Question About "Support" Rule

[qdwag]

Hi guys,

I've had a player today tell me he wanted to support an ally, who was trying to unlock an electronic door so they could escape a room they were trapped in. There were enemies in the room.

He wanted to support by shooting at the bad guys to keep them from interfering with the lead character who was trying to open the door.

My question then is:

What is the difference between just shooting to kill and shooting to support?

(The rulebook has a very similar scenario that is equally confusing, on page 123 - see "The Fire Bug")

Thanks in advance.

[Talyn]

Disclaimer: I have not had the chance to play in a SWADE game yet so I have zero clue if any automation/scripting exists for Support or Dramatic Tasks. I'm going on the presumption that there is none, and this would all be handled manually.

So the character attempting to unlock the electronic door, that would be a Dramatic Task. The other character wishes to Support him by doing a Suppressive Fire. Assuming zero automation, I would have that player untarget everyone and roll his Shooting. A success gives a +1 bonus to the character trying to unlock the door and applies the Distracted condition to the enemies. If the Shooting roll got a raise, then the Support bonus becomes +2 and those enemies have been hit by the suppressive fire. Note that the suppressive fire rule states that is normal damage (which is why I said to untarget NPCs if there is no automation for this, otherwise the combat scripts would give raise damage).

[Skellan]

In the Fire Bug example, the Red does a multi action taking two separate actions. One action is to do suppressive fire and this has no effect on the dramatic task. The other action was a support roll to help the dramatic tasks.

Support rolls and Tests never do any damage.

It is in the narration
So shooting to kill, you work out hit and damage as normal combat.
Shooting to support could be giving advice like 'shoot just to the right to counter the wind' or it could be actively shooting at the target - perhaps to push him out of cover. In either case there is no damage just the potential to give bonuses (or negatives on a crit fail). The GM always has the final say on whether the players idea of how to support/test is suitable.

In your example, you could argue that shooting is not going to give a guy a bonus to opening the door. Electronics or notice maybe..

[Mgrancey]

Both Talyn and Skellan "aren't wrong" is the best way to comment. As a suggestion or point, I don't know if opening a door, unless it was very complicated or difficult process, would require a Dramatic Task. This would be purely how you like to run/handle such events, as it is what Dramatic Tasks are for, personal preference.

As a GM I would have applied a penalty to the ally's roll due to hazard/distractions for unlocking the door. The player wanting to support would have made a Shooting roll, bonuses applied for edges that would support higher ROF or Suppressive Fire. Success and Raises would negate the penalty applied to his roll. A critical failure would have increased the penalty.

[qdwag]

Thank you guys for providing the info, all really great advice.

Skellan’s answer was pretty much the answer I was looking for. The book confused me by allowing suppressive fire damage to affect a dramatic task. That small phrase “multi action “ made all the difference.

In that Fire Bug example, the GM must have discussed how shooting would add support in the fiction, and forced the player to take a multi action if this was to go ahead.

[Talyn]

I did catch the MAP in the example but didn't bother to read up on how it was handled in SWADE, but that makes sense that it's a separate Support action to help your friend (narratively I'd say that successfully Distracting the enemies allows him to be more relaxed and accurate while hacking the door) then he got the raise on Suppressive Fire which did the normal damage.