Re:Magnum Rifle

Youre right, a jam would be catastrophic, it really is not a practical
round however I was trying to keep in mind that this is science FICTION
and I was mainly looking for special effects as well as a justification
for choosing the weapon over an M-16A1....I realize that It is important
to maintain consistency within the rules but I would really love it if
someone can come up with a weapon that produces the desired dramatic
effect yet is still relatively compact.  A plasma carbine or pistol, Even
if you could build it, in the current sequence it would have a short
range of a few meters and about the same damage as a .45 and cost a
helluva lot more.  Maybe I should just suck it up and realize that the
PC, NPC should chose between his slug pistol or a laser pistol as his/her
sidearm...I think that I will do this.  Anyway a laser pistol can have a
pretty high damage for a sidearm and only rigid armor is gonna stop it.
Range is of course only human physiologically limited.  Im gonna whip put
my FFS over the weekend and see if a gauss pistol gets up there.

I should point out however that a head shot from a tl 8 9mm 2D6 pistol has a
30% of instantly killing a PC with a Con of 6.  If the shooter is a short
range (say 8m) and has a slug pistol asset of say 7(4) =11
He has a 16/20 or 80% chance of success. (Average Shot, 17-20 Auto miss)
Furthermore there is a 11/20 (55%) chance of outstanding success doubling
the average damage of 7 to 14.  The product of these two probabilities is
44%  Now there is a 14/20 (70%) chance that a D20 will roll under the damage
of 14 thereby doubling the damage again to 28 which is more than twice
the PC head hit points (2 x Con).  The net prob is 0.8 * 0.55 * 0.7 = 0.3
Make this a 3-D6 pistol and the percentage goes up I believe to 49%

BUT
It could be that my reasoning is flawed..but Im fairly sure it isnt as
far as the net probability is concerned

My interpretation of the rules is flawed in that you do not cumatively
multiply damage, the second doubling only adds the double the original
damage but again Im pretty sure my interpretation is correct.  This
certainly produces a when it rains it pours effect.  The round that gets
you really gets you!

Thats more than enough from me

Tariq
Adio