Repeating Blasters

[atgxtg]

Are there any listings of rate of fire for any of the repeating blasters? Other than the Z-6 rotary cannon?

I've got a house rule for handling automatic weapons, but wanted to cross check my results with the official data, if any exists.

[Gry Sarth]

Repeating blasters have no "fire rate" listed, which means you can fire them as much as you're able every round. But what you need to look is at the Game Notes of several repating-type blasters, which feature some specific mechanics on how these burst-shots work. Take a look in my Weapons Stats book and you'll find a couple of variations on these rules, like subsequent shots at nearby targets being one difficulty lower, etc.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[atgxtg]

Yeah Gry, I've seen the way the weapons have been started up by WEG in th past. Most simply have an increased damage stat, and some get a reduced difficulty for adjacent targets.

That's why I doing this as a House Rule. It is an alternative to the official rules, and will hopefully be something that could be consistently used for all types of repeating weapon, from light repeating blasters to Droideka to ship mounted autoblasters to old fashioned slugthrowers. It can even handle the Z-6 rotary blaster. (one reason why I did this is because I got an adventure in the world where the heroes go to a planet that has mid-20 century technology, and I want to use this for machine guns and the autocannons on the outdated flying craft).

What I want to do is to give each autoweapon a number of "Burst Dice".

Each Burst Die can be allocated for one of the following:

>A +1D Fire Control for all attacks that turn(no so much accuracy as just peppering the area with a lot of shots)

> The ability to attack one additional target as part of the same action for all attacks that turn. (all targets must be nearby and you cannot "skip over" the potential targets in the middle).

>A +1D to Damage for all attacks that turn.

The only limit being that someone cannot assign more Burst Dice than his skill in the applicable weapon.

Searching on line I can find the 10,000 RPM fire rate for the Z-6, but I don't seem to be able to find any sort of fire rate for the other weapons, save one or two that are noted to fire in 5 round bursts.

I guess the good news is that I am free to pretty much give the weapons whatever rates of fire I want.

[Nico_Davout]

I play that the character states how many shoots he makes in single action. For every 5 points he roll above the hit DC, the target is hit for one additional shot.
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Nico,

Han Solo shot first, midichlosomething do not exist, Rebel Alliance was created as in the WEG books and indoctrination theory is the true ending of ME3.

[ZzaphodD]

I have used the system discussed here for several years.

I seems its basically the same rule you are developing. The idea developed from a new weapon the GM before me invented for the Noghri commandoes, the Autoblaster. It was essentially an 'Blaster SMG' with a bit more range than a heavy blaster pistol (about 75 m). 'Automatic' fire in this case meant that it caused 6D damage. I found this addition to damage a bad representation of automatic fire.

Bah, Ill post them for ease of comparison.

To some weapons I add X Autofire dice to the stats. Most of the time this is +1D, the highest is +3D for a 'gatling' type blaster cannon. This bonus die can either be used as a bonus to hit(adds to skill), or as a bonus to damage(adds to damage). Each die also allowed the character to 'spray' a 2m target area, having a chance to hit everyone within that area for basic damage. I dont recall the specific rules regarding hitting those within the area though..

This way automatic weapons exists, but does not completely dominate the game which I find a bit non-SW (as an old Grognard). I find that good balanced rules for automatic fire are very hard to find in most RPGs. Therefore I have chosen this rather abstract way of handling autofire.

Please note that when using this rule a Light Repeating Blaster does 5D base damage.

After this, I have further developed how you use the Autofire dice (or Burst dice) to reflect how 'real' automatic work (in a very D6 abstract way).
The range to the target (short, medium or long) restricts how you may put Autofire dice in Damage. Basically the closer you are, the more dice (of the total) you may put in damage, remaining dice going to improve chance of hitting. I dont have the specific rules at hand, but thats the general idea.
Im also reworking the 'area fire' rule above, but havent really found a good (ie fun and easy) solution.[/url]

[atgxtg]

Nico_Davout: I considered something like that, but with the way d6 skills are open ended and with the wild die O'm a bit leery of trying that.

Multiple hits certainly makes more sense, and it I did that it would allow me to port over a couple of autofire rules from another RPG that would work for everything.


