NFM character using guns mounted to their body

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Keyboardstalker

In the story it’s based off of, that question is usually handwaved away, or attention is simply not called to it, as are others like “how do they reload the guns while they’re in the harness?” I imagine the power armor could have the capability to attach itself. It does make sense to have a rule saying someone else needs to be present to help put on the harness and remove it.

Might also just let them reload the guns as normal while wearing the harness, and reload at a penalty while shooting pistols from the mouth.

I'm not familiar with the source, but for "How do they reload?" the obvious answer is "They don't." If the harness itself essentially serves as a large magazine - which may work better if the weapons use something more like a consumable belt, so the harness is more like a large pouch, possibly with the belt wrapping around the body a few times - they'll basically carry all of their ammunition in a readily-accessible form with no need to swap magazines. Belt-fed small arms don't make much sense for humanoids because we can readily swap out handy magazines, and also the ways we need to move the weapon around is going to cause issues if it's attached to us by the ammo belt. For a stationary weapon mounted on someone - like the shoulder guns you sometimes see on powered armor, or the harnessed weapons of your (I assume) quadrupeds, such a setup should actually work and make sense.

If that fails, you could probably have something like a carousel of magazines and a loading arm that pulls out the old, stows it in its slot, then rotates to the next slot and pulls out a new one, then slaps that in. Or maybe you can set it up with two such arms, with one removing the old and stowing it while the other retrieves the new and inserts it, speeding up reloading time. The user would need to give it a "reload" command through whatever means (or maybe it just automatically does it when the magazine runs dry), but doesn't need to actually do anything and can act normally (Move, Aim, make attacks with other weapons - including claws and teeth - etc) while it's reloading.

Pistols held in the mouth seem too stupid for me to figure out a way to make them work, I'm afraid. One mounted to the face, however, could probably use the same sort of belt-feed or magazine carousel as above.

[Keyboardstalker]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I'm not familiar with the source, but for "How do they reload?" the obvious answer is "They don't." If the harness itself essentially serves as a large magazine - which may work better if the weapons use something more like a consumable belt, so the harness is more like a large pouch, possibly with the belt wrapping around the body a few times - they'll basically carry all of their ammunition in a readily-accessible form with no need to swap magazines. Belt-fed small arms don't make much sense for humanoids because we can readily swap out handy magazines, and also the ways we need to move the weapon around is going to cause issues if it's attached to us by the ammo belt. For a stationary weapon mounted on someone - like the shoulder guns you sometimes see on powered armor, or the harnessed weapons of your (I assume) quadrupeds, such a setup should actually work and make sense.

If that fails, you could probably have something like a carousel of magazines and a loading arm that pulls out the old, stows it in its slot, then rotates to the next slot and pulls out a new one, then slaps that in. Or maybe you can set it up with two such arms, with one removing the old and stowing it while the other retrieves the new and inserts it, speeding up reloading time. The user would need to give it a "reload" command through whatever means (or maybe it just automatically does it when the magazine runs dry), but doesn't need to actually do anything and can act normally (Move, Aim, make attacks with other weapons - including claws and teeth - etc) while it's reloading.

I like both of these options. Maybe there could be multiple variants. One could be the far more reliable and common belt fed one, and the other could be a more expensive magazine carousel option. Maybe it’s one that you kick back a lever and the mechanism ejects the magazine and rotates in the next one. And so with those, you’d make a reload maneuver as normal, and with the belt feds you’d have to have a separate person reload you when it runs dry like a SAW.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Pistols held in the mouth seem too stupid for me to figure out a way to make them work, I'm afraid. One mounted to the face, however, could probably use the same sort of belt-feed or magazine carousel as above.

Yeah, I agree that that’s pretty stupid and unrealistic. I didn’t make up the universe this takes place in, and in the stories it comes from it’s a pretty common occurrence. Might just be one of those things I’ll have to ignore.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Keyboardstalker

I like both of these options. Maybe there could be multiple variants. One could be the far more reliable and common belt fed one, and the other could be a more expensive magazine carousel option. Maybe it’s one that you kick back a lever and the mechanism ejects the magazine and rotates in the next one. And so with those, you’d make a reload maneuver as normal, and with the belt feds you’d have to have a separate person reload you when it runs dry like a SAW.

For the belt-fed, if it wraps around the body, it will need a winding mechanism of some sort - either internal and powered by a rechargeable battery, or external with a detachable or folding winch the reloader can use. Basically, you feed one end of the belt into where the ammo usually exits, then the winding mechanism pulls that and the rest through, wrapping it back up as it was before; then you load up the weapon with the first round, and it's ready to fire again. Slower than reloading a traditional belt-fed, but that's part of the cost of it working. For the carousel (which I'll note is inspired by a tank autoloader) you can just replace empty magazines with full ones, so it may be quicker to reload there... although the fact you have to replace multiple magazines may make it actually slower than the belt-fed.

Originally Posted by Keyboardstalker

Yeah, I agree that that’s pretty stupid and unrealistic. I didn’t make up the universe this takes place in, and in the stories it comes from it’s a pretty common occurrence. Might just be one of those things I’ll have to ignore.

Sounds like something good to leave out. How do they even carry those things when they aren't in use? A chest holster, maybe, but that seems like it would get in the way of running. If the character wants to be able to be armed without looking like they're ready for war, I'd imagine the quadrupeds make heavy use of harnesses in civilian life anyway (for carrying things around), so a modified harness that can conceal something akin to a pistol should be doable without raising suspicion; might need to use a wireless method of signaling it to fire, however, so it can be concealed in your mouth without a suspicious line/wire/whatever feeding to your harness where the weapon is hidden. Or maybe it's setup with the "trigger" on a flexible wire mounted where you can duck your head down and grab it with your teeth - head down, grab, and pull up and the concealing compartment falls away, revealing your weapon (this is the equivalent of a human drawing from a concealed holster), then you can bite down on the trigger if the aggressor doesn't back down to shoot them. Letting go has the trigger snap back to its resting position and the concealing compartment closing back up (equivalent to a human holstering their weapon).