Science Fiction Weapons

This page is currently an abandoned project, that just serves to contain some ideas for science fiction weapons technology.

Vibro Weaponry
Vibro weaponry is normal melee weaponry that sends ultrasonic vibrations through the, already mono-molecular blade, made of incredibly lightweight material. The blade is then covered in a magnetic field making it practically indestructible. One might initially think that such a sword of ultimate power would make one king of the world, until one realizes that, there's little difference between getting your hand cut off in a single cut with a high-tech sword, than there is if it was to happen with a rusty shovel. The main difference is actually that these weapons have the ability to cut through even advanced armor granting them an armor piercing rating of 2.

Vibro Weaponry increases the cost of the weapon by x4, being quite expensive.

Void Weaponry
Void Weaponry is specially designed for vacuum and zero-gee use, and have essentially no recoil. It fires gyrojet rounds that cannot penetrate ordinary ship equipment plating.

One might wonder what the point of this is, when people using it also have access to plasma weaponry and other interesting goods. Plasma weaponry, being the default combat weapons in the Space Age Science Fiction era, are practically useless in space, because the vacuum of space has no pressure and is almost as cold as physically possible, and Plasma relies on thermal energy to deal damage. Laser Weaponry functions much better in space than anywhere else, but is notoriously weak when it comes to the hand-held weapon variants. Void Weaponry, thus, finds a niche, being the preferred weapon types of astronauts, spacers and Space Marines.

Notice the picture, essentially a magazine fed revolver, that reloads the drum with a special cover to conceal the drum. Pulling the cock back results in the drum spinning until it finds the empty socket, which is then reloaded. Void Weaponry has no armor piercing capability, which is why it naturally relies on being fairly big chambered as it is.

Priced at x2 the rate of normal weaponry, the ammunition is the true expense of void weaponry, going for x3 as much, because each projectile is actually a small charged rocket with a ceramic projectile attached.

When shopping for Void Weaponry, only the two heaviest variants of the weapons found below are available, for instance "Heavier- and Heaviest Revolver". Autoloader variants are not available, but larger automatic weapons are, but are stylized as miniature gattling weaponry or weaponry with drum magazines. The Void Weaponry relies on the drum rolls, because in order to eliminate the recoil, the energy released from the projectile has to go somewhere.

Mag Weaponry
Mag weaponry involves the magnetic acceleration of metal flechettes. Railguns to be exact. Mag ammunition is packaged with integral power supplies, so no additional power cells are necessary to fire these weapons. Essentially, the magazine is a block of metal with a battery attached, and the rifle then shaves the the block of metal into elongated needles and fires them with incredible power.

When shopping for Mag Weaponry, only the two lightest versions of the weapon type you're shopping for is available, for instance, "Light and Medium Pistol". Revolvers and actual Shotguns are not available in Mag Variant.

Mag Weapons have an armor piercing quality of 2, but are difficult to use in Zero-G environment due to their incredible recoil (requires a pair of mag-boots - and even then, the weapons are reduced to single-shot function). The quality of the weapons is their ability to penetrate Armor, and this quality is lost when one attempts to chamber too large rounds. Accommodating for the loss of armor piercing quality would require the weapon to increase in recoil so dramatically that it's no longer possible to use them as carried weaponry.

Mag Weaponry is a popular choice with military forces, because they function in many environments and are cheaper than plasma weaponry and retains longer ranges.

The projectiles fired by mag weaponry is often laced in phosphor and glows when it flies towards it's target, this is because the needle projectiles are so small that it's difficult to adjust the aim according to where the projectile lands. The function can be switched off, preventing the weapon from igniting the phosphor though.

The Spike Thrower
The Spike-Thrower launches almost a quarter of a block of metal which hits a laser grid inside the weapon, cutting the block into needles, which are then fired with the same power as a single shot normally is. This results in multiple projectiles being fired at once, instead of firing one bigger projectile.

Essentially, the Spike Thrower becomes a shotgun variant of mag-weaponry, but the powerful jolt from the block of metal being shoved forward causes recoil both ways when the gun fires, making it incredibly difficult to wield. Some say that it's actually only because the recoil IS both ways that it even is possible.

The Spike Thrower requires much more power than a normal mag weapon, and as such needs it's own Type B Power Cell or a butt load of Type A Power Cells, stored on a rod in the stock of the weapon.

The projectiles fired by the Spike Thrower are much less stable than those fired by a normal mag weaponry, which carves the block of metal into aerodynamic needles, where as the spike thrower just hurls a fistful of wobbly metal splinters at it's target. These splinters require a much larger mag-array to launch, otherwise half the spikes would fire out in all directions with barely any power and this creates the scatter effect of the spikes, making the most useful at close distance, but giving a good chance of hitting someone without much aiming involved.

