From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Damion Milliken) |
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Subject: | Weird SR Weapons (was Called Shot Rules) |
Date: | Mon Feb 4 02:20:01 2002 |
> Futher, there is (in my opinion) a fundamental problem with the way the
> weapons are laid out. To cite one example, the Ares Predator III (a
> heavy pistol), with a 9M damage code has a concealability of 4. The
> HK227-S, damage code 10S with burst has a concealability of 5! It's not
> even the compact version which has the SAME concealability!!! (Let's be
> realistic a silenced SMG can NOT be smaller than a heavy pistol.)
Huhn? What's wrong with the situation that you describe? If you ask me, the
only thing wrong is that the Ares Predator does 9M with a single shot, while
the HK-227S does 7M with a single shot, and in all likelihood, the SMG
probably uses pistol sized ammo...
If, for instance, the Ares Predator happened to be Burst Fire (which,
apparently, since it's a Semi-Automatic pistol isn't all that huge a
modification), it'd do 12S with a burst. The HK-227S has the advantage of
being a weapon with a large rate of fire. Thus, it has the _potential_ to do
much more damage than the SA Ares Predator. However, you're neglecting the
factor of _recoil_, which will mean that the SMG has less chance of doing
this huge damage than you make out.
As for weapon sizes, there's nothing (either in real life or in the SR
rules) that says pistols need to be smaller than SMGs. Sure, one would
_expect_ than generally a pistol would be smaller than an SMG, but this is
not always going to be the case. Building a smaller weapon has advantages
and disadvantages, for both pistols and SMGs. The design and manufacturing of
a larger weapon is simpler, as there are less constraints on positioning of
components, selection of strong enough materials, and so forth. I think that
you'll find the Ares Predator is a pretty budget pistol, while the HK-227S
is a rather expensive SMG. Maybe this is because the Ares Predator is
designed using crap, cheap, bulky materials, and is slapped together with
little concern for tolerance and component positioning because it is
designed BIG. The HK-227S might be just the opposite, using advanced
composite materials for lightness and size, meticulously sized, designed,
and machined components, and what have you.
On the flip side, a larger weapon is a more stable firing device, as it
inherently compensates for some of its own recoil. Although this isn't
exactly represented in SR. So making a BIG pistol means that it'll fire
straighter on the second shot. While making a small SMG means that it'll
wander all over the joint when used in burst fire mode.
> (Aside, I think there's a mistake in the rules calculating the burst
> damamge. A 9M weapon firing 3 round burst should IMHO do 11S since the
> first bullet would be 9M, second 10M, third 11S, etc...)
Technically, the burst fire modifiers are an _approximation_. If you want
realism, then resolve each bullet in turn (like 1st Ed ;-)). But expect to
spend a lot of time doing it :-). The +3 Power +1 Damage Category isn't
directly because you fire _3_ rounds, but because 3 x 9M = 12S on many
occasions. Of course, there are situations where characters would much
rather take one or the other of 12S or 3 x 9M (such as if they had huge
amounts of armour, or didn't have any armour at all), but on the whole in SR
(where characters have a bit of armour), it usually works out OK. Of course,
if it isn't working out OK in your games, then it might warrant changing.
> Essentially my difficulty is reconciling the fact that weapons are so
> underpowered in the game that LSSS resort to using the Ruger 12S super
> burst bad boy.
I think it's more the case of body armour being relatively cheap and
available in SR, and refined to the point that it is regularly incorporated
into normal clothing without either being ridiculously uncomfortable or
weighing the wearer down. If you're not wearing armour, 6M will kill you
just as dead as 12M, because the odds of you rolling _any_ successes are
slim to nothing both ways. However, throw in armour clothing (3/0), and the
situation changes significantly. The 6M becomes 3M, which is very
survivable, while the 12M becomes 9M, which will still blow you away.
This is one of the reasons that SWAT teams and the like today often use long
arms such as rifles when engaging dangerous opponents, even if they are
operating in confined spaces such as indoors. A rifle round penetrates
significantly better than a pistol round.
Of course, in SR, you'd be nuts to pack an assault rifle over a burst fire
heavy pistol unless you were operating at long ranges, but that's another
problem altogether... :-)
--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong
Unofficial Shadowrun Guru E-mail: dam01@***.edu.au
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