Range Falloff · Game Mechanic Compendium

Definition

Range falloff is a weapon rule: a weapon is fully effective out to an optimal range and loses accuracy or damage beyond it, in steps between bands or along a curve. It is coded any because it governs wargame muskets, role-playing missiles, hex-map mechs, spaceship turrets and hitscan guns alike. A maximum range alone is not falloff. Target-size accuracy measures the target rather than the distance; EVE Online combines both in one hit chance. A shotgun weakens with range through its spread, and reach is a melee weapon’s length.

How it works

The player measures the distance, and its band sets the roll needed or the damage dealt. Chainmail’s arquebusiers hit on any roll within 6 inches, on 3 to 6 out to 12 and on 5 or 6 out to 18. BattleDroids divides every weapon’s maximum range into thirds that add nothing, 2 or 4 to a base to-hit number of 4. EVE Online turns the steps into a curve: a turret keeps full chance inside optimal range, then falls to 50% at optimal plus falloff and 6.25% at twice falloff, and its player guide tells pilots to orbit at their weapons’ optimal range. In shooters the damage drops instead: Valorant’s Spectre deals 26 within 15 metres, 22 to 30 and 20 beyond.

Variations

Base at long range (Dungeons & Dragons): missile hits use the matrices as written at long range, shifted by one Armor Class at medium range and two at short.
Minimum range (BattleDroids): the particle projector cannon and other long-range weapons lose accuracy close in, 1 more for each hex nearer.
Per-weapon bands (Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader): each weapon has its own bands and modifiers, so pistols are better close and the bolter gains +1 within 12 inches.
Column shifts (Battlefleet Gothic): range moves the roll across a shared table, so close and long range shift the dice rolled rather than the number needed.
Optimal and falloff (EVE Online): full effect, then a smooth curve; railguns have the longest optimal range and blasters the shortest.
Range stat (Destiny 2, Valorant): a statistic or a patch moves where falloff begins or adds a band.

Limits

Range falloff limits where a weapon is used, not how often, so the limits coded are those of the weapons it governs. Kriegsspiel’s howitzers carry ammunition for 50 moves, the 1974 archer a quiver of 20 arrows, and BattleDroids’ launchers and autocannons a count of shots, while firing adds heat. Chainmail’s arquebusiers fire every other turn, and Rogue Trader’s models and Battlefleet Gothic’s ships once a turn. EVE’s projectile turrets reload ammunition, and Destiny 2 and Valorant spend magazines.

History and provenance

The earliest documented use cited is Kriegsspiel (1824), whose fire dice give effects at 100 to 400 paces, computed from firing trials, that fall from band to band on every face. Chainmail, in its 1972 second edition (first edition 1971), brought the form to recreational miniatures with an arquebus hit table that narrows over three bands. War Games Rules (1969) sets maximum ranges only. Dungeons & Dragons (1974) carried range bands into role-playing, and BattleDroids (1984), retitled BattleTech in its 1985 second edition, fixed short, medium and long as thirds of every range. EVE Online calls the curve beyond optimal range falloff, and a 2004 patch halved artillery falloff because it mattered more under new turret rules. Featherstone’s 1960s rules and Traveller (1977) remain unsurveyed.

