Morters

[J. Lionheart]

I don't have any particular experience with mortars, but they work on a very basic principle. If you've ever played the ancient computer game "Scorched Earth" or one of the other tank vs. tank games, you already know it - power, angle, fire.

A mortar is basically just a tube with a firing pin mounted in the bottom of it, and probably some sort of base that allows you to set the angle the tube is pointing at. When you drop the shell down in to the tube, it lands on the firing pin, causing it to fire. From there, it's just physics that determines where it's going to land; the weight of the shell, the angle it took off at, and how much force is behind it from the launch. Point your mortar in the general direction of what you want to hit, adjust the angle up or down to bring the impact closer to your or farther away, and shell away.

[Beatmeclever]

so this would be a simple roll to strike right?

Since Mortars are covered under the W.P. Heavy Weapons Skill, I'd say a simple roll to Strike. If that is the nature of your games it is quick and easy; however, you could make the character make a successful Skill Roll on Advanced Mathematics before he can try to make a roll to Strike if you wanted to make the action more realistic. Then again, you could make him have to succeed at several different Skill Rolls (of your choice) if you want Mortar-fire to be even harder.

[glitterboy2098]

i'd argue that it's as simple as a roll to strike at -4 (unguided, and indirect fire... not the most precise of weapons), but agree with the use of an advanced mathmatics skill roll...in this case to eliminate the -4..(basically fine tuning the angle and propellant blocks for better accuracy..as opposed to using the presets..)

alternately you could use the advanced math skill on set up to "zero in" the tube, and not have to worry about it later...