But as mentioned, the spikes are much more unstable, and this means they eventually curl up into balls or spirals, rendering them ineffective (but still unpleasant) as projectiles. The average spike thrower has a maximum range of 50 meters, but anything beyond 25 meters is half damage.

The spike thrower deals a whopping 5 damage with two points of armor piercing, but requires 4 points of strength to use. The spike thrower cannot be used to aim with, it's too inaccurate, so a point and shoot system is used, again making it largely ineffective at larger ranges should it have been able to shoot that far.

Energy Weaponry
Laser Weaponry has long been a dream of Science Fiction authors. Unfortunately, while it has been realized, some still consider it to be a dream in some ways. Laser Weaponry requires too much power to be effective infantry weapons, and while it's the bread and butter of any space vehicle defense systems, it's largely impossible to make an effective laser weapon for infantry forces.

Of course, that hasn't stopped anyone from trying, and the results aren't bad, but quite expensive. Laser pistols and laser Carbines are the most common type of energy weapon. The phased multifrequency beam is capable of penetrating any ordinary mist or haze, but a thick cloud of thermally-resistant particulate matter such as ash or sand can seriously degrade the beam, applying up to a -4 penalty to hit and cutting ranges in half.

Infantry Laser weapons have incredibly long range, and seeing as they are beam-weapons, they count as auto-fire weapons, but have no recoil. Despite totally inferior damage, they can still be somewhat lethal, because of their ability to auto-fire without recoil.

When shopping laser weaponry, only two variants are available, Small- and Medium SMG. The Medium SMG is used for Carbines, where as the small SMG is used for Pistols.

Laser Weaponry has ranges further than what can be considered useful, and there is no bullet drop to account for. Ignore the concepts of weapon rage when using laser weaponry.

Laser Weaponry is very expensive, adding x4 to the price.

Auto-fire with a recoil-less beam weapon
What a specific headline!

This probably only applies to laser weapons, but you never know! By spending more ammunition (power) for your laser rifle, you can increase your chances of dealing damage greatly. A laser weapon can reasonably spend 3 shots worth of energy on a single beam in a round, giving a plus 3 to the dice roll.

When shopping laser weaponry, only automatic weaponry is available, and only the weakest variants.

Laser SAW
The Laser SAW is a powerful and very heavy beam weapon fed from a Type B Power Cell carried as a backpack. The Weapon fires powerful beams that tears through most things in a matter of seconds. The weapon is very clumsy and to heavy to effectively count on being very agile in the field. Soldiers using these often combine them with Assault Suits, so that they can survive being caught in the open. The most common Squad Automatic Weapon in use by far.

The weapon can fire 100 separate "rays", which boils down to 33 burst fires for the math savvy. It deals a whopping 5 lethal, but has no armor piercing qualities. The weapon requires a strength of 4 to use effectively, and is practically impossible to use effectively in cover, as it's just not made for agility in the field. It works best when being fired from a stable platform, or in the open. The user takes a -2 penalty to athletic defense, and depends on a luck roll or the Story Teller's discretion to see if they can effectively use their weapon from cover.

Laser Sniper
The Laser Sniper expends an entire magazine of the type normally used for a Laser Weapon, to fire a single shot. That one shot deals 5 lethal however. Unlike the Laser SAW, this weapon only requires a strength of two to use (and even then, only on account of having a long barrel) and is no where near as clumsy. Fairly good for assassinations. Very bad for close quarter combat.

Plasma Weaponry
The bread and butter of personal defense in the modern times. Thermal pistols and their larger, two-handed plasma projector cousins replace the beam of a laser with a small sphere of magnetically-shaped plasma. The spheres tend to dissipate at much shorter ranges than a laser beam, but do significantly more damage to targets within range and are not affected by ambient particulates.

A favorite among those seeking to defend themselves, because the weapon works against everyone, does minimal property damage and is incredibly lethal, despite having limited range.

Plasma Weaponry deals good damage ratings, and while they don't have armor piercing qualities like Mag weapons, it deals more inherent damage and the real deal-sealer of the plasma arsenal is the notorious after-burn effect.

Even targets who's armor wasn't penetrated by the plasma shot will be roasted inside their own armor by the plasma projectile. When a target soaks damage from a plasma weapon, the damage is converted to bashing and is still dealt.

Armored under-suits offer moderate protection against the after-burn effect, but the weapons are still incredibly effective against armored targets.

