Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Neal A Porter <nap@*****.PHYSICS.SWIN.OZ.AU>
Subject: Re: FOF?
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 1994 17:16:04 +1000
>BTW, What's FOF stand for??
>
>
>--
>Robert Watkins

FOF is for Fields of Fire, FASAs new Merc supliment. Now Available in Aus
as well, got mine on Friday..

A'Deus.
Message no. 2
From: Scott Wheelock iscottw@*****.nb.ca
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 00:16:29 -0300
I can't remember if I asked this or not...what are IPE grenades? I
can't find a description anywhere...

-Murder of One
Message no. 3
From: Snake Eyes snake.eyes@********.att.net
Subject: FoF
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:50:13 -0700
At 12:16 AM 7/7/99 -0300, Murder of One wrote:

> I can't remember if I asked this or not...what are IPE grenades? I
>can't find a description anywhere...

Improved Personal Explosive.

"The Winter Systems IPE grenade series uses their patented KLV-IV explosive
compound for the first time in a delivery system smaller than a mortar
round. The same size as a normal grenade, the IPE grenade delivers a
greater blast than conventional explosives, at the same weight."

- SSC 1, page 66.

~ Snake Eyes
Message no. 4
From: Scott Wheelock iscottw@*****.nb.ca
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 02:28:33 -0300
"And now, a Channel 6 editorial reply to Snake Eyes."
] > I can't remember if I asked this or not...what are IPE grenades? I
] >can't find a description anywhere...
]
] Improved Personal Explosive.
]
] "The Winter Systems IPE grenade series uses their patented KLV-IV explosive
] compound for the first time in a delivery system smaller than a mortar
] round. The same size as a normal grenade, the IPE grenade delivers a
] greater blast than conventional explosives, at the same weight."
]
] - SSC 1, page 66.

Bingo...don't have that one. They aren't in Number 2? Thanks for
the info!

-Murder of One
Message no. 5
From: Snake Eyes snake.eyes@********.att.net
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 00:30:41 -0700
At 02:28 AM 7/7/99 -0300, Murder of One wrote:

>"And now, a Channel 6 editorial reply to Snake Eyes."
>] > I can't remember if I asked this or not...what are IPE grenades? I
>] >can't find a description anywhere...
>]
>] Improved Personal Explosive.
>]
>] "The Winter Systems IPE grenade series uses their patented KLV-IV explosive
>] compound for the first time in a delivery system smaller than a mortar
>] round. The same size as a normal grenade, the IPE grenade delivers a
>] greater blast than conventional explosives, at the same weight."
>]
>] - SSC 1, page 66.
>
> Bingo...don't have that one. They aren't in Number 2? Thanks for
>the info!

I've only got SSC 1, but I can't believe that IPE was dropped in the 2nd
ed. SSC, unless those rules were actually incorporated into the SRII core
rules the same way overpressure, FirePower(TM) ammo & reactive triggers
were. I forget.

IPE was the only thing that made grenades worth using for a long time.

Well ... that and the airburst timer.

~ Snake Eyes
Message no. 6
From: Rand Ratinac docwagon101@*****.com
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 00:49:17 -0700 (PDT)
<Snippola(TM)>
> > Bingo...don't have that one. They aren't in Number 2? Thanks for
the info!
>
> I've only got SSC 1, but I can't believe that IPE was dropped in the
2nd ed. SSC, unless those rules were actually incorporated into the
SRII core rules the same way overpressure, FirePower(TM) ammo &
reactive triggers were. I forget.
>
> IPE was the only thing that made grenades worth using for a long
time.
>
> Well ... that and the airburst timer.
>
> ~ Snake Eyes

Which reminds me - I've been meaning to ask. What effect did FirePower
ammo and reactive triggers have? I've got SSC2 and it's got a couple of
pages blanked out (can you believe that? What a tease!). They seem to
have pics of bullets (the FirePower ammo, I assume) and clips (???
special FirePower clips?) on them. What am I missing there?

IPE grenades WERE dropped from SSC2, although airburst grenades
weren't. They were later included in Fields of Fire, however, although
there was no explanation of what IPE meant, IIRC, or why they were 50%
better than standard grenades.

