I don't know if this already exists somewhere in the myriad supplements for this game, but I was thinking recently that it would be cool to have a personal scale equivalent of the Blanket Barrage space action, the Suppressing Fire Action. If this is already in one of the existing books in one form of another then just consider this me having some fun coming up with abilities and seeing if it's about the same as what FFG would write.

You would have to use a weapon with autofire to use it, and it would follow similar rules to Blanket Barrage.

Suppressing Fire

The shooter uses a weapon with the auto-fire quality to lay down a constant barrage of fire designed to pin opponents in place, and force those who are brave enough to move face a perilous hail of gunfire.

When a character uses the Suppressing Fire action, the character makes an Average (PP) Ranged(Heavy) or Gunnery check and designates a range band (and direction if applicable) within their weapons range they wish to suppress. Until the end of the character's next turn any opponent attempting to move into or out of that range band must make a Average (PP) Discipline Check, or lose their maneuver and fall prone. Upgrade the difficulty of this check once per (2 advantage) rolled on the Suppressing Fire check. If the Discipline check generates (2 threat) they suffer one automatic hit at the base damage of the weapon. If the Discipline check generates (despair) they suffer one automatic hit at the base damage of the weapon and are immobilized until the end of their next turn.

So it's basically an ability you can use to stop an onslaught of weak willed enemies. If you're being charged by a huge group of enemies this might work wonders.

There's the Talent Suppressing Fire (in two trees - Trailblazer from Soldier and Warleader from Guardian).... It says:

"Character and allies in Short range may spend Advantage on failed combat checks once per round to inflict 1 Strain per talent rank on the target."

It doesn't do exactly what you're talking about, but Strain suffering is a decent way to represent failing morale, I suppose.

The important part of that Talent is its not a limited amount of Advantage, it's just a 1 for 1 deal. So if you missed with 5 Advantage then you could choose to inflict 5 Strain, quite a powerful talent.

Ahh, well, I guess the action would have to be called something else then, since it does something quite a bit different, but obviously everything in the game needs its own unique name.

Any thoughts on the action though? Would you use it? Do you think it's balanced?

I think you're misreading the talent. My understanding is that you can spend 1 advantage to inflict strain equal to the number of ranks, not an advantage per strain.

I think you're misreading the talent. My understanding is that you can spend 1 advantage to inflict strain equal to the number of ranks, not an advantage per strain.

Sorry, yes your right. So with 4 ranks of the talent currently in the game it's possible to cause up to 4 Strain per Advantage. Although that's quite a big spend on XP.

I like the new action, but I would set the difficulty like normal; based on the Range and increased once for Autofire

I like the new action, but I would set the difficulty like normal; based on the Range and increased once for Autofire

I can see how it would make sense to make the range band you target set the difficulty, but suppressing short or medium range would probably be way more useful than suppressing long or extreme range, so it's questionable why doing the latter should be much harder.

I think you're misreading the talent. My understanding is that you can spend 1 advantage to inflict strain equal to the number of ranks, not an advantage per strain.

Sorry, yes your right. So with 4 ranks of the talent currently in the game it's possible to cause up to 4 Strain per Advantage. Although that's quite a big spend on XP.

There's also the issue of what happens when multiple allies each with a single rank of Suppressing Fire are within Short range. Can you activate each one once per attack?

I think you're misreading the talent. My understanding is that you can spend 1 advantage to inflict strain equal to the number of ranks, not an advantage per strain.

Sorry, yes your right. So with 4 ranks of the talent currently in the game it's possible to cause up to 4 Strain per Advantage. Although that's quite a big spend on XP.

There's also the issue of what happens when multiple allies each with a single rank of Suppressing Fire are within Short range. Can you activate each one once per attack?

I would assume it's a case of picking the highest rank. They wouldn't stack from multiple sources.

Aside from being too potent, and too specific, I think it just adds more rolling. It's basically a Fear check every time the PC succeeds (or an NPC using it succeeds against PCs). This is way more potent than, say, Fearsome, which causes enemies to require a Fear check, but only on the first turn of engagement. And Fearsome doesn't do any damage.

Simply firing any weapon can achieve a "suppression" result anyway. If you generate Advantage you don't have to auto-fire, you can "suppress" by applying setback against enemies, or Triumphs can upgrade their difficulties (increasing their odds of Despair).

The secret of this game is to not get bogged down in lists of coded and scripted actions, but let the narrative dice be applied in ways that achieve what you want in the current situation.

I think you're misreading the talent. My understanding is that you can spend 1 advantage to inflict strain equal to the number of ranks, not an advantage per strain.

Sorry, yes your right. So with 4 ranks of the talent currently in the game it's possible to cause up to 4 Strain per Advantage. Although that's quite a big spend on XP.

There's also the issue of what happens when multiple allies each with a single rank of Suppressing Fire are within Short range. Can you activate each one once per attack?

I would assume it's a case of picking the highest rank. They wouldn't stack from multiple sources.

I'm not saying that they stack, but perhaps it would be better if each can be independently activated. For example, if one of my two buddies has Suppressing Fire 2 and another has Suppressing Fire 1, I can spend one Advantage to activate the Suppressing Fire 2. However, the guy with Suppressing Fire 1 appears to offer nothing since I can only use the effect of SF once per round.

With a house rule, the first Advantage activates the SF 2 and a second Advantage could be used to activate the other guy's SF 1. This is still less effective than having one guy with SF 3 in the group.

Also, I really hope to see weapon Attachments and Mods that offer Suppressing Fire talent adds. It seems really bizarre to me that the Gunner and the Heavy don't have this ability, so hopefully they can make it up through gear.