[Popestar]

On page 152 of the core book (SR4A), there is a passage about recoil and the penalties received due to it.  However, the passage is a little ambiguous about whether or not recoil is cumulative when you continue firing your weapon from one Action Phase to the next.  So I've got a question about this that I'm hoping I can get an answer to.

The book states that a SS weapon receives no penalty on the first shot, but a -1 penalty on the second shot, where a BF weapon gets -2 on the first shot and -3 on the second (LB is ridiculous).  Again, the book states that this is during an Action Phase, but makes no indication one way or the other if this is only during a singular Action Phase or throughout the combat round.

So say I'm firing in burst mode, and I've got 3 passes in a round.  In pass 1, I fire in burst mode, receiving the -2 penalty.  If I fire in burst mode in pass 2, which penalty do I suffer?  It's a new Action Phase, so according to RAW (or, rather, interpreted based on how they are written), it's a -2 penalty.  But my thought here is that the second shot, regardless of pass, would be at -3, right?

Now, let's play this out across several passes.  I fire burst mode in pass 1 for -2 penalty, then burst mode in pass 2 for -3 penalty (assuming that this is in fact the second shot), and then burst mode in pass 3 for...what penalty?  Do I extrapolate that it's another -1 and go with a penalty of -4?  Is the penalty cumulative, giving me a -6?  Or is it a simple -3 because it's still considering the "second" shot?

Now, what's really going to complicate my question is that burst fire is a Simple Action.  Which means I very well could fire in burst mode twice in the same Action Phase, receiving a -2 penalty on the first shot and then a -3 penalty on the second shot.  But then what happens when I get to the next pass?  Does it reset to -2?  Does the penalty go up by 1 to -4 (extrapolating based on penalties for first and second shot)?  Do we add the -2 for the first shot in the second pass to the -3 for the second shot in the first pass?

Simply put:  Is recoil cumulative so long as you are continuing to fire your weapon?  I get that if you stop firing recoil resets immediately.  It's just when you are continuously firing your weapon that the question is coming up.

[Sphinx]

Recoil is cumulative. As long as all your firing actions are back-to-back Complex Actions, it just keeps adding up from one initiative pass to the next, theoretically across multiple Combat Turns. But as soon as you let off the trigger for at least one Simple Action (e.g., to change a clip or Take Aim), the recoil penalty resets to zero.

Remember, you can only make one attack action per Combat Turn, but all of the automatic firing modes—Semi-Auto (SA), Burst Fire (BF), and Full Auto (FA)—have both Simple and Complex Action attack options. Depending on whether you spend a Simple or Complex Action, you can fire 1 round or 3 in SA mode; 3 rounds or 6 in BF mode; and 6 rounds or 10 in FA mode. See the Firing Mode Table on page 180.

And recoil compensation isn't that hard to come by. You get 1 free, plus 1/3 your strength (round up), plus whatever internal or external accessories the weapon has. A cybertroll with augmented strength and a gyro mount can go a couple of initiative passes before racking up any serious penalties.

[EDIT: Oh, drek. I missed the part where you were asking about Fourth Edition. The above comment applies to Fifth. Sorry.]

[Sphinx]

FOURTH EDITION answer: Recoil is cumulative within a single Action Phase, but does not carry over to the next. The first bullet doesn't count, but every bullet after the first fired in that Action Phase adds a -1 recoil penalty. Uncompensated recoil for shotguns and heavy weapons is doubled. You get recoil compensation from weapon accessories, and there's an optional rule for high strength (Arsenal, p.163). Recoil resets at the beginning of your next Action Phase.

[Popestar]

Yeah, Sphinx, that's my bad for not posting this in the Previous Editions Rules forum.  But thank you for the clarification on this; it will help our group a lot!