Thursday, December 11, 2008

Weapons and Equipment Guide - Revised 2

As most of you know now, work has begun on a consolidated Weapons and Equipment guide. With my recent purchase of 3G3, we can reverese engineer all of the weapons from the DP9 Equipment Guide, as well as assorted other sources.

I've asked some of you to help me prepare text for transfer to the new Big Guns Book.

Last night, Josh, Matt, and I kicked around a few ideas. We want to shake up the axis of individual weapons characteristics by the use of perks/flaws (like the rest of the game). To this end, we brainstormed a few different characteristics, and I have included what I remember below, as well as a few new ones. Please append your ideas as comments...I will update the main post as we go.

I don't think there will be a hard "cost" associated with these characteristics. We will have to eyeball it! :)

Accurate:
Rounds fired are more stable at long range. Reduce the penalties for long and extreme range by 1.

Ambidextrous:
May be fired with either hand

Ammo Hungry:
Burst fire consumes twice the usual amount of ammo.

Assault:
Either the Small Arms or Heavy Weapons skill may be used to fire this weapon.

Awkward:
The proportions/layout of this weapon make it difficult to manage, especially when time is of the essence. Drop 1 dice on combat sense rolls when this weapon is equipped.

Backblast:
This weapons vents high temperature gasses (and potentially flames) to the rear, discouraging firing from indoors or enclosed vehicles.

Battle Rifle:
This weapon is designed for the rigours of close and brutal combat. May be used as a melee weapon (club: 5+AD) with no risk of damage.

Bayonet Lug:
A bayonet may be fitted to this weapon, allowing (AD+damage) Melee attacks to be made. Shooting attacks at ranges over Point blank are at -1.

Beaten Area:
This weapon lays down a prodigious amount of fire. When suppressed by this weapon, targets suffer a -1 penalty to their actions.

Belt fed:
This rapid-fire weapon is fed by a belt of ammunition. Feeding and operating the weapon alone is difficult. Attacks are at -1 die when operating without a loader (unless pintle mounted).

Break-down:
This weapon is designed to be quickly disassembled and reassembled. A successful Small Arms roll allows assembly or disassembly in 1 round. (Anyone caught making "No Disassemble!" jokes will be drawn and quartered)


Burst only
:
This weapon has no single fire mode.

Catastrophic Misfire:
Botches when firing this weapon provoke a catastrophic reaction; the shell cooks off in the chamber, the receiver ejects the clip, or something similar. GMs should be imaginative.

Concealable:
Special care has been taken to make this weapon harder to detect when tucked away. +1 to either Camouflage or Sleight of Hand to conceal this weapon.

Difficult to Modify: This weapon is a high-quality, overengineered piece of... equipment. Parts are difficult to come by, tolerances are very tight, and moving parts are difficult to make sense of or access at all. Just cleaning this weapon requires a PhD. All rolls to repair or modify the weapon are at -2.

Easy to Modify: This weapon was designed with the maintenance needs of the combat soldier and field technician in mind. It is easy to make modifications with nearly any available part, easy to maintain and all rolls to repair or modify this weapon are made at +2.

Disposable:
This weapon is not meant to be used more than a few times, according to the rating. Reduce the Rating each time the weapon is used. Negative Ratings apply to attack rolls.

Fragile:
Prone to damage from impacts, dropping, explosions. This weapon will not function after being used as a melee weapon.

Heavy:
A STR equivalent to the rating is necessary to operate this weapon without penalty. Apply a penalty of the Heavy rating minus the user's STR to all physical skills (including Dodge, and the skill governing firing this weapon).

Heavy Recoil:
The weapon bucks like a mule, making subsequent shots less accurate. Taking more than one shot in a round incurs an additional -1 penalty on the second, -2 on the third and so on.

Hostile Environment Protection: This weapon is designed to be used and abused in the environment listed (terrain type). HEP: Jungle weapons can be exposed to humidity and water, HEP: Desert weapons are reliable in sandstorms, HEP: Cold weapons don't freeze up. A weapon lacking this perk can be used in a hostile environment, but not without great care, intense maintenance or the risk of major malfunction.

Inaccurate:
Some flaw in the barrel design or inherent limitation makes long range shooting more difficult. Increase the penalties at long and extreme range by 1.

Jam Prone:
Sustained fire radically increases the probability of a jam. Botches occur on any pair of ones, rather than a roll of all ones.

Large Signature, AKA: Loud and Proud:
This is the kind of gun that draws unwanted attention when fired. It's either inordinately loud, has a large, noticeable muzzle flash, generates lots of smoke, dust, heat, or any combination of factors that provide for +2 to Notice checks for those trying to locate the shooter at Short and Medium ranges, and +1 to Notice checks at Long and Extreme ranges.

Made in Timmins:
This weapon was either assembled by retarded blind chimpanzees or made by the lowest bidder--in Timmins. Either way, a botch renders the weapon inoperable. A full stripping and reconditiong of the weapon will restore it to operational status...maybe. (In non-Heavy Gear games, this is called 'Problem Prone')

Magazine Capacity (Low):
Less than standard.

Magazine Capacity (High):
More than standard.

Modular System:
Using a combination of parts, this weapon can be converted to a weapon of a similar type, i.e., pistols could fire different ammo, rifles could be converted down to carbines or up to LMGs, etc.

Mounted:
This weapon requires a tripod or pintle mount to operate.

No Sight Rail:
This weapon cannot mount any sighting devices.


Quick Change Barrel
:
Only a real consideration in protracted firefights, this MG can have its barrel swapped out (to compensate for overheating) as a single action by a trained loader on his action, allowing near continuous fire for prolonged periods. A single user must cease fire for one round to perofrm this operation.

Rifle Grenadier:
This weapon will accept rifle grenades.

Slow fire:
May only fire once per turn. (Bolt action rifles have this trait)

Slow Reload:
Requires 2 actions to reload, rather than one.

Sniper:
This rifle is designed for precision shooting. When used with the Marksmanship skill, the weapon receives a +1 bonus to called shots.

Suppressed:
This weapon features a built-in, purpose made sound suppression system. Alternatively, this weapon is designed with special operations/suppression in mind, and can be fitted with a specially made suppressor which acts as though it was integral to the weapon. Either way, double the number of rounds that may be fired before suppression is negated.

No Underbarrel Mount:
No auxiliary grenade launcher or other large underbarrel device may be attached.


Unsafe Trigger
:
This weapon,either due to a poor safety or a hair trigger, is prone to fire at inopportune times, like while inside a bouncing armored vehicle or during a tense stand-off.

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Hermes 72 - Heavy Gear RPG - Most artwork Copyright 2002 Dream Pod 9, Inc.