Sometimes the best time to hit someone is when they can't see you, or better yet, when you're a long way away from them and they don't even know anyone's there. When that time approaches you need either a telescopic sight or a night sight, or even both!
For the purposes of this article, a scope is a device to aid vision over distance, while a sight is a devise that is used to aid visibility to a target. The two can be combined.
Scopes and sights are only effective when being used, thus the firer must be actually aiming at the target rather than just spraying the general area with bullets, which is what the average pedestrian probably does.
A telescopic scope comes in four ratings. The smallest is Rating 1, which is equal to about a x2 scope. It is the only scope that can be fitted to a pistol.
Rating 2 is equal to about a x4 scopes, and is the most common scope used for everyday action and non-sniping combat. Rating 3 is about equal to x6 scopes whilst a Rating 4 scope is about equal to x8 to x12 scopes, and these later two scopes are used for serious hunting and sniping.
Scopes don't give any bonuses to be able hit a target, however, they do aid the firer when shooting at a distance.
When using a scope, divide the range that the weapon is being used at by the rating of the scope - for rating 1 scopes divide the range by 1.5. This gives the range for die rolling and modifiers, and round to the nearest number.
For example, a character using an assault rifle firing at range 6 with a rating 2 scope is treated as if they were firing at range 3.
The downside to using a scope is that the character cannot use a Move and Fire action when using a scope, the can only Fire.
Scopes can also be used to fire a weapon at longer range than normal. The character may not perform any other action that turn (or six phases if using the alternate turn sequence), but the advantage is that range of the weapon is multiplied by 1 + scope rating. If the firer is interrupted before they fire (hit in combat, engages in close combat, moves, shoots at something else, etc), then the whole turn aiming is lost and they must start again if they wish to continue.
This option is not available for pistols or rating 1 scopes.
Like scopes, sights are only available effective when being looked through by the firer. This means that the firer cannot do anything on the phase on the phase of using the sight, and in addition, fully automatic fire cannot be used when using a sight.
This allows a firer to use their scope within full darkness and thus avoiding any darkness and spotting penalties.
This allows a fired to use their scope at heat sources. Anything that is shielded from allowing heat to escape will not be spotted, and this also includes anything behind a thick wall, however the advantage of an IR scope is that it is effective during day and night conditions. During night, all darkness and spotting penalties against non-shielded targets are avoided, but all other targets are shot at with full penalties.
This scope use ambient light to nullify darkness penalties. However, it is not effective when there is no ambient light (like stars). When there is starlight or other vehicles using lights, then the scope negates the darkness-shooting penalty and adds +2 to the spotting roll. When there is no ambient light or vehicle lights, then the scope is useless.
Night, IR and Starlight sights may be combined with ordinary telescopic scopes for only a 50% increase in the heaviest weight. For example, a Rating 3 scope with an IR sight would cost $10,000 and weigh 1.5.
| Item | Cost | Weight |
|---|
| Rating 1 Scope | $500 | 0.25 |
| Rating 2 Scope | $1,000 | 0.5 |
| Rating 3 Scope | $5,000 | 1 |
| Rating 4 Scope | $10,000 | 1 |
| Night Sight | $5,000 | 0.5 |
| IR Sight | $5,000 | 1 |
| Starlight Sight | $2,000 | 1 |
