Conventional

This page is for advanced rules related to the Conventional skill.

Steadying weapons

It is possible to take extra time to take better aim with your ranged weapons, which can give a +1 boost to your likelihood to hit. This action does, however, take an extra layer to perform on foot (and two from your ship) as you get into position, making it somewhat less advisable to use if the enemy is attacking you. In fact, under most circumstances, you are more likely to hit if you fire your weapon twice rather than taking the time to aim. Carefully aiming with multiple shots on a turn is also very risk/reward: while your first "careful aim" has a 100% chance to give a +1 to your shot, each successive attempt significantly lowers your chance to succeed, as displayed in the following chart:

Attempt Chance to succeed
1 100% each
2 83% each
3 67% each
4 50% each
5 33% each
6 17% each
7 0% each

To show likelihood to hit, here's another table. This table assumes the player has +0 in their relevant weapon skills, which would give a 33% chance to hit a NPC with zeroed skills, without aiming. It also assumes the player has +2 Strength, giving them a maximum of four shots on a turn without penalties.

Chance of all misses (per time) Total hit chance (Per time) Layer 1 Layer 2 Layer 3 Layer 4 Layer 5 Layer 6 Layer 7 Layer 8
20% (4%) 132% (264%) Hip fire Hip fire Hip fire Hip fire
15% (6%) 149% (238%) Aim Aimed fire Hip fire Hip fire Hip fire
13% (8%) 160% (213%) Aim Aimed fire Aim Aimed fire Hip fire Hip fire
12% (10%) 165% (188%) Aim Aimed fire Aim Aimed fire Aim Aimed fire Hip fire
12% (12%) 164% (164%) Aim Aimed fire Aim Aimed fire Aim Aimed fire Aim Aimed fire

In summary, taking extra time to aim is best used in situations where time is not of the essence, and it is unwise to steady your aim more then three times.