Gunfights: Shooting to miss/injure [Suggestion]

  • Check out our Partnered Grand Theft Auto 5 Roleplaying Community New Day RP!

Ayton Hunter

Traveler
Whitelisted
Dec 20, 2019
6
19
103
Wales, Uk
www.youtube.com
Not sure if anyone has any experience with this in other roleplay servers, but from the increase of player reports I've seen involving conflict RP, I think some of you could benefit from this way of playing.

When I was RPing on DayZ (Arma2 Mod) bandit roleplay was a common thing and so there were a fair amount of rules around how to initiate a robbery and how it should play out if a gun fight should take place.

Shoot To Miss is designed to encourage roleplay within a firefight, eliminating the possibility of a win scenario and focusing more on what is actually happening within the moment. This can work really well in certain situations as it allows the role players to decide themselves whether or not they have taken a shot, and it generally prolongs gunfights to allow more development and interesting resolutions. This requires the co-operation of both parties and you need to take on the mentality that you are going to lose, meaning that your focus isn't on killing the other player, it's more on how your own character will fair within this firefight. Will they get shot in the leg? Will they take a shot to the ear? How much do they take before they decide that escape is a better plan? Would they realistically win this scenario? What roleplay do I want out of this, to become a fugitive on the run or do I wish to be caught and sent to jail? Is there a way this can end without shooting? And so forth.

The example:
"A posse of 4 robs a bank and in the process are called out by some lawmen outside. One of the Posse takes a look and notices only 2 lawmen, and decides to give them a warning that they are outnumbered and are giving them a chance to walk away with no conflict. The Lawmen OFCOURSE refuse to step away and so... the posse begins to fire."

Now there are a few scenarios and these aren't guaranteed to happen, but with the Shoot to miss idea we can find that this firefight becomes a lot more interesting and deepens the roleplay, so I'm going to provide two alternatives to how this could happen.

Scenario A - Shoot To Kill
So the firefight begins and the posse being the ones with more numbers are more likely to be successful in landing their shots on only 2 lawmen (depenedent on how good of a shot they are obviously), but in this case we'll say that 2 of the posse fire from the bank, while the other 2 sneak out and try to attack from the lawmen's flank.
The 2 that flanked aren't spotted and end up approaching the lawmen from behind and shooting them both in the head, instantly ending the RP situation.
Now I understand this isn't the only way this could go, but regardless you're shooting to kill.. so your focus is taken off the roleplay and instead your head will move to a more "FPS" mindset, in which all you're focusing on is killing the other player. Hence you quickly forget about any passive parts of the roleplay which may take into effect and make it that much more interesting.

Scenario B - Shoot To Miss
Rewind.... The firefight begins anew, but the posse stays in the bank defending their positon as the 2 lawmen open fire on the bank. Using the shoot to miss ideal, both parties are firing back and forth in what looks even more like an intense gun fight as opposed to a 2 minute "Who's been practising their no reticule aiming?".
Now as this allows us to approach this scenario in different ways, I'm also going to provide two ideas of RP situations this could lead on to due to nobody dying immediately, allowing the players to pay more attention to the roleplay than their health bar. So....

B-1
The firefight rages on as both sides seem evenly matched, but all of sudden Arthur Marston decides that he's taken a shot from one of the lawmen right in his arm. He screams out in pain and sits himself down, now unable to shoot back with one of his buddies trying to coax him into getting back and fighting. The fight has gone on for too long, and thank's to the commotion, more lawmen show up surrounding the building. The posse are now the ones outnumbered and because of Arthur, they are now a shooter down. The lawmen begin to close in on the bank, until finally there are enough guns around the bank that the posse sees no choice but to surrender.

BUT WAIT...
John Doe decides he doesn't want to be taken down lightly so as the lawmen enter the bank, he takes a potshot at one lawman and "AIMS SPECIFICALLY FOR HIS LEG (SHOOT TO INJURE)". The said lawman (who has actually taken a legit shot to the leg) roleplays his injury and John Doe makes a run for it, but luckily the other lawmen are waiting outside and pointing guns right at John Doe as he walks out. Through FEAR RP, John Doe see's no other choice but to surrender.
Nobody died, everyone was involved in the roleplay and the situation turns into a much more interesting scenario when you play to lose, and also creates motivation for player rivalries, reputations and more.

B-2
REWIND BACK... and the shootout continues, two lawmen and 4 members of a posse duke it out in the streets. Only this time, 2 of the posse have decided to flank around (like in the shoot to kill scenario). This time, however, the leader of the posse, Arthur Marston, calls out to the lawmen for a ceasefire (Thanks to Shoot to miss, Arthur Marston isn't going to get shot in the head the second he walks outside). He walks out of the bank with his hands up, spouting some Dutch level bullshit to make time for our two sneaky boys to flank around.
The gullible lawmen let their guard down and before you know it, the lads are holding guns to their heads behind them (Through FearRP the lawmen should not try any stupid Dead Eye bullshit.. because well... you have a gun to your head). The lawmen are disarmed as Arthur Marston and John Doe leave the scene, again spouting some sarcastic remarks about how they were able to fool the lawmen so easily. They escape and the lawmen are whacked across the backs of their heads, knocking them out (you don't need to kill them, just hit them once and thanks to our amazing dev team, they can use the ragdoll command /RD) and succesfully escape the encounter. BUT what's this? Now we have REAL criminals on the run, with REAL players having bounties on their heads... which in turn creates more roleplay situations which can also implement shoot to miss.


So there you have it!

Now while this system isn't exactly flawless and sometimes, a shoot to kill can be fine if agreed upon by the parties and roleplayed to an exceptional standard. HOWEVER, I find more often than not that when people are in gunfight situations, they tend to focus more on the PVP aspect of it all, as opposed to just roleplaying a great scenario.

Again, I'm not sure if this ruleset could benefit anyone in their endeavours or if it would even work within RDR2, but from my experience I've always enjoyed far more interesting roleplay through this means.

Please feel free to discuss and thanks for reading!
 
Last edited by a moderator: