What wepon type does your character prefer to use?

    Beam: I love the searing sound as it cortorize flesh! Plus it's a neat light show.
    18% (5 votes)
    Bullets: And lots of them. Nothing says I'll pwn you like autopistol spray! +20 to hit baby
    57% (16 votes)
    Sonic: What's that sound? Oh... da....
    11% (3 votes)
    Melee: Close and personal with a little Range thrown in for fun!
    7% (2 votes)
    I have no weapons, only Mooks!
    7% (2 votes)
    Total votes: 28
    Comments:

    Shadow Shack's picture
    Shadow Shack
    September 5, 2009 - 2:19am
    Whew, and here I was thinking by going the conventional modern route that I'd be in the minority...
    I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

    My SF website

    Will's picture
    Will
    September 5, 2009 - 8:34am
    Shadow Shack wrote:
    Whew, and here I was thinking by going the conventional modern route that I'd be in the minority...


    Not really.

    Even relatively modern slug throwers(I usually make them charge weapons[ala Alternity] in my SFU)are a good break from the conventional "ray gun" mentality that I'm guilty of falling into from time to time with my characters.

    (Even though, I have a thing for Gauss weapons and railguns....)

    "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so."


    —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation

    Anonymous's picture
    w00t (not verified)
    September 5, 2009 - 12:13pm
    I'm surprised to see bullets with 4 votes. The most common and cheapest form of protection is Interia after all. :-)

    I love sonic weapons. Although they don't have the range of other weapons it's the most unlikely defense one will find in the Frontier. Plus, the Sonic Sword dishes out the most damage (5d10) and has the greatest modifier (+15).





    Will's picture
    Will
    September 5, 2009 - 4:58pm
    w00t wrote:
    I'm surprised to see bullets with 4 votes. The most common and cheapest form of protection is Interia after all. :-)




    I disagree. In my expirience, characters go for skeinsuits and albedo screens, on the assumption that they'll be going against laser-armed opponents. Albedo protects against 100% of the laser damage, til the power runs dry, while skeinsuits soak up only half of the bullet damage.

    Even a skeinsuit/inertia screen combination only stops 75% of the damage, leaving a quarter of it to damage the character. Even with the wonky damage rules, 25% damage from each burst to hit the character's eventually going to add up a lot quicker than it will take even a heavy laser to drain an albedo screen dry.

    Least it seems that way in the Obar Enterprises RPG.  

    "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so."


    —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation

    Georgie's picture
    Georgie
    September 5, 2009 - 6:14pm
    Albedo screens are overpowered. At 5 damage absorbed per SEU spent, a screen plugged into a power backpack can take 500 points of damage. With a laser rifle set at maximum, it will average 110 points of damage per shot. This means it will take 5 hits to take down the screen and have approximately 50 points finally affect the target. Your misses are wasted. Of course, using a LR at 20 means that you're firing every other round as you reload powerclips, or you've drained two beltpacks or one backpack just to bust through. Now image that screen is plugged into a parabattery or generator. Crazy. Laser weapons, with their variable power settings, should be scary. But the albedo screen makes them a paper tiger.

    In the Obar Enterprises game, Malcom, the resident beam guy, has probably registered more hits then anyone and has yet to do any damage directly to the enemy.

    BTW, I voted for the Mooks. Foot in mouth
    The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.    * Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi

    Anonymous's picture
    w00t (not verified)
    September 5, 2009 - 6:32pm
    Georgie wrote:
    BTW, I voted for the Mooks. Foot in mouth


    http://starfrontiers.us/node/3811#comment-10808

    Rum Rogue's picture
    Rum Rogue
    September 5, 2009 - 7:03pm
    Force Axe and Grenades, baby!!
    Time flies when your having rum.

    Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time.

    Will's picture
    Will
    September 5, 2009 - 8:51pm
    Georgie wrote:
    Albedo screens are overpowered. At 5 damage absorbed per SEU spent, a screen plugged into a power backpack can take 500 points of damage. With a laser rifle set at maximum, it will average 110 points of damage per shot. This means it will take 5 hits to take down the screen and have approximately 50 points finally affect the target. Your misses are wasted. Of course, using a LR at 20 means that you're firing every other round as you reload powerclips, or you've drained two beltpacks or one backpack just to bust through. Now image that screen is plugged into a parabattery or generator. Crazy. Laser weapons, with their variable power settings, should be scary. But the albedo screen makes them a paper tiger.

