Primer: Now, for the basics of Sniping, just so you do not look like a total ass. Firstly, do not put the word "Sniper" in your screen name. The only people who like Snipers are other Snipers. Next, you cannot simply go and set up your rifle and start shooting at people indiscriminately - this is just wrong and it should not be done. Plus, it gives other Snipers a bad name; do not make others pay for your stupidity.

Why a Sniper Kills: In order to shoot someone, you have to have a reason. Now, there are those people that are mercenaries, and they do it for money, which is okay, as long as they do it professionally. When accepting a contract, ask the person OOCly where they got the money (which should be at least ten thousand US dollars or credits; gold pieces are associated with fantasy, and Snipers would not have a use for them). If they cannot provide a suitable explanation or they say that they were just born rich, walk away. No one respects a hatchet man who kills people for made up money. Additonally, you do not have to kill only for money. For example, if you were an anarchist, you would have legal license to shoot at city employees, but you would have to select your targets carefully.

Once you found a person that has a suitable target and all, you need to have that person give you information about the target, where they like to spend their time, and a good physical description. Now, if your a cheap piece of work, you type their Yahoo ID into the search and warp to their room. But, if you really want to do it correctly, you move from room to room, entering ICly, observing the patrons, and look for the target. Once you find them, then you can begin to stalk them.

Stalking a Potential Target: Now, if this person is leery of you, knows you are a sniper from some OOC conversation, or so on, you should make up a new disposable ID (still the same character, but undercover), and follow them around in your temporary ID until they suspect you. Earn your kills. If you can, try planting a tracker on their car or method of transportation - or on that person if you can. Note: Even decent RPers usually won't let you do this, but you should try. You should spend at LEAST an hour following this person, and learning their habits ICly.

Equipment: Now, the equipment for the job varies from case to case. I suggest you keep your character's targets similar to their prey - for example, don't use a human ex-Marine sniper to try to take on a Guyver, you'll get killed at 400 MPH. For my sake, I'm sticking to what I know best - Modern Day Sniper Rifles. Please, research your weapon before you try and kill someone (Click here for a good site.) - else your kill gets thrown out because your rifle was a bolt-action rifle, and you never threw the bolt - or your clip only held four rounds and you fired five. Important things to know are muzzle velocity (how fast the bullet travels through the air), clip size, general size, bolt action or semi automatic, range it will effectively operate at and so forth. It also helps to have a picture of your rifle on file somewhere.

Now, for the purpose of this discussion, I will describe one of my favorite rifles, the Remington 700. The Remington 700 bolt action rifle fires a .308 cartridge, which has a muzzle velocity of 2300 feet per second, and can kill a man from 800 yards. Also includes a four round internal magazine. It has a black fiberglass stock with a free floating barrel. Now, basically, that means I can kill you at 600 feet, and it will take under a second for the bullet to reach you. Know your weapon. Also, have a good profile with a description of your character and weapon - a good web page helps.

Scopes: Everyone out there may think, use the highest powered scope that you can. In actuality, you do not really need a scope if it is under a hundred yards, and you need about a 4x scope at three hundred to six hundred yards away. You might use a 10x or 12x scope at 800 to 1000 yards away. You might want to know, why wouldn't you use a 12x scope at 300 yards? The answer is simple, you'd be zoomed too far in, and you wouldn't be able to see the targets whole head - just an eye if you are lucky. You should always have a way to measure range - it is a crucial component when shooting. An acceptable example is 1 25x set of binoculars with a laser range finder. It bounces a laser beam and then measures the time it takes getting back, giving you a distance reading.

Camouflage: You should always wear camouflage. Period. Most snipers wear a ghillie suit of their own construction. The purpose of a ghillie suit is to break up the snipers outline and give him a three dimensional look. Ghillie suits are multicolored and often made up of burlap and sack cloth. Shooters wearing a ghillie suit will paint their faces in an uneven pattern with several dark colors (usually black, dark and light green followed with some brown). Also make sure to camouflage your rifle, by cocooning your weapon in ghillie constructed sheath - you don't want them to spot you by the gleam of your rifle barrel.

Location: When you have a choice, always have the sun at your back. This way, there is no chance of the sun bouncing off your scope's lens and warning the target (this happened before). Also, try and make the shot on level ground - but if that is not an option, go for the high ground. Although it makes the shot more difficult, shooting up is harder. When you change your altitude, you have to aim higher or lower to compensate. Even if you are out of your target's range, you should crawl, elbows slowly sliding forward, and pushing forward with your thighs as you pull forward with your arms, slowly moving, as far as necessary until you reach an optimum shooting position. Remember, you can't shoot from a heavily wooded area because, more than likely, a tree, branch or shrub will get in the way. It is best to shoot from the edge of a clearing in tall grass, or in an otherwise favorable position. Never run or stand as you approach your target - movement catches the eye. Also, make sure you compensate for windage - for example, if there is a slight breeze blowing across you from left to right, you will have to aim farther to the left because the wind will carry your bullet. Heavier bullets drift less. The farther away you are, the more your bullet will drop during flight. At three hundred yards, this isn't really a concern - but at eight hundred or a thousand yards, the bullet can drop as much as four inches - so you would have to aim higher.

