[Gideon_Stargrave]

Hello!  Just reading up on the rules after not having played since 2nd edition, and I am planning on running a game with some friends.
That said I will have a ton of questions, starting with this:
If you do burst fire, your target gets a negative modifier to their defense test based on what kind of burst fire you are doing.  Makes sense.. harder to dodge a hail of bullets than a single shot here and there.
Does this penalty apply even if you are doing a free action Multiple Attacks and dividing your dice pool among multiple targets?
Or is it that you are not dividing each shot in the burst among targets, but each target is getting the number of shots?  For example a SA burst is three rounds for -2 to defense.
If I have three targets, and use Multiple Attacks, am I putting one of each round in the burst into the three targets (assuming I want to target all three)?  Or am I using up 9 rounds... three for each target, dividing my dice up among three targets, and dealing with 9 shots worth of recoil while each target gets -2 to defense?

[Beta]

I think you are asking about 5e.  Is that right?

[Xenon]

Does this penalty apply even if you are doing a free action Multiple Attacks and dividing your dice pool among multiple targets?

With a burst fire weapon you have three options.

1. Aim at one target and tap the trigger once. This is the "Fire Semi-Auto, Single-Shot, Burst Fire or Full-Auto" Simple Action. The weapon will automatically fire 3 bullets. You resolve it as one single attack. Since the attacker is firing 3 bullets at the target, the target get a negative dice pool modifier of 2 dice to avoid getting hit.

2. Aim at one target and tap the trigger twice. This is the "Fire Long Burst or Semi-Auto Burst" Complex Action. The weapon will fire 3 + 3 bullets which will be resolved as one single attack. Since the attacker is firing 6 bullets at the target, the target get a negative dice pool modifier of 5 dice to avoid getting hit.

3. Aim at one target within short or medium range and tap the trigger once, then aim at a second target within short or medium range and tap the trigger a second time. This is the "Fire Long Burst or Semi-Auto Burst" Complex Action combined with a "Multiple Attacks" Free Action. The attacker need to have a weapon skill (not dice pool) of 3+ in order to attempt this. The attacker split the dice pool between the two attacks. Since the attacker is firing 3 bullets at each target, they both get a negative dice pool modifier of 2 dice to avoid getting hit.

For example a SA burst ...

With a SA weapon you also have 3 options.

1. Aim at one target and tap the trigger once. This is the "Fire Semi-Auto, Single-Shot, Burst Fire or Full-Auto" Simple Action. The weapon will automatically fire 1 bullet. Since the attacker is only firing one bullet at the target, the target don't get a negative dice pool modifier to avoid getting hit.

2. Aim at one target and tap the trigger three times. This is the "Fire Long Burst or Semi-Auto Burst" Complex Action. The weapon will fire 1 + 1 + 1 bullets which will be resolved as one single attack. Since the attacker is firing 3 bullets at the target, the target get a negative dice pool modifier of 2 dice to avoid getting hit.

3. Aim at one target within short or medium range and tap the trigger once, then aim at a second target within short or medium range and tap the trigger a second time, then aim at a third target within short or medium range and tap the trigger a third time. This is the "Fire Long Burst or Semi-Auto Burst" Complex Action combined with a "Multiple Attacks" Free Action. The attacker need to have a weapon skill (not dice pool) of 5+ in order to attempt this. The attacker split the dice pool between the three attacks. Since the attacker is only firing one bullet per target they don't get a negative dice pool modifier to avoid getting hit.

[Gideon_Stargrave]

I think you are asking about 5e.  Is that right?

Yes, sorry I should have said.  5e.

[Gideon_Stargrave]

Does this penalty apply even if you are doing a free action Multiple Attacks and dividing your dice pool among multiple targets?

With a burst fire weapon you have three options.

1. Aim at one target and tap the trigger once. This is the "Fire Semi-Auto, Single-Shot, Burst Fire or Full-Auto" Simple Action. The weapon will automatically fire 3 bullets. You resolve it as one single attack. Since the attacker is firing 3 bullets at the target, the target get a negative dice pool modifier of 2 dice to avoid getting hit.

2. Aim at one target and tap the trigger twice. This is the "Fire Long Burst or Semi-Auto Burst" Complex Action. The weapon will fire 3 + 3 bullets which will be resolved as one single attack. Since the attacker is firing 6 bullets at the target, the target get a negative dice pool modifier of 5 dice to avoid getting hit.....

Thank you!

[Beta]

Xenon gave a fantastic summary -- I'm impressed with the patience to spell it all out so nicely

I just want to add, since it is mentioned in a different section of the rules, to not forget about recoil modifiers to the attack roll when you are firing a lot of bullets.

[Xenon]

You are welcome.

Note that the last post of this thread before you posted was more than a year old and the reply I made was regarding how it used to be resolved resolved (and still is) in the previous version of Shadowrun (the 5th edition).