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I was at work today (a FLGS) and I overheard an argument regarding the new blast rules. Basically, one player rolled the 2D6 and the scatter die and got 2 and 1 plus an arrow pointing pretty much right back at him. They understood the blast rules, where you subtract your BS from the scatter and that's how it goes, but the problem was with negative numbers.

The model was a BS4 nid or something. He rolled 2 + 1, so 3. 3 - 4= -1, and it's pointed directly at the rolling player. Does it scatter forward away from the rolling player an inch, or does it come back at him or does it not move at all?

M.

It doesn't move at all.

You don't go into negative inches with scatter rolls. This is one of the stranger ones I've heard.

specifically says it will subtract the BS of the user to a minimum of 0. Pretty much means if you roll an arrow but your Bs is higher then the two numbers rolled its treated as a direct hit

Thanks. We scanned the rules and didn't find anything about a minimum of 0, but I will admit that I was on duty and didn't spend too too long looking at it.

M.

Also, a negative '/cm doesn't exist. The closest you could get is 0. If you think hard, if you measure negative inches then your really measuring normal inches but in the other direction.

They might exist in another dimension, when working on degree level physics and stuff, but lets keep it simple for the masses, eh?

Hahaha! That's pretty funny actually. I am getting my flatmate into 40k and the same thing happened to me. I shot at him with a valkyrie rocket pod, rolled two ones for the scatter and described it as I was doing it so he could begin to understand how scatter works. He understood, but the first thing he tried to do was say, oh, well, doesn't it then go one in back the other way!

I thought that was pretty quick thinking and made sense to me, but no, its not how the rule works.

"...the marker is shifted a number of inches equal to the total of the 2d6 minus the firing model's BS (to a minimum of 0)."

It's in the 'Blast' weapon section, p30.

wizard12 wrote:Also, a negative '/cm doesn't exist. The closest you could get is 0. If you think hard, if you measure negative inches then your really measuring normal inches but in the other direction.

They might exist in another dimension, when working on degree level physics and stuff, but lets keep it simple for the masses, eh?

I'm pretty sure you hit on - displacement in highschool physics and math. A negative number in this case would usually indicate direction so assuming a negative number on scatter going in the opposite direction of the dice would be very logical. Fortunately the designers of 40k, in a moment of clarity, limited the scatter to a minimum of 0 to keep things simple, and reward high BS with hitting more often.

Yes, it is to a minimum of 0, it is even in the blast rules.