There are seven Ranges in BESM: Melee, Short, Medium, Long, Short Sensory, Medium Sensory, and Long Sensory. Various attacks and abilities are effective at various ranges. Unless otherwise noted, all attacks are assumed to be Medium Range. A character may use a ranged attack (anything besides Melee) beyond that attack's range; if they do so, they suffer a 3 point penalty per "Range" beyond the attack's effective range, i.e., a Short Range attack would suffer a 3 point penalty to attack a target at Medium Range, a 6 point penalty to attack a target at Long Range, etc.
A character may see/hear/smell out to Short Sensory Range with no penalty under normal/daylight conditions. Every Range beyond that imposes a 3 point penalty, just as Attacks do. Characters may aquire Attributes which grant them bonuses to sensory rolls, thus allowing them to easily perceive extraordinary distances. Objects, such as binoculars or electronic ears, may also grant the user a bonus for the appropriate sense.
On the Grid, each range is measured in squares from the character. There are Attributes that can affect the number of squares that qualify as a given range for a character.
Range | # of Squares |
---|---|
Melee | 1 |
Short | 2-5 |
Medium | 6-10 |
Long | 11-20 |
Short Sensory | 21-30 |
Medium Sensory | 31-40 |
Long Sensory | 41-50 |