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To recap the Gunner Crew Actions for Starship Combat: Fire At Will is a distinct crew action from Shoot or Broadside.

Fire At Will - "You can fire any two starship weapons, regardless of their arc. Each attack is made at a –4 penalty."

Shoot - "You can fire one of your starship’s weapons. If you use a turret weapon, you can target a ship in any arc."

Broadside - "At 6th level, you can expend 1 Resolve Point to fire all of the starship weapons mounted in one arc (including turret-mounted weapons). Each weapon can target any vessel in that arc. All of these attacks are made with a –2 penalty."

Fire At Will seems to allow a gunner to fire two weapons, even if they are mounted on different arcs, but at -4. Shoot only allows the gunner to fire a single weapon. Broadside allows the gunner to fire all the weapons mounted in a single arc (or turret), but only targeting vessels in that arc.

What Fire At Will does not do is allow weapons to fire in different arcs than the one they are mounted (although the Gyrolaser, with the Broad Arc property, can fire in adjacent arcs).

Thanks for your response. Perhaps it's the terminology used but I can't see how that fully meets the definition of "regardless of arc" without ambiguity - I think I'm starting to understand where the disconnect is though - the game uses the term "arc" interchangeably for both the section of the ship the weapon is placed in and the area of space around that weapon. This ability is effectively saying it is "regardless of arc (section of ship)" and not "regardless of arc (area around the ship)" - Perhaps there should be some differentiation of these terms in future products if starship combat in 2nd edition will have similar complexities (section of ship is a quarter or quadrant while the areas around the ship maintain the arc terminology?). In any case, thanks again for the response

Knicknevin wrote:

Hi

I can see earlier topics on this discussion but I'm still struggling to understand the wording used and would appreciate confirmation from rules team or a developer on the intended use of this ability please.

Fire at Will (Gunnery Phase, Push) You can fire any two starship weapons, regardless of their arc. Each attack is made at a –4 penalty.

I'm reading this as the gunner can attack an enemy with two weapons attached to the ship regardless of their arc. So I could attack a ship that is in the forward arc with weapons that are not in that arc (hence the regardless of arc text). However, elsewhere on this forum it's stated that it doesn't work that way, and it's would have to be two attacks into the arc those guns are positioned (which, to me, is not regardless of arc as you have to honour the arc placement).

The penalty is the same as a Full Attack so I can see how it might be thought to be that way, and most examples I see used are saying you can attack with a turret weapon and a weapon in the arc facing the enemy starship - but turrets already allow you to act regardless of arc so it's not really saying how this is regardless of arc.

I can also see this as escalation of difficulty for attacking into an arc - a normal attack from an arc to an enemy ship facing that arc is made at +0, a broadside attack has to be into the same arc but fires all weapons in that arc at -2, while Fire at Will allows 2 attacks regardless of arc at a -4.

Any official support on this would be appreciated.

I'm assuming this is a SF2 playtest question and flagging it to be transferred to an appropriate forum.

No, sorry this is a 1st edition question

Hi

I can see earlier topics on this discussion but I'm still struggling to understand the wording used and would appreciate confirmation from rules team or a developer on the intended use of this ability please.

Fire at Will (Gunnery Phase, Push) You can fire any two starship weapons, regardless of their arc. Each attack is made at a –4 penalty.

I'm reading this as the gunner can attack an enemy with two weapons attached to the ship regardless of their arc. So I could attack a ship that is in the forward arc with weapons that are not in that arc (hence the regardless of arc text). However, elsewhere on this forum it's stated that it doesn't work that way, and it's would have to be two attacks into the arc those guns are positioned (which, to me, is not regardless of arc as you have to honour the arc placement).

The penalty is the same as a Full Attack so I can see how it might be thought to be that way, and most examples I see used are saying you can attack with a turret weapon and a weapon in the arc facing the enemy starship - but turrets already allow you to act regardless of arc so it's not really saying how this is regardless of arc.

I can also see this as escalation of difficulty for attacking into an arc - a normal attack from an arc to an enemy ship facing that arc is made at +0, a broadside attack has to be into the same arc but fires all weapons in that arc at -2, while Fire at Will allows 2 attacks regardless of arc at a -4.

Any official support on this would be appreciated.

Thanks for the advice. I decided to go for a sneak attack on the Trading Post in the end. A couple of infiltrator bandits disguised as hunters scoped out the place. After the players had gone to sleep, these bandits killed the guards and let a horde of bandits in, led by Kressle and Falgrim (who I added in based on suggestions above)

The initial sneak attack took down the team cleric, and the witch and ranger went down shortly afterwards (unconscious but not dead). The fighter and barbarian were able to fend off the rest of the bandits, forcing Kressle to flee back to the bandit camp.

The players walked into a second ambush at the camp but they focused attacks on Kressle, and the other bandits ran when she died.

So, hopefully things will get back on track now.

Thanks to everyone who chipped in with ideas.

Hi

We're running through Stolen Lands at the moment and the players have spent approx 30 days exploring the Green Belt purposely avoiding the Thorn River Bandit Camp (this was due to missing a player for each of the first three sessions)

So I'm looking for suggestions for what the bandits would have done in this time to prepare. None of the original bandits sent to the trading post returned and the book states they know something is wrong after 5 days.

Well, we're well past that now. I assume they would have sent a message south to the Stag Lord, and I'm imagining he would likely send a response (when he's not drunk).

My current plan is for a more fortified camp and work out how long it would take for reinforcements from the Stag Fort to arrive. I did roll bandits on the wandering monsters and the players failed their perception checks - I decided the bandits would just watch the players for now and report back.

So, does anyone have any other suggestions of how to spice up the bandit fight?

Thought I'd post our Obsidian Portal link as we started Kingmaker this week. We're not going with Pathfinder rules though as my group prefer the Savage Worlds system. I've done a bit of conversion here or there, like introducing the Pathfinder Classes, and I've converted the Kingdom Building rules (will be adding these closer to us starting Book 2) but I'm not going to convert literally everything over - just enough to get a Pathfinder feel to the campaign.

I've also changed some NPC names to make them easier to remember for my group to avoid the I talk to whatshisname problem.

https://pathfinder-chronicles-kingmaker.obsidianportal.com

Hope you enjoy having a read.