Expanding Ultratech Ballistic Firearms [UT]

[LucklessPanda]

Hey there, new poster. I was working on a Post-modern Cyberpunk setting, when I noticed that Ultratech really only had a single line of ballistic small arms for Tech 9. I remember seeing a workshop for laser weapons in Ultratech II Pyramid Article. I was wondering if perhaps there was something similar for ballistic weapons? Something I can work with in creating new lines of arms to fill my world with.

Or, should I just fill it out with Tech 8? Though I honestly was hoping the former, as it would be awesome to create fictional companies and their own brand of guns.

[Diomedes]

There is no such system yet for ballistic weapons, but there is an expanded list of them in the same Pyramid issue.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

There is no such system yet for ballistic weapons, but there is an expanded list of them in the same Pyramid issue.

......which is 3/36. It's mostly heavy weapons and there's no Brand Name Flash.

[Varyon]

It's possible to build weapons using 3e Vehicles and then convert to 4e stats. Roughly speaking, 4e Acc is half the 3e number, and damage is unchanged. For MinST, 3e ST was linear, so you'll have to convert (which is something like 10+(10-3eST)^0.5). Rcl and Bulk you'll want to base off similar weapons. Note TL's are different between the two editions, particularly up in the UT range - you can get an idea of what 3e looked like here. Basically, 3e TL 8-16 was condensed into 4e TL 9-12.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

For MinST, 3e ST was linear, so you'll have to convert (which is something like 10+(10-3eST)^0.5). Rcl .

That might be true in theory and I know some people have expressed the idea but I see little change in Min ST between editions. the Axe and Throwing Axe had their MinSt lowered by 1 for 4e but mostly the numbers look unhanged to me.

Lift numbers based on 4e's BL are actually lower than their 3e equivalents at normal ST levels. They don't really even out til around ST 30.

3e had an extra effort lift formula that was mathematically ugly but if you used it the ST scores for comic book heroes were generally lower in 3e too..

Now _Encumbrance_ is much higher in 4e but that's only part of ST.

I generally wouldn't fiddle with 3e ST figures.

[apoc527]

I use Langy's list from his Edgerunner's campaign on Obsidian Portal. PM me if you want my modified version of it. It's excellent and has been used in multiple games.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Lift numbers based on 4e's BL are actually lower than their 3e equivalents at normal ST levels. They don't really even out til around ST 30.

Ah. I don't have any 3e beyond Vehicles, and so was making an inappropriate assumption there (I've read 3e ST was linear on the forum before, but looks like it scales differently than I was expecting). What was 3e's BL scaling? Evening out around 30 implies something like +10 lb per +1 ST (which makes me wonder what ST below 10 looked like...).

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I generally wouldn't fiddle with 3e ST figures.

Yeah, sounds like you'd probably be best off comparing to similar weapons - find a weapon with similar weight, then multiply its MinST by the damage ratio between the weapons (so if you build a 10 lb weapon that does 15d Pi+, you'd start with the MinST for a Storm Carbine - 10† - and multiply by 1.67 - 15d/9d - for MinST 17† or so).

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Ah. I don't have any 3e beyond Vehicles, and so was making an inappropriate assumption there (I've read 3e ST was linear on the forum before, but looks like it scales differently than I was expecting). What was 3e's BL scaling? Evening out around 30 implies something like +10 lb per +1 ST (which makes me wonder what ST below 10 looked like...).

.

3e did not really have a concept of "Basic Lift". It had formulas for how much you could lift, shove and drag. Very much the same sorts of categories you see in 4e Campaigns..

These formulas were linear until you got to the Supers Extra Effort one but their assumptions may have been more optimistic. 1-handed lift was 6xST and 2-handed lift was STx25. The Supers formula increased that STx25 by 10% per pt over 16 and ST over 16 was cheaper and ST over 30 was much cheaper.

In fact, over 30 ST was 5 cp per 10 pts or 5pts per D of Trust (the damage table is absolutely unchanged from 3e to 4e). Taking into consideration that 1D of generic energy blast was 6 cp and it was much easier to balance Bricks v. Blasters in 3e.