[RPG] What skill can be used to oppose undodgeable energy weapons’ attack rolls

fatefate-core

Background

In my Fate core campaign, my group is fighting against aliens in a near future setting (the campaign is loosely inspired by XCOM: Enemy Unknown)

In the core book, most combat examples are melee ones, rolling Fight vs Fight, and the odd ranged fight with bows and arrows or thrown knives is usually resolved with Shoot vs Athletics. I don't think that Shoot vs Athletics is a good fit for laser beams and plasma bolts.

The problem

How can I represent gunfight using opposed skill rolls? Or, in other words, which skill can be used to defend against Shoot where the weapons are high energy, high velocity plasma guns?

Attempted solutions

Here's what I've tried so far:

  1. Shoot vs Athletics, as per core book suggestion. Did not work because it looked like a poor Matrix rip-off.
  2. Shoot vs passive opposition. The character shoots against a fixed difficulty target based on environmental conditions. Pretty good when the PC are shooting enemies, very boring in the reverse because the players aren't involved in fight resolution.
  3. Shoot vs Notice. Notice is representing the battlefield knowledge of finding a good cover. The opposed roll is delayed: when characters scramble for cover they'd roll notice and use that value as passive opposition, like #2 above. Slightly better results, but it seems "weird" to use notice to "find cover" and also if the player makes a good roll (or invests in advantages/fate points) he'll be pratically invulnerable.

What I need

I need an opposing roll because, at the moment, I'm struggling to have coherent damage output: we have fixed stress output mitigated by armor values (for example: a plasma gun does 7 stress, heavy armor reduces the amount by 3). I want to have guns and armor to have aspects instead (as suggested here, which is a beautiful idea), and the stress output decided, by the most part from an opposed roll.

The same example above, translated with my ideal opposed roll, would be like this:

  • The alien shoots with his plasma gun and rolls a 5
  • The player defends with [skill] and rolls a 4
  • The player suffers 3 damage: 1 (from delta) +3 (from weapon:3 property of the plasmagun) -1 (from armor:1 of the player's body armor)

Best Answer

I tend to think that setting such pairings in stone tends to make the game boring. If Shoot is always opposed by Athletics (or whatever else you pick to replace it), then players justifiably tend to hog those two and all other skills are sidelined.

I believe the best way would be allowing creative use of the whole skill set, even allowing unorthodox choices if supported by interesting aspects. (Remember that aspects are true whether somebody invokes them or not)

Somebody's shooting at you with lasers. How are you going to deal with that?

  • Of course I'm in cover already, and I only move when their attention is elsewhere. Never let them take a shot if I can help it: Stealth
  • I keep track of their targeting dot. Never let it touch me when it's steady: Shoot
  • I'm the Master jury rigger. The suit inserts I made out of white styrofoam should be ablative enough for the couple of seconds I need to get out of the way. (They flare brightly and stink afterwards though): Craft
  • There's Thick foilage everywhere. If I keep moving, they'd be hard-pressed to take a proper shot: Athletics
  • I already Spotted that sniper. I'm sticking to the blind areas where they can't shoot: Notice

This makes the game more interesting in my opinion, and no one skill tends to be more important than the other.

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