Topic: Energy weapons ammunition in SM2

[TerryTee]

I may be blind, but I?ve never managed to find anything in the SM2 rules regarding the number of rounds/shots pr cell/cartridge/pack for energy weapons.
I?ve never written up any house rules for it either, so I have been in a sort of ignore mode on this part.
Any official rules I have not found, house rules you want to share, or other input?

Thanks,
-Terry

[PiXeL01]

There arent any numbers for ammunition for Energy Weapons. When you fumble with them there is a chance that the weapon is dry, that is about it iirc

[markc]

TerryTee,

 I know thier are some tables in Blaster Law that have the info you asked above. What SM2 products do you have? I can look in my SM2 core books as well as AA and SS but If I guess I but you have them already.
 Well I looked over than there were my Tech Law and Future Law books on the to of my pile. I did look through the Tech Law book and could find not #'s ut instead it notes to look at the end for notes on powe cells. But in that section it just said these cells fit in to X or Y weapons but no #'s.

 I do not have a cource of than the chart at the back of the SM:P BL book to quote you.

 Sorry,
MDC

[Dax]

For SM2 PiXeL01 is right:
A weapon fumbel can result in a depleted energy cell. Informations are on the attack tables.

But I don't find the info for SM:P, so I would appreciate that information.
Or just point me into the direction ...
I assume it is in Blaster Law (which I don't have yet).

[markc]

 Dax,
 Yes the chart is on page 120-127 of Blaster Law. I can not give you the info because it is quite a few pages and they are in charts. You might want to send someone at ICE an e-mail asking if you could buy the pages instead of the whole book. But I think you just might want to get the book itself so you can design your own weapons and all the other good stuff.

 I also seam to remember somewhere that the power cost to use a weapon was = to its mk#. But that could be another home game or rules system. If you want to keep it simple just assign a # to the power cells and have each shot cost accordingly.

MDC

[Dax]

Thanks for the offer, and of course no need to be sorry.

I will purchase Blaster Law along with other books, so I will get a big box

[Allen]

I may be blind, but IÂ’ve never managed to find anything in the SM2 rules regarding the number of rounds/shots pr cell/cartridge/pack for energy weapons.
IÂ’ve never written up any house rules for it either, so I have been in a sort of ignore mode on this part.
Any official rules I have not found, house rules you want to share, or other input?

As a "house rule"... kinda sorta...
I create my own weapons catalog. Part of that is how many shots can be fired from a clip (for projectile weapons). I've done the same in the past with energy based weapons, that weapon X gets so many shots out of a power cell. I really dislike the idea of someone running around with any type of 'gun' that never runs dry. well, unless of course they fumble. I think it adds a flavor of reality to have to stop and change out magazines or power cells, make them keep track of shots fired. if that all makes any sense.

~Allen

[TerryTee]

I bought several of the SM:P books on sale as a shop was closing down, but I haven?t been able to find them  (thus my lack of reply)?. When I do I?ll have a look in Blaster Law (if I have it) to see if the rules there fits.
I don't have SS or AA, but most of the other SM2 books.

Allen, is this stuff worth sharing with the Forum, or the Vault?

-Terry

[croakerdogboy]

It's all in Blaster Law. They even have the tables to determine what charge the batteries hold for each tech level.

[Allen]

Terry

I think it would be. I'm all for sharing all the data and info we can to help furhter ICE/RM/SM/etc.
If I can be of some help, please just lemme know.

Allen

I bought several of the SM:P books on sale as a shop was closing down, but I havenÂ’t been able to find them  (thus my lack of reply)Â…. When I do IÂ’ll have a look in Blaster Law (if I have it) to see if the rules there fits.
I don't have SS or AA, but most of the other SM2 books.

Allen, is this stuff worth sharing with the Forum, or the Vault?

-Terry

[TerryTee]

Allen,
I was just thinking if you have custom weapon tables, they might be worth putting in the Vault.

[Allen]

At this time I do not have custom tabels for energy weapons, I pretty much stick to the SM2 stuff.
I'll be working long and hard on my heavy projectile weapons stuff. I will certainly share once/when I I get them done.

