So a sniper is aiming at the party which is standing around

> But aren't the conditions in the post perfect? Assume there is no crowd around them. Assume there is no wind or anything. The conditions are absolutely perfect for a head shot kill.

Where the fuck are you that you're both at long range and there is no wind anywhere along the bullet's flight path? Even if there is none at the shooter and none at the target, there is still a long distance that the bullet has to travel in which there might be any number of different wind patterns. Plus a bullet passing from one patch of air pressure to another can also influence trajectory.

Long distance marksmanship is hard. There's a reason why it's a rare skill. And even skilled marksmen aren't guaranteed to make their first shot, since there is invariably an element of randomness in it. That's pretty much true of warfare in general. Sometimes you can do everything right and still fail because of sheer bad luck.

Without asspulls you can't.
But the sniper being set up, knowing where they are, and already having accurate ranges for his angle and distance, even ignoring wind since your scenario ignores it is also a massive ass pull, spotters have a pretty difficult job, you need to measure the distance with a range finder, if you don't have it memorized you need to consult a chart for the ammo you are using, you also need to account for bullet drop because that is a thing, which is again based off ammo and distance, then you have to account for shooting downwards.
It's a difficult job.
GURPS did it best imo, sniping is a very long process that requires you to have a range finder and is intelligence based to account for all the calculations you have to do to get the bullet to goto place you want it.

>Again, assume absolute perfect conditions. How does a GM make it fair for the PCs so they don't instantly die?

He doesn’t.
Issue is your PC’s aren’t going to be that stupid and I’m guessing as a GM you’re honestly not even clever enough to ensure ALL of those things are going to go right at the same time without them fucking up at least two for you on pure accident.
Seriously, your scenario literally magically arranges this situation for a group of PC’s that are magically doing what you want them to do with no deviation and are actually in fact controlled by you since you have no players. That’s pretty much the “opposite” of a scenario you goddamn moron, that a basic arithmetic problem with the answer already written down in front of you on the page. Don’t bother congratulating yourself when you did no work and put zero effort into something.

The contact they're supposed to meet, or the NPC handler their boss sent with them to exchange the goods gets popped first.

Their HP total is higher then the maximum possible damage the gun can do. Easy.

Why are you so angry? Did your GM kill your PC with a sniper? Do PCs in your games not stop and talk to NPCs?

I thought PCs were always stupid.

I am pretty sure the anger comes from hos convoluted the whole scenario is, and how horrifically it ignores all logic of the situation.

>Did your GM kill your PC with a sniper?
No.
>Do PCs in your games not stop and talk to NPCs?
This scenario is already ruined if they did that, actually. If they did anything but stand there and wait to be shot in fact.

Not him, but I don't play in settings where there is magically nothing to disturb the flight of a bullet. If you want to talk about real world sniping, you have to remember that in the real world that sort of perfect scenario simply doesn't happen.

>aiming for the head

If you honestly think that then you’ve never GMed anything even once. More to the point, the “accidental” part means that regardless of how stupid they are they could ruin your entire little made-up thing. All one of them needs to do is decide at random to not be in the same place over and over again or not go there, or even take a different route or stand in a different location.

Veeky Forums says that players are always stupid.

What if was a futuristic long range gun that used something much more accurate than bullets? Are PCs fucked then?

What if they aren't firing a bullet?

>But aren't the conditions in the post perfect?
You never even talked about the conditions that actually mattered.

Veeky Forums also argues consistently about elves at least three times a day.
Tell me user; how many lengthy conversations about elves do you have in a day? If the answer is less then three long ones every single day then basically you’re admitting what applies on Veeky Forums is not what necessarily applies in life.

The way you frame the scene - they WILL instantly die. Because you are intensionally putting your players into scripted death trap, ignoring all posters that tell you that this set up is unrealistic to begin with.

That's probs the best way of OP having his cake and eating it

Range isn’t actually the problem here.
You haven’t even brought up the actual problems even when they were directly pointed out to you. In fact I’m not even sure you recognize that they WERE the primary problems.

