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Something I'd like for EP...

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It that must no... It that must not be named's picture
Something I'd like for EP...
There's this SFRPG called "battlelords of the 23rd centuey" that really has little to do with EP in any way, but it has something I'd like to see in EP: A bewildering array of gear of all types, with a wide variety of options, benefits, problems, etc. BL23C has one of the (if not THE) largest gear lists in RPGing. It has one book of nothing but weapons, and one of armor and cybernetics. There are many types of virtually everything made by a variety of companies. There's at least a dozen notable weapon corporations in the BL universe. Different companies make different types of weapons. Some companies feature excellent ranged weapons with lower damage, some go for high damage and lower range. Others offer greater accuracy, higher RoF, more reliability, lighter overall weapon weight, etc. You want a laser pistol? Well, there's like about 20 to choose from. Projective pistol? Quite a lot more of them. Assault rifle? Would you like a projectile, laser, plasma, electrical or microwave version? There's several f each type. Want options? Telescopic sights, grenade launcher unberbarrel mounts, laser spotters, etc. Want some heavier firepower? How about a rack with small missiles? We can fit you with a forearm mounted one, a shoulder mounted one or even a leg mounted one. Want heavier rockets you can carry? Try a backpack launcher carrying reflex missiles. We have several types, and multiple types of missiles in all sizes. See, the thing is that I'd like to see a lot more gear and weapons in EP, and not just a "laser pistol" or something like that. How about a "General Weapons Morita laser pistol. A small, high power weapon that trades some range and ammo capacity for excellent one shot damage." or maybe a "Coltchester stormfist, a small weapon with an incredibly high ammo capacity and rate of fire, guaranteed to out out enough fletchettes to hit anything with 15 meters of you no matter how bad a shot you are!" Also, the idea of disposable, one use weapons might be feasible, in that the weapon is very, very powerful but essentially wears itself out during one clip, and is then tossed. In the EP world where anyone with a computer, a CADCAM program and a nanofac can create weapons and gear to his own personal tastes, I'd expect there'd be a huge array of designs floating around out on the net for pistols, rifles, grenades, personal missiles, etc. A gear up book with a plethora of weapons of various designs with various balances of range, ammo, RoF, damage, reliability (That Tanhauser guy sure designed one kickass assault carbine, but once in a while one can suddenly explode, or so I've heard.) and other factors to make a real assortment of weapons and gear to suit various personal tastes would be nice. Or even a "make your own" set of rules for making gear on your own. In a world like EP there ought to be ways players can design their own gear to suit their style. (Yeah, the vanilla laser pistol you can get anywhere is nice, but I designed this baby here to stop an exsurgent case in 2 shots, maximum. Sure, it's got less shots per cell, but if you haven't stopped an exsurgent in 2 shots it's gonna kill you anyway. I call it the firewall special. Want a copy of the design? You just have to promise to keep my initials on the barrel.)

"I learned the hard way that if you take a stand on any issue, no matter how insignificant, people will line up around the block to kick your ass over it." -Jesse "the mind" Ventura.

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Re: Something I'd like for EP...
I think for our purposes, all we're really missing is a list of weapon qualities and errors. Then you can just make your own weapons. I would shy away from having a list, muchless a book, of 'all the weapons of EP' because part of the definition of the genre is future shock, so the 'book of firearms, AF10Q1' would be out of date come Q2, and simply obsolete come Q4.
It that must no... It that must not be named's picture
Re: Something I'd like for EP...
nezumi.hebereke wrote:
I think for our purposes, all we're really missing is a list of weapon qualities and errors. Then you can just make your own weapons. I would shy away from having a list, muchless a book, of 'all the weapons of EP' because part of the definition of the genre is future shock, so the 'book of firearms, AF10Q1' would be out of date come Q2, and simply obsolete come Q4.
Actually we agree mostly, we'd both like a 'make your own gear" system that let us make custom weapons and gear for characters. (Hey, come on, firewall has to have something like a Q branch, designing gear for sentinels that is meant for their line of work.) For now I could use another system, the "Stuff!" book for EABA, to make gear and convert it, but a system for EP itself would be nice too.

"I learned the hard way that if you take a stand on any issue, no matter how insignificant, people will line up around the block to kick your ass over it." -Jesse "the mind" Ventura.

Axel the Chimeric Axel the Chimeric's picture
Re: Something I'd like for EP...
The Core Book encourages you to make modified versions that are, for example, better in one aspect and worse than another (the examples given being a Direct Action A30 SMG, which lacks a semi-automatic setting but has extra ammo capacity, and the Medusa Arms Longinus sniper rifle, which has reduced armour piercing for increased damage). I don't think there has to be a book for extra weapons/gear, but, if you like, you could post something like this in the IC thread and ask people to contribute their own concepts with in-character descriptions. For example... [hr] [b]The Penetrator[/b] [i]Railgun Sniper Rifle. Can only load Armour-Piercing Rounds, AP -17 after railgun bonus but before ammo considerations[/i] "I saw this gun on Mars. Some mad anarchist bastard, Firewall I'd guess, was wading into the TQZ with a team, and one of my little eyes in the sky just so happened to pick him up. Big guy, Olympian morph I'd bet, just whips this thing out and starts opening fire. Thing didn't half tear it up. Blew a hole clean through this huge beetle-shaped TITAN machine the size of a van. Didn't do him much good, of course. Poor bastard's team was overrun pretty quick, so they set off their safety devices, turned themselves into radioactive vapor. If that guy's resleeved anywhere in the inner system, I'd love to get my hands on a blueprint of that gun."
It that must no... It that must not be named's picture
Re: Something I'd like for EP...
(Rutger Haur voice) That's the spirit! Another idea would be weapons meant specifically to frak up exsurgents. Maybe some round designed to penetrate then release a massive electrical surge from a superconductor capacitor meant to work once, so it's more powerful as it burns out during discharge, but is great at messing up nano based forms as the surge kills the nanomachines. While such a weapon might be useful against a lot of stuff, it would maybe be a firewall special meant for nanomorphed exsurgents at it would damage the organic and nanomachine components pretty nicely, maybe even wrecking self repair systems.

"I learned the hard way that if you take a stand on any issue, no matter how insignificant, people will line up around the block to kick your ass over it." -Jesse "the mind" Ventura.