Aiming

Under certain circumstances, a character may aim a shot at a specific area of the target's body; most commonly, the head or the heart. There are rules for aimed blows in The Anarch's Cookbook that cover aiming at the head, limbs and chest; the difficulty modifier to hit the heart is +3, rising to +5 if the target has the Misplaced Heart Virtue from The Players Guide.

When dealing with missle weapons there are additional modifiers for circumstances, as follows:

Circumstances	Difficulty Modifier
Aiming at a limb on far side of the body	+3
Target walking	+1
Target running	+3
Target running and dodging	+5
Target area behind soft cover	+3 or more*

  * An aimed shot may only be made against a body area which is behind soft cover (e.g. drapes, a lacquer screen, a thin wooden door) if the firing character can see enough of the target's body to be able to judge the position of the target area. The Storyteller is the final arbiter in such circumstances.

Aimed Bursts

If a called shot is made with an automatic weapon set for a three-round burst, only the first round may be a called shot. The second and third rounds are handled normally, since recoil prevents their being aimed as carefully as the first.

Surprise Attacks

The easiest target is a tarket taken unawares -- stabbed from behind or shot from ambush. To gain the advantage of surprise, the victim must be entirely unaware of the assailant's presence, or must be off-guard and unable to see the assailant ready the weapon (if any) and wind up to the attack. Victims who are caught off-guard but see the assailant preparing to attack may roll Wits + Brawl (difficulty of the assailant's Dexterity + Stealth) in order to take some action before the attack. If the victim wins, the assailant loses the difficulty modifier for attacking with surprise, and if the victim botches the roll, he or she is rooted to the spot with shock and surprise, unable to take any action of any kind that turn.
  Missle Fire: A sniper firing on an unaware target reduces the difficulty rating of the shot by two.
  Melee Combat: A character backstabbing an unsuspecting target reduces the difficulty rating of the attack by three. The attacker may choose to "trade" one, two or all or these points for extra damage points, on a one-for-one basis. This reflects the assailant's opportunity to place a blow with greater care when attacking with surprise. For example, Jamal has approached a victim undetected and is preparing to backstab with a dagger. His Melee score is high enough that it would be of little benefit to him to reduce the difficulty rating of the attack by 3 points -- he can hardly fail to hit, even without the difficulty modifier -- so he elects to trade all three for increased damage, but Jamal has gained a +3 damage bonus by foregoing the difficulty modifier, and his attack will do Strength +4 damage.

Darkness

  Darkness is the greatest ally of the thief and assassin; it offers concealment for approach and escape. The following rules are suggestions only, and the Storyteller should feel free to adapt or ignore them as desired.
  The cover of darkness reduces the difficulty of all activities based on visual concealment by two to no less than a difficulty of three. It increases the difficulty of all other activities by three.
  Characters with the Auspex power Heightened Senses ignore all negative modifiers for darkness unless in total darkness (e.g. in a sealed, unlit underground chamber). In total darkness, the character's other senses compensate in part for the lack of visual input, halving all penalties (round halves up).
  Characters with the Protean power Gleam of Red Eyes ignore all negative modifiers for darkness, since they can see as well as in normal daylight.
  Some technological devices counteract darkness to a greater or lesser extent.
  Image intensifiers (also known as owl eyes and star scopes) work by concentrating the small amount of light that is available from the night sky, but are useless underground or in other circumstances where there is no natural light to intensify.
  Passive infrared sensors detect heat and may use it to build up an image; sensitive devices can pick up the body heat of a mouse at a range of tens of yards, though any source of heat will register on the device, and an image can be swamped by background "noise" unless ambient temperatures are extremely constant across the scanning area. A vampire has far less body heat than a mortal; heat from ingested blood disperses over time, so a recently-fed vampire will have a stronger infrared presence than a hungry one.
  Active infrared sensors fire a beam of infrared light at a receiver and detect interruptions to the beam. They are normally used in fixed configurations -- in building alarm systems, for instance.
  Radar and sonar work bbby emitting energy waves and noting differences in patterns of reflection which might indicate the presnece of an intruder. Like active infrared systems, they require cumbersom equipment and are only used in fixed configurations. Most sonar system used for security work at a pitch far above normal human (and even vampire) hearing.

    The following aiming difficulties are from The Anarch Cookbook. (Sorry, these seem to only apply to vamp chronicles, but check the Advanced Combat section under "Basic Rules" for details on other creatures.)

    Head -- Difficulty +3, Damage: A Wounded result means unconsciousness for a mortal, but a vampire is only stunned and cannot do anything that turn. A Crippled result means the vampire is stunned until she successfully rolls Stamina (difficulty 8). Incapacitated means the vampire's neck is broken and she is paralyzed until she can spend enough Blood Points to restore herself to the Crippled level.If the weapon is sharp and the damage is one more than the required to bring the vampire to Incapacitated, then the vampire is decapitated -- the Final Death.

    Hands/Arms -- Difficulty: +3/+2, Damage: A Wounded result means his hand/arm is broken and any weapons in that hand cannot be used, so swords are dropped, the fingers will not be able to pull the trigger on a pistol, etc. If the weapon used is sharp, a Crippled limb must be recovered and held to the wound while the vampire spends enough Blood Points to restore himself to at least Mauled level. The limb cannot be used until it full heals (treat as if it has taken aggravated damage).

    Legs -- Accuracy: +1, Damage: A Wounded result means the limb is broken; the penalties to the Dice Pool apply to any activities requiring running. An Incapacitated result with a sharp weapon means the limb is cut off, with the same results as severing a hand or arm.

    Chest/Torso -- Accuracy: +1, Damage: An Incapacitated result means shock: The vampire has temporarily lost control of her blood. She must roll Stamina + Fortitude (difficulty = total lost Health Levels +2) to regain control, spending a full turn to try. She cannot spend Blood Points until she does this. A mortal will have the air knocked out of her lungs on a Wounded result (stunned for the turn), and her ribs broken on a Mauled result (neither of these results bother a vampire). If the vampire is attacked from behind and the result is one more than needed to Incapacitate, then the spine is broken, and she is paralyzed until she can spend sufficient Blood Points to restore herself to the Crippled Level.