"Characteristics Influencing Skill With Missile Weapons" Topic

Is there any evidence of particular physical characteristics that influence the accuracy and effectiveness of missile weapons – everything from javelins to bows to crossbows to muskets to modern weapons.

Or to put it another way, if you were designing an RPG, which statistics would you have which would influence the accuracy and/or damage caused by a given type of missile weapon system?

Or would you put accuracy, in particular, down to practice for that discrete skill alone?

I'm not sure this is a very brilliantly worded question, but hopefully everyone gets the idea!

Javelins---Strength
Bows------Dexterity
Crossbows---maybe intelligence or dexterity
Muskets----constitution
Modern weapons---intelligence or wisdom

Strength: ability to hold a steady aim with any weapon, or draw a bow or crossbow, and, of course, hurl spears, axes, rocks, etc.

Hand to eye coordination, obviously.

Endurance to overcome the effects of fatigue, etc..

Calmness or self control: ability to ease one's heart rate, slow down breathing, etc,, so as to assure a steady, controlled shot. Could just call this "Nerve."

Eye sight, particularly long distance vision.

muscle memory and starting early is what you need to make a good archer. To make a modern rifleman you need practice. More practice if you started with bad habits. You needed a little strength to pull back the bolt of an M14 at parade but not on anything from the M16 on. Modern NATO is basically a 22.

Some games, like certain versions of Rolemaster, used a split of statistics for influencing weapon skills, but tying each weapon type to a single statistic (for games that have stats at all) seems to be preferable.

One thing is that mechanical projectile, chemical ballistic, missile, and hybrid (rockets – stage 1 unguided missile, stage 2 ballistic) are fundamentally different things, even if we classify them all as "missile" (or whatever) weapons.

Each weapon will have a maximum range, which is way beyond its maximum effective range, discussed here. Almost none of the performance characteristics are linear with respect to range, but for many of them in their "optimal performance envelope" you get a "close enough" to linear response to range to make linear performance modification reasonable.

The human factors in weapon performance are all pretty similar, as described above. Training, practice, and perishability.

In a modern (say, 18th cent+), sci fi, or fantasy setting, you get many more things that improve performance.

How detailed you want to get will drive how detailed your mechanic is.

I like the idea of having a base performance related to a stat that is "pure" weapon performance. Then adding a couple of ranges at which you have penalties, and allowing either the range or penalty (or both) to vary based on conditions.

So my postapoc campaign has:

Strength 1 – 10, nominal human strength 5
Dexterity 1 – 10, nominal human strength 5

Pistol – Roll < Dexterity on a d10
<50m +1 to needed score
50m-150m no bonus
150-200m -1 to needed score
>200m no shot

Recurve Bow – Roll < Strength on a d10
<20m -1 to needed score
20m-50m +1 to needed score
50m-90m no bonus
90m-110m -1
>110m no shot

Ranges move in 10m for each week without practice
+1 to roll if you are moving
+1 to roll if you are being shot at
-1 to roll if you have already shot at this target
half ranges in moderate rain

That kind of thing.

Spacial relations skills. Especially for bows, slings, and other projectiles noticeable arcs at range.

I think first you need to start with what characteristics your system will have.

D&D uses just Strength and Dexterity, plus a skill bonus. The basic system is your Str bonus is used with melee weapons, and your Dex bonus with ranged weapons. And you have a penalty if you aren't trained in a weapon.

Some melee weapons have additional classifications which modify this. Finesse weapons can alternately use your Dex bonus (Rapier). Some weapons have the Thrown characteristic (Javelin, Handaxe). A Dagger would be both Finesse and Thrown.

Some versions of D&D added ways to get additional bonuses for highly skilled characters, such as feats or proficiencies or expertise.

@CeruLucifus,

I'm starting from the opposite end of this, as in work from reality back into the game, rather than start from the gaming characteristics.

In the end it's all a +1.

Thusly, starting from the beginning:

> 1. Learning which end of the weapon to point away from you
> 2. Pointing that end toward a target
> 3. How to make it go 'bang' (or 'twang')
~ Hits (lucky shot)
~ Hits (target close enough not to miss)
~ Miss (most of the time)
~ Hits (due to step 5, below)
> 4. How to reload (if possible, or smart enough to figure it out)
> 5. Repeat steps 2 – 4
~ (i.e. Get better the more times step 5 is repeated (called 'practice'))

So, basically, Experience (with weapon) + Practice
(with a + to Confidence once the weapon is competently mastered.)
(Sorry, no numbered modifiers given, as there too many variables.)

@Zephyr,

Do you think that no characteristics should affect the skill apart from experience + practice?

It all depends on the characteristics 'categories' you are using or designing into your game. You could easily put E+P into 'Wisdom', while still keeping 'Accuracy' as a skill or action. Again, too many variables (which would range from a kobold picking up an AK-47 for the first time to a Spetznatz picking one up. According to my silly little list, one of those will be vastly better using it than the other… ;-)

@Zephyr1,

I'm not sure that there has to be too many variables. If I have a skill "shooting" or "throwing", should I modify it with a physical attribute (strength, dexterity, perception, agility…whatever) or not?

Take two extreme examples, WFRP and Twilight 2000 (v2). In the first, "Ballistic Skill" is independent from everything else. The only way (nearly!, there is a slight complication…) to become better at shooting a bow is to improve one's ballistic skill. In the second, base skill is essentially skill plus attribute. IIRC "firearms" is linked to "strength"; so a point of characteristic is equal to a point of skill. In practice, the characteristic is even more important, because the strength of the average soldier is likely to be 5-7 and his weapon skill 2-4. Which do you think is the better model?

I tend to lean towards making stats a fairly small benefit to the skills but have training/experience be the far bigger influence.

Reason being that there's fewer stats than skills, so you can get a situation where buying/training up a stat gives a huge bonus to a wide range of skills.

Equally, there's no need a game MUST have stats at all.