Topic: Energy weapons ammunition in SM2

[providence13]

I love the fact that weapons can run out of charge. Also, players may not know/count exactly how many shots are left; Situational Awareness (Ammunition).
I don't want to keep up w/ it. The players can and if they make the SitAware, then it's close/right on. If they don't then it will likely run out at a critital moment.

Or: cheap contacs allow weapons to display info in the corner of users' vision.
    :A weak hypersonic voice tells user only of weapon stats.
    :Limited CAT/MRI "trawl" could give deja vu like feeling of weapon stats.
   The great thing about all of these is that they could be hackable!

Remember that muzzle energy does not convert cleanly to blaster energy. Math is not my field but I use ft/lbs X 1.356 for joules conversion.

There is a good tech book PDF put out by 3G3 that is inexpensive if I remember right. It does an impressive job of handling this and would supplement any modern/tech game.

I use human tech in my games don't have unlimited ammo. Only "space elves" using ClarkTech (Minbari) do.

[yammahoper]

14 to 33 rounds in a weapon seems very reasonable to me.

[markc]

14 to 33 rounds in a weapon seems very reasonable to me.

Unless you are an Imperial Storm Trooper then you need at least x2 that amount so you can hit anything.

MDC

[DJRJ_AU]

14 to 33 rounds in a weapon seems very reasonable to me.

Unless you are an Imperial Storm Trooper then you need at least x2 that amount so you can hit anything.

MDC

You're optimistic.  "Belt feed" energy weapons perhaps?



Doug

[yammahoper]

There must be a 50 point flaw here;  only recieve OB on every 10th shot.

[providence13]

DJRJ,

Didn't Mega Traveller have belt fed energy weapons?

They were chemical lasers, similar to our chemical laser planes today. Instead of semi-truck sized vats of highly caustic/corrosive chemicals, the weapons had belt fed chemical batteries. Still not environmentally friendly though...

Then this tech was used for the "plasers". The weapon had a laser that heated a hydrogen pellet contained in a magbottle and then pushed the super hot thingy from the barrel.
This weapon doesn't seem viable w/ hydrogen, but it did massive damage if I remember.

Maybe "foam phased metallic hydrogen" could work. When under gas giant pressure, I think it acts as a metal...
For less tech, a smaller version of a laser heated railgun might work. Don't have to worry about the gas quickly dispersing as it's almost liquid metal...Splash damage on nearby troops or more than one random crit.

[TerryTee]

14 to 33 rounds in a weapon seems very reasonable to me.

I suppose so, but I find that to be a low number for an energy weapon 10 000 years from now?
By adding my house rule I change that to an average of 20 to 50 instead of 14 to 33, so the change is not huge (still quite low for a weapon in the distant future IMO). Also, my players have been somewhat annoyed with the relative high change to deplete, so that is a motive for changing it a little.

-Terry

[markc]

 I can say that most military types in my game want 100+ in a clip. Civ's on the other hand can get 10-40 charges if they do not have military access cards. Also sometimes it is better to act like a civ if you are undercover so the often hand different types of equipment with the ability to hide the other stuff on the ship.

TerryTee;
 As you say each group is different in the styles, likes and dislikes. And little changes like the one you are making can make the game a lot more fun to play in.
MDC