Blocking Autofire Attacks

[sbarron]

From the FAQ

Q: If a character wants to Block an Autofire HTH attack, how many times does he have to roll? How about for Blocking a Sweep used against a single target?

 

A: When a character wants to Block an Autofire attack that has “hit†him multiple times, he makes a normal Block roll. If he makes the roll exactly, he Blocks one of the hits. For every 2 points by which he makes the roll beyond that, he Blocks another hit.

 

For an attack like Sweep, involving multiple Attack Rolls, a character would have to make one Block roll for each Attack Roll. A Blocked attack does not count as a “miss†for purposes of determining whether the character has to stop his Sweep (or a Multiple Move By).

 

If the character Blocking the attack gets attacked by another character that same Phase, his Block roll suffers a -2 for the second attack, -4 for the third, and so forth. The penalty doesn’t derive from the number of Autofire shots Blocked, because the character only made one Block roll. For a Sweep or the like, the penalty would depend on the number of separate Attack Roll-based attacks Blocked. So, to Block a three-attack Sweep involves one normal Block roll, a second roll at -2, and a third at -4. If another character attacked the Blocking character, an attempt to Block his attack would be at -6.

I've always handled block the way that you listed a couple of posts prior to this one (the blocker rolls first). However, given the above ruling, does it make sense to change the order of resolution for autofire attacks? How about having one block "blocking" all autofired attacks?

[Steve Long]

Re: Blocking Autofire Attacks

 

No, I don't think it necessarily makes any sense to change. The order doesn't really make that much difference anyway as long as the GM takes care not to let players retroactively declare Blocks after they've already been hit unless there's a good reason to allow that.