EDIT: I have updated the original write-up of these rules to represent a slightly more refined version of my original implementation. My reasoning remains the same, so feel free to read the full mechanic or to skip down to the write up of the new mechanic itself.
A bit of a departure from my usual fare, there's been a lot of news coming in about the upcoming edition of Savage Worlds (now officially named Savage Worlds Adventure Edition), and almost all of it is really exciting. I'm getting to work on a big ol' mega post that should see the light of day before the end of the month about my thoughts on everything and all of the great new changes (along with a couple changes that sound good maybe but that I'm more on the fence about). For those curious and who haven't been keeping up with things lately, here's a really good video summary of the changes and a thread on the official forums discussing everything and getting more in-depth with some implications and ideas that come with the new changes.
Today, though, is something that I finally feel very proud of: my house rules for the new Suppressive Fire mechanics. Lots of props to forum user and Discord member SteelDraco, who discussed a lot of the ideas that made it into my final draft, particularly the implementation of the Distracted condition.
The Maneuver
Before we get into the game mechanics of this move, I want to touch on the point of actual suppressive fire in the real world. In the words of Wikipedia, "the purpose of suppression is to stop or prevent the enemy from observing, shooting, moving or carrying out other military tasks that interfere (or could interfere) with the activities of friendly forces... The primary intended effect of suppressive fire is psychological. Rather than directly trying to kill enemy soldiers, it makes the enemy soldiers feel unable to safely perform any actions other than seeking cover. Colloquially, this goal is expressed as 'it makes them keep their heads down' or 'it keeps them pinned down.' However, depending on factors including the type of ammunition and the target's protection, suppressive fire may cause casualties and/or damage to enemy equipment."
When looking at this, it's pretty clear that the point of suppressive fire is effectively to keep enemy morale down, making them too scared to act against allied forces. Therefore, when constructing a suppressive fire mechanic, you want to create a situation where the mechanic itself feels very effective at keeping enemies down, particularly by making it frightening to leave any cover you've situated yourself behind. That said, the goal of the mechanic should not be to wound enemies: merely to scare them through the possibility of being wounded. Typically this is used in lieu of actually attacking targets if they are behind cover, hidden away, or otherwise not in a good position to target.
The Problem
The option to use Suppressive Fire has been in the rules since Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition back in 2007, and its implementation hasn't really changed since, including in the Savage Worlds Deluxe edition that was released in 2011/2012. While a good addition—machine guns definitely need the ability to affect more than 3 or 4 targets at a time, and suppressive fire is a standard tool in military operations—the rule has almost no teeth in practice.
The way it works is by placing a template down and having the shooter make his roll with the usual penalties (auto-fire, range, etc.). On a failure, this template disappears and there is no effect, while on a success, targets under the template have to make Spirit rolls, adding any cover modifiers as bonuses to their roll. A failed Spirit roll means the target is Shaken, while a 1 on the Spirit die indicates that they are hit. This costs 5 times the weapon's RoF.
The problem should be fairly clear to anyone that has tried to use this mechanic, but to lay it out, it's pretty borked. The goal of the mechanic is to "incentivize" enemies into keeping their heads down while your allies maneuver into a more favorable position, specifically by forcing them into cover (or to stay in cover they already occupy) and be more willing to stay down than to actually act.
The implementation of this rule only requires characters, at worst, to roll a 4 on their Spirit die to avoid any penalties whatsoever. Unfortunately, this makes using Suppressive Fire on characters in cover completely pointless—an Extra with a d6 Spirit behind Medium Cover has an 83% chance of success (only failing if he rolls a 1), and is guaranteed instant success behind Heavy Cover. This becomes more pronounced against characters with higher Spirit (88% for a d8 Spirit Extra in Medium Cover) and Wild Cards (97% for a d6 Spirit character in the same).
Granted, this was initially implemented under the old Shaken rules, where you needed a raise to be able to act normally out of Shaken, but under the new rules that has been downgraded to only a success. A good change on its own, but one that completely invalidates Suppressive Fire as soon as most enemies act, even when it does work (which is only even remotely likely if characters are not in cover). In fact, characters that are more likely to even be using the kinds of weapons that allow for suppressive fire (Shooting d8+) would have a 25% chance to just hit an enemy in Medium Cover outright, even in Full Auto fire—and if their cover is thin, it might even be completely ignored by its AP! A character with Rock and Roll would have almost a 50% chance to hit the same enemies!
In any situation where Suppressive Fire should be useful, the rule as written is strictly worse than simply firing on one's enemies. A successful rule should be more likely to affect large numbers of enemies than trying to target them directly, and should be especially effective at forcing enemies to keep their heads down under threat of losing them, without necessarily being more reliable at killing an enemy in the open than simply shooting them. PEG's emphasis on the latter, "less reliable at killing" part of such a mission statement regrettably takes the teeth out of the maneuver when it should count the most.
The Fix(es)
There have been a ton of suggestions that have risen out of the community for fixing the Suppressive Fire mechanic in a way that grants it its teeth back, preferably making it even more useful for a character that is a particularly good shot.
