07.03 Rd6 Gear: Weapons Basics

Terminology
Damage
Damage is the amount of harm a weapon in a single attack. For Melee, thrown, and those missile weapons relying a person’s strength to determine their power are enhanced by the character’s Strength Damage. Weapons affected by strength have a “+” in front of their damage die code. Note that for Ranged Weapons, the damage is based on the default Rate of Fire; most weapons have a Default Rate of Fire of Single Shot but see the weapons table for more information.
Range
This factor takes into account that the weapon is less effective the farther it is from the target. The values given are the maximums, in meters or yards, for Short, Medium, and Long ranges. For generated values, multiply the die code in Strength: Athletics (lifting) by 4 and add any pips from Strength.
Ammunition
The number of bullets or projectiles that the weapon holds. This is only included in firearms entries.
Rate of Fire
There are several rates of fire for firearms and other ranged weapons (sci-fi lasers, blasters, and plasmas, for instance). Many guns have a default ROF (listed first in the list) but have other options listed after. See Combat Options: Ranged for more explanation. For Firearms, there are several Rates of Fire and they are covered in the Firearms Basics.
Minimum Strength
This is the minimum Strength one needs to use this weapon effectively. If their Strength attribute is not high enough, the user suffers the difference as a penalty to their Skill Test. In other words, a person attempting to use a weapon with a minimum Strength of 3D with a 2D Strength suffers a -1D to their Skill Test.
Minimum TL
This is the minimum Tech Level that the item can be found in. The actual TL of the weapon’s manufacturing should noted by the character due to TL Scaling (if that option is being used).
Attributes
Break
This applies to only entangling weapons like Nets. This is the difficulty one has to Strength: Lifting Test against when attempting an Break from entanglement.
Burst Radius
Burst Radius is an attribute for explosive or spreading weapons like gas bombs, large nets, etc. The number that follows the BR is the number of space beyond the target space that it spread.
Entangle
This applies to only entangling weapons like Nets. This is the difficulty one has to Strength: Lifting Test against when attempting an Escape from entanglement.
Reach
Weapons with Reach allow their user to make Melee Weapons attacks a number of Spaces beyond the Spaces adjacent to the one the attacker is standing in. For example, a Reach of 1 allows a character to strike a target 1 Space beyond the adjacent spaces. Weapons with zero (0) Reach each value can only strike targets at adjacent to the attacker. Some weapons have 0.5 (Half) Reach. These weapons can be used in the Lunge attack. Weapons with higher Reach can also be used in a Lunge attack one space beyond their normal Reach.
Reload
This is the number of rounds it takes to reload. Otherwise it is a Basic Action to reload.
Penetration
Some weapons or ammo are designed to penetrate armor. This is represented by the Penetration value of the weapon or ammo. This is the number of Armor Dice the Round can ignore and thus, the target does not get to roll for their Damage Resistance Total.
Area effect & Explosives
Explosives, the most well known of which are grenades, are one-use weapons that bear the same stigma as the machine gun, but they are easier to conceal. However, using or brandishing a grenade or explosive always attracts unwanted attention.
Using an explosive can get tricky. Even though a thrown grenade uses the Strength: Athletics (throwing) skill to hit, the character using the grenade should not actually aim at a person but, rather, a place. Grenades do not, typically, explode on contact – they explode after their fuse (usually three seconds) burns up and they damage anything in a given area. When throwing at a specific area, refer to the Blast Radius rating of the explosive. If the grenade misses, the GM determines where it lands. Base Throwing Ranges for explosives and grenades represent how far a character can throw them, which can be increased by Strength: Athletics (Throwing).
Burst Radius
Anyone caught within the burst radius must take damage; the farther a character is from the center of the blast, the less damage she takes. The Blast Radius is given in one value, in Spaces beyond and around the target Space that the blast spreads. Blast Radius are either Small (BR1), Medium (BR3) and Large (BR5). Damage is based on how close one is to the Center of the Blast.
Compare the Attack Roll total successes – Strength: Athletics (Throwing) – to the Defense of all characters not at ground zero; those who have a Defense Total greater than the targeting roll managed to dive for cover or protect themselves from the burst.
Spaces >> | Within | Within | Within | Within | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
BR | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | Type |
B1 | Full | Quarter | – | – | Anti-personnel |
B3 | Full | Half | Quarter | – | Anti-vehicular |
B5 | Full | Full | Half | Quarter | Large Demo Charge |
Characters who haven’t taken their turn yet have a chance of getting out of the way of the blast. The target has to beat a difficulty to get out of the blast radius of an explosive. The character must give up his action for a Agility: Dodge attempt. Every success is one BR Zone away from the blast radius. Once the character’s final zone is determine, figure out how much damage he gets.
Improvised Weapons
When a character’s up against something ugly and angry, and his favorite gun’s back at his hideout, he grabs whatever he can to get the job done. That means that GMs aren’t always going to find established game mechanics for what their players want to use as weapons. When this happens, the best way to handle the situation is use the mechanics of something similar. Most items either serve as a dagger (such as a broken bottle) or a club (such as a table leg). Then modify the damage based on how sharp or heavy the improvised weapon is to the comparison weapon.
Improvised weapons always use either Strength: Meleee Weapons or Strength: Athletics (throwing), and they always receive an improvised weapon modifier to the combat penalty of -1D or more. On a rolled Complication or setback when wielding an improvised weapon, most break, the user hurts himself, or both – the greater the roll fails, the worse the situation is.
Generally, characters may rely on improvised weapons only a few times before they break, though ones designed to take abuse – such a heavy metal pipe, fire iron, or a screwdriver – can survive the battle and continue to function as tools or armament.