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I am currently a little confused as to what the Warrior's Code variant of the Code of Honor quality means in regards to stray bullets. The exact wording is as follows

A character will not kill an unarmed person, take lethal action against an opponent who is unaware or unprepared for an attack or knowingly take an action that could kill someone who is defenseless (i.e., from a stray bullet or allow someone to be killed from a sniper shot). The character loses 1 Karma per unarmed or defenseless person that they kill or allow to be killed through their actions.

As far as I am aware, a stray bullet is an accident, i.e. not something the character has any control over. As I interpret the quality, the character would never willingly pick a fight that they do not consider honourable (plenty of good examples in the book), but how are characters supposed to react to accidents such as a stray bullet harming an innocent bystander?

Before you say "spray and pray", I am aware that a character wouldn't ever spray a minigun into a crowd of innocent people just to kill a target hiding in the middle - this is pretty obvious. My question is solely about the unintended harm to someone unarmed.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Have you considered that they'd behave in such a way to minimize collateral damage from things like stray bullets? (i.e. loading hollowpoint ammo instead of FMJ to minimize overpenetration of soft cover -- RL police use hollowpoint bullets for precisely this reason) \$\endgroup\$ – Shalvenay May 14 '17 at 20:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Chemus: Perhaps I have interpreted that tag wrong. In that case, my apologies \$\endgroup\$ – user23707 May 14 '17 at 20:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ I was actually looking for clarification; you might have been looking for more rules about this or other rules that are like this. The RAW tag is kinda... a sticking point with some of us here, so I was asking to see what you were looking for. \$\endgroup\$ – Chemus May 14 '17 at 20:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sorry, I am still rather new to RPG.SE (I'm coming from StackOverflow mostly) and Tabletop RPGs in general, so I'm glad for any help (and correction) I can get \$\endgroup\$ – user23707 May 14 '17 at 20:19
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The example provided is modeling the remorse the Code of Honor Warrior feels in killing an innocent bystander, even accidentally, making it a game mechanic. The example could well have been killing a jaywalking pedestrian in a ground vehicle chase, or having an opponent's falling aircraft that he shot down fall on a family home.

The net result should be that the Code of Honor warrior must take great care in choosing the venue of his lethal conduct, or use limited means of pursuing it. If he uses a gun, he would have to be certain that there's no one downrange, or even nearby, or else he risks injuring or killing them by accident. Perhaps he will use a handheld weapon rather than a projectile weapon, to reduce the risk of collateral damage.

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