What happens when this situation happens to the protagonist in a movie. Or an anime. Or a comic book. Or a regular book. Or a video game. Or... any other media at all other than a traditional game.

What happens?

If you answered 'they die', then you're a moron.

You can’t, but just kill your players anyway if you wanna do it like that. You don’t need Veeky Forums‘s justification for anything, you’re an adult and not a child.

There are plenty of movies where the protags suddenly get iced in the end without warning.

Nobody here is asking for a justification to kill.

This scenario is retarded. You are bottlenecking your players into frustrating and one sided trap, because you have romantic view of how snipers work.

What do you mean more 'accurate' then bullets?
You still need to account for nothing inbetween you and the target, and at any great distance of combat you need to account for distance when sniping, with 'sci-fi super accurate weapon' you still need to account for intervening buildings, cover, the curvature of the earth, and determining where they will be when the round gets there.

>There are plenty of movies where the protags suddenly get iced in the end without warning.
Go for it if you want to then. If your players end up dissatisfied then go get new ones I suppose.
>Nobody here is asking for a justification to kill.
Well, you seem to be creating an arbitrarily perfect scenario with only one outcome with no player input. What are we supposed to infer other then that you want to off the PC’s you’re currently GMing?

Hitting something at super long rage with a non projectile weapon may be impossible because earth is curved.
But I am not sure.

You should make this scenario a consequence of them fucking up earlier, like seriously pissing off someone wealthy and influential. And even then they should have time to run and hide after the first one or two die.

>in the end
There's your problem. Unless you're deliberately setting this up as an end for a character, then it's retarded. You're engineering a "rocks fall you die" situation, with a few extra steps so that you'll feel clever and the players will think it's "fair"

Depends what system.
What system?

Not many snipers use fucking BB guns.

>half party dies
>half party runs and can do nothing

Fun game.

You can't really hit something beyond the horizon if you're using a simple gun with a scope either...

>What are we supposed to infer other then that you want to off the PC’s you’re currently GMing?
Or you know, the PCs pissed off someone like said and the GM is just adapting to that.

>So a sniper is aiming at the party which is standing around.
>One shot from the sniper and one person in the party is dead.
>The sniper is in a tall building, completely hidden.
>How the fuck do you make this scenario fair for the PCs without making the sniper retarded by firing a clear shot that misses?
It's not fair, as someone who had a gm pull this shit to specifically kill my pc I will tell you it won't end well out of game, basically everyone quit the table when my pc got shot by a sniper off the map after their friends showed up spontaneously to fight us.

I didn't see a lot of systems where you get one-shot by relatively basic small arms

If you want to kill your PCs and shout "I WIN!" just have rocks fall.

But you didn’t really say anything about a rule set so I assumed you just meant the one I was currently playing. A sniper rifle in said system, even at maximum damage on each dice, could not kill any of my characters outright.

Well curvature of the earth comes in much earlier than that. Snipers account for it while aiming.

>Because the radio told the sniper that they are passing there minutes before, thus he would be at his spot waiting for them.

That doesn't make any sense. What allowed for the exact arrangement to happen? Was it a meeting the sniper arranged? Also, a minute? Try half an hour. Anyway, to answer your question, put your sniper under real world conditions and have to make an incredibly difficult roll. If the roll is fatal, then dial it back a bit to increase drama but without actually killing the PC.

Well why didn’t he say that then?

Use a Drone strike. Its the same but it will kill all PC's in one shot and double tap the survivors. The drone is several kilometers up in the sky.

Drone strike is actually a lot more realistic since it’s easier to adjust the drone then it is adjust the sniping position and quicker to arrange said drone too. It’s kind of why we use them all the time now.

My character can see 12 seconds into the future, he will side step every shot and enter the building and inquisite the sniper. Easy.
Does the sniperhave a automatic weapon, that may be a problem.

>Anyway, to answer your question, put your sniper under real world conditions and have to make an incredibly difficult roll. If the roll is fatal, then dial it back a bit to increase drama but without actually killing the PC.
Making the sniper roll could work, yeah.

Drone strikes sound OP.