When shopping for plasma weapons, shotguns and revolvers are not available, and due to their relatively short ranges, Sniper variants are also not available. Otherwise, between Autoloaders, SMGs and Assault Rifles, there's free picks (The Rifle/Large Assault Rifle is unvailable as it represents a sniper).

Remove the "long" and "medium" ranges of plasma weaponry, half the short range (round up), and replace the short range with this number, use former short range as medium range and double it for long range.

Plasma Weaponry is useless in Zero-G environements because of the lack of pressure to keep the plasma stable, and it's also useless in extreme cold, like in space. Below -150 degrees Celcius, the Plasma weaponry starts to see rapid decrease in usability, with a -1 to damage rating per 10 degrees it drops below -150.

Plasma Weaponry is very expensive, adding about a x3 to the price.

Ammunition
Ammunition is bought universally, the price regulates itself for various weapons, because one unit of ammo converts to a single magazine's worth of ammo for the weapon it has been purchased for.

Standard ammo goes for 20 credits for a single units worth, and 50 credits for a units worth of heavy-weapons ammunition.

Weapon Modifications
Weapon Modifications alter the properties of weapons.

Collapsible stock
Weapon's stock is now collapsible, enabling it to be reduced by 1 in size. Collapsible stocks are standard issue on military weapons, but civilian weapons are sold with mostly solid, but slightly adjustable stocks, most of the time. This is on purpose to make them less concealable. Collapsible stocks aren't illegal anywhere though, it's a matter of preference, and some shooters have to switch because collapsible stocks are much more adjustable. A collapsible stock only costs 10 credits.

Suppressor
The weapon is muffled in sound, halving the distance from which the weapon can be heard with a reflexive perception check. Suppressors are standard issue on most weaponry that supports them, which is fairly rare. Modern Weaponry is already very quiet. A custom suppressor would cost 100 credits.

Scope
Without a Scope, engaging enemies beyond 300 meters results in a -1 penalty for each 20 meters further away the enemies are. The scope, depending on it's rating (1-3), improves your effective firing distance to 500 meters (infantry scope), 750 meters (Marksman scope) and 1000 meters (Sniper Scope). Throw in the price of a pair of low-light goggles to add that function to the scope. A basic scope costs the same as a pair of binoculars. The price is doubled for each upgrade. 50 for standard optics, 200 for optics with inherent nightvision (requires type A power cell)

Bi-Pods
When laying down, you gain a +2 bonus on your first round of aiming. Bi-Pods cost 50 credits.

Target-Module Slave Unit
Full-Face Helmets make it practically impossible to aim with a weapon. The same can be said about heavy armor. This unit is just a fancy laser-pointer with a transmitter, that shows a HUD on the in build unit in the user's helmet, tracking where the user is aiming within their field of vision. It allows functional use of a weapon while firing from the hip. The unit itself is a helmet upgrade and can have several slave units slaved to it, and costs a 1000 credits. The slave units cost only 100 per unit.

Projectile Weapons
The entries found below are quite possibly not in any shape or form useful anymore. I've kept them because I am giving them the benefit of the doubt, as I could not be bothered to read through them.

Shotguns
Shotguns have no real penetrative power and are very ineffective versus armor or cover, but within short range, they enjoy a heavy accuracy bonus - listed in a parenthesis.

Automatic Weapons
Weapons marked with an * have automatic fire as an option. At long range, automatic fire grants the listed accuracy bonus within the parenthesis, at short distance, the parenthesis bonus is a penalty, but burst firing at close range offers a bonus to damage equal to 1L per 3 additional bullets fired or upgrade their damage to next dice combination or type. How ever, the action point cost for burst firing is higher - For each three bullets fired, the action point cost goes up by one.

Burst firing can also be used to split the attack between multiple targets, in which case at least 3 bullets must be fired against each consecutive target at minimum - This can be done at any range, but turns the accuracy into a penalty regardless, and the attack pool (or bonus) must be evenly split (or rounded down) against each target. The action point cost remains the same.

Stock weapons
Weapons that have a stock are marked with a "#" symbol, and are more stable as firing platforms, but clumsier in close quarters because of their limited mobility. A collapsible stock and a compact weapon will lessen the penalties for using the weapons in close range, but the penalties do however, remain.

At short range, the accuracy bonus doesn't apply to stocked weapons (unless they are compact - or have a collapsible stock), but regardless, the size of the weapon is added to the penalty to initiative.

Stocked weapons have considerably longer range and higher accuracy, but as a result, they are also more clumsy in close quarters.

Handheld weapons
Handheld weapons only gain their accuracy bonus if fired with two-hands, or if an action point is spent to aim.

