During a given round the heavy gunner lays down suppressing fire at an ork that is inside a partially dilapidated building. Later that same round another PC wants to flank the ork by crossing in front of the building from one side to the other. Meaning the PC would enter and pass through the kill-zone established by the heavy gunner. Is this permissable? Would a pinning test be required? In the description for Suppressing Fire it talks about "opponents" and "targets." So can the person laying down suppressing fire be selective in who is targeted and who isn't? Thanks in advance.
Suppressing Fire
Eradico Pravus said:
During a given round the heavy gunner lays down suppressing fire at an ork that is inside a partially dilapidated building. Later that same round another PC wants to flank the ork by crossing in front of the building from one side to the other. Meaning the PC would enter and pass through the kill-zone established by the heavy gunner. Is this permissable? Would a pinning test be required? In the description for Suppressing Fire it talks about "opponents" and "targets." So can the person laying down suppressing fire be selective in who is targeted and who isn't? Thanks in advance.
I'd be inclined to say yes, but only in certain circumstances. If there's only 1 or 2 enemies being suppressed and only 1 or 2 friendlies moving about, it seems okay. The suppressor isn't firing completely wildly. They're aiming at the area of the enemy and firing to keep their heads down. If a friendly moves through that area and the suppressor is aware of it, I think he can pause for a second to allow the friendly safe passage.
Then again, if there's a lot of enemies, then the suppressing fire is going to be a lot less precise and that's probably super dangerous for a friendly.
Rules as written, it appears it's totally permissible, and I would keep that ruling. Suppressing fire only consumes a couple of shots, so it's not like the shooter is spraying lead willy-nilly. Realistically, you probably wouldn't cross a line of fire unless there was an elevation difference (like if the shooter is firing into or out of a second story window), and that would guide my in-character decision, but in game terms it seems to be fine. Whatever you rule in your game, just make sure that the players know beforehand what ruling to rely on.
Excellent feedback. Thanks!
A friend entering the Kill Zone absolutely definitely WOULD be subject to the effect of the Suppressing Fire.
You cannot target Suppressing Fire ‘at an ork’, you target it at an area “which is any general area, such as a corridor or tree line, that encompasses a 45-degree arc in the direction the active character is facing”, into which you unleash “a devastating hail of firepower”. Once you roll to see if you score any hits “the GM assigns the hit to a random target within the kill zone”
Suppressing Fire, by its very nature and as it’s described in the rules is not precise, it’s not careful, and it’s definitely not able to distinguish friend from foe.