Gallowglacht,
No problem on picking my brains as quite often peoples questions help me in when I start my own game again.
Lasers vs Guns vs Blaster vs Plasma weapons:
Basic Book Info: First Firearms are dealt with in WL: Firearms and energy weapons are dealt with in SM:P, SM2 [basic books], SM:P BL and some basic stats in SM:P EM. [If you are new as you say then there is a link in the Rolmaster section that talkes about abrievations for Rolemaster.] So the basic info is spread out over a couple of areas and since Firearm Law has info only on modern weapons it prime target IMO was for RMSS:Black OP's and info for fantasy games that wanted firearms. That said IMO it works great for future setting games as well a fact that I think is do to its great design.
Weapon vs Weapon: Well if you are playing strait by the book then slug throwers have a disadvatage in that Kinetic armor stops all slug thrower criticals. So the target only takes the hits listed on the chart not the crit that the round would do. There is a saying in Rolmaster, "It is the critical that kills." or more commonily "It is the crit that kills.". So if your target is wearing kinetic armor you sould possibly use a different weapon to take them down. Energy weapons are deadly and there are some armor add-ons that will provide extra DB vs them, but thier is no armor type effect that springs to my mind that would ignor criticals like Kinetic armor. Lasers in general fire more short per round, do the least damage in general, the weekest single shot crits but have brutal full automatic fire crits and have the longist range, Blasters fire slower than lasers do more damage, better crits then lasers and also brutal full auto fire crits, Plasma weapons are brutal all aroud as the plasma continues to burn the target for a number of rounds after they were hit, but have a slow rate a fire and very short range.
I think that is everything but I could have made a mistake or left something out. If kinetic armor in in play then the best damage is plasma, blaster then laser, the best range is laser, blaser then plasma, the highest rate of fire in general is laser, blaster then plasma. Number of rounds per mag, laser, blaster then plasm, I do not remember the weight issue right off the top of my head so you might want to look that up.
But also I have found that players tend to not buy kinetic armor or not wear it as much because Kinetic armor nuliflys criticals and so many people opt for energy weapons. But this brings up the old thinking that if my targets are not wearing kinetic armor then Firearms are a very very good alternative against non-kinetic armor. This really throws a monkey wrench into the old thought process above. And in general IMO the firearms would rate between the laser and blaser in most areas with the exception that you have to carry ammo and have a good supply of ammo and not simply plug a power pack into the wall.
Gernades: I know there are some rules on R. Defendies site about them and they might also be in the ICE Vault files as well. I do not remember the ruels off the top of my head. But if someone else does not give you some I will see what I can find.
Note: SM:P in general uses abstract rules for vehicle combat and starship combat but there are the StarStrike and Armored Assault PDF rules for SM2 that can be adapted with a little jury riging by players and GMs. There are no published rules for the conversion but I run them with just a little effort on my part.
MDC