~A

[markc]

 On a side note one of the things I thought was missing form the SM:P BL was an energy conversion to weapon #'s, like there is in RMSS WL:F. IMO that would make it easyier to convert weapons from Traveller and maybe some other systems.

MDC

 Like I said the last 4 pages or so of Blaster Law has the charts and weapons. If you have a chance to go look through a copy you can see what I mean.

 [This also makes me want to have a program that had a short time to live, no printing etc. So you could show a person what it is and they can see if that will help them in there game.]
MDC

[Allen]

MDC:

I have the WL: F book in PDF< but have not yet had time to go thru and start doing the conversion. 98.235%+ of my weapons are works of my own (or my friends) imagination so it's nto as easy as saying "ok, it's an AK47 so use that chart."
having said that, however; I think that for the most part I'll be able to plug in one ME chart or antoher where I need it up to the 12/7mm/.50 BMG.
Beyond that I'm going to have to get creative.
I'll be sure to let ya'll know how that goes.

~A

[markc]

 If they are works of your own IMO you might just find something close and bump up the ME. Also I know there are tables in SM:P Equipment Man. that take varous weapons and give you data based on tech level. IMO the charts can help you in you game. They do handel some support weaopns but not in the maner that I think would help you from the info you talked about on the Black OP's thread. In that case I think I would find the info in AA or SS and back step into what ever time line you need. In the SM:P V Man it also shows you a tech tree like chart of what large weapons would equle in "RM Weapon Chart".
 IMO the hardest part is going to be the conversio of large weapons to personal scale. especially with the newer weapons that they have been talking about on varous TV programns. IMO the Small Diamater Bonb [SDB] is a very potent weapon as well as other smart bombs that loiter on the battle field for long peroids of time before expending thier munations. This factor bring back to mind the Terminator "story plots" of the 90's. Or when every thay came out.

MDC 

[TerryTee]

Just to 'complete' the thread with a reference.

There arent any numbers for ammunition for Energy Weapons. When you fumble with them there is a chance that the weapon is dry, that is about it iirc

I knew this mechanism existed, but I didn?t know it actually was the only ammo mechanism. However, one of my players found the rule in SM2 Tech Book, page 7, Section 2.3, last paragraph.  That paragraph actually states that energy weapon don?t run out of ammo unless a power cell drain occurs when the player rolls under the fail range.

A few math operations and we have some statistics:

Weapon|	Change to deplete|	Avg shots
Laser	4,2%  or  4.2%	24
Blaster	3%	33
Flamer	7%	14
Stunner	3%	33
Plasmatic	5,4%  or  5.4%	19

-Terry

[markc]

TerryTee,
 Are those , supposed to be .? So the first result would be 42% or 4.2%?

MDC

[TerryTee]

No, I?d say they are supposed to be commas and not dots/periods, but that?s just because we use different notation;-)
I?ve edited the table to make it clearer. We are talking about numbers between 3% and 7%.

The calculation is simply:
chance to deplete = (fail range/100) * (chance to deplete upon failure/10)

So for a blaster we have a fail range og 1-5, and if you roll 1-6 after that you have a depleted cell. So:
5/100*6/10=3%

The number of shots are:
Avg numb of shots=100/ chance to deplete
For a blaster:
100/3=33

-Terry

[markc]

Terry;
 Thanks for the heads up on the difference in notation between countries.
MDC

[TerryTee]

After doing the math, realizing how few shots an energy weapon has on average before depletion I introduced a new house rule. After a failure as been established, the player needs to roll 1d10 to determine the effect. Depending on the weapon 1-6 or 1-7 on that 1d10 will result in cell depletion. My house rule chance that so that a roll of 1-3 will simply be ?fail to fire, try again next phase?.
So for a give weapon a failure now gives the following table:
1-3: Fail to fire. Try again next phase.
4-6: Energy cell depleted
7-8: Weapon malfunction. <Roll on appropriate tables>
9-10: Weapon Fumble. <Roll on appropriate tables>

-Terry