Size and Speed/Range Table

"There are millions of pages in official rulebooks and outside them detailing the correct modifier for a sharpshooter standing on a wet elephant with a toy catapult, trying to hit a dragon's left nostril. The stats have been done." -- Michael Dewar, The Last Resort of Kings

Size and Speed/Range Table is in Basic Set: Campaigns and assigns penalties based on the sum of Size, Range and Speed. Note that for things below 2 yards the Range and Speed part is 0.

The Formula and a Rule Change

The comparison of the Size column to the Linear Measurement column doesn't perfectly match up with the Size Modifier table on B19. This is because as DouglasCole related in Extended Speed/Range Table the values are determined by these formulas:

Speed/Range formula: 2 - 6 x log (Sum of Distance and Speed in Yards)

Size formula: 6 x log (Length in Yards) - 2

Round to nearest integer

This overrules the Basic Set which states "If size falls between two values, base SM on the next-highest size." and "If the range falls between two values, use the higher; e.g., treat 8 yards as 10 yards" This is likely because the original method resulted in a Murphy's Rule situation where in terms of range/speed 7 yards was -3 but something as small as 7 yards 1 inch was -4.

The Table

Sum the range (in yards) and speed (in yards per second) and use the fact log(xy) = log(x) + log(y) to find values with regard to size to find the modifier not on the table without a calculator.

For example, 1 mile = 1760 yd. That is 1.7 x 10^3. 1.76 is -1 and the 3 means to use +18 (3x6) for Size resulting in a +17 for Size. Speed/Range is just the opposite of that (-17).

Earth is 7,917.5 mi or 13,934,800 yd which becomes 1.39348320 x 10^7. 1.39348 is -1 and 7 is 42 (7x6). Earth's Size modifier is +41

For reference the speed of light is ~186,282 mi/s (3.27856320 x 10^8 yd/s). In a hard science space campaign no spaceship can reach this speed which is -49.

Linear Measurement	Speed/ Range	Size		Linear Measurement	Speed/ Range	Size
1/4” (1/144 yd)	0	-15		2 ft 2/3 yd)	0	-3
1/3” (1/108 yd)	0	-14		1 yd	0	-2
1/2" (1/72 yd)	0	-13		1.5 yd	0	-1
2/3” (1/54 yd)	0	-12		2 yd	0	0
1” (1/36 yd)	0	-11		3 yd	-1	+1
1.5” (3/72 yd)	0	-10		5 yd	-2	+2
2.1" (7/120 yd)	0	-9		7 yd	-3	+3
3" (1/12 yd)	0	-8		10 yd	-4	+4
5" (5/36 yd)	0	-7		15 yd	-5	+5
8" (2/9 yd)	0	-6		20 yd	-6	+6
1 ft (1/3 yd)	0	-5		30 yd	-7	+7
1.5 ft (1/2 td)	0	-4		10x	(-6)	(+6)

Using the table

The size/speed and Length sides of the table are cumulative

• A dragon going at Move 15 wants to hit a particular group of soldiers when it is 16 yards away. That is 31 yds or -7. The group of soldiers longest length is 15 yards or +5. The dragon has a -2 to hit the group of soldiers.

• A bomber moving at 220 mph or Move 108 tries to hit a particular factory complex that at its longest length is 200 yd when at an altitude of 15,000 ft (5000 yds) The speed/range part is 5108 or 5.108 x 10^3 for -20 (-2-(6 x 3)) and the size is 2.00 x 10^2 for +12 (0+(6 x 2). The bomber has a -8 to hit the factory.

Exceptions

Target's Speed and Range mentions:

• In most combat between fighters on foot, and when attacking inanimate objects, you can ignore speed.

Attacking Inanimate Objects in Classic used to give a +4 bonus to hit them!

Ignoring speed would make sense for Inanimate objects since they wouldn't have speed at all. At least not RELATIVE speed anyway. Being inanimate is a relative state. Like if you are seated on a train, your seat is inanimate relative to you, but not to someone watching the train go by standing beside the tracks.

"Most combat" implies there should be exceptions to combat between fighters on foot.

An exception is made for "fast targets". This is defined as "anything that requires the High-Speed Movement rules"

The problem with B394 is these rules are based on going at speeds higher than basic move. A creature with Move 1 uses "High-Speed Movement Rules" at Move 2, while a creature with Move 3 traveling at Move 3 does not use them, even though they can actually travel faster.

