Some rules hardliners might get upset here but I have no problem with
adding things to the RPG tech background to either correct (in my mind)
things or introduce effects or capabilities as long as they are not in
direct conflict with the standing rules. This preamble is here because I
would like to introduce a new type of ammunition/weapon that I have
played withand might start using. The goal is the beloved Blaster of
SciFi fame. I wont post this in standard weapon form because it is
really intended to initiate discussion.
This weapon is the Magnum Bolt Rifle. It is compact, at 60cm and
beefy at about 6.8 kg loaded. A fat weapon. At 60cm its short
enough to be a sort of heavy blaster. It fires a round that has as its
base a 20mm x 32mm Straight ETC cartridge. This gives Ea of 8500J.
The rules bending is this. One of the available ammo aside from Heap and
DS is a Plasma Pulse Cartridge that sits on the end of the ETC
cartridge. It is ballistic tipped. The ETC cartridge initiates the
"reaction" in the PPC. A micro piezo electric fuze in the ballistic cap
discharges the plasma stream upon impact. It is in a sense a Super HEAP
round. Dont ask me how it works. It is in effect a ballistically
delivered plasma pulse. The special effect would be that the cartridge
glows because of the heat and it fails completey after about 0.5 s when
you just get a 20 meter stream of plasma. Maybe doing 1D6 burn damage to
anybody in the stream hexes.?..A PPC about this size is a 3D6 attack.
The round energy with a 20 cm barrell gives 5D6? So the total would be
about 8D6? It would have a pen of 1-1-1 but a max range of 200m because
of the cartridge consumption. So....you get a large caliber weapon that
fires a glowing bolt at about 400 m/s (slow enough to be seen?) That will
punch right through battle dress. You get the range of a slug weapon
with the Pen of a Plasma weapon. Think about it, ballistically delivered
fusion cartridges? And after about 200m you get a bright streamer. Even
better the thing gives off a bright explosion? when it hits a target
inside 200m. Hell, if you dont like my bolt ammo just look and see what
a rifle firing 20mm x 32 mm Heap ammo can do. That alone would make an
extremely devastating but still compact weapon. I can see it now, the
Battle Dress trooper at TL 10 coming down and seeing these guys in
T-Shirts with some short compact weapon and while theyre laughing hearing a
kaboom and wondering where that hole through his chest armor came from.
As soon as I find my FF&S Ill formalize all this stuff. But the Magnum
Rifle is something Im definitely gonna dump in a campaign...
Tariq
"The rocket cannot work in space because there's nothing to push off of"
William Randolph Hearst