Hey everyone! Hope you had a great week, we certainly did!
Rick's been busy on the rules and we're almost at the point where you guys can actually start playing the outline ruleset. Weapons and Armour is the theme for the day:
MAKING A START WITH WEAPONS
This update introduces some basic weapon types and starts to put some flesh onto the bones of the mechanic. We have yet to described the rules for shooting and combat in any detail, although if you look at the example video footage you’ll get a fair idea of how these things work.
I’m going to make a start by talking about the two most common weapons carried by troops, mercenaries, drones and most armed individuals: the Mag Gun or Plugger and the Plasma Gun. There are different version of these basic weapons and I’ve gone out on a limb by including the stats for all the mobile (i.e. ‘man’ carried) versions – these are all weapons carried by one man. You’ll notice that some weapons don’t have a point blank range listed – this is because only side arms have point blank ranges – heavier man-carried support weapons are restricted in their ability to move and shoot effectively – and I’ve included summaries of the full rules to give you an idea of how this works.
I’ve also listed the more exotic Compression Gun as carried by our Hansa Nairoba model – this is a rare and expensive weapon and more of an individual armament. Ideal for our Freebooting hero!
STAT FORMAT
This is the basic stat format I am working with – I may need an extra column for special rule annotations but for now I’ve just made notes beneath each stat bloc.
Type of Weapon: Just that really!
Shoot: The number of shots – in some cases also the multiplier for blast weapons but we’ll come to them some other time. The number shown is the number of dice rolled and therefore the potentially number of hits that can be scored each time the weapon fires.
Range: The range bands in inches – it is generally easier to hit at effective range than at long or extreme range – but the actual modifiers vary depending upon the type of fire (Firefight, Range, Opportunity, Return).
Strike Value: The modifier applied to the target’s Resist roll to avoid taking damage from the hit – e.g. SV 1, Resist stat is at –1.
THE MAG GUN or PLUGGER
The common everyday, effective, practical and adaptable weapon carried by most self-equipped troops is the Magnetic Carbine – or Mag Carbine. Magnetic guns propel a metallic or metallically coated projectile by means of a magnetic pulse. Pistol, Carbine, Rapid Repeater and larger General Purpose Support (GPS) versions are all common battlefield weapons. They are manufactured throughout the galaxy and there are many different designs reflecting local technology levels. The projectile itself takes the form of a spike, needle or plug – and it is the last of these that give weapons of this type the common name of Plug guns or Pluggers. Cheap versions are unitary designs with the shot fed from a magazine. Expensive version are composite designs that can be extended by adding sections together to create a weapon that is larger and more powerful, or smaller and handier. The best quality Mag Carbines carry their projectiles in a compression field built into the body of the weapon. These can hold thousands of rounds, and weapons equipped in this way can synthesise their own ammunition from an integral HCM core given a few hours. All Mag guns shoot a single plug or burst, but the rate of fire varies, with Concord and Isorian military manufactured weapons being more versatile, rapid firing and reliable in general. Rapid repeater Mag guns are sometimes called Zippers – a reference to the noise make by the spikes as they fly past.
Special Rules:
GPS: The General Purpose Support (GPS or ‘jips’) version is a large man-mobile weapon that follows the rules for man-carried support weapons. (Summary: the model cannot move and shoot during an engage action – the model has to be stationary to shoot. Exception: the model may attempt to move and shoot by passing a Strength text having moved, and then shoots at –1 Accuracy ((rapid fire on the move)) ).
THE PLASMA GUN
Plasma weapons are the most powerful mobile weapons available to the military of the Concord and other advanced forces. Plasma weapons are mostly likely to be carried by shock troops and WarDrones. Because they are high energy weapons their effectiveness depends on the individual gun’s conversion rate, which tends to decline with long use; and more rapidly so without routine maintenance. Plasma weapons fire a brief pulse of energy – most often in the form of a laser – causing an ionisation reaction turning the point struck to a plasma. A man-mobile support version the Plasma Cannon Heavy Support (HS) provides greater range and power, and is usually carried as a mobile support weapon by Concord strike units.
Plasma Cannon HS: The ‘Heavy Support’ or HS cannon is a large man-mobile or drone mounted weapon that follows the rules for man-carried support weapons. (Summary: the model cannot move and shoot during an engage action – the model has to be stationary to shoot. Exception: the model may attempt to move and shoot by passing a Strength text having moved, and then shoots at –1 Accuracy ((rapid fire on the move)) ).