    In the Obar Enterprises game, Malcom, the resident beam guy, has probably registered more hits then anyone and has yet to do any damage directly to the enemy.

    BTW, I voted for the Mooks. Foot in mouth


    It is unfortunate that "atomic drives" were not listed amongst the weapons choices. Maria certainly would've voted for that option.

    "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so."


    —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation

    Shadow Shack's picture
    Shadow Shack
    September 6, 2009 - 3:34am
    Bullets also happen to be the cheapest to acquire. The guns are cheap, the ammo is cheaper. A basic character can afford a pistol and a rifle (or two pistols, screw reloading!), along with as much ammo as they can carry, for what a laser rifle costs.

    w00t wrote:
    I love sonic weapons. Although they don't have the range of other weapons it's the most unlikely defense one will find in the Frontier. Plus, the Sonic Sword dishes out the most damage (5d10) and has the greatest modifier (+15).


    +1, sonics are definitely fun to throw into the mix. Every Military PSA character should eventually acquire a sonic sword. Sadly, they're really only good indoors (forget about shooting at someone across the street LOL), and worthless in a vaccuum.
    I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

    My SF website

    umungus's picture
    umungus
    September 6, 2009 - 11:14am
    I hear you Georgie.
    My son would get really frustrated using a powerful laser just to have it dissapate on a screen. When bullets will do some damage with every hit. I tried two different ways. One was to have the albedo screen/ suit absorb 1/2 the damage, and the rest gets to the character. Another way was to just have the energy absorbtion be 2 to 1 for damage versus SEU. (If the laser does 50 hits it takes 25 SEU to stop it.)

    The 2 to 1 method seems to work the best. I also have skeinsuits or poly-plate armor absord 1/2 laser damage also. this is justified by the idea that lasers do damage in the form of high heat. so, the armor should provide some protection.

    This seems to balance out OK. The characters don't feel defenseless if they don't have an albedo screen or suit; and they don't feel invincible against lasers if they have albedo screen or suit.

    At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy......


    Will's picture
    Will
    September 6, 2009 - 9:28pm
    umungus wrote:
    I hear you Georgie.
    My son would get really frustrated using a powerful laser just to have it dissapate on a screen. When bullets will do some damage with every hit. I tried two different ways. One was to have the albedo screen/ suit absorb 1/2 the damage, and the rest gets to the character. Another way was to just have the energy absorbtion be 2 to 1 for damage versus SEU. (If the laser does 50 hits it takes 25 SEU to stop it.)

    The 2 to 1 method seems to work the best. I also have skeinsuits or poly-plate armor absord 1/2 laser damage also. this is justified by the idea that lasers do damage in the form of high heat. so, the armor should provide some protection.

    This seems to balance out OK. The characters don't feel defenseless if they don't have an albedo screen or suit; and they don't feel invincible against lasers if they have albedo screen or suit.


    I went the half damage route myself, but I might give the 2 for 1 approach a try.

    "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so."


    —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation

    Rum Rogue's picture
    Rum Rogue
    September 7, 2009 - 7:56am
    Elctrostunners tend to be a bit of a surprise and not to many enemies wearing defenses for it.
    Time flies when your having rum.

    Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time.

    umungus's picture
    umungus
    September 7, 2009 - 10:02am
    Very true Rum. I played a character that didn't want to kill anyone so he carried a Electrostunner. I was surprised at how effective it is. One STA roll to keep from being incapacitated.

    I found the tangler gun from Starfrontiersman to work well too.
    I had some NPCs use some against some characters that were all armored and screened up.

    At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy......


    Anonymous's picture
    w00t (not verified)
    September 7, 2009 - 4:56pm
    umungus wrote:
    Very true Rum. I played a character that didn't want to kill anyone so he carried a Electrostunner. I was surprised at how effective it is. One STA roll to keep from being incapacitated.

    I found the tangler gun from Starfrontiersman to work well too.
    I had some NPCs use some against some characters that were all armored and screened up.


    Post made me snicker. Bill and I were play-testing some new combat rules. His character kept trying to stun me. 75 STA baby!

    How did the tangler gun work for the NPC's? I'm very curious.