And I dunno about normal grenades being useless. I remember one time a
GM had us trapped in a 10th storey apartment. My character borrowed a
concussion grenade from one of the other characters (he tended to use
his throwing skill for shurikens) and tossed it out into the hallway.
Three of us. 10 of them. Small hallway. As I recall, not one of the
remained conscious after that.

Okay, so I had the "chunky salsa" effect on my side, but you should've
seen the look on the GM's face...:)

*Doc' still has dreams about that one..."Oh, chunky salsa! Oh! Ohhh!!!"*
==Doc'
(aka Mr. Freaky Big, Super-Dynamic Troll of Tomorrow)

.sig Sauer
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @*****.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Message no. 7
From: Twist0059@***.com Twist0059@***.com
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 03:51:00 EDT
In a message dated 7/7/99 3:47:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
docwagon101@*****.com writes:

> They seem to
> have pics of bullets (the FirePower ammo, I assume) and clips (???
> special FirePower clips?) on them. What am I missing there?

Those were extended clips. Soon to be integrated standard with SR2 pistols.


-Twist
Message no. 8
From: Snake Eyes snake.eyes@********.att.net
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 01:13:17 -0700
At 12:49 AM 7/7/99 -0700, Doc' wrote:

>Which reminds me - I've been meaning to ask. What effect did FirePower
>ammo and reactive triggers have? I've got SSC2 and it's got a couple of
>pages blanked out (can you believe that? What a tease!). They seem to
>have pics of bullets (the FirePower ammo, I assume) and clips (???
>special FirePower clips?) on them. What am I missing there?

The ARES Predator II introduced FirePower(TM) ammo, which raised SR1 Heavy
Pistol damage from 4M2 to 6M2. You either had to buy a new gun chambered
for FirePower(TM), or get an existing gun rebored. Reactive triggers were
introduced with the Browning UltraPower and let you fire two shots from any
SR1 semi-auto weapon in the same action phase with a +1 recoil penalty.
SSC 1 also introduced a bunch of new magazines that increased internal ammo
capacity by about 50%. These upgrades were negated or made otherwise
irrelevant by changes to the SRII combat & gear rules.

~ Snake Eyes
Message no. 9
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 13:20:39 +0200
According to Scott Wheelock, at 0:16 on 7 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> I can't remember if I asked this or not...what are IPE grenades? I
> can't find a description anywhere...

Improved Personal Explosives -- hand grenade to you and me. They were
introduced in the Street Samurai Catalog (first edition) because the hand
grenades in first edition SR were ludicrously ineffective. I remember our
first game of SR; one of the NPCs throws a grenade at the PCs, it explodes
precisely between the PC's feet (the NPC made a very good throw,
eliminating all scatter) and the PC takes a Moderate wound... The IPE
grenades simply did more damage to try and make up for this.

In SRII, grenades had their damage increased, so the IPE grenades were
deemed unnecessary for the SSC 2nd edition, but they were re-introduced in
Fields of Fire as more powerful versions (larger blast radius, mainly) of
the standard grenades.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
E-mails uit het verleden bieden geen garantie voor de toekomst.
-> ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 10
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 13:20:40 +0200
According to Rand Ratinac, at 0:49 on 7 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> Which reminds me - I've been meaning to ask. What effect did FirePower
> ammo and reactive triggers have?

Firepower ammo gave a +2 Power Level to Heavy Pistols only. Light pistols
did 3M2 in SR1, heavy pistols 4M2, and the difference was just too small.
With Firepower ammo, the heavies went up to 6M2. The Predator II came
equipped to use Firepower ammo as standard, all the other weapons had to
be modified to use it.

Reactive triggers were available for all semi-automatic weapons, and
allowed you to fire two shots in an action, instead of just one. The
Browing Ultra-Power had it built in as standard, while it could be retro-
fitted to other firearms. In SRII, this was dropped because the
Simple/Complex Action rules were introduced, allowing any SA weapon to
fire twice in an action.

> I've got SSC2 and it's got a couple of pages blanked out (can you
> believe that? What a tease!). They seem to have pics of bullets (the
> FirePower ammo, I assume) and clips (??? special FirePower clips?) on
> them. What am I missing there?