Damage
Indicates the number of bonus successes added to a successful attack. Firearms deal lethal damage against ordinary people. The type of damage may vary against supernatural opponents.

Ranges
The ranges listed are in meters (Imperial Yards as frequently used by Americans are roughly equal to meters and may be used as a substitute), and function as thresholds.

The first, and lowest, number is the distance that the target needs to be from the shooter in order to effectively engage - Consider it a minimum distance. Firing from within this distance is considered clumsy, as the weapon isn't quick or maneuverable enough to effectively engage targets any closer. Targets within this distance may utilize their athletic defense versus the shooter to avoid being shot, and the accuracy bonus of the weapon is simply not applied.

The second distance is the normal engagement threshold. The distances between the first and second number are considered normal engagement ranges. It's also referred to as "short range".

The distance from the second number to the final number is the long range - The final number is also considered the maximum effective range. When firing beyond the short range, half the accuracy bonus, and round down.

A bullet will travel several kilometers, sometimes more than a mile before it stops, but the bullet will lose it's killing power long before and it's impossible for anything but a super computer to effectively calculate how to aim at these distances, because the bullet drop will be very unpredictable, so while it's possible to engage an enemy beyond the maximum effective range, it's difficult and a 'method to calculate penalties will be added soon! '

Certain gun accessories may alter the effective engagement distances. A stock added to a weapon that doesn't normally have one, will double the short range threshold (round down) and raise the long distance threshold by half - Unfortunately, a stock also raises the minimum distance threshold by half. Bipods, when deployed, have the same effect as a stock - A gun mount counts as bipods. If weapon already has a stock, double it.

A front grip offers a 10% decrease in short range threshold (decrease amount is rounded up), but will reduce long range by 20%.

Using sights other than iron sight, provided they do not offer any magnification, will reduce the minimum engagement threshold by 10% (decrease amount is rounded up), and but will also reduce the medium and long thresholds by 10%.

Using magnification comes in three variants

Infantry scope
Offers an increase in "short range" of 10%, but also raised minimum engagement by 10%.

Marksman scope
Offers increase in short range and long range equal to 25%, but adds 50% to minimum distance.

Sniper scope
Adds 50% to long range and and doubles short range, but also doubles minimum distance.

Clip
The number of rounds a gun can hold. A “+1” indicates that a bullet can be held in the chamber, ready to fire.The term is derived from the word used to describe the oldest forms of rifle magazines, and is actually incorrect to use in this way.

Initiative
The penalty taken to Initiative when wielding the weapon. If using more than one weapon, take the higher penalty and increase by 1.

Strength
The minimum Strength needed to use a weapon effectively. A wielder with a lower Strength suffers a −1 penalty on attack rolls.

Size
1 = Can be fired one-handed; 2 = Must be fired two-handed and can be hidden in a coat; 3 = Can be fired two-handed but not hidden on one’s person. 1 = Can be hidden in a hand; 2 = Can be hidden in a coat; 3+ = Cannot be hidden.

Type
A weapon’s type is a general classification that can apply to anything your character picks up. A metal club might be an antique mace, a metal baseball bat, or a hammer, while a hatchet might be a meat cleaver or an antique hand-ax

Availability
The cost in Resources dots or level of Social Merit needed to acquire the weapon.

Concealed
A character who wields a shield but doesn’t use it to attack can add its Size to his Defense, and uses its Size as a concealment modifier against ranged attacks.

Grapple
Add the chain’s weapon bonus to your dice pool when grappling.

Stun
Double the weapon bonus for purposes of the Stun Tilt (p. 212).

Two-handed
This weapon requires two hands. It can be used one-handed, but doing so increases the Strength requirement by 1.

Grenades
Grenades are thrown with an athletics check - the maximum distance they can be thrown is equal to awareness plus strength multiplied by 4 in meters - The average person can throw a grenade about 16 meters as a result.

If using the D20 system, assume that the base pitch of a grenade is 10 meters, and then add an additional 3 meters to that for each positive modifier in strength or awareness that the thrower has, or subtract 3 for each negative.

A success indicates that the grenade hits somewhere close to the intended target, but the GM must random roll exactly where it hits. Only a dramatic success indicates a direct hit with a grenade. A marginal success means that the grenade will hit the target with the peripheral blast only.

Blast zones
There can be any number of blast zones for a grenade, depending on it's type. There is however, at least always two, central blast zone and peripheral blast zone. For each zone outside the central blast zone, the damage of the grenade is reduced. Additional effects from the grenade are limited to a certain blast zone as the last zone to receive it, and this information will be in the grenade description.