Hello. Let's say I use a Maneuver to take cover and then my action to shoot my drawn blaster. Do I still have my cover bonus as I have poked out just enough to fire, or am I now fully exposed by my attack and need another maneuver to slip back behind cover?

No your still covered

Thanks!

I assume this is for giving the opponent 1 Setback die against hitting you due to cover. There is another situation I think where the character can attempt to move to heavier cover (2 Setback for heavy cover) or break Line of Sight in order to be impossible to hit. This is one of those things where no matter how many times I clarify it I still get confused.

Read up on this again a bit, and the Maneuver "Interact with Environment" gets you under cover, but is not supposed to make you impossible to hit (1 or 2 setback dice for opponent). In the EotE book it says that the character keeps the benefit of cover until they do something to negate it, such as Attacking. The second use of Interact with Environment would restore it however, and since the game doesn't have Attacks of Opportunity or Reflex Attacks there is nothing that I see that says you cannot do this. Also, I cannot find mention of Line of Sight in the book, anyone know where that is referenced if it even is?

19 hours ago, Archlyte said:

In the EotE book it says that the character keeps the benefit of cover until they do something to negate it, such as Attacking.

Could you quote the relevant passage? All I found was:

Quote

It takes a maneuver to take cover, but once in cover, the character keeps the bonus unless circumstances around him change so that he would no longer benefit from cover, or he moves out of cover.

I'd say hiding 3/4 of yourself as you take cover in a window and only have your head and gun hand visible would most definitely count as cover even when you shoot from there. I'd personally allow a character two or more cover dice if they put themselves in a position where they can't return fire at all.

4 hours ago, Cifer said:

Could you quote the relevant passage? All I found was:

I'd say hiding 3/4 of yourself as you take cover in a window and only have your head and gun hand visible would most definitely count as cover even when you shoot from there. I'd personally allow a character two or more cover dice if they put themselves in a position where they can't return fire at all.

Sure thing. EotE pg. 202 "It takes a maneuver to take cover, but once in cover, the character keeps the bonus unless circumstances around him change so that he would no longer benefit from cover, or he moves out of cover."

I like your solution to that it seems like a good guideline and preserves the spirit of the way they present cover in the book, namely that you will normally only get ranged defense 1 from cover. I'm still trying to find any reference to Line of Sight making character immune to attack. I know that common sense would say that once a character is blocked from view by a significant object this would be the case, but my problem comes from when players want to use LoS as cover that is 100% effective at negating the effectiveness of incoming attacks, but still return fire.

16 minutes ago, Archlyte said:

I like your solution to that it seems like a good guideline and preserves the spirit of the way they present cover in the book, namely that you will normally only get ranged defense 1 from cover. I'm still trying to find any reference to Line of Sight making character immune to attack. I know that common sense would say that once a character is blocked from view by a significant object this would be the case, but my problem comes from when players want to use LoS as cover that is 100% effective at negating the effectiveness of incoming attacks, but still return fire.

First note that breaking line of sight only works as perfect cover when a) your enemy has no idea that you're there or b) cannot penetrate or circumvent the cover. If you try to take cover behind a sheet of plywood against a blaster-wielding enemy, you're not exactly safe - your enemy will just shoot through it.

I assume your problem is with characters taking a maneuvre to move out of cover, then shooting, then spending strain to maneuvre back in?

9 hours ago, Cifer said:

First note that breaking line of sight only works as perfect cover when a) your enemy has no idea that you're there or b) cannot penetrate or circumvent the cover. If you try to take cover behind a sheet of plywood against a blaster-wielding enemy, you're not exactly safe - your enemy will just shoot through it.

I assume your problem is with characters taking a maneuvre to move out of cover, then shooting, then spending strain to maneuvre back in?

Yes that is how it appeared in the game. Player found something that was convenient in size and durability and then made the case that this was a perfect place to pop goes the weasel the bad guys with impunity. I explained that they would wait until you popped up to fire but this was met with considerable disagreement and I just had to insist.

Do you know where Line of Sight is mentioned as perfect cover? Or is this just a common sense thing?

Interestingly enough, the rulebook doesn't mention any prerequisites for being able to attack someone. It isn't even explicitly spelled out somewhere that you need to be within range to shoot at the enemy.

LOS is just a common sense thing. And the easiest solution to your problem at hand would have been to let the NPCs destroy the cover and let it fall onto the PCs or worse, just move into that same cover themselves.
Now if the PCs want to just keep doing it over and over again with different kinds of LOS blockages we are getting either into asking them for a stealth check (and giving up their action) or getting into a chase scene.

Though I must admit, getting into stealth sounds actually good. Meanwhile gathering all together behind some great line of sight blocking cover is basically an invitation for grenades and other weapons which are not line of sight weapons.
The main gist is either way that NPCs ALWAYS can just do a move maneuver and than shoot the PCs in their uncovered and flanked faces. So the whole idea to keep running out of sight is a flawed concept as defensive tool to begin with.

Besides, because of the narrative structure and abstract structure of the game and combat, you could argue that a character who spends his maneuver to run out of sight might still be a valid normal target for minions taking their turn after him. Resulting in a scene in which the hero is for example is running through a firestorm of blaster fire, makes it behind cover, just to realize THEN that he has been hit a few times during his daring escape. If you want your PCs to swallow that story, make sure to narrate the hail of blasterfire already during his movement maneuver AND introduce the way to handle things this way first with an opposing nemesis character running away from the PCs. Players are well aware that everything that goes for them can later bite them in the *** when used against them, but most players should love the narrative drive the game gets when they get their shots on the big bad guy just before he escapes. And when the ruling has been established it should not cause any fuzz anymore. Imho this is the most fluid way to handle a combat scene and the way which makes it most narrative, getting the most storytelling out of a scene. Making it like a movie scene.


And now to something slightly different: Imho the taking cover maneuver should be something a lot more solid than just running out of line of sight. Taking cover is spending a whole maneuver to adjust your position based on the situation. So narrating it that a character behind some create moving around the create himself while someone else tries to circle him and allowing that character to keep his defense seems like a solid way to handle things. Now naturally when there are multiple enemies … your cover bonus might get lost once the attacks come from different sides … that is the kind of situational change meant in the rules imho.