Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.

Yet more assorted weapon houserules!

5 posts / 0 new
Last post
Sat, 2010-11-20 02:54
#1
Rastus Rastus's picture
Yet more assorted weapon houserules!
Although the homebrew forum has had quite a few of these types of threads, I figured after giving Wyldknight my ruling for shotguns in EP I'd go ahead and post some notes I had about a number of little tweaks I thought of while looking over the weapons in EP and, admittedly, some other houserules within this very forum. First up are some tweaks to the actual rules themselves. ------ - Standard Ammo Caps - When looking over the ammo caps of the various firearm types, I can't help but scratch my head; why do the weaker guns all have much less ammo then guns that would logically have much larger and heavier bullets? Doesn't that sort of remove a good bit of appeal for carrying a weaker gun? Why bother carrying a light pistol at all when by RAW, a heavy pistol is just as concealable, has more ammo, does far more damage, and even has automatic firing modes? And the less said about pre-errata sniper rifles the better :P . To me, this seems to be one of those silly things that the EP dev's who worked on Shadowrun(god bless it!) brought with them, as you'd notice if you thumbed through the weapon tables of that particular game. All that scathingly said, the numbers in of themselves seem to be perfectly fine, just assigned to the wrong weapons. An easy fix is to swap them around like so: Light Pistol: 12 Medium Pistol: 16 Heavy Pistol: 10 SMG: 40 Automatic Rifle: 30 Sniper Rifle: 20 Machinegun: 50/belt Probably doesn't hurt to specifiy that the Machinegun can use a belt on the table, too. One could argue that I just contradicted myself by giving the light pistol less ammo than the medium, but I figured that light pistols are about the size of conceal carry guns like the Walther PPK, Beretta Bobcat, and Makarov PMM while the Medium pistols are ment to be akin to full-sized tactical pistols such as the SIG P226, Beretta 92F, and Springfield XD-45. Heavy pistols would likely be based on the bigger hunting pistols such as the infamous Desert Eagle, but refined for tactical purposes in order to combat the more resilient morphs and better body armor of the time. - Reliability - Modern firearms in the post-fall society are so well engineered that malfuctions are so uncommon that some people think it's only possible by going out of ones way to make it happen; This is not always true. There are still a good number of moving parts and open aperatures(usually heat vents and the breech) where dust and muck can get into. Periodic cleaning(usually once a week if constantly using it on and off) can prevent malfunctions from happening. Regardless, sometimes proper cleaning and maintenance fails to stop bad luck from happening. Whenever the GM feels appropriate(such as using a gun that hasn't been maintained for months in a dusty terrain), have a character roll their Moxie x 10 to determine if a weapon malfunctions. Failure typically causes a basic malfunction such as a feeding jam. Critical failure results in the firearm having a catastrophic malfunction, such as the barrel peeling in half or the bolt shattering into pieces. Fixing a basic malfunction uses the Kinetic/Seeker Weapons skill and takes a complex action, but requires no tools. Catastrophic malfunctions require about 5-10 minutes and at least a toolkit to repair. Energy Weapons and Spray Weapons are not affected by basic malfunctions, but catastrophic malfunctions hit the character with a basic attack. Like Kinetic and Seeker Weapons, these malfunctions can be fixed with the same skill used to fire them. - Shooting In Close Quarters - When fighting in narrow corridors and tight spaces such as those found within orbital habitats and spacecraft, the size of a firearm can make them incredibly unwieldy as the user fights both the enviroment as well as the enemy in order to get a clear shot. To reflect this, some GM's may wish to impose a penalty to anyone using larger guns within these enviroments. Anyone wielding an Automatic Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Machinegun, or other large weapons will suffer a -20 penalty(this can be offset slightly by the 'Point Blank' bonus should the GM allow it). Pistols, SMG's, and most shotguns(i.e. those without extended barrels) do not suffer this penalty. Another thing to keep in mind is what the particular situation is. If a character is wielding a longarm in the close quarters of a space station but is sitting at the end of a lengthy hallway with their weapon at the ready, then this penalty need not apply. - Scopes and Range penalties - Currently as per RAW, penalties for shooting past short range are hardly a problem to anyone with decent skill and scopes don't really do anything useful aside from acting as Specs, which are already fairly useless thanks to the low low cost of the Enhanced Vision augmentation. In short, a quick and easy way -- in my mind at least -- to fix that is to double the range penalties(if beyond 50 meters) when not using a scope, and return them to normal when actually using a scope. Merely having Specs, Enhanced Vision, or Viewers instead of a scope do not reduce these penalties, as they are not 'zeroed' into the firearms shooting pattern and minute-of-arc. Keep in mind that some scenarios won't require such drastic range penalties, such as shooting distant targets in the vacuum and microgravity enviroment of outer space, as the bullet will pretty much have next to nothing affecting it's trajectory until it hits the target; if you can see it than you can hit it(though it might take a while if it's an exceptionally distant target).
