Friendly fire?

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Spectrum
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Friendly fire?

Post by Spectrum »

Selective in area of effect abilities is kind of weird to me.

How often in movies/comics/video games/etc is there a problem with needing to worry about friendly fire? Most of the examples that I can think of don't penalize the characters by hurting their friend or buffing their enemies when they are throwing around big scene effecting abilities. Or, those times come up so rarely that its more of a Complication restricting action choice rather than a reason to make those choices substantially more expensive.

So, my question, in various other materials, how often is that really an issue? And when it is an issue, is it worth the massive upcharge or is it more of a moment of narrative limitation?

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slade the sniper
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Re: Friendly fire?

Post by slade the sniper »

I think it is more of a genre convention. For 4 color comics (Golden age), it shouldn't be an issue at all. I can see a narrative limitation being used in a Silver Age, cinematic or pulp genre game. In an Iron Age, realistic or gritty genre then friendly fire should definitely be a consideration. In a war game type of environment, it should be definitely included because it becomes a tool to use on the battlefield.

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FuzzyBoots
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Re: Friendly fire?

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Honestly, Friendly Fire is pretty much the main limiting factor for Area attacks in the game. Correspondingly, I limit Selective in my games, requiring a good reason to have it.
Last edited by FuzzyBoots on Mon Jun 01, 2020 1:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Spectrum
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Re: Friendly fire?

Post by Spectrum »

Thanks for the feedback.

Sounds like the usefulness really comes up to the story that the GM is creating.
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catsi563
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Re: Friendly fire?

Post by catsi563 »

Yeah FF is usually the realm of cinematic botches someone rolls a 1 and the GM decides that an FF incident has occurred gives both an HP for their troubles and the story rolls on

the only other time where technically it should play is when an AOE is used where the fellow hero is clearly in the target zone and even then the GM would nominally tell the PC that info
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Shock
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Re: Friendly fire?

Post by Shock »

I would worry more about bystanders than other heroes. Like in a human shield sort of situation. Selective gives you the option of doing what Iron Man did in his first movie in the Afghani village
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Hellstormer1
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Re: Friendly fire?

Post by Hellstormer1 »

As far as whether it is ever an issue, well.....I guess that depends on how serious....or devious?....the GM wishes to be. It'd be up to each one individually. That said, if the GM wants to put a "friendly fire" rule into play where allies are not affected by alies' abilities and effects, and the players are fine with it.....YEAH, SURE, WHY NOT?! In the end, the golden rule is for everyone to have fun, and if everyone is onboard with that, it'd be just fine!

That being said....*devious grin/maniacal laugh*....I'd lean towards the serious perspective. If PCs begin unleashing Area effects with their teammates caught in the crossfire....I'm making it stick. The reason for this is because when I use baddies in my games, even low powered mooks and thugs, sometimes I will have them be dumb as a brick, but other times they'll be tactical against the players and try to outmaneuver them. This is to reflect their experience on the streets, being alive, surviving, or training in whatever military or organization they serve. Rules the players could use, should use, involving teamwork but do not use, the mooks will instead use these rules as much as they are allowed, and begin hurting the players to great effect. Not kill them, just hurt them, give the players reasons to maybe retreat, regroup, and think about what went wrong before giving it another go.

In the case of Area effects, if players unleash these on each other, I would definitely have them roll Toughness saves (or other relevant saves) VS the effects. If they just get hurt, they now know to be more careful. But if someone dies, then again, they have learned a much harsher lesson (this would also open up a roleplay oppostunity to have a funeral/memorial for the deceased character, if these players are into that). I would also make sure to mention something about being careful about crossfire before the game/campaign/series began, just to cover my butt (because this has happened before), so that if/when friendly fire situations happen....well, I did warn them.

For example, I'll reference games and campaigns from Star Wars D6 RPG. Players got pretty strong, but I began using Imperial Stormtroopers. By the movies and fandom, STs cannot shoot well, always miss the target, especially main characters. But by the stats STs are actually potentially effective if used right, and even more so if they are led by someone with the Command skill to rally them and issue orders to Combine Fire at certain targets. Even worse when some of their stats give them grenades, or even 1 thermal detonator each (I think it was the weaker version, not the 10D version, though I could be wrong, it's been so long since I've looked). So, since STs are supposed to be well trained, some of the best troops in the galaxy at the time....I went ahead and began using them tactically against the players. And these players kept going for their own personal glory, not thinking about covering each others' backs. They didn't die, but they got hurt and had to retreat without acquiring their goal. Got pissed at me too, but I explained what went wrong, and how they could learn from it.

(BTW, if your players are really getting under you skin, using some weak thugs/mooks/troopers to mop the floor with them from time to time, using by the book rules, can be very satisfactory, especially if they never learn, BUT, this should only be used against bad players, and good players shouldn't have to deal with this....very often.....)
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