Opportunity Fire

If you have a ranged weapon, you
may watch a specified area and attack
as soon as a target presents itself. This
is called “opportunity fire.”
To use opportunity fire, you must
take the Wait maneuver. You must
stand still and watch for a target in a
specified area. You must face the area
you are “covering.” You may do noth-
ing else.
If a target appears in the specified
area, you must attack it (you can try to
discriminate, but this will give a penal-
ty to hit – see below). Your attack takes
place immediately. If two or more peo-
ple are taking opportunity fire at the
same target, assume that their attacks
are simultaneous.
If no target appears, you simply
wasted your turn!
All of the area to be “covered” must
be within your arc of vision (see
p. 389). The larger the area you have
to watch, the greater the penalty when
you attack:
-2 unless you have Peripheral Vision
(p.
74) or 360°
Vision (p.
34).
Regardless of those advantages:
• If you have a shield, you cannot
block an attack that comes from your
weapon side, only one that comes from
your shield side.
Hexes Watched
Attack Penalty
1
0
2
-1
3-4
-2
5-6
-3
7-10
-4
11+
-5
You may also specify a single
straight line, and say that you will fire
at the first target that crosses the line.
The penalty for this kind of opportuni-
ty fire is only -2.
When you attack, apply the appro-
priate penalty above as well as all rele-
vant ranged-combat modifiers. You
cannot claim any of the bonuses listed
for the Aim maneuver (p. 364).
Exception: If you watch a single hex
(only), you can Aim and Wait. Each
second you wait for a target also
counts as an Aim maneuver, and you
will get the normal bonus for that
amount of aiming when you finally
attack.
The GM should make sure that
players carefully specify the area they
are watching for opportunity fire. In
conflicts between PCs, the players
should tell the GM in secret so that
their opponents do not know where
they are planning to fire.
Target Discrimination: Normally,
when you take opportunity fire, you
must attack the first target that
appears in the designated area –
friend or foe! You are free to specify
that you are not attacking automati-
cally, usually to avoid shooting a
friend. If so, the GM will make a
Vision roll for you when a target
appears and tell you whether you
think it is friend or foe. However, you
have an extra -2 to hit because of the
time you spent deciding.
• If you have a one-handed melee
weapon, you cannot parry an attack that
comes from the other side of your body,
only one that comes from the same
side, unless your weapon arm has the
Extra-Flexible enhancement or you
possess the Double-Jointed advantage.