Top
Mon, 2010-11-22 23:44
Rastus Rastus's picture
Re: Yet more assorted weapon houserules!
Next up on the chopping block: Firearm traits, allowing you to customize your weapon and give it personality! ------ Sometimes in order to make a specific gun stand out in the market, you gotta give it an unusual feature. Traits act very similar to normal character traits come in three forms: Positive, negative, and neutral. Positive traits have no real drawback aside from increasing cost by one category. Negative traits make the weapon worse, but lower the cost by one category(cannot go below their initial cost, however). Neutral traits have both good and bad features, and henceforth do not affect the cost of the weapon at all, however a weapon can only have one neutral trait plus an additional one for every positive or negative trait. Examples: - Posititive Traits - Detector-Resistant Types allowed: All(except railgun variants) Effect: A firearm with this design trait is a criminals wet dream. Firstly, the entire frame, barrel, and moving parts are all made of a robust heat-resistant ceramic and coated with a specialized paint that gains a negative refractive index when given an electrical current, similar to an Invisibility Cloak. Also, ammunition magazines are built to be hermetically sealed when not in use, keeping the propellants from setting off chem sniffers. In essence, this weapon is completely invisible to any detection method aside from X-ray and soundwave scanners, although those too have ways past them but they go against what makes the weapon invisible to other detection methods in the first place. Dual Magazines Types allowed: SMG's, Shotguns, AR's, and SR's Effect: This trait allows the weapon to load two magazines at once. Magazines are at half capacity of the standard of the weapon's type(i.e. an SMG with Dual Magazines trait will have both magazines at 20 shots each). Extended and Smart magazines can still be used with this weapon. If smartlinked, switching between one of the two magazines is a free action. Otherwise it's a Quick action. Easy Breakdown Types allowed: All Effect: A weapon with this trait can be assembled and disassembled within seconds without any tools, making it a popular feature for assassins. To either aseemble or disassemble the weapon takes roughly 20 seconds. When combined with the Detector-Resistant trait above, the disassembled parts can easily be disguised as more mundane objects. Increased Firing Rate Types allowed: SMG's, AR's, and MG's Effect: With recoil being practically non-existant in most firearms, some people have taken advantage of this. Firearms that have this trait fire 5 bullets in BF and 12 bullets in FA. The effect this has is making BF do +1d10+2 damage, while full-auto causes +1d10+13 damage. Aside from using 24 bullets instead of 20, Suppressive Fire is unchanged. Rugged Types allowed: All Effect: Modern firearms are well built enough that malfunctions of any kind are rare, but they are practically impossible for a firearm engineered this well. Whenever the GM wishes to do a Reliability test, a +20 bonus is added. - Neutral Traits - Extended Barrel Types allowed: All Effect: This trait extends the barrel, causing it to have more accuracy and range. Increase all ranges by 10%. Conversely, this trait also causes weapons to be more difficult to conceal and more unwieldy within close Quarters Combat; at GM's discretion this can cause an additonal -10 to 'Attacker In Melee' penalty and a situational -10 concealability penalty to Palming tests when they come up. Shortened Barrel Types allowed: All Effect: This trait shortens the barrel, causing it to have less accuracy and range. Decrease all ranges by 20%. Conversely, this trait also causes weapons to be much easier to conceal and easier to use within close Quarters Combat; at GM's discretion this can reduce the 'Attacker In Melee' penalty by 10 and/or increase a situational concealability modifier for Palming tests by +10. Magnum Caliber Types Allowed: All Effect: By using a much larger bullet, this particular firearm model is capable of doing more damage(+2 DV). However, the bullets are slower moving(+1 AP) and take up more space in a magazine(Reduce ammo capacity by 33%, rounded up). PDW Caliber Types Allowed: All Effect: Through the use of a slimmer and more aerodynamic projectile with more propellent of a stronger type along with a denser core, firearms