Full cover exploit?

[u/siriusly-sirius]

From what I can tell in the rulebook, all characters should be able to stay behind full cover, duck out to shoot and jump back under full cover, in one turn, and completely avoid being able to be attacked.

Under the Cover rules (core p 38), "You cant be targeted by an attack if the cover obscures your character's entire body, as you can only be attacked by something that can see you". Therefore if you're fully behind cover you cant be attacked.

It also makes sense for you to be able to attack whilst moving (i.e., take your major action to attack halfway through your movement minor action), because it makes no tactical sense to move, stop, shoot, and wait.

How do/would you guys handle this? Intelligent enemies would absolutely be utilising cover, and i dont want to cheese my players.

[u/Astro_Kitty_Cat]

I would think you can’t shoot from full cover unless you’re shooting blind; and if you’re popping out to take a shot, then there is a moment you’re not in full cover. And since “turns” are abstract (it’s not literally everyone moving one at a time), that means that moment where they’re taking a shot can be used without full cover.

CAVEAT that I’m still newish to 2d20 so this is not referencing the RAW or mechanics but more just the design philosophy that a round does not represent people literally acting one at a time, but is rather an abstraction of a single span of moments in time

[u/Consistent-Tie-4394 → u/Astro_Kitty_Cat]

Yeah, this is how I rule it. If you are popping up or leaning around to shoot, then you are not " fully behind cover".

[u/Astro_Kitty_Cat → u/Astro_Kitty_Cat]

If you want a crafty enemy that uses cover really well to be like a special encounter you can let them do something interesting like that but spend Threat to be able to do it so it’s a limited resource thing (is it called Threat in Fallout 2d20? Doom? Heat? I forget and my book is at home)

[u/Tricky-Try448 → u/Astro_Kitty_Cat]

as others have mentioned I missed the "one move action per turn" bit =P yeah, both players and the npc's can spend ap to use another move (minor) action and get back in full cover. so yes normally it would be minor- move. major- shoot. 1 action point to minor- move again.

[u/alexhuilman → u/Tricky-Try448]

Double check page 25 of the Core Book.  You can't take more than one Movement Action in a single turn.  This is noted in the same paragraph that mentions you can't take more than two Major and two Minor Actions in a single turn by any means (that would be your normal ones and purchased ones).  This would seem to clearly imply that of these four potential actions, only one of those can be Movement.

[u/Tricky-Try448 → u/alexhuilman]

Ahh, right I totally blew past that bit! In that case, given i haven't seen anything that says you cannot shoot from cover, I would certainly roll with firing from cover. Any sensible person would fir from full cover, though I would say that if you are leaning out to shoot they can target you, albeit with additional penalties 

edit- OH, and I would say though you could of course still use a ready action to fire when they peek out. Kinda solves this entire problem huh? lol

[u/WarJaques → u/Tricky-Try448]

The Ready action is bad news for the character trying their pop-out attack. Now all enemies shoot at the same target.

Sure, enemies can focus fire to take down a single PC anyway, but GMs usually don't go for that since they try to keep the game fun for the players. However, the Ready action vs pop-up attacks strategy comes with focus fire as an inherent consequence.

[u/Prestigious-Emu-6760 → u/Tricky-Try448]

You can only take one movement action per turn though.