Since this exception makes no sense, it should just be ignored and the rules should apply to everything. A -1 occurs at 3 yards sum, so it would take moving 2 yards (resulting in being 1 yard away) or moving 1 yard (resulting in being 2 yards away) to earn that penalty from attackers.

Given the new Telegraphic Attack option for melee weapons, it still makes Melee Attacks / Jets incredibly competitive! If not, consider expanding the limits of Evaluate using the Expanded Aim rules.

Regular Spells

Regular Spells not use this table for range but a straight -1 per yd

Long-Distance Modifiers

Information spells and certain advantages also do not use this table for range. Unless specified otherwise the table is:

Distance	Up to 200 yd	1/2 mi	1	3	10	30	X10
Penalty	0	(-1)	(-2)	(-3)	(-4)	(-5)	(-2)

Problems

Certain situations might benefit from additional rules. A couple problem examples are explained here...

Angle of change

Consider a -4 to hit a speed/range sum of 10 yards. This makes it equally difficult to hit:

• Foe A (red line) who began in your hex in front of you and then ran 5 yards away from you, directly ahead
• Foe B (blue line) who began 5 yards ahead of you, and ran 5 yards and ended up 5 yards away in another direction. For example, from straight ahead, to either the front-left or front-right facings, or vice versa

Time spent at speed in view

Consider a -2 to hit a speed/range of 5 yards. This makes it equally difficult to hit:

• Foe C (green line) with Move 4 who began 3 yards behind you and moves 4 yards to get 1 yard ahead of you
• Foe D (purple line) with Move 6 who zig-zags initially behind you doing other stuff before finally moving 1 yard beyond you like previous foe. Their relative movement (from start to end of turn) was the same, but the higher-Move opponent would've probably done the final portion in a lesser amount of time.

Solution

Angle of change

Both cases deal with a problem in that distance is only measured at a given point in time, even though a penalty based on speed implies difficulty in tracking a target over that preceding second, so both the start distance and end distance should factor in.

Somehow both should factor in. In the first example, one might add both the starting distance and the end distance to the speed, resulting in 5+5+5=15 meaning a -5 to hit instead of a -4.

• If this is considered too much, starting distance and ending distance could be averaged. This would keep Foe B at 10 relative yards, but it would mean Foe A's sum would be reduced to 7.5. Due to rounding up, this wouldn't change the penalty (7.5 is considered 10) but if it were longer ranges, this would eventually make them easier to hit.

Time spent at seed in view

The solution of adding start/end distance doesn't solve the second situation where it is identical, but where Foe D is clearly moving faster than Foe C during the period in which he enters Field-of-View.

For that reason, the person's total Move should be considered. Foe C spent only 25% of his time moving from your hex to the one ahead of you, Foe D spent less than 17% of his time doing that final step.

For this reason, regardless of the net movement which actually occurs (this includes if 2 guys both move 1 yard, but this takes 100% of the time for Move 1 or 10% of the time for Move 10) the character's entire POTENTIAL move (their Move score) should be considered.

• Note however that if a high-Move character wants to waste movement points traveling at a lower speed to be more hittable, they can opt to!

The simplest way to deal with this, is to not worry about relative move at all: just add the character's Move score to distance, no matter how far they moved.

The idea with Slam that it takes a certain amount of yards to move up to a certain speed is basically silly and doesn't make any sense at all. A zig-zagging Move 10 slammer using AOA:Double should be making a pair of 10yards/second slams, not a pair of 5yards/second slams. Explosive Slam should be unavoidable unless someone spends effort to decelerate!

Range Band Table

Some supplements offer an alternative table to simplify bookkeeping and help with theater of the mind play

Range Band	Distance	Penalty	Description
Close	0-5 yards	0*	Touch/Strike range
Short	6-20 yards	(-3)	Can talk; pistol or muscle-powered missile range
Medium	21-100 yards	(-7)	Can only shout; shotgun or SMG range
Long	101-500 yards	(-11)	Out of earshot; rifle range
Extreme	501+ yards	(-15)	Difficult to see; sniper range

* For a fighter engaged in melee combat, ranged attacks suffer a penalty equal to Bulk.