[Pyramid #3/37] The Sith & Wesson Family of Blasters

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Adversary

I'm not familiar with the beam weapon design system you are using, but it seems odd that all the blaster rifles have the same Acc, from the PDW and carbine to the sniper rifle. I do see that the sniper rifle has longer range. Still, seems to me it should have higher accuracy. Even if the physics of the blaster beam are the same between the carbine and the sniper rifle, different ergonomics, sights, etc. should result in different accuracy. The grips, stock, etc. of the carbine would be optimized for rapid fire at closer, rapidly-acquired targets, those of the sniper rifle for aimed fire at longer distances.

This is how UT energy weapons and the design system both work.

[Adversary]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

This is how UT energy weapons and the design system both work.

They yield carbines and sniper rifles with the same Acc? Odd. Hmm, after checking UT I do see that beam rifles do have standard accuracy ratings. I guess Acc represents the absolute precision of the weapon much more than it represents how well a human being can aim it in one second. Some weapons do have an Acc rating like 10+4, indicating I guess an accuracy bonus when using the weapon's scope. Maybe add that to some of yours?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Adversary

They yield carbines and sniper rifles with the same Acc? Odd. Hmm, after checking UT I do see that beam rifles do have standard accuracy ratings. I guess Acc represents the absolute precision of the weapon much more than it represents how well a human being can aim it in one second. Some weapons do have an Acc rating like 10+4, indicating I guess an accuracy bonus when using the weapon's scope. Maybe add that to some of yours?

Yeah, I do need to add scopes... the sniper should be 10+4, with weight and bulk adjusted to match the scope. I just haven't looked at adding in UT's extras yet.

[Phantasm]

Okay, updated the table in the first post with a few things.

First, added the following weapons:
- Hunting Blaster Rifle; a good civilian weapon for frontier worlds.
- Gatling Pistol. Because Gatling pistols are cool! (Especially paired!)
- Light Anti-Material Blaster Rifle, a compromise between power and man-portability.

Made the following adjustments to pistols and rifles:
- Added in the Acc bonus from various scopes and laser targeting systems
- Adjusted weights and prices for scopes

Made the following adjustments to individual weapons:
- Adjusted the power cell for the Blaster Rifle, making it an external pack rather than integral in the rifle. I guess it depends on whether you want to put a 5 lbs. pack in a normally 10 lbs. rifle; the net game effect is to lower the ST score by 1, while not adjusting the shooter's encumbrance. How heavy is a fully kitted-out M-16?
- Adjusted the power cell and redid the math for the AMR, reducing its ST score to 18B.
- Gave a reason for the original note that the Light Repeating Blaster uses superscience cells. In short, it's meant to have a Shots number in the 300+ range.


I'm still working on the heavier weapons, including a heavy Gatling which will probably have an M in the ST column. :) I may have to fudge the numbers slightly to get a RoF over 20.....

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

I'm still working on the heavier weapons, including a heavy Gatling which will probably have an M in the ST column. :) I may have to fudge the numbers slightly to get a RoF over 20.....

You could simply use multiple generators, multiplying cost, weight, and RoF accordingly. Seems very appropriate for a gatling system in particular...

[Phantasm]

I've been working on these more. To this end, I've added a commentable Google Docs file detailing the various designs.

Still working on figuring out the heavy cannon versions. Enjoy.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

To be honest, I'm not sure what role the Light Blaster Cannon would play; the Heavy Repeating Blaster is the HMG of the blasters.

The Starhawk space fighter (an X-Wing expy) from SS4, with its force screen powered up, has effective DR 57 when you account for the armor divisor (and the Hardened aspect of the normal armor). With shields angled forward, this becomes DR 97 for the front, DR 37 elsewhere. The Typhoon (TIE-fighter expy), on the other hand, simply has an effective DR 50 on the front, 33 elsewhere.

The Heavy Repeating Blaster averages 42 damage per hit. It can damage a angled-shield X-Wing or a TIE-fighter from the side or back, but not from the front (and it doesn't do much damage there - 5 HP out of 200 on the X-Wing, 9 HP out of 150 on the TIE). It cannot damage an X-Wing that hasn't angled its shields. With continuous fire (shielding is semi-ablative, but each hit only subtracts 4.2 DR from 200), an X-Wing with non-angled shields needs to be hit with something like 18 hits over the course of a second (every second that passes negates the effect of roughly 5 hits) before it will get damaged.

The Light Blaster Cannon averages 105 damage per hit. It can damage an angled-shield X-Wing from the front, although it won't do much there (only 8 HP to a 200 HP target). Against an X-Wing without angled shields, it penetrates for 48 HP, so the hits can add up to take one out (and each hit in a second does roughly 2 more damage than the last; every second negates the shield-depleting effects of 2 hits). Against an angled-shield X-Wing from the side or back, it gets 68 HP through. Against a TIE-fighter from the front, 55 HP (out of 150) gets through, which means a pretty good shot at dropping one. Against the back, that's 72 HP - you only need to roll a bit above average for a Major Wound.

So, basically you'd use the Heavy Repeating Blaster against infantry and lightly-armored vehicles, the Light Blaster Cannon against fighters and the like. Well, maybe - the low RoF of the cannon make it a bit less usable there (you really want high RoF against flying targets), but if there are land vehicles of intermediate armor - more than typical "lightly-armored" types, but less than tanks - the light blaster cannons would be ideal against them. AT-ST's might fit that, as might an AT-AT's legs.


EDIT: As for Beam Weapon specialties, I'd probably use the Pistol, Longarm, and LAW (for shoulder-carried weapons) from the Alternate Guns Specialties and Techniques for those. I'm not certain a wrist-mounted weapon would actually even use Beam Weapon (or Guns for that matter) - Innate Attack actually seems like a better fit. Having it as its own specialty of Beam Weapon (or Guns) might be alright, however - I could see some justification for sharing a default (albeit more with Pistol than Longarm), and it makes a star-pistolero with a backup wrist blaster easier to make than requiring a completely different skill. You'd use Longarm for squad-support weapons, however. Assuming you want to use the rules from the article, anyway, but I think they make a lot more sense than the GURPS default.

[The_Ryujin]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Still working on figuring out the heavy cannon versions. Enjoy.

Let me know what you're trying to work out and I'll see if I can add my 2¢ in.