One of the most common fixes is changing the active roll from being a Shooting roll with all the usual penalties to simply being a Shooting roll opposed by the Spirit of targets beneath the template (who may add their cover bonuses as usual). While this is a clean solution, it generally takes out the nuance of suppressing enemies at a farther range, or being in a position where the gunner can compensate for his autofire (using Edges or by stabilizing his shots with a bipod). Additionally, it does not allow for the clean implementation of the option to simply spray until the gun is completely empty, or using suppressive fire as a method of controlling battlefield movement (by, for example, firing down an alleyway continuously so that enemies can't run up the alley to kill you). This also still does not account for the fact that the point of suppressive fire is to keep enemies down and not firing back at your allies, since all it does is to Shake the enemy—which, as mentioned earlier, is not entirely difficult to bypass.
My proposed fix, with input from SteelDraco, makes this maneuver cleaner, allowing nuance in the conditions the attacker is under and allowing for the gunner to actually suppress an enemy force, keeping their heads down while your own troops maneuver to out of any kind of cover. This should even work on player characters, as being out in the open under suppressive fire feels far more lethal and terrifying. We have been testing a slight variant in my Weird Wars game, which has been extremely successful, and this newest variant actually fixes the few problems I had with the previous iteration. All that you need to know to understand this is that in the upcoming edition, the Distracted Condition inflicts a –2 penalty on a character's Trait rolls. Without further ado:
Suppressive Fire
This house rule is meant to replace the underwhelming Suppressive Fire mechanic from Savage Worlds Deluxe, implementing some of the new conditions from Savage Worlds Adventure Edition without causing it to be too overly complicated.
The attacker places a Medium Burst Template on the battlefield and makes a single Shooting roll, including standard modifiers for range, the full-auto penalty, and any other miscellaneous factors (but ignoring the target’s modifiers for being prone or in cover). This uses 5 times the weapon’s Rate of Fire in bullets (so a RoF 3 machine gun uses 15 bullets). If failed, the bullets simply spray without focused effect.
If successful, targets caught in the area must make a Spirit roll (at –2 if the attacker scored a raise), adding the Cover penalty they would receive against the attack as a bonus to the roll. Victims that roll a 1 on their Spirit die (regardless of Wild Die) are hit and suffer damage normally. Characters that do not score a raise are Distracted until the end of their next turn, and failure leaves the victim Shaken. Receiving a Shaken result while already Shaken does not cause a wound, as it results from psychological factors.
►Maintaining Suppression: If the attacker doesn’t take any other actions (including movement) in the round they begin this maneuver, he may maintain his suppressive fire, leaving the template in place until his next turn. This immediately ends if the shooter is Shaken, forced to move, or is otherwise interrupted.
Characters starting their turn or entering the template must make their Spirit roll as above (including the –2 penalty against a raise), but may only add the lowest Cover bonus they intend to use within the template to their Spirit roll (so a character planning to run through open ground within the suppression gets no bonus, even if he begins behind Heavy Cover—characters who wish to fire back without exposing themselves more than necessary may attempt to Fire Blind to retain a higher cover value, of course). This roll must be made before a character takes any actions. Running through multiple suppressed areas prompts multiple Spirit rolls, as necessary.
Example: Private Smith and his squad is caught in the open under Suppressive Fire, and the gunner is maintaining it for the round! He succeeds his Spirit roll, but at the beginning of his Turn must roll again since he begins within the template (at –2, since he is Distracted). Afterwards, he runs to a nearby building and then to a window (Medium Cover) to fire back at the enemy.
Corporal Jameson was already inside the building with Heavy Cover when the Suppressive Fire began, so he succeeded his Spirit roll with a raise! On his turn, he wants to stand and fire back at the enemy, exposing himself to Medium Cover, and must make a Spirit roll with the +2 bonus from Medium Cover. He only gets a success, Distracting him and imposing a –2 to his Shooting roll.
PFC Buddy was inside the building with Jameson and succeeded on his Spirit roll with a raise as well, but decides on his Turn that he wants to take a shot out the window and run out of the building so he can close his distance with the enemy gunner. He makes his Spirit roll with no bonus, since he intends to run out with no cover at all, before firing his weapon.
Finally, their corpsman, Private Jackson, must cross the building through the Suppressive Fire to get to a wounded ally. He keeps his head down, retaining his Heavy Cover, and makes his Spirit roll at +4 before getting to work on his friend.
In addition to this, one Edge in several settings that include weapons capable of suppression is the Grazing Fire Edge, which originally allowed the character's Suppressive Fire to hit his targets with a roll of 1 or 2 on the Spirit die, rather than just on a 1. However, this effect is somewhat underwhelming as it does not make the character more effective at Suppressive Fire and simply relies on lower rolls from the victims. I recommend changing the Edge to impose a –2 penalty on Spirit rolls when using Suppressive Fire, and a –4 if he achieves a raise, in addition to the written effect. Anyone under his machine gun is going to want to find some cover quickly!
Conclusions
While this may not be the best version of the rule possible, this is certainly the cleanest and most flexible I've seen it as, retaining its lethality and enforcing a kind of psychological warfare not just on the player characters, who will likely struggle to pull themselves up and actually fire back at the enemy, but on the players themselves, at least from our experiences in Weird War II. If anyone from PEG gets the chance to read this, I do hope they consider making a change like this to allow Suppressive Fire to gain back some of its bite and be as cool of an option as it should be!
If any of you guys have any comments or suggestions, leave them down below as usual! It's good to be back, and I should have a lot more of these coming in the near future.
—DoctorBoson
