Ok, so I have a question bout suppressive fire. One of my plyers rolled a scum and he wants to make him into a gunmetallican gunslinger. The thing is - I don't know how to interpret the dual weapon rules. I know the errata 3.0 inside out, but it still does not mention one of the most important (for my player at least) possibilities: suppressive fire.

I know that it is possible to fiure both weapons at full auto during one's turn, but can I actually supress with two weapons? If so, can I fire one weapon in suppressive fire mode and the other in semi auto, or a single fire mode, on the same or other target? I know that I have to fire both weapons on the same tarhet if I want to suppress it with both of themn, but what I want to supress one target anb hit the other one with full auto/semi auto/singe shot? I'm lost here.

My Ruling:

Suppressive Fire is described as a single ballistic skill test as a full action, so you can't perform two of these by using two weapons. Both weapons would be used within one test. You're already taking a -20 for using suppressive fire, and you'll be giving yourself no bonus by using two weapons. If you don't have all of the related talents you'll be taking a further penalty. You can only score as many hits as your degrees of success. The only way firing two automatic pistols at once could be advantageous is if you've scored more degrees of success than your fire rate, thus allowing you to roll more wounds against random targets within your firing arc. This isn't going to happen often, and the true advantage of suppressive fire is forcing a pinning test.

For simplicity's sake I'd say don't bother. If you're keen on doing it and you score enough degrees of success for it to matter you should allocate all of the hits from your primary firearm first, and once you're out of those bullets use the secondary firearm. (this is unrealistic, but simpler)

If you're using two of the same weapon, say with a S/-/6 fire rate, then you'd just combine them into a S/-/12 for the purpose of Suppressive Fire.

I found this one in Rogue Trader rules (for whatever that is worth in a DH game):

"When firing a ranged weapon with each hand, the character may fire each weapon on a different mode, for example, one on full automatic and one on semi-automatic. When firing a full automatic weapon in each hand, the character may only lay down one area of suppressive fire."

I suppose that the most direct interpretation should be to allow the second gun to fire normally (since for instance single shot cannot suppress), but then again it is pretty vague.

Thanks for your answers. However, there are a few "buts". Alox - should I allow the second gun to fire on full auto as well? I know that it cant' supress any other targets, as you can only lay one area of suppressive fire, but what if my player wants to shoot the goon he already supressed with one weapon, on full auto with the other? Wouldn't that be a bit OP?

Well, I am not so sure that it is overpowered. First of all it has to be two pistols in each hand, and once the characters rank up a bit they are not that powerful. Also suppression mostly works best against weak targets, and wouldnt it be better to just shoot the target then? And if the other hand shoots at some target the suppression area has to center on the target (withint 10 feet) unless the user has independent targetting. Finally the user gets all sorts of minuses unless they have ambi dex and other talents, maybe you can just rule that these minuses converts to a bonus for the targets on their pinning check.

I have not seen this in play though, so I do not know how it will actually work out. In my game the PCs rarely bother with suppression, it is mostly a feature that the thugs uses with autoguns, and the PCs hate it - quite a lot of nerves of steel purchases in my campaign. :-)