with this trait fire bullets at excessively high velocities that give much better armor penetration(-3 AP), but at the cost of reducing bullet tumble and therefor damage dealt(-2 DV). Ammunition count remains unaffected. Revolver Types allowed: Pistols Effect: Rarely seen these days but never out of style. Instead of using a detachable box magazine, this weapon uses a pop-out revolving cylinder with anywhere between five and eight individual chambers. Modern smartgun technology allows this to always act as if the weapon is loaded with a Smart magazine. The drawback to this is low ammo capacity(6 for light pistols, 8 for medium, and 5 for heavy) and a slow and awkward reload(Complex action, player must roll 1d10/2 to see how many bullets are loaded each attempt). Speedloaders allow all cartridges to be loaded at once, but are uncommon and have a cost of [Trivial] - Negative Traits - Awkward Types allowed: All Effect: The ergonomic design of this firearm is just weird. When using this weapon, actions related to reloading, changing firing modes, unjamming, etc. all take extra time(Free actions becomes Quick, Quick becomes Complex, Complex becomes two complex, and so on). At GM's discretion, taking the time to practice with this weapon may negate this trait. Heavy Recoil Types allowed: All Effect: For some reason, all the advanced recoil-dampening technology present in modern firearms just doesn't quite do the trick for this particular weapon. When firing in Semi-Auto, apply a -5 penalty for the second shot. Burst fire gets a -10 penalty for the second shot, and full-auto gets a -15 penalty. Suppressive Fire does not suffer a penalty. Unreliable Types allowed: All Effect: While most modern firearms are built well, this particular one is especially finnicky and prone to malfunction if not given excessive care. Gives a -20 penalty to Relability tests. Unique Caliber Types allowed: All Effect: The bullets used by this particular firearm are very uncommon, making it difficult to find them being freely traded. When purchasing, bartering, or using Rep to get ammo for this weapon, treat the cost as one category higher. If making ammo from scratch(be it through nanofabrication or otherwise), however, treat the price category as normal.
Top
Sat, 2010-11-20 03:32
Rastus Rastus's picture
Re: Yet more assorted weapon houserules!
And now it's time to dole out some equipment I made. Note that the shotgun and it's specialty shells are exactly the same as what I posted in the Wyld's Weapons thread. ------ - Melee Weapons - Sledgehammer Description: A common hammer used by salvagers and miners alike to smash things to pieces. Uses Clubs skill. Cost: [Low] AP: +0 |DV: 2d10+3+(SOM/10) Power Hammer Description: An upgrade on the old sledgehammer, this weapon uses a powered pnumatic piston to effectively double the kinetic energy delivered on impact, allowing this hammer to smash through nearly any material. The hammer does, however, require nuclear battery packs in order to function. Each battery gets 50 uses. Using a Power Hammer without batteries causes it to function as a normal Sledgehammer. Uses Clubs skill. Cost: [Moderate] AP: +0 |DV: 3d10+4+(SOM/10) - Kinetic Weapons - Shotguns Description: An old favorite of humanity and a classic weapon. Shotguns feature impressive stopping power but only modest armor penetration and range. These firearms are not only found in the hands of civillians as a defensive weapon, but are favored amoungst Security and Military forces due to the sheer versatility of what a shotgun can fire. Post-Fall shotguns are more advanced models which feature special barrels that, through use of memory metals and electricity, can change it's shape and size in small ways, allowing it to chamber different caliber shells(from 10-gauge to 20-gauge) and even add and remove rifling at a whim(at GM's discretion, rifled shotguns use asssault rifle ranges but cannot use any special 'shotgun-only' shells nor any shotgun slugs made for smoothbore barrels). While shotguns can be made into railguns, few bother as it removes the versitility that makes them so valued. Shotguns are rifle-sized weapons. Cost:[Moderate] AP: -2 |DV: 2d10+10|Mode(s ): SS/SA|Ammo: 10|Ranges: 0-30/31-80/81-125/126-230 Special Feature: The stated AP, DV, and Range from above are for solid slugs(which can use any of the special types listed in the main book), however slugs are not the only