Ooh, the site seems to be working right now! Let's see if I can get this through.
So, as kind of an aside, I do agree with Atama that Bursts should kind of count as Area Effects. Long Burst, at least. But I'm not sure "I wish a Chaingun worked on Skeletons"
specifically is really all you were getting at.
So I really have to start by saying I don't actually mind certain enemies being immune to certain types of attacks, even really broad ones like that. It
does lock out certain options for dealing with them, but that's not really a bad thing. That Chaingun is going to solve plenty of problems; it can sit one out. It's
good that my Elven Archer is going to have to spend an occasional combat focused on Maneuvering or Tricks or whatever, whether that means letting someone else step up and deal with the problem or just remembering that an Outstanding Result can still take out a Skeleton. It's actually pretty hard in Eternity to set up a character/encounter combination that will leave
any character completely useless. (Totally possible, but it's not easy.)
This specifically, though, I agree, I don't like it. Mostly because it feels too D&D, but I never liked it there either. My understanding is that it's supposed to be because projectiles "go through the open bits", and sure, I get that, but I always think... what, like
all of them?? Every single time?? If my Elven Archer can pretty reliably shoot a fly out of the air, I
think she can target the skull/spine/kneecaps of a skeleton. We even have a whole rule for that and everything.
It makes more sense to maybe count them as Small (because there is indeed less surface area to aim at), or just to say hitting them with ranged attacks requires a Called Shot. I'd buy that. But it makes no sense to me that you can absolutely target the eye slits in someone's armor, but will miss a whole skeleton always.