>do whatever you want, your GM will not give you an enemy way more powerful than you anyway!

Said no one.

It’s a fast-flying bomb miles above with an eyeball attached to a person miles away who controls said fast-flying bomb with zero risks to himself whatsoever.

Yes, it is kinda sorta a nearly perfect assassination device as long as you are willing to accept the collateral damage. That’s the point.

>You die button with no counter play
>Fun
You can pick one

No, use an orbital laser beam. Really drive home that they earned their death. Your group will love you instead of hating you for cheesing out on the ending.

Your real issue isn't figuring out how to pull this off.

Your real issue is figuring out how to stop being a shit GM.

Kinetic kill projectile is more practical and can be done with current tech.

>Because the radio told the sniper that they are passing there minutes before, thus he would be at his spot waiting for them.

Good lord, what could have the PCs done to get Centre angry enough to sent Joséphine against them?

youtube.com/watch?v=k1nOUgSdxEQ

Too boring. MELT THOSE SPECIAL SNOW FLAKES!

I'd like to see a source on that, it sounds very unlikely that snipers have to do anything with curvature unless you're on a dwarf planet.
They do have to take Coriolis into account though, but this is related to the rotation of the Earth rather than its curvature.

youtube.com/watch?v=zhmO9NOFHfo

>orbital laser beam

You are like little baby...

Coriolis will only move the bullet about three inches at around a klick

Man, TG sometimes. Snipers don't have to worry about either of those things, but setting up a shot does take a long time. The farthest range a rifle can reach isn't impacted by the curvature of the Earth and the Coriolis Effect is too weak to affect the bullet. Wind, movement, bullet fall, and your own firing technique all you have to worry about, and of course not getting killed by a team of counter snipers.

...

>with a dedicated magnification scope
Didn't Simo Hayha achieve his legendary status while firing in very snowy weather and going no scope?

He had a tube, but no scope (was said it helped hide better because no reflection).

Yes. However, he was not firing at a range that most would consider sniping, considering that what eventually took him out was a guy firing back. He also was shooting in a thick snowy forest at guys with no camo.

itt: a bunch of assmad nogame faggots who never shot a gun anyways autistically screeching about a bunch of math they'd never do at their own tables
this may be the only thing resembling the advice OP asked for
alternatively, something triggers a perception check from the PCs re: the tall buildings or
the sniper doesn't get a clear shot, hitting a piece of equipment or the empty ground instead when a PC unexpectedly moves, giving away his position

None of you are thinking of this problem like infantry.

Assuming the snipefag is established, your PC should be doing one of a few things.

1.) Advance through cover. Fancy way of saying 'go through buildings.' If this guy is in, like, a church tower at the end of an empty street, this is the most direct way to get close.

2.) Go around. Self-explanatory.

3.) Wait for night. Note that this is not a good option if your enemy has night vision equipment worth a god damn. These days even the ragheads have some, until they inevitably break it.

4.) Withdraw. Do you need this snipefag in particular? Probably not.

5.) Call in mortars, howitzer, or CAS. This is the best solution. Just blow the whole fucking thing up. Make sure if you find him injured afterwards to shoot him and tell your superiors, if asked, that he was reaching for a weapon.

If your party are standing around in a sharpshooter friendly environment, that's their gault. Note that sharpshooting is hard, so by no means should the enemy mook automatically hit. If you wish to make the scenario 'fair,' have the enemy target an NPC first. Also note that snipers generally will be targeting specific VIPs, officers, etc - not random grunts. A guy sitting around skeet shooting isn't going to be nearly as good, and he won't stick around long if he's fighting a modern force because he knows what's coming. Unless he's a raghead.

>itt: a bunch of assmad nogame faggots who never shot a gun anyways autistically screeching about a bunch of math they'd never do at their own tables
Fucking this. Only I think one other person instead of autistically screeching about muh realism pointed out that killing off a PC in that way is very anticlimatic, unless that's the deliberately planned ending to the PC's life.