ZzaphodD,

Yes, quite similar. In some ways more similar than you know. The formula I'm using to assign weapons Bust Dice based on their rate of fire goes a little higher than yours, but not much. I think I have the Z-6 with a BV of 4D+1, but it has a ROF of 10,000 shots per minute. Also, if it works like the M134 that is is based off that is only it cyclic rate, and it automatic rate of fire is probably closer to 670 rpm, or about 11 shots per second.

Most weapons I've been writing up have been coming in with about +1D in Burst Dice, matching up closely with the preexisting repeating blasters (if you assume 1-2D pf damage is from high RoF). What is nice is that it is also working out for the "real world" slugthrowers I'm writing up.

BTW, the method I've been using to work out bonus dice is:
Square Root (shots per second) in pips (round to nearest).

I used a square root function since it naturally accounts for the fact that as rate of fire increases a larger percentage of the shots fired are uncontrolled and "wasted". I'll probably tweak this a little for mounted weapons, since they would be more controllable.

Some examples:


M2HB HMG Burst Dice: 1D
(ROF 500 rpm (8.33 rps) = +3 pips)

M60 LMG Burst Dice: 1D
(ROF 550 rpm (9.17 rps) = +3 pips)

M249 SAW Mimini Burst Dice: 1D+1
(ROF 750-1000 rpm (12.5-16.67 sps) = +4 pips

Minimi 7.62 Burst Dice: 1D+1
(ROF 680-800 rpm (11.33-13.33 sps) = +3-4 pips, used 12.33 for +4

Lewis Mk I LMG Burst Dice: +1D
(ROF 500 rpm (8.33 rps) = +3 pips)

T-21 Light Repeating Blaster Burst Dice: 1D+1
(ROF 833 spm (13.88 sps) =+4 pips
Based on the Lewis gun, with ROF increased 67% like they did with the M134/Z-6.

MG-08 MG Burst Dice: +1D
(ROF 400 rpm (6.67 sps) =+3 pops)

Uzi SMG Burst Dice: 1D
(ROF 600 (10 rps) = +3 pips

Mini-Uzi SMG Burst Dice: 1d+1
(ROF 1200 rpm (20 rps) = +4 pips

M134 Minigun Burst Dice: 3D+1
(ROF 6,000 rpm (100 rps) = 10 pips)
but often set at 3000 rpm (50rps) to conserve ammo (+7 pips or Burst Dice: 2D+1)

Z-6 Rotary Cannon Burst Dice: 4D+1
(ROF 10,000 rpm (166 sps) = 13 pips)
Based on the M134 with ROF increased by 67%

M-61A Vulcan cannon Burst Dice: 3D+1
(ROF 6000-6600 rpm (100-110 rpm) = +10 pips

[ZzaphodD]

Hmm, I wouldnt take the RoF for the Z-6 literally. Its probably the result of an over-eager nerd author

Other than that Im not really into mathematics to determine Autofire dice.

Most auto weapons have 1D flat.
Some fast firing (E-web for ex) have 2D
Rotary Blasters (I currently have 3 in my 'universe', the z-6, a lighter version, and a customized one for my Assault Troopers.

[atgxtg]

[jmanski]

To be honest, that's what we've done as well. Most repeaters get +1d to hit. Some get more or less. It works pretty well and is easy.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[ZzaphodD]

Im quite aware of the fire rate of real world miniguns. However they are vehicle mounted. Also, given the weapons seen in the movies, theres nothing saying that 'automatic' weapons in SW are faster firing than our real world weapons. Actually automatic weapons are rather slow firing and seems to be quite rare, semi auto seems to be the standard. Please note that repeating blasters are bulkier with little game mechanic difference. This seems to indicate that 'automatic' blasters actually are not that effective compared to bulk/weight, or they would be more common (Automatic blaster pistols vs real world machine pistols or small SMGs (Scorpion for example)).

[atgxtg]

[ZzaphodD]

[ZzaphodD]

[Ankhanu]

Over eager nerd author here...

The rate of fire for the Z-6 is to reflect that with a rotary weapon like this it is impossible to fire a single round. Any squeeze of the trigger is going to send multiple rounds at the enemy... hence the high damage. It's also put there to account for the high ammo rating and accommodate burst fire. It was written to balance the flavour text with in-game mechanics.
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[atgxtg]