The clips are larger-capacity models than in the original SR1 weapons;
SRII incorporates the larger sizes as standard. For example, an AK-97 held
22 rounds in SR1, but with the extended clips from the SSC, it became 38.

> And I dunno about normal grenades being useless. I remember one time a
> GM had us trapped in a 10th storey apartment. My character borrowed a
> concussion grenade from one of the other characters (he tended to use
> his throwing skill for shurikens) and tossed it out into the hallway.
> Three of us. 10 of them. Small hallway. As I recall, not one of the
> remained conscious after that.

That was in SRII, probably. In SR1, grenades _were_ useless (see my other
post on this). No "chunky salsa" effect and a low Damage Code (6M3 or so,
IIRC) made the IPE grenades very necessary.

> Okay, so I had the "chunky salsa" effect on my side, but you should've
> seen the look on the GM's face...:)

We had a similar incident in one adventure. We're in an apartment, the bad
guys come knocking on the door, and one of our team throws a defensive
grenade into the hallway. The walls barely held, the door was blown in,
but all the NPCs got killed on the first action of what was supposed to be
a big firefight :)

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
E-mails uit het verleden bieden geen garantie voor de toekomst.
-> ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 11
From: Scott Wheelock iscottw@*****.nb.ca
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 11:20:26 -0300
"And now, a Channel 6 editorial reply to Rand Ratinac."
] IPE grenades WERE dropped from SSC2, although airburst grenades
] weren't. They were later included in Fields of Fire, however, although
] there was no explanation of what IPE meant, IIRC, or why they were 50%
] better than standard grenades.

Yeah, that was the problem...I kept looking for a down-side, or a
reason they were better, or ANYthing. Something they missed, I guess.

] *Doc' still has dreams about that one..."Oh, chunky salsa! Oh! Ohhh!!!"*

Yeah, like THAT needed to show up on the list... :P

-Murder of One
Message no. 12
From: Rand Ratinac docwagon101@*****.com
Subject: FoF
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 20:22:35 -0700 (PDT)
> > And I dunno about normal grenades being useless. I remember one
time a GM had us trapped in a 10th storey apartment. My character
borrowed a concussion grenade from one of the other characters (he
tended to use his throwing skill for shurikens) and tossed it out into
the hallway. Three of us. 10 of them. Small hallway. As I recall, not
one of the remained conscious after that.
>
> That was in SRII, probably. In SR1, grenades _were_ useless (see my
other post on this). No "chunky salsa" effect and a low Damage Code
(6M3 or so, IIRC) made the IPE grenades very necessary.

SR3, actually. I wasn't around for SR1, so I'll have to take your word
for that.

> > Okay, so I had the "chunky salsa" effect on my side, but you
should've seen the look on the GM's face...:)
>
> We had a similar incident in one adventure. We're in an apartment,
the bad guys come knocking on the door, and one of our team throws a
defensive grenade into the hallway. The walls barely held, the door was
blown in, but all the NPCs got killed on the first action of what was
supposed to be a big firefight :)
> Gurth@******.nl

It's always fun as long as you aren't the GM...:)

*Doc' pulls the pin on his grenade and throws it...but forgets that
it's his grenade-shaped lighter and merely wets his pants...*
==Doc'
(aka Mr. Freaky Big, Super-Dynamic Troll of Tomorrow)

.sig Sauer
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @*****.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Message no. 13
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: FoF
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 12:12:21 +0200
According to Rand Ratinac, at 20:22 on 7 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> > That was in SRII, probably. In SR1, grenades _were_ useless (see my
> other post on this). No "chunky salsa" effect and a low Damage Code
> (6M3 or so, IIRC) made the IPE grenades very necessary.
>
> SR3, actually.

SRII or SR3 doesn't make a difference in this case, as their grenade stats
and rules are the same.

> I wasn't around for SR1, so I'll have to take your word for that.

Three things have made grenades good weapons in SR: the increased Damage
Code in SRII, the chunky salsa effect, and the "Roll half power level to
stage up" rule. In SR1, none of those existed, and as a result, grenades
were worth [bleeep].

> It's always fun as long as you aren't the GM...:)

In this case, I wasn't, so I didn't mind :)

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
E-mails uit het verleden bieden geen garantie voor de toekomst.
-> ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about FoF, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.