When a character tries to hit a target using a ranged attack, the attack dice roll process becomes slightly more complex than for normal melee combat attack dice rolls.
The process is as follows:
Ranged attack dice roll
The skill and characteristic used in the attack dice roll depends on the maneuver being used:
| Maneuver | Attack dice roll uses |
| Throw weapon | Throwing + CO |
| Snapshot fire | Shooting + CO |
| Aimed fire | Shooting + PE |
The weapon attack modifier depends on the ranged weapon being used. If the attack is against a target beyond the effective range of the weapon, there is a penalty of -1 on the dice roll per hex/metre that the attack exceeds the weapon's effective range.
There is no penalty on ranged attack dice rolls for aiming at a particular area of the target's body. Instead, this is factored into the difficulty of the shot (see below).
Ranged attack difficulty
The difficulty depends on the range, nature of item being thrown/fired, the size/speed of the target and the conditions, as follows:
| Range | Difficulty |
| Close/Pointblank (within a metre, one hex on the combat board) | 0 |
| Short (a few metres, five hexes on the combat board) | 2 |
| Medium (up to 10 metres) | 4 |
| Long (up to 30 metres) - Practical limit for thrown weapons/items | 6 |
| Very long (up to 60 metres) - Fired weapons only | 8 |
| Extreme (more than 60 metres) - Fired weapons only | 10 |
| Nature of item being thrown/fired | Difficulty |
| Item is aerodynamic and well weighted (e.g. arrow, dart, ball, etc.) | +0 |
| Item is heavy to throw (e.g. grappling hook) | +1 |
| Item is not aerodynamic or is not designed to be thrown (e.g. coin) | +2 |
| Target size | Difficulty |
| A broad area (within a few metres, e.g. a larger than man-sized target) | +0 |
| Within a metre (e.g. aiming at a particular hex on the combat board, a man-sized target) | +1 |
| Within half a metre (e.g. aiming at someone's body, hitting a darts board) | +2 |
| Within 25 centimetres (e.g. aiming at someone's head, arm, or leg, hitting the right quadrant of a darts board) | +4 |
| Within 10 centimetres (e.g. aiming at someone's hand, groin or throat, hitting a specific segment on a darts board) | +7 |
| Within a few centimetres (e.g. aiming at someone's eyes, hitting the bull on a darts board) | +10 |
| Target speed | Difficulty |
| Target is moving slowly (e.g. walking, roughly 5 km per hour) | +1 |
| Target is moving normally (e.g. combat, jogging, roughly 15 km per hour) | +3 |
| Target is moving fast (e.g. sprinting, cantering, roughly 30 km per hour) | +5 |
| Target is moving very fast (e.g. break-neck galloping, flying, roughly 50 km per hour) | +7 |
| Conditions | Difficulty |
| Good visibility | +0 |
| Reduced visibility (e.g. cloud cover, torchlight) | +2 |
| Poor visibility (e.g. twilight) | +4 |
| Very poor visibility (e.g. night) | +6 |
| Windy conditions | +1 |
| Very windy conditions (e.g. storm) | +3 |
If a character is throwing a weapon and takes a run up (i.e. as an advance and throw), he/she may reduce the increase in difficulty due to range by one point (minimum range difficulty is zero).
If a character fails the ranged attack dice roll (i.e. the dice roll result is less than the difficulty), he/she will miss the intended target. The amount by which he/she misses depends on by how much he/she fails the dice roll, based on the size difficulty of the intended target and surrounding items. Thus the referee may rule that a ranged attack that narrowly misses a target's eyes may be good enough to hit their head (if the attack dice roll is within 3 points of hitting).
Defence dice roll against ranged attacks
Even if the attack dice roll is successful, i.e. the ranged attack is on target, the target has a chance of evading the incoming missile. The target is allowed to make a defence dice roll (as normal), and may declare dodge, block or parry reactions to the incoming ranged attack.
If the target's defence dice roll result is greater than or equal to the attack dice roll result, the target evades the attack, and, despite it being on target, the attack misses.
A target may only make a defence dice roll against a ranged attack if the target is animate (able to move) and aware of the incoming attack.