Aimed Shots

One of the biggest problems I had this session was resolving aimed shots at NPC's.   Alex in particular wanted to be aiming for critical parts of the attacker's anatomy, but the rules in A Time of War as we quickly tried to determine how aiming worked seemed contradictory at the time.  With the advantages of a few extra hours, I've tried to work them out.

For basis, there are two ways to play A Time of War: with or without hit locations.  Hit locations tend to make the game a bit more random and considerably deadlier, but also add another element of flavor and excitement.   Ten Years on Terra is running with Hit Location rules (AToW, p 190.)  If you are not playing with Hit Location rules, aiming is pretty simple: a character can take a "Careful Aim" Complex Action, which grants +1 to  hit their target when they eventually fire; this can stack up to +3.

For Hit Locations, shots become somewhat messier.  "Aimed Shots" is the term here, and they are mentioned on page 172, and seems to point you to the Hit Location rules on 190, but do not look there; it is a trap!  Indeed, the only references in A Time of War to Aimed Shots seems to be the exceptions to them.  You cannot make and aimed shot when blind firing (p. 173), you cannot make an aimed shot with a burst weapon, unless you're using Controlled Bursts (p. 173), Aimed Shots may be made when attacking in Melee but not defending (p. 176.)  Aimed shot modifiers are given on the Basic Combat Modifiers table on page 178; the Marksman and Sharpshooter special abilities affect Aimed Shots, and the Monowire requires one to operate. Nowhere in the book do the rules actually describe how a character takes an aimed shot, or if that changes the action type, or what happens if the aimed shot misses (i.e, does it have a change to hit the target in the wrong location.)  So here's our table ruling.

At the time a character takes a shot, they may declare this shot is an "Aimed Shot".  If the shot is aimed, apply the appropriate combat modifier to the role (-2 to -5), and make the check as normal.  If the roll succeeds, the attack is successful, and damage is applied to the specified location.  If the roll fails, the shot misses the target entirely.

I hope this helps clarify what proved to be an exceptionally confusing topic to our group.  If your table has a considerably different interpretation, please let me know in the comments.