Notable examples

Notable examples, in chronological order. Notes describe how the weapon works in each game; the limits are what restricts its use there; the latest reference is a widely played game from 2020 or later.
Game	Year	Medium	Limits	How the weapon works
Kriegsspiel Georg von Reisswitz	1824	Board & card	Ammunition	Each face of the fire dice gives an effect at 100, 200, 300 and 400 paces that falls with distance, as 30, 20, 10 and 4 points for closed infantry on one face of the first die; artillery reads a ruler banded for canister, arc and roll shot. A howitzer battery with its ordinary ammunition may fire for only 50 moves.
Chainmail Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren (Guidon Games)	1971	Board & card	Magazine, Action cost	In the 1972 second-edition text, arquebusiers roll an accuracy die for each man and hit on any roll within 6 inches, on 3 to 6 from 6 to 12 inches and on 5 or 6 from 12 to 18 inches. They fire as heavy crossbowmen do, every other turn, reloading in between.
Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)	1974	Tabletop RPG	Ammunition	Missile hits are scored on the attack matrices as written at long range, with the target's Armor Class shifted by 1 at medium range and by 2 at short range. Arrows and quarrels are bought by the quiver of 20 and the case of 30.
BattleDroids Jordan Weisman (FASA Corporation)	1984	Board & card	Ammunition, Heat	Each weapon's maximum range is divided into thirds, and short, medium and long range add nothing, 2 and 4 to the base to-hit number of 4. Missile launchers, machine guns and autocannons carry a count of shots, and firing builds heat.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Rick Priestley (Games Workshop)	1987	Board & card	Action cost	Every weapon has its own short, long and maximum range, a bolt pistol's 0-8, 8-16 and 16 inches, and its own to-hit modifier at each; the bolter gains +1 within 12 inches, and pistols are better close and nearly useless far off. A model shoots once in the shooting part of its turn.
Battlefleet Gothic Andy Chambers, Gavin Thorpe and Jervis Johnson (Games Workshop)	1999	Board & card	Action cost	Weapons batteries roll the number of dice the Gunnery table gives for their firepower and the target. A target within 15 cm shifts the roll one column left and one more than 30 cm away one column right, so 10 firepower against a closing capital ship rolls 9, 7 or 5 dice. Ships fire in the shooting phase of their turn.
EVE Online CCP Games	2003	Video	Ammunition, Magazine	A turret hits at full chance inside its optimal range; beyond it the falloff lowers the chance, to 50% at optimal plus falloff and 6.25% at optimal plus twice falloff. A 2004 patch halved artillery falloff because falloff mattered more in the new system. Projectile turrets reload ammunition.
Destiny 2 Bungie	2017	Video	Magazine	The range stat sets where damage falloff begins. An October 2020 update moved it for hand cannons at 100 range from 20 to 25 metres, and to 32 metres for the Aggressive subfamily, and enlarged one subfamily's magazine by 37 percent.
Valorant Latest Riot Games	2020	Video	Magazine	Patch 5.12 (December 2022) gave the Spectre a third damage range, 26 damage to 15 metres, 22 to 30 and 20 beyond, against 26 to 20 metres and 22 beyond before, because it was overperforming at mid to long range.

Provenance

Earliest documented use: Kriegsspiel (1824), board & card. Confidence: medium. The earliest documented use cited is Reisswitz's Kriegsspiel (1824), whose fire dice give a separate result for each 100-pace band out to 400 paces, with the figures on every face falling from band to band, as from 30 points at 100 paces to 4 at 400 for closed infantry on one face of the first die; the effects were computed from firing trials. Chainmail (1971, cited from the 1972 second-edition text) is the earliest cited in a recreational miniatures game, with a hit table that narrows across three 6-inch bands. War Games Rules 1000 BC to 500 AD (1969) gives maximum ranges only. Earlier war games of the eighteenth century and Featherstone's rules of the 1960s remain unsurveyed.