kind of shell a shotgun can use. Shotguns get to use several special cartridges that no other kinetic weapon can use. Note that each of these special cartridges uses a skill other than Kinetic Weapons, however at GM's discretion the user can default from half to three quarters of their Kinetic Weapons skill instead(morph bonuses are added after). Miniguns Description: Ever since it's introduction centuries ago, these weapons were the go-to firearm for incredibly high rates of fire. Thanks to lightweight materials and recoil-dampening technology, they can be used by a single person, albiet rather awkwardly unless they are very strong(at least 30 SOM) or using a gyromount harness; using a minigun without either imposes a -10 penalty to attack tests. Larger miniguns using cannon munitions can be found on vehicles, however they cannot be used singlehandedly without a proper mount. Miniguns are Huge sized weapons. Railgun miniguns are around, however they are very power hungry due to the additional battery power needed to keep the barrels rotating. Batteries are only good for 100 shots with a railgun minigun. Cost: [Expensive] AP: -6 |DV: 2d10+6|Mode(s ):FA|Ammo: 50/belt|Ranges: 0-100/101-400/401-1000/1001-2000 Special Feature: Miniguns fire on full-auto at a fixed rate of 15 shots per turn. This translates into a minigun doing +2d10+10 damage when concentrated on a single person. Suppressive fire uses up to 30 rounds per turn, but increases the cone to 30 meters in diameter and allows the operator to consider his free attack to use burst-fire damages whenever someone takes a hit(this is, of course, assuming the regular way counts as semi-auto). - Special Shotgun Shells - Buckshot: The standard shell that gave the shotgun it's name. This cartridge fires several pellets at velocities comparable to low-caliber handguns, giving it high damage potential against unarmored targets. Armored targets, however, fair much better against this cartridge and therefor not as many people still use buckshot unless overpenetration is a concern. Uses Spray Weapons skill and is considered a Cone attack(use cone rules pg.193). Cost: [Trivial] AP: +7 | DV: 4d10 | Range: 0-10/11-35/36-60/61-80 Dragon Breath: A pyrotechnic cartridge that uses mostly white phospherous and trace amounts of napalm gel, these days they are typically used for flushing out vermin, keeping nanoswarms at bay, and setting flammable objects ablaze. When firing these shells, shotguns can only fire in Single Shot mode, otherwise the still-blazing fire inside the chamber and barrel will cause unintentional cookoffs of all the rounds in the magazine, possibly injuring the user. Uses Spray Weapons skill and is considered a Cone attack(use cone rules pg.193). Cost: [Low] AP: -4 | DV: 3d10 | Range: 0-5/6-15/16-30/31-50 Flechette: Flechette shells use the same diamond-coated mono-edged tungsten slivers that the Shredder uses. This gives the shotgun impressive armor-piercing ability, but the damage potential of such tiny projectiles is limited. Uses Spray Weapons skill and is considered a Cone attack(use cone rules pg.193). Cost: [Low] AP: -10 | DV: 2d10+4 | Range: 0-10/11-40/41-70/70-100 Seeker Micromissile Sabot(SMMS): These special cartridges allow any shotgun to become a proper Seeker weapon, multiplying the destructive power of a single person without having to carry a second weapon or use an underbarrel attachment. Use of these catridges requires a smartlink. Uses Seeker Weapons skill. Cost: Per micromissile(usually moderate) AP: Per missile | DV: Per missile | Range: 5-70/71-180/181-600/601-2000 - New Firearm Accessories - Gunners Feedbag Description: This large durafiber bag is commonly slung over one hip and can hold up to 500 rounds of Machinegun or Minigun ammo in a single continuous belt. The belt feed itself is incased inside a flexible but durable plastic tube to prevent the belt from being severed, be it through accident or enemy intention. Price: [Moderate] High-Peak Battery Satchel Description: This satchel contains a large, heavy nuclear battery that has five times the charge as a standard battery does. In game terms, any weapon that requires battery power has it's ammo capacity multiplied by five(Railguns can fire 1,000 rounds, Laser Pulsars can fire 500 shots, Plasma Rifles get 50 shots, etc.). Price: [High]
Top
Sat, 2010-11-20 17:18
Rhyx Rhyx's picture
Re: Yet more assorted weapon houserules!
