Re: [HOE] Multifunction junker energy weapons

[Brett Dixon <balance@tubas.net>]

On Tuesday, December 10, 2002, at 10:10  PM, Kai Tave wrote:
> Construct an energy weapon using the highest possible damage AND the 
> highest
> possible ROF you wish it to have as the foundation for slot costs,
> components, and drain.  So, if you want a weapon to have damage 
> ratings of,
> say, 3d8 uncharged and 4d10 charged, then build the weapon using 4d10 
> for
> all associated costs.
> Next, add in a selector switch.  Say that the switch allows the user to
> choose between the two damage levels.  Calculate the drain for the 
> "lower"
> level according to its damage level, just like normal.  So now you 
> have an
> energy weapon capable of firing at two different damage/drain levels.
> Finally, tack on a side-effect that states that the higher-powered 
> damage
> mode uses a lower ROF than the gun's natural ROF.  Which severity of
> side-effect depends on how long you want the user to have to wait.
> So you should have an energy weapon with a rapid-fire, low-power, 
> low-drain
> mode and a slow, high-power, high-drain mode.

It's not quite as cool as the Halo pistol (which is something of a new 
version of the beloved Marathon Zeus Class Plasma Pistol) but this 
seems workable. I've been bashing out a custom weapon for a player who 
wanted one as a 'signature weapon' for a non-junker, and there's a few 
bits I'm wondering about:

The basic concept is essentially a crossbow bolt launcher in pistol 
form... After reading the weapon rules, I ended up stating it as a 
nasty little (frame 1) warhead-launcher rail gun that can fire slugs as 
well, and created both slug ammo (to represent the standard bolts, 
which do 4d6 damage), ap ammo (and it has the selector switch) and the 
'base' warhead ammo (3d6 light explosive) which I've already said I'll 
assume is a fair base platform for 'trick shot' bolts made by using 
actual parts & the tinker skill (or, even better, a specialized 
Profession) so he can get some grapnel bolts, bolts to deliver 
specialized payloads (acid, napalm, etc) relatively easily.

I'm wondering if there is a cleaner way to do this, however... The 
character isn't created yet, so I might be able to tweak him towards 
being a very lightweight Junker, so he can build his own stuff, but I 
don't think this is what the player wants to do. I've already 
recommended Friends in High Places to provide a friendly Junker who 
might can make the bolts for him, but I'm still wondering if I'd be 
better off either statting the weapon as a normal crossbow (are their 
any sort of official multi-shot crossbow stats I'm not aware of?) or 
making some changes to the weapon to require 'trick' bolts to be Junker 
designs only? Is their a better way to represent 'mechanically powered' 
gear like a crossbow with the junker rules?