Plasma Riffle Explosions: how to handle the rate of fire and armor Divisor

[ericthered]

I've been playing around with various weapons in Ultra-tech, and I'm not 100% sure how to run the plasma riffles.

• Does the armor divisor on a plasma riffle apply to its explosion? It feels a little weird.
• How does the rate of fire interact with the explosion? do all the misses end up creating their own individual explosion?

Thanks!

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I've been playing around with various weapons in Ultra-tech, and I'm not 100% sure how to run the plasma riffles.

• Does the armor divisor on a plasma riffle apply to its explosion? It feels a little weird.
• How does the rate of fire interact with the explosion? do all the misses end up creating their own individual explosion?

Thanks!

According to B414, armour divisors do not apply to collateral damage. As nothing in UT indicates otherwise, this is the case for plasma gun shots.

As for multiple shots in a turn, as they're explosions, you might want to use the scatter rules (also on B414) for misses, though as they're like bullets and travel in essentially straight lines most that go 'long' can probably just be ignored unless there's something solid right behind the target. This definitely applies to dodged shots, in my opinion.

This would also apply to high-explosive rounds from an auto-cannon and other similar attacks.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Rupert

According to B414, armour divisors do not apply to collateral damage. As nothing in UT indicates otherwise, this is the case for plasma gun shots.

As for multiple shots in a turn, as they're explosions, you might want to use the scatter rules (also on B414) for misses, though as they're like bullets and travel in essentially straight lines most that go 'long' can probably just be ignored unless there's something solid right behind the target. This definitely applies to dodged shots, in my opinion.

This would also apply to high-explosive rounds from an auto-cannon and other similar attacks.

Awesome, thanks! Here I was combing over Ultra-tech rather than looking for basic rules in basic.



So targeting the ground around a lightly armored target is effective at doing damage to unarmored or lightly armored targets, but for best results penetrating armor you want to hit them properly. That makes sense. (I say lightly armored, 50 damage is a fairly typical result)

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by ericthered

So targeting the ground around a lightly armored target is effective at doing damage to unarmored or lightly armored targets, but for best results penetrating armor you want to hit them properly. That makes sense. (I say lightly armored, 50 damage is a fairly typical result)

Yes, but remember that explosion damage drops off rapidly, so unless you land the shot in the same hex the damage done will be greatly reduced.

Another feature of plasma attacks is that they are very effective at starting fires - unlike normal explosions they are fire attacks, not just Incendiary and they are not tight-beam burning either, so they apply the full damage to making things burn (box, B433). For this reason I dropped the LC rating of plasma pistols to LC2 - they are far more dangerous to bystanders and property than normal pistols (even blasters) and hunting weapons.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Yes, but remember that explosion damage drops off rapidly, so unless you land the shot in the same hex the damage done will be greatly reduced.

Yeah, The defender in my specific scenario has DR 20, which interacts really strongly with the plasma riffle, because each hit might do a little bit of damage if you're one yard away ... the distance of a dive for cover.


generally, if you can hit someone, you can hit their hex with all three shots, because hexes are targeted at +4.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by ericthered

generally, if you can hit someone, you can hit their hex with all three shots, because hexes are targeted at +4.

And you can thus also guarantee that unless they're standing on stonework, metal, or something coated in fireproof paint, their world is now on fire. ;)

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Awesome, thanks! Here I was combing over Ultra-tech rather than looking for basic rules in basic.



So targeting the ground around a lightly armored target is effective at doing damage to unarmored or lightly armored targets, but for best results penetrating armor you want to hit them properly. That makes sense. (I say lightly armored, 50 damage is a fairly typical result)

That's correct - only the direct hit gets the divisor. Kind of like shaped charge explosive warheads (HEAT etc).