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Blaster Power Settings
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2021 11:53 am    Post subject: Blaster Power Settings Reply with quote

A while back in my re-write of personal blasters, I proposed the following:
    An evolution of what I've discussed in the past here...

    In broad terms, I'm thinking most blasters would have three settings: Standard, High and Low Power, with effects as follows:
      Standard - Uses listed damage, with no RoF restrictions. Characters can get off as many shots as their skill level v. MAPs permit.

      High - More intense shot consumes more ammo, but requires a cool-down period before the weapon can be fired again. +1D to Damage, RoF: 1, consumes 2 rounds of ammo per shot.

      Low - Less intense shot allows weapon to fire a short burst. -1D to Damage, RoF: 1D Auto-Fire, consumes 2 rounds of ammo per shot.
    Been chewing on this for a while, and decided to go ahead and post it.

Now, I originally proposed this for use with personal weapons, but after some consideration, I'm thinking it's applicable to all blaster weapons. There are at two on-screen examples that come to mind:
    -In ESB, Veers orders "Target. Maximum Firepower," and his AT-AT fires a paired blaster shot that is visibly more intense than any fired previously.

    -TIE Fighters in ESB and ANH appear to have different weapons, with the TIEs in ANH firing what seem to be rapid-fire pulses while the TIE Fighters in ESB fire more standard lasers. I had originally thought this was because they had two different weapon systems, but it could also be the same weapon firing in two different modes.
I'm getting ready for work, but this has been on my mind recently, so I figured I'd put it out for discussion. Thoughts?
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Darklighter79
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2021 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Power settings would solve many on screen bugs where the same weapon seems to be producing various damage scale effects.

In movies there also seems to be two settings: pulse vs beam.

Mace Towani was using continuous beam for heating and blowing the rock that was blocking the cave entrance in Ewoks: CoC. For regular fights in Battle of Endor, his gun was in pulse mode.
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RyanDarkstar
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Video games show this a lot, so I like the idea of multiple settings.

The Dark Forces games feature blasters with 2 modes: a standard and a special. Kyle Katarn's Bryar blaster pistol had a slow standard shot and a charged shot that could take out opponents in one hit. The enemies' E-11 rifles' special was a rapid fire mode (which jives with the falling stormtrooper firing full-auto during the cell block attack in A New Hope).

In the X-wing series of games, the players can change the rate of fire of their weapons, typically all-at-once, pairs or individually.
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What about weapons that already have 1D auto fire? Does it become +1D (total 2D) auto fire?
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Ray
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 10:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Loved me the pump-action heavy shot blaster in Rogue One, that's for sure!
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Darklighter79 wrote:
Power settings would solve many on screen bugs where the same weapon seems to be producing various damage scale effects.

In movies there also seems to be two settings: pulse vs beam.

Mace Towani was using continuous beam for heating and blowing the rock that was blocking the cave entrance in Ewoks: CoC. For regular fights in Battle of Endor, his gun was in pulse mode.

The continuous beam sounds a lot like the power mode described by Atuari in Han Solo at Star's End, which is used for the particularly grisly torture method called The Burning.

The closest I've gotten to rules for continuous beam weaponry would be my Auto-Fire Rules, where I'm envisioning continuous beam weapons having an Auto Fire rating of 4D (the same as a mini-gun) or 5D. In this case, the continuous beam would require a 1D-for-1D trade from Damage to Auto-Fire dice (which could potentially reduce a Blaster Pistol's Damage to 0D or less), but would allow it to inflict Cumulative Damage that builds up over time. I haven't really locked down how those would work, though.

Under those rules, most personal weapons would be reduced below usable levels for combat purposes. I'll need to think about it...
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 4:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RyanDarkstar wrote:
In the X-wing series of games, the players can change the rate of fire of their weapons, typically all-at-once, pairs or individually.

IMO, that's more a matter of variable fire-linking than altering power modes. My take is that the listed stats for the X-Wing (6D Damage @ 3D Fire Control) represents the quad-linked "all-at-once" version, and that the pilot can choose to shift either 1D (pairs) or 2D (individually) from Damage to Fire Control, but must declare which at the beginning of the round.

After some consideration, I'm thinking that applying this rule to ships and vehicles works best by combining it with my existing Auxiliary Power mode, where the pilot has to allocate 1D of power to the guns to make use of either High or Low power mode (since mounted weapons don't have Ammo ratings, this seems the closest approximate in my rule collection).

So, an X-Wing pilot could quad-link his laser cannon and put Auxiliary Power to guns for 7D Damage @ 3D Fire Control & Rate of Fire: 1, or he can set his lasers on individual and put Auxiliary Power to weapon-charging, for 5D Damage @ 5D Fire Control & Auto-Fire 1D. Of course, that means the Auxiliary Power won't be available for things like shields or engines...
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 4:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Naaman wrote:
What about weapons that already have 1D auto fire? Does it become +1D (total 2D) auto fire?

Yes, at the cost of -1D in Damage. I haven't put a lot of thought into how this would affect Repeaters (we really don't see a lot of repeaters in the films, tbh), but it would seem to fit that this would simply stack on top of the existing repeater rules.

I mentioned in the other topic that I pictured blaster firing chambers having both a peak output and recharge rate limitations, with "semi-auto" blasters being weighted more toward peak power, while repeaters lean more toward recharge rates.

So, suppose a light repeating blaster with a baseline of 5D Damage and 2D Auto-Fire can toggle between the same three modes. You'd get something like so:
    Standard - As Baseline

    High - 6D Damage, 1D Auto-Fire, uses 2x Ammo

    Low - 4D Damage, 3D Auto-Fire, uses 2x Ammo

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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 4:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ray wrote:
Loved me the pump-action heavy shot blaster in Rogue One, that's for sure!

Can you find that scene for me? Not quite sure how I'd fit a pump-action energy weapon into my system...
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Raven Redstar
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Baze uses it a couple of times. He executes a Stormtrooper on Jedha, and then he does it on Scariff near the end.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Raven Redstar wrote:
Baze uses it a couple of times. He executes a Stormtrooper on Jedha, and then he does it on Scariff near the end.

Found it. I know Baze's blaster is a custom / special weapon (Whill did stats on it around here somewhere), so I'll have to think about how this ties in.
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Whill
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
Raven Redstar wrote:
Baze uses it a couple of times. He executes a Stormtrooper on Jedha, and then he does it on Scariff near the end.

Found it. I know Baze's blaster is a custom / special weapon (Whill did stats on it around here somewhere), so I'll have to think about how this ties in.

No, I did stats on the rotary blaster cannon, which appeared in Solo.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whill wrote:
CRMcNeill wrote:
I know Baze's blaster is a custom / special weapon (Whill did stats on it around here somewhere), so I'll have to think about how this ties in.

No, I did stats on the rotary blaster cannon, which appeared in Solo.

Okay, but I was close; it wasn't actually statted out, but we did discuss what modifications would be made to one of my existing stats to make Baze's cannon.
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Last edited by CRMcNeill on Mon Mar 22, 2021 4:00 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seems easy enough:

You can "pump" it to overcharge the weapon and release a shot with greater ammo consumption and higher damage (perhaps bump the damage scale up without imposing the attack role penalty).

A nice bit of flavor would be that if the shot is not fired within one round, the energy is dissipated for safety reasons, and the ammo is lost.
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Darklighter79
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 20, 2021 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
Ray wrote:
Loved me the pump-action heavy shot blaster in Rogue One, that's for sure!

Can you find that scene for me? Not quite sure how I'd fit a pump-action energy weapon into my system...


Any ideas what this under-barrel "reload" does?

Rogue One Baze's Death
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