Sources

Georg von Reisswitz. (1824). Anleitung zur Darstellung militairischer Manöver mit dem Apparat des Kriegs-Spieles. Rulebook Einleitung, effects from firing trials; §. 4, range ruler (Fig. 26); §. 5, fire dice; howitzer ammunition, c. §. 47; plate Tab. III, faces of dice I and II. Accessed 2026-10-28. Effects computed from firing trials and Scharnhorst's data, infantry fire measured in 100-pace steps with die effects at 100 to 400 paces, the artillery ruler's bands, and the 50-move howitzer ammunition; section numbers read from an OCR of the Fraktur text, and the die figures at each range from plate Tab. III in the scan.
Wargames Research Group (Phil Barker, Bob O'Brien, and Ed Smith). (1969). War Games Rules 1000 BC to 500 AD. Rulebook Missile fire: Ammunition Supply; Ranges. Accessed 2026-10-28. Maximum ranges by weapon from 3 to 36 inches with no change of effect within them, and ammunition supply not taken into account.
Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren (Guidon Games). (1972). Chainmail, 2nd edition. Rulebook Missile Fire, Rate of Fire, p. 8; Gunpowder Weapons, Arquebusiers, p. 10. Accessed 2026-10-28. The arquebusiers' accuracy die and hit table by range, 1-6 to 6 inches, 3-6 to 12 and 5-6 to 18, and their rate of fire as heavy crossbowmen, every other turn.
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. (1974). Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 1: Men & Magic. Rulebook Attack Matrices I and II, missile note (c. p. 20); equipment list, arrows and quarrels. Accessed 2026-10-28. Missile hits scored on the matrices at long range with Armor Class decreased by 1 at medium and 2 at short range, and the quiver of 20 arrows and case of 30 quarrels.
Jordan Weisman (FASA Corporation). (1984). BattleDroids: A Game of Armored Combat. Rulebook Advanced Battledroids: Range; Firing Weapons, Range Modifier and Minimum Range Modifier; Ammunition; Battledroids and Heat. Accessed 2026-10-28. Maximum range divided into short, medium and long thirds with modifiers of none, +2 and +4 to a base to-hit number of 4, the minimum range modifier, limited ammunition, and heat built by firing.
Rick Priestley (Games Workshop). (1987). Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. Rulebook Shooting: Range, To Hit Modifiers; Equipment: Bolter. Accessed 2026-10-28. Short, long and maximum ranges that differ by weapon, per-weapon to-hit modifiers at short and long range, pistols weak at long range, the bolter's +1 within 12 inches, and one shot per model in the shooting part of the turn.
Andy Chambers, Gavin Thorpe and Jervis Johnson. (1999). Battlefleet Gothic. Games Workshop. Rulebook The Shooting Phase: Weapons Battery Rules, Gunnery Modifiers and Gunnery table, pp. 20-21. Accessed 2026-10-28. Column shifts on the Gunnery table, one left for a target within 15 cm and one right beyond 30 cm, with the Unclean's 7D6 against the Agrippa becoming 9D6 or 5D6.
Eight (CCP Games). (2004). Balance Changes in the next Patch. Article Accessed 2026-10-28. Projectile artillery falloff reduced by half because falloff is much more significant in the new system, and changes to hybrid and artillery optimal range.
CCP Games. (c. 2007). EVE Online Player Guide: Ship Fitting (Wayback capture). Website 8: Ship Fitting, turret types. Accessed 2026-10-28. Railguns with the longest optimal range and blasters with the shortest, projectile turrets that need reloading, and lasers that use no ammunition but the most capacitor.
EVE University Wiki. Turret mechanics. Wiki Optimal range and falloff. Full hit chance inside optimal range, falloff beginning at its end, and the chance reduced to 50% at optimal plus falloff and 6.25% at optimal plus twice falloff.
dmg04 (Bungie). (2020). This Week At Bungie, 10/22/2020 (Wayback capture). Article Hand Cannons. Accessed 2026-10-28. The range stat given more impact on minimum damage falloff range, falloff for 100 range starting at 25 metres instead of 20, 32 metres for the Aggressive subfamily, and a magazine scaled up by 37 percent.
Jo-Ellen Aragon (Riot Games). (2022). VALORANT Patch Notes 5.12. Website Weapons updates, Spectre. Accessed 2026-10-28. A third damage range added to the Spectre, with the old and new distances and damage, and Riot's statement that it was overperforming at mid to long ranges.
Jo-Ellen Aragon (Riot Games). (2023). VALORANT Patch Notes 7.09. Website Weapon updates, Judge. Accessed 2026-10-28. The Judge's maximum magazine cut from 7 to 5, showing that the game's guns fire from magazines that must be reloaded.

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West, James, Jr. (2026). "Range Falloff." Game Mechanic Compendium, updated 2026-10-28. http://localhost:4321/weapons/range-falloff

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