Firing Guns with Multiple Arms

[Gorkamorka]

Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time.

That's better for the PC then I expected. If I was GM for this alien I would have said -4 cumulative per hand. So you end up with -4/-8/-12/... ladder.

But as the PC that is going to be playing said alien, I think it's great! Four armed bandit coming up.

[Kromm]

I'd have growing penalties if the extra guns were "free" options, like simply swinging a sword faster to get more Rapid Strikes. But they aren't. You need to spend points to buy lots of limbs, and then cash to buy lots of guns. And truth be told, for the same cash and points, he could wield a pair of full-automatic rifles and fire more (and more dangerous) shots. Thus, it passes the munchkin check.

[jacobmuller]

So all you need (aside from 4 arms) is Dual Weapon Attack with Off-Hand Weapon Training and you can make 4 ranged attacks (or melee, provided they're adjacent to one-another)?
10 character points* and your Gunfu artist is blazing away with 4 machine pistols simultaneously... terrifyingly beautiful - I like it.
*Weapon Mount [2]x2, DWA Tech [5], OHWT perk.
Although, they'll be unaimed attacks without Enhanced Tracking, not that a Gunfu would care. And you'd only need ST6, pg115 UT.

[Langy]

I'm totally going to use that for a character in my Cyberpunk game; just gotta give someone extra robot arms.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I'd have growing penalties if the extra guns were "free" options, like simply swinging a sword faster to get more Rapid Strikes. But they aren't. You need to spend points to buy lots of limbs, and then cash to buy lots of guns. And truth be told, for the same cash and points, he could wield a pair of full-automatic rifles and fire more (and more dangerous) shots. Thus, it passes the munchkin check.

Would this work for weapon mount limbs? I am having an argument with one of my players over this.

My argument is that a weapon mount limb bears a weapon, but you need another free manipulator to USE it beyond, say, dropping the weapon, or firing blindly and undirected.

He feels that since it's about the same price as no physical attack + short, it should be fully operational as a way to direct/use that weapon.

I also don't think 2/attack is adequate cost for turning dual weapon attack into n weapon attack (Where n is the number of limbs that have weapons in them)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by starslayer

My argument is that a weapon mount limb bears a weapon, but you need another free manipulator to USE it beyond, say, dropping the weapon, or firing blindly and undirected.

I don't think so. How would you do things like the Particle Cannons on a Macross Exalibur/Battletech Warhammer? They have gun arms, but they don't need a non-gun arm to work the gun arm (and it would be pretty silly if they did).

[jacobmuller]

Weapon Mount is meant to be things like the Predator's shoulder mounted pistol.
Hands free but you still need to direct it's fire (unless you have advantages that take of that).
Or, a contemporary example, the Apache helicopter "chin" mount.

EDIT: just occurred to me that you're maybe thinking of the Articulated Weapon Harness from Aliens. It Does need you to direct it's fire but it isn't a Weapon Mount arm.

[Kromm]

Weapon Mount doesn't require other limbs to use it . . . it's a limb that's good only for mounting a weapon. And yes, if a character is of a race and a TL where it makes sense to have N Weapon Mounts, he could turn Dual-Weapon Attack into (N+2)-Weapon Attack, allowing him to attack one target at -4 once and then at -8 N+1 more times, possibly buying this up to full skill with suitable perks and techniques. What keeps this under control is the GM's limit on Weapon Mounts (on a humanoid body, two is about the upper limit) and the PC's budget for weapons and ammo. And of course Dual-Weapon Attack, Extra Arms (Weapon Mount), and Off-Hand Weapon Training aren't free, and being able to engage lots of foes this way calls for Enhanced Tracking.

To compare to the real world: Imagine that the PC is the pilot of an attack helicopter with two Weapon Mounts on each side, on pylons under stub wings, and another in a chin turret. Raking the same target with fire from all five is entirely plausible. He points the aircraft to aim one weapon (at 0 to hit for the "master" hand) and all the others are sort of pointed there (at -4 for the "off" hand). Firing lots of weapons at once gives a further -4 (as for Dual-Weapon Attack) because it's distracting and hard to coordinate. Aiming the weapons individually is impossible without Enhanced Tracking in the form of fancy targeting computers, guided weapons, etc.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Weapon Mount doesn't require other limbs to use it . . . it's a limb that's good only for mounting a weapon. And yes, if a character is of a race and a TL where it makes sense to have N Weapon Mounts, he could turn Dual-Weapon Attack into (N+2)-Weapon Attack, allowing him to attack one target at -4 once and then at -8 N+1 more times, possibly buying this up to full skill with suitable perks and techniques. What keeps this under control is the GM's limit on Weapon Mounts (on a humanoid body, two is about the upper limit) and the PC's budget for weapons and ammo. And of course Dual-Weapon Attack, Extra Arms (Weapon Mount), and Off-Hand Weapon Training aren't free, and being able to engage lots of foes this way calls for Enhanced Tracking.

To compare to the real world: Imagine that the PC is the pilot of an attack helicopter with two Weapon Mounts on each side, on pylons under stub wings, and another in a chin turret. Raking the same target with fire from all five is entirely plausible. He points the aircraft to aim one weapon (at 0 to hit for the "master" hand) and all the others are sort of pointed there (at -4 for the "off" hand). Firing lots of weapons at once gives a further -4 (as for Dual-Weapon Attack) because it's distracting and hard to coordinate. Aiming the weapons individually is impossible without Enhanced Tracking in the form of fancy targeting computers, guided weapons, etc.

Thank you for answering that, it is not the answer I was expecting so I am glad it is cleared up.

[Kalzazz]

Why is this restricted to one target? DWA is allowed vs 1 or 2 targets

Is the restriction to 1 target from NWA or from Weapon Mount?