*Clap clap clap* Bravo! Very well do, and just with the eyeball and without real testing they look pretty balanced, every weapon and enhancement has an advantage and a drawback that makes the change a choice rather than a must have. Best example is the Minigun that has no other setting than full auto. Very well done. You haven't started on energy weapons I see? :D (hint!) @-rep +1 for the potential mayhem wrought by these new things.
—

[img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/A_Rep.jpg[/img] 2 [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/R_Rep.jpg[/img] 7 [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/C_Rep.jpg[/img] 2
[img]http://i.imgur.com/qtBZ9.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/AT25J.jpg[/img]

Top
Sat, 2010-11-20 21:53
Rastus Rastus's picture
Re: Yet more assorted weapon houserules!
Thanks, thought I admit I haven't thought as hard about energy weapons. After all, you got lasers and plasma guns, what more you want? :P Anyway, I figured I'd go ahead and make a couple anyway. Haven't quite looked them over as much as the other stuff, so they might be a bit wonky. ------ - Beam Weapons - 'Damascus' model Plasma Rifle Description: The standard Plasma Rifle design is considered the deadliest man-portable anti-personel weapon when it comes to a shot-for-shot basis, however many experienced shooters find its overheating problems and extremely slow rate of fire to be a hinderance that makes it subpar compared to more contemporary slug-throwers; a problem very similar to the first railgun prototypes. The solution? Design the weapon so that the barrel, chamber, ammunition, and magnetic containment detaches for replacement when it overheats and so it can be swapped out with a new set. After three shots(the entire ammunition supply) are fired, the barrel frame swings upwards on hinges similar to ancient break-action shotguns and drops the overheating barrel to the ground, allowing the operator to insert a new one with it's own ammo charge. The self-contained barrel/battery/chamber combo replacements(typically referred to as 'tubes') have a cost of [Moderate]. The battery in a 'tube' cannot be recharged, but the entire unit can be recycled in a CM to make a new one with minimal cost. Weapon Cost: [Expensive] AP: -8 |DV: 3d10+12|Mode(s ): SA|Ammo: 3|Ranges: 0-20/21-50/51-100/101-300 Objective Individual Directed Energy Weapon(O.I.D.E.W., aka oy-dew) Description: Considered the offensive verion of the Covert Operations Tool, the OIDEW system is a modular beam weapon that, through swapping out a few parts can change the type of beam fired into five different types: Laser pulses, electrolaser, microwave beam, dazzler, and ultra-narrow-field sonic screecher. Swapping the parts for a different beam type only takes a single complex action, and every OIDEW is sold with all the parts needed for each beam with some models even coming with attachment points on the side to store these parts when not in use. It is a medium-sized object Weapon Cost: [Expensive] Beam Modes: Laser: AP: - |DV: 2d10|Mode(s ): SA|Ammo: 100|Ranges: same as Laser Pulsar Electrolaser: AP: - |DV: (1d10/2)+shock|Mode(s ): SA|Ammo: 200|Ranges: same as Stunner Microwave: AP: - |DV: pain|Mode(s ): SA|Ammo: 100|Ranges: same as Agonizer Dazzler: AP: - |DV: special*|Mode(s ): SS|Ammo: 200|Ranges: same as Laser Pulsar Screecher: AP: - |DV: special%|Mode(s ): SA|Ammo: 200|Ranges: same as Laser Pulsar *Dazzler: This weapon works the same as the Dazzler device(pg. 316, core rules), in that it disrupts any visual sensors it is pointed at within a 60 degree cone of where the weapon is pointed. Uses up 1 charge every 3 seconds of continous disruption(one combat turn). &Screecher: This is a concentrated beam that can dispurse sound over a specific area without allowing it to be easily traced back to the source(if a person stands next to the beam without actually interupting it they hear nothing), instead of blasting it all over. This is not technically a weapon, but if used offensively against other people treat it similar to the way the Microwave Agonizer works except that only hearing protection helps. This beam setting can also be used to communicate speech over distances and playback audio files into specific spaces for distraction purposes. Uses up 1 charge per burst of sound.
Top