Cover¶
Modern combat is built around cover. An Operator behind a concrete wall is a different fight than an Operator in the open street - and the system treats them that way. Cover gives a flat AC bonus and a matching bonus to DEX saving throws against effects that originate on the other side of it.
There are three grades.
The Three Grades¶
| Grade | Threshold | AC Bonus | DEX Save Bonus | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Half | About half the body is obscured/blocked | +2 | +2 | Low wall, doorframe, vehicle hood, partner standing between you and threat. |
| Three-quarters | Most of the body is obscured/blocked | +5 | +5 | Murder hole, sandbag with firing slit, corner of a building, half-open hatch. |
| Full | Body is entirely obscured/blocked | - | - | Cannot be targeted directly by attacks or effects requiring line of sight. |
A target in full cover cannot be the direct target of an attack or single-target ability. They can still be hit indirectly: area effects (frags, blast), suppressing fire that walks past the cover, or attacks against the cover itself.
Cover vs Concealment¶
The two are different and easy to confuse. Cover stops the round; concealment just hides you.
- Cover (this page): rounds physically don't reach you - concrete, steel, earth berm, stack of hard sandbags.
- Concealment: line of sight is broken or degraded but the material wouldn't stop a bullet - smoke, foliage, darkness, fog. Concealment grants disadvantage on attacks against you (see Advantage and Disadvantage) but no AC or save bonus.
A burst into concealment can still hit you; a burst into cover physically cannot, unless the cover is destroyed or defeated (an AP rifle round through a car door, an HMG through cinder block, a rocket through a wall).
A creature standing between an attacker and your position counts as soft cover - half cover for game purposes - which is why "do not stand in front of friendlies" is a brief item, not a suggestion.
Determining the Grade¶
The GM calls it from the situation. Useful rules of thumb:
- Crouched behind a low wall or in a doorframe: half cover.
- Prone behind the same low wall: three-quarters cover.
- Around a corner with only weapon and one eye showing: three-quarters cover.
- Fully behind a wall: full cover.
- A pickup truck side, hood, or door: half cover (most rounds will defeat it; see Defeating Cover below).
- A vehicle's engine block: three-quarters cover.
Crouched by itself does not grant cover - it gives an attacker -2 at range past 5 ft, separately - but it makes claiming three-quarters cover easier behind a low obstacle.
Cover and Target Zones¶
When a target is in cover, only the exposed body parts can be attacked with Target Zone shots. A shooter behind three-quarters cover that exposes only their head and weapon-hand can be shot in the head or hand - everything else is blocked.
Defeating Cover¶
Several abilities and weapons reduce or ignore cover:
- Ranged Weapons Training Level 4: treat enemies as having one grade less of cover (full → three-quarters, three-quarters → half, half → none).
- Demolitions Specialist anti-tank weapons: rocket launchers and similar ignore all cover short of full.
- High-grade ammunition (.50 BMG, AP rounds, etc.): may shoot through the cover at GM discretion, with the cover acting as Damage Reduction equal to its hardness rather than a binary block.
- Suppressive fire and area effects: don't care about half or three-quarters cover; only full cover negates them, and even full cover does not block a frag whose blast wraps around the obstacle.
Granting Cover¶
A few ways to make your own cover where there isn't any:
- Ballistic Blanket (see Armor): deployed as an action over a prone teammate, grants half or full cover at GM discretion.
- Demolitions Specialist field fortifications: build three-quarters cover squares in a 20-ft line.
- Ballistic Shield: grants half cover to the carrier and to one adjacent ally on the covered side.
- Smoke: not cover - it grants concealment (disadvantage on attacks against creatures inside or beyond it) but does not stop rounds.
Examples¶
Example - half cover: Falke (AC 14 from his medium flak) is firing over the hood of a sedan at a militant 20 m away. The militant returns fire. The GM rules Falke is in half cover behind the hood: AC becomes 16. Militant rolls 1d20 → 13, +3 = 16 vs AC 16 → tied, ties miss the attacker, miss. Without the hood, that 16 would have hit.
Example - three-quarters cover and target zones: Falke is stacked on the corner of a stairwell, leaning out only his head and rifle. The GM rules three-quarters cover. A militant on the landing tries to take an arm shot - but Falke's arm is behind the wall. The militant must take a head shot (-10 to hit) or a hand shot (-8) or hold fire.
Example - full cover defeated: Falke ducks fully behind a brick pillar (full cover) for a reload. The militant cannot directly target him - so the militant lobs a frag past the pillar instead. Falke takes a DEX save against the blast; full cover does not protect against an area effect that wraps around it.
Compared to Classic D&D 5E¶
- Half (+2), three-quarters (+5), and full cover are identical to classic 5E grades and bonuses.
- Cover grants the same bonus to DEX saves as to AC, same as classic 5E.
- Cover vs concealment is the same distinction; concealment is mechanically "disadvantage on attacks," same as classic 5E's "lightly obscured" / "heavily obscured" treatment.
- The big difference is how common and targetable cover is - cover is the default state of every gunfight, not the exception, and the system gives you tools to deploy, ignore, or defeat it.