Cover and Environments

v.2024-07-02

Determining Cover and Concealment

Not dying is a common goal in combat and cover helps greatly in achieving it. Cover and concealment are provided when an obstacle provides sufficient interference to an attack or other directed action. Rather than being a strictly calculated value, cover is typically subjective and based on what vital areas of a character are protected or hidden by the obstacle.

Below are the categories for Table: Cover and Concealment.

Level: The category of protection afforded by the cover or concealment.

Coverage: What parts of the target character are occluded by the obstacle.

Hide Bonus: Bonus to Hide checks—or penalty to incoming Spot—checks depending on the situation.

Reflex Saves: Bonus to Reflex saves afforded by the cover to the defender

Protection: AC bonus or percent miss chance afforded by the cover or concealment.

Table: Cover and Concealment
Level	Description	Hide/Spot Mod	Reflex Saves	Cover AC	Concealment Miss Chance
Total or 100%	All of body is covered or concealed	N/A	N/A	Cannot be targeted	50% and must guess target’s location
9/10	Small exposed body part such as hands or feet	+4	+4	+10 AC	40%
3/4	Leaning around a corner	+3	+3	+6 AC	30%
1/2	Half to a third of vital areas covered	+2	+2	+4 AC	20%
1/4	Small obstacle blocking non-vital body areas or slightly blocking vital areas	+1	+1	+1 AC	10%

Bypassing Cover

If we’re being honest, almost nothing is bulletproof—more like bullet resistant. Cover follows the same Soft and Hard target rules as any other object. These rules can be found in the Weapons document. Soft targets are Soft Cover and Hard targets are Hard cover. Hard cover retains its protective qualities against a wider range of weapons and threats than Soft cover.

If the attacker is using a heavy or super caliber weapon or is firing warhead-tipped munitions, they can attempt to destroy or bypass a foe’s cover. There are several ways to do so:

Destroying Cover: If the attacker specifies that they are attacking a foe’s cover rather than the foe himself, then the cover itself becomes the target. In this case, inanimate simple objects such as thick trees or large rocks are treated as having AC 5 and hardness/hitpoint values according to their material and thickness.

Shooting through Soft Cover: When firing at a target in Soft cover, heavy caliber weapons ignore 1 AC from cover and super caliber ignore 2 AC from cover. Shooting at the target through cover means that the cover is instead treated as Concealment and the target gains miss chance accordingly.

Shooting through Hard Cover: Shooting through hard cover can only be done with some Warhead-tipped weapons like AP cannon shells or HEAT munitions. Smart weapons can be set to detonate after penetrating cover, but non-Smart munitions will simply react when they strike the cover itself. If the GM rules that the chosen Warhead can penetrate Hard cover, then the attack proceeds with no bonus and the cover is treated as Concealment instead.