Re: archery

[John Hogg <johnhogg@expert.cc.purdue.edu>]

On Mon, 21 Sep 1998, Wright Frazier wrote:

> > The premise behind doubling range and sacrificing accuracy was at least,
> > in part based on engaging masses of incoming troops, ostensibly in tight
> > formations.
> > 
> > Now, assuming the original MDV of the troops are a conservative 12,
> > someone with a Missle Mod = 0 firing at maximum range hits only on 19 or 
> > 20 (a crit).
> > 
> > That is, 1 in 2 hits is a crit.
> > 
> > A more experienced bowman with a MM = 5 would hit on 14-20.
> > 
> > That is, 1 in 7 hits is a crit.
> > 
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This rule is what makes the rookie more lethal:

> > As the rules state that when firing on masses of troops, a miss simply
> > results in a roll on another target (# of potential targets up to GM).
***************
***************
> > 
> > In the premise of a large mass of troops, and therefore large number of
> > secondary targets to be additional rolls when the bowman misses, the
> > rookie kills more people outright than the veteran simply because he rolls
> > more piercing crits.

That is, the veteran is likely to hit on the initial roll, or at least on
the second roll.(having a larger probibility to hit) However, because his
hit is only a crit 1/7 of the time (again, because of the larger
probibility of hitting) his successful attack is a plain vanilla d6 6/7 of
the hits.

The rookie, on the other hand, will likely not hit on the first, second,
third, perhaps fourth roll of the d20.  However, when he DOES hit it's a
piercing crit 1/2 the time.  Because he may roll the d20 many more times
in an attack than the veteran (once for each target the GM deems in the
area he was firing into, until he runs out of targets or hits), if there
are sufficiently densly packed opponents, the rookie will crit more
frequently/combat round than the veteran because he gets more rolls/round.

The probibility of a crit remains the same, the rookie merely gets to try
to get them more often.

> 
> No, because the average non-adventurer, has only 6dp or so.  May be a
> few more if he's a soldier.  The _ELITE_ soldiers would have more
> than 10 or _MAY_ be 15.
> 
> Sorry, Don't buy it John, 1/5 of the rookies' hits are going to be crits,
> however, he's still going to hit _FAR_ less than the vet who its 1 out
> of 7 times.  I'll gladly take my chances against the rookie, any time,
> any day.
>
Granted, a crit is ONLY a 20 on a D20 and ONLY happens 5% of the time.
What I'm arguing is that Rookie will get more rolls than the Veteran
because of the wording of missle combat.  If there are enough enemies, in
dense formation, because the rookie's probibility of hitting is so much
closer to his probibility of criting (relative to the veteran) to throw a 
SportsCenter ism "He only catches touchdowns" that is, when he hits, he
only hits big. If they both get to roll until they hit the veteran will
roll fewer times, but the rookie is more likely to come up big when he
does hit, AND if troop density is high enough, will get enough rolls TO
hit.

John Hogg				johnhogg@expert.cc.purdue.edu
"Adventure?  Excitement?  A jedi craves not these things."
						-Silent Bob, "Mallrats"