THE COMPRESSION GUN
This particular weapon is something a little more unusual – and for that reason you have to consider this as an early draft in terms of the rules and stats – however I’ve included it as an example a more exotic weapon. It is also the weapon carried by our special Hansa Nairoba model (his pistol is a Mag Gun of primitive and antique construction – but effective in a tight spot!)
Compression guns use the same technology that forms compression fields and hyper-compressed materials, in this case compressing everything within a pulsed beam projected by the weapon. The pulse rate is reactive to the density of the atmosphere and is calculated to allow the compression effect to advance as the initial pulses compress any air allowing the following pulses to reach progressively further forward. For this –and safety reasons – the weapon doesn’t function at short ranges and has a narrow range of effectiveness. It is most effective when the shooter is stationary. They are generally large carbine sized weapons – man-mobile if less convenient that a regular Mag Carbine or Plasma Carbine. They are commonly called Gripplers (General Purpose Light Compressor) and Compo Guns (Compressor Gun). There is a mobile heavy support (HS) version of the weapon, which effectively mounts several projectors together, giving it a rapid fire capability. There is also a version focussed for short range effect which is a development of the tools used for asteroid mining – this is the Mass Compactor.
Minimum Range: GPL and HS Compression guns have a minimum range of 6” and cannot be used during Assaults.
Compression Autocannon HS: The ‘Heavy Support’ or HS autocannon is a large man-mobile weapon that follows the rules for man-carried support weapons. (Summary: the model cannot move and shoot during an engage action – the model has to be stationary to shoot. Exception: the model may attempt to move and shoot by passing a Strength text having moved, and then shoots at –1 Accuracy ((rapid fire on the move)) ).
Strike Value: The Strike Value of a Compression Gun varies according to the range to the target as shown PB/E/L/Ex.
HL Armours: Compression fields have negative energy emission signatures and are therefore invisible to HL armours – HL armour have 0 Resist value against a Compression Gun.
ARMOUR
Protection is based around field defences rather than hard armour – but these field defences need a metallic base to hang around and for this reason most armours consist of metallic plates, strips or patches. As well as functioning as protective armour some of the battle suits worn by trooper of all factions have to function as atmospheric suits. Again – this can be achieved purely with an energy seal – but heavily militarised units prefer to employ a double sealed system with an encased armoured suit protected by an energy seal.
At this stage it’s a bit early to introduce the various kinds of armour in any detail – so I’ll just give you an overview of the system we have been using for development purposes. Some of these values are speculative at this stage and require refinement.
Most armed troops are equipped with a basic protective armour field – this is a field that is ‘on’ all the time and which absorbs energy whether that’s the kinetic energy of a solid object such as a plug from a Mag Gun or laser energy from a Plasma Gun. This type of armour increases the wearer’s Resist stat by +1 in all situations – e.g. from a Panhuman base of 5 to 6. Note that this effectively cancels out the Strike Value of a Mag Gun and reduced the Plasma Gun to and effective –1.
The best equipped troops of the C3 (Concord Combined Command) wear a reactive armour that recognises an impacting shot and reacts directly against it – this is called a HyperLight armour as the reaction mechanic basically recognises the incoming energy signature and mounts a defence before even laser bases weapons can strike. Hyper-Light armours offer a variable modifier – the longer the range of the shot and the higher its energy signature the more effectively it protects the wearer. Hyper-Light defences make long range weaponry almost entirely ineffective, and this is one of the reasons why most combat takes place at relatively short distances. For initial purposes, this value is +2 where the weapon shoots at effective range or closer, +3 at long range, and +4 at extreme range. Some weapons can defeat HL armours, but these tend to be specialised short-ranged weapons such as Compression guns.
Isorian phase armour utilises the silicon based bio-tech developed by the Isorian Shard during the Isori’s long war against the alien T’San Kiri during the long isolation prior to the rise of the Seventh Age. It is this strange alien-derived bio-technology that marks the Isori apart from other humans and places them and the Concord at odds – two rival but incompatible technologies, each driven by an Integrated Machine Intelligence that identifies the other as an invasive viral intruder. Some Freebooters manage to combine these technologies by using sterilisers to purge the respective nano-clouds and re-seeding with an isolate nano-technology. However, such isolates are prone to contamination upon contact with IMTel. Phase armour offers almost complete protection from all kinds of harm by shifting the wearer’s position in special reality – but at the same time it renders the wearer unable to fully interact with real space. Everytime the wearer moves, shoots or attempts to touch something the armour has to shift phase to allow him to do so, opening up a chink in the armour. When shot at without making or attempting any reaction in response the protective value is +3 at all ranges. When making a reaction it drops to +1.