    Rum Rogue's picture
    Rum Rogue
    September 7, 2009 - 5:25pm
    w00t wrote:
    Post made me snicker. Bill and I were play-testing some new combat rules. His character kept trying to stun me. 75 STA baby!

    Last time I had a character use an electrostunner he was using a gyrojet pistol in the other hand so there was a little wear on the current STA. That helped take the edge away from high STA.  
    Most of the time I forgot about the stun setting and just went for the damage. 

    Heh heh. Just recalled that the same character took a pair of Needler pistols and loaded them with tranq ammo.  Not much of the Op-For could make it though 6 STA checks.
    Time flies when your having rum.

    Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time.

    umungus's picture
    umungus
    September 7, 2009 - 5:22pm
    The tangler gun works great. With a rate of fire of 3, a player is bound to miss a STA roll eventually.
    I bet you would miss a STA before you were down and out in regular combat. No defense against a tangler either. hehehe

    At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy......


    Anonymous's picture
    w00t (not verified)
    September 7, 2009 - 6:17pm
    umungus wrote:
    The tangler gun works great. With a rate of fire of 3, a player is bound to miss a STA roll eventually.
    I bet you would miss a STA before you were down and out in regular combat. No defense against a tangler either. hehehe


    Any tangler type weapon should be a "Reaction Speed avoidance roll".  :-)
    You you used the Partial Entanglement Effect table in Issue #5?
    Also in Issue #3 someone made a tangler jetclip for a gyrojet pistol/rifle. hrm... ranged entanglement.

    FYi, Bill and I made melee weapons that do albedo and sonic damage for Issue #13 and we discussed the fact that tanglers do no have any defense outside a successful RS check. Although there was the Detangler Harness Bill made...have to re-read up on that.

    I really think we need one of the SFman issues to be just past issues of personal, vehicle and spaceship gear.... or maybe just call it a Compendium of Gear. Better yet... David Zeb Cook had a great article called "For a fistful of credits."
    LOVE that title. Cool



    Georgie's picture
    Georgie
    September 7, 2009 - 6:42pm
    umungus wrote:
    I hear you Georgie.
    My son would get really frustrated using a powerful laser just to have it dissapate on a screen. When bullets will do some damage with every hit. I tried two different ways. One was to have the albedo screen/ suit absorb 1/2 the damage, and the rest gets to the character. Another way was to just have the energy absorbtion be 2 to 1 for damage versus SEU. (If the laser does 50 hits it takes 25 SEU to stop it.)

    The 2 to 1 method seems to work the best. I also have skeinsuits or poly-plate armor absord 1/2 laser damage also. this is justified by the idea that lasers do damage in the form of high heat. so, the armor should provide some protection.

    This seems to balance out OK. The characters don't feel defenseless if they don't have an albedo screen or suit; and they don't feel invincible against lasers if they have albedo screen or suit.


    When I played years ago, I'm pretty sure that we nerfed the Albedo screen down to at least a 2 for 1 power rating. In my house rules, I ditched all screens (except the holo-screen) and all suits, and going with straight armor baby.

    Rum Rogue wrote:
    Elctrostunners tend to be a bit of a surprise and not to many enemies wearing defenses for it.


    I love the electrostunners for that very reason. BUT... they are very short ranged and sooner of later, everyone gets an anti-shock device. (I outlawed those in my house rules too. Kiss)

    The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.    * Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi

    umungus's picture
    umungus
    September 7, 2009 - 8:13pm
    Your right Woot, I should have wrote RS. My bad. I do use RS in games just a slip of the keys...Money mouth

    At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy......


    clikkclikk's picture
    clikkclikk
    June 14, 2012 - 1:18pm
    For efficiency, in close encounters - but not melee - I stick to ambidexterous Gyrojet / Electrostunner (Vrusks can be a pain, yes).  
    First blow their Stamina with 3 shots (equalling 6d10 or even, in case of a rifle in both hands,  9d10 if successful, at considerably low ammo usage) and then let luck have it's way with the stunner. 
    Gyrojet seems to be quite a maxxer in damage per round/ammo-ratio compared to the other weapon types, it seems?
    Last game played: Somewhere in the 80th (Vrusk by heart) -- fond of Jugger, a "post-apocalyptic" sport