Cover and Obstacles

Cover & Obstacles is a Situational Rule that governs terrain features caught in the fray of combat.



Cover
To take cover, simply move between it and the enemy. Attackers will negate your Cover if they go over, or around your chosen obstruction.

Mechanically, Cover is a flat penalty applied to your attacker's Shooting or Fighting roll (Cover protects against melee, as well!). The magnitude of this penalty is determined by a rough metric according to the percentage of the target exposed, as outlined in the table below.

Note that Cover does not stack with Prone.

To negate the effects of an enemy's Cover, use Aim, Support Tests, melee attacks (if applicable), or Grappling.



Obstacles
Sometimes, characters inflict piercing, impaling, or perhaps energy-beam damage sufficient to penetrate the Cover between them and their opponent. (Note that this is different from actually destroying the object, which is covered under Breaking Things). If the attack would have been successful without the Cover modifier, and the GM rules the target is likely to be hit, the material acts as Armor.

If the intervening material is a character, subtract its Toughness from the attack's Damage. Otherwise, use the following table as a guideline for different inanimate materials.