling melee, then there will be no change to the RAW.

After determining the target and the dice pool is built, the shooter may choose to add fortune dice. I do not want fortune dice to be spent and have them work against the players in any situation, especially when they may be hitting an ally.

A miss will miss every possible target. I do not see how to easily determine the damage of a miss.

A shooter can specify the target in a melee if these three conditions are met:

1. The shooter is at close range to the engaged targets. Flight time of the missile means the target may move between the time the shooter decides to fire, and the missile arrives in the engagement.

2. Since the targets last turn, one of the shooter's allies that is engaged with the target performed a manuever to give the shooter a clear shot.

3. The shooter performs the Prepare manuever.

A shooter can always shoot into an engagement and chose the target if the shooter is a part of that engagement. Being engaged with a target means you can just as easily shoot the target of choice without fear of hitting another person in the engagement, just as you can swing a flail, two-handed sword, halberd, etc., without fear of accidently striking an inadvertant target.

if they dont get a success i make them role a fortune and a misfortune....if they pass with that role nothing bad happens

Here's how we will be handling it. This is a clip from an email sent to my group:

[Rule]
Firing into a melee engagement:

No one likes accidentally hitting a friendly in combat. While accurate, it's not a fun rule. But, you have to admit, it could be dangerous. Someone could lose an eye! One would assume that if one were firing into a melee that included friends, they would be very careful.

Conservative : Firing into melee combat in a conservative state will cost one additional recharge to the action card used (due to the extra aiming time). If the action has a zero recharge value, it will add 2 recharge tokens to the action card (essentially making it unusable for one turn as a recharge token is removed at the end of your turn). A miss is a miss unless the card states otherwise.

Reckless: Firing into melee combat in a reckless state incurs a penalty to the shot. A miss is a miss unless the card states otherwise. Optionally, we could add 1 stress to the shooter on a miss (sort of a "Whew! That was close!" thing).
[Rule]

I think combat is pretty dangerous already without adding danger elements, however, if you wanted to up the stakes you could add something like:

{S} A randomly determined friendly takes 1 unmitigatable wound

{SS} A randomly determined friendly takes normal damage

NezziR said:

Like it; now I've got a 10-hour workday to squeeze free moments out of and try to tweak what I had, by making it more like what you've come up with, before our session tonight .

Gee, thanks.

check out threading the needle action card, which is a specific action for shooting into a melee, so whatever you come up with for doing this with a regular ranged weapon attack, so have worse penalties that that particular action card.

The same applies for shooting while engaged in melee; The close quarters shot action card covers than action specifically, so any penalty for doing that with a different action should have more penalties than the close quarters shot action..

pumpkin said:

Thank you!

Thanks. After seeing the 'Thread the Needle' card, I've updated our house rule to:

[Rule]
Firing into a melee engagement:

No one likes accidentally hitting a friendly in combat. While accurate, it's not a fun rule. But, you have to admit, it could be dangerous. Someone could lose an eye! One would assume that if one were firing into a melee that included friends, they would be very careful.

Conservative [bB]: Firing into melee combat in a conservative state will cost one additional recharge to the action card used (due to the extra aiming time) and will incur a [bB] penalty. If the action has a zero recharge value, it will add 2 recharge tokens to the action card (essentially making it unusable for one turn as a recharge token is removed at the end of your turn). A miss is a miss unless the card states otherwise.

Reckless [bB]: Firing into melee combat in a reckless state incurs a [bB] penalty to the shot. A miss is a miss unless the card states otherwise. Firing into a melee engagement in reckless stance will cause the party to gain 1 party tension.
[Rule]

NezziR said:

I like that. Although I will probably modify my own rules to be simpler. But I do like how you worked in party tension instead of actually hitting an unintended target.

Firing into melee: <P>

Automatically increase party tension 1 point (after all nobody likes being shot at).

Increase party tension 1 point for every chaos star rolled.

I'd probably add for Reckless:

{C} each party member gains a stress

This mimics a wizard when casting in reckless stance and they roll a {C}. It's stressful when your party members are recklessly shooting into a melee that you are in.

Before I was just adding a black but now you mention it I guess I do need to refer to "threading the needle" in order to make sense. I like the ideas you have come up with but I would like to have some kind of chance to hit a friendly combatant - I will probably use the chaos star for that.

Ok, how about this:

Firing into melee, conservative

+2 Black Dice

Prepare manoeuvre required

+1 Party Tension

If you roll a chaos star, resolve hit against a friendly target in the melee and +1 Party Tension.

Firing into melee, reckless

+1 Purple Die

+1 Party Tension

If you roll a chaos star, resolve hit against a friendly target in the melee and +1 Party Tension.

It's a little harsher than you guys have but I don't like the Idea of being able to shoot into melee with out fear of hitting you own buddies - am I too harsh?

Kaptain O said:

This seems reasonable. It's strange if you can just shoot into melee and never ever risque hitting the wrong target.

Just one thing though... if you accidentally shoot one of your friends by mistake while he is fighting for his life in melee, I'd probably give it a bigger increase on Party Tension than a mere +1. Probably +2 or perhaps even +3 (in case of a hot tempered character). I can just imagine how "pissed" someone would be if that happened:

"ARE YOU TOTALLY INSANE! YOU SHOT ME!!!!"

And if the same person should be shot by a friend gain (even if the first incident was quite a long time ago), I'd say it would probably be totally catastrophic to the party tension and i'd just let it explode no matter where it currently is. Being shot by your friends, especially if it happens more than once (you'd probably never forget the first incident), would probably make anyone flip out (especially if it's the same person who shot you again). Can you just imagine how angry you would be..?":

"YOU SHOT ME AGAIN! YOUR TOTALLY "#¤%"# DO I LOOK LIKE A PINCUSHION? YOU INCOMPETENT "#¤"#¤! YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN CARRY A BOW! HOW ABOUT I SHOOT YOU AND YOU SEE HOW FUN IT IS!!!" .... I guess here is where the party leader would step in and sort things out/calm things down, and the Party Tension meter would reset.

Well yeah, plan was +1 tension for shooting, and then another +1 if you hit for a total of +2, but that could be higher...

Well, as a GM you could always vary it due to circumstance.

Personally, if I were fighting 2:1 against me I might be willing to risk getting shot at (less tension). However, if we are easily winning, fighting 2:1 for me, and the F'in Elf shot me in the back for NO GOOD REASON, I'd probably smash his bow over his head while he slept (add more tension).

But that's just me.

I'm thinking on going for something like this:

Firing into melee, conservative:

+2 Black Dice
Prepare manoeuvre required
+1 Party Tension

If you miss and roll a bane, you hit one of your friends for 1 wound, +1 extra party tension

If you miss and roll a chaos star, you hit one of your friends for 1 critical wound, +1 extra Party Tension.

Firing into melee, reckless:

+1 Purple Die
+1 Party Tension

If you miss and roll a bane, you hit one of your friends for 1 wound, +1 extra party tension

If you miss and roll a chaos star, you hit one of your friends for 1 critical wound, +1 extra Party Tension.

That way shooting into melee isn't too easy, but also you don't have the killer elves who add their agi to the damage killing friendly PCs.

What about magic missiles and darts? Do they "tune in" to the aura of the being and therefore work like homing missiles or is there a possibility to hit a friendly target with them?

I would say those spells are like "homing missiles" (which can be hardly evaded (like when using dodge)). Spells are weak enough anyway.