>My PC jumped into a pit filled with poisonous upperspikes. He's wearing no armor, the trap cannot be avoided, spikes cannot miss, he cannot survive the fall, poison will always work and always kill instantly.
>How can I make it fair to the PC ?

Your whole situation is inherently unfair. You gave yourself way too many unrealistic advantages for this situation to be fair to begin with.

Reread OP's post. He specifically asked for a reason why an on the fly prearranged sniper shot isn't instant death. Simple answer, because it isn't what he thinks it is. Just like how gunslingers in the Wild West didn't actually shoot guns out of each others hands or hats off people's heads without hurting them. It's a Hollywood fantasy.

Can't forget the basics, either.

1. Suppressive fire.
2. Smoke
3. HE
4. armor, personal and vehicular
5. the 3 D's: direction, distance, description; as soon as the first shot hits. there are electronics for this if your PCs suck at basic fighting skills.

Once the sniper is spotted, it's over for him. He doesn't have the rate of fire or numbers to do anything except die ingloriously against competent opponents.

Spotted doesn't mean "that 1 exact loophole" either. The PC's should be putting suppressive fire into every plausible hideyhole. If he's near, deploy covering smoke and decoy smoke and maneuver; if he's far, call down HE.

The answer like before is that the poster swung between making the sniper a god and giving no information. Eerily similar, no?

It doesn't matter because this scenario is completely hypothetical and in the case it does happen the game will dissolve immediately after

It's also pretty telling when the biggest issues brought up are ignored.

However there is another thing TC could do. The Sniper isn't a mile away, but is almost right on top of them. Like just two stories above their heads from less than a hundred feet away. THEN the scenario he described would more or less go down like he stated. Of course, the PC's would have a fighting chance to spot the Sniper.

Seriously this, if you have to have a setup where the group wanders into a trap without knowing it, and the magical mega sniper having perfect conditions, just let him shoot at them an hit someone in the chest while missing vitals to alarm the players.

what if they play on Discworld?

Then you have to deal with the speed of light being the same as the speed of sound...

dude realism lmao

>Again, assume absolute perfect conditions. How does a GM make it fair for the PCs so they don't instantly die?
I think this is the crux of your problem. Why are you trying to jump through all these hoops to give the sniper every possible advantage and still trying to make it 'fair'. Giving one side every possible advantage is inherently unfair.

Hydrostatic shock will kill anyway if the ideal conditions are set up. We already established hey are and the sniper cannot miss.

This whole thread comes down to : "how can a bullet that cannot miss and always kill not kill one PC?"

This is nonsensical onto its face

I'd study this bossfight.

The sniper misses their first shot. the PCs make their Intelligence check to notice they're being shot at.

Assuming the sniper doesn't GTFO immediately, it then becomes a game of hide-and-seek.

Maybe the PC is wearing armor. Bang, one shot right in the chest. Now he's bruised and mad and everyone knows there's a sniper at 2oclock, 500 meters, that 6 story building.

Well I was assuming a system with HP or wounds and not cinematic your hit so in real life you would be dead handweaving

Basically in that situation you have two variables
• What are the chances to hit? We assume 100% because of the premises of the question
• What are the chances to kill ? If we assume a realistic game, 100%.

You do the math. Except if you can act upon those variables, the answer is straightforward. You can't make it fair, this situation is unfair by definition.

As the thread suggested multiple times, this situation cannot happen without a lot of asspulling to the pointit will realistically never happen, but if by miracle it does, this cannot be corrected, one of your PC will die.

It's like saying "let's say a meteor falls upon this character face, how do I make it fair?"

>ancient red dragon at first level

Can I fight it?

>How the fuck do you make this scenario fair for the PCs?
The "fair" part was in the previous five or so sessions where they fucked up every single decision and dice roll - dozens of them, some quite easy to succeed - and thus ended up in this situation.

The time to stop an avalanche is before it started, not five minutes after half of the mountain is already in motion.

Fuckin' this, user. If you sleep on train tracks and get run over, is it the GM playing dirty?

Between the constant reposts and that one guy admitting to making pathfinder hate threads just for reactions, the only way to win is to sage.