Shooting Position: One of the most stable shooting positions is the prone position. Lying flat on your stomach, your elbows forming a bone bridge to the ground. Professional snipers often use a sandbag or sandbags to steady their shooting arm, but a bipod will work in an emergency. Your legs should be sprawled out behind you. As you focus on your shot, start to control your breathing and control your muscle responses. The trigger should always be squeezed as you exhale - a sudden intake of breath as you squeeze can pull the rifle up some. The stock should be pressed firmly to your shoulder, and the scope around three inches away from the scope to avoid a parallax - an overlapping or dark space in the scope's line of sight. Some snipers take sedatives to calm shaky muscles - but I wouldn't recommend it personally, as it may impair your thinking and reaction times.

Ammunition: The ammunition you use is important in relation to the target. Now, you wouldn't try to shoot anyone wearing body armor with a JHP(Jacketed Hollow Point) round - the bullet wouldn't penetrate because it expands on impact, and thus would be stopped by the bullet proof vest they are wearing. You would have to use an FMJ(Full Metal Jacket) round, which is encased in a steel or similarly hard metal, and is designed to focus all of the energy of the bullet at one point, thus easily overcoming body armor. One thing to be aware of, is that some high level body armors have a metal or ceramic plate in them. Most rifle rounds that are FMJ can easily penetrate, but if it is an especially thick plate you need to either go for a head shot or use a higher caliber rifle like a 7mm Magnum(A HIGH powered hunting round with a good muzzle velocity) or a .50 BMG (Designed to take out light vehicle armor).

Taking the Shot: Make sure that everything is in place. Don't forget to check windage, distance, or your rifle before firing. A normal trigger pull is four and a half pounds - and when you pull the trigger on an empty chamber the sound is like a teacup's handle snapping off. Note well that the target won't hear the bullet coming - the bullet breaks the sound barrier and hits before the sound wave does. Silencers will muffle the sound of the explosion, but it won't impede the bullet breaking the sound barrier. To be totally quiet beyond a few feet, you must use subsonic ammunition (which dosen't break the sound barrier, and therefore creates no sonic 'boom') - which are considerably slower and less powerful. Also, things such as silencers and flash suppressers can slow down the bullet, depending on what you are using. A silencer will mainly slow down the bullet, while a flash suppressers will keep the muzzle flash contained - they can't find you at night by your muzzle flash. When you are describing the shot itself, you should describe the bullet, how fast its going, who, and where on the target it is going. One thing many snipers do incorrectly is go for a head shot. This is not professional, and you are inviting a miss. You should ALWAYS go for a chest shot when available, because it is usually a guaranteed kill because of the likeliness of a direct hit to the major blood bearing organs. Also, a direct chest hit may shatter or sever the spine, rendering the target paralyzed if they don't die outright, but the person should be down for the count. When shooting at the head, a slight movement on either the shooter or the target can throw the whole shot off. The chest shot is safer, being as a little movement won't throw off a shot too much.

Prepping: It should take you eight or nine preps to actually kill your target - see below:

Ceros_Schyar: slowly shuffles to the edge of the woods, five hundred yards away from the rest of the crowd, dropping to his stomach, slowly pulling himself forward with his arms, moving slowly, using his legs to push him forward.

Ceros_Schyar: gently pushes his rifle forward, strands of his ghillie suit draped across his shoulders, his pale white face painted in maroon, dark green, and black. The woods around him are alive with movement, the sun behind him pulses heat.

Ceros_Schyar: carefully reaches behind him under his ghillie suit for a sand bag in his ruck sack, pulling out the ten pound bag of powdery dirt, and sets it before him gently.

Ceros_Schyar: lifts his rifle off of the ground, the stock and barrel covered in tassels of dark burlap. He snaps off the lens covers for his scope, the 4x scope securely secured to the rifle, already zeroed for the shot.

Ceros_Schyar: draws back the bolt action, and slowly removes a .308 match grade JHP round from his ruck sack, and slips it into the breech, pushing forward the bolt and then repeating the action, loading three more rounds.

Ceros_Schyar: quickly lifts his 25x Leica range finding binoculars to his eyes, lining up the targeting dot on bob_schmoe, and triggering a range finding laser to the target, the distance reading 523 meters. Carefully setting down the binoculars, he reaches for his rifle.

Ceros_Schyar: brings the Remington 700 .308 rifle up to his eye, the black fiber glass stock pressed firmly into his shoulder, his eye aligned with the scope. He quickly sets the cross hairs onto the target - bisecting his chest. He slips his finger through the trigger guard, slowly applying pressure.

Ceros_Schyar: doesn't even think about taking the shot, his subconscious making the decision for him, the rifle bucking against his shoulder as the .308 Jacketed Hollow Point round leaves the barrel traveling at 2300 fps.

Ceros_Schyar: instantly reacquires his target - in time to see a spout of red mist erupt from the man's chest, the bullet expanding on impact, and ripping through his lungs and spine, leaving a hole the size of a plate as it exits.

Now, remember, that you have to give the person a chance to respond to your movement as you go through this procedure - you can't post another time before he says or does something. During this time, many of the other RPers in the room will be PMing you and asking you OOCly if you are trying to kill them. You can tell them whatever you want, but I always preferred to tell them that even if I was shooting at them and told them, that they couldn't use the information ICly anyways. I would like to note, that this example was extremely detailed, but it can be more or less depending on your skill level. Minimum for a sniper kill is four preps, and that will give you no appearance of stealth. If the hit is done correctly, you may have other people in the room compliment you. I hope this settles some questions about the art of sniping, if there are any particular questions, you can email me at Ceros_X@yahoo.com.