Automatic Fire: Varied Rates of Fire

Automatic Fire: Varied Rates of Fire

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This is a rules supplement to advance the Star Wars RPG Fire Rate Rules. It will include rules for Single Shot, Semi-automatic, and Fully automatic weapons. These rules were created with the Star Wars philosophy of keeping it simple in mind. These rules primarily apply to blasters. Any special cases will be handled by the GM, and these rules can be slightly modified to apply to general slugthrowers.

Rate of Fire

All weapons have a rate of fire. A Rate of Fire or Fire Rate is the amount of rounds or blasts it can throw out in a combat round. There are three basic rates of fire

  • Single Shot – One shot per Round
  • Semi-Auto – Up to 4 shots per round, in sequence (treated as a Multi-Action). Can also do Single Shot
  • Full Auto – 15 shots per round, single action. Can also do Single Shot, and Semi-Auto Fire.

As a rule of thumb the following applies to Blaster-type weapons:

  • Holdout – Single Shot
  • Blaster Pistols, Heavy Blaster Pistols, Blaster Rifles, Blaster Carbines – Semi-Auto
  • Repeating Blasters – Full Auto

SINGLE SHOT

Nothing different about single shot. Treat as a normal shot in Star Wars Combat.

SEMI-AUTO

Semi-Auto just means that the weapon can be fired up to 4 times in a single round, but each is treated as an action, taking in consideration Multi-Action rules.

FULL-AUTO

Full Auto is handled as a single action or burst (one pull of the trigger), and is usually applied over a area of fire. One must know the distance covered by the burst in meters, i.e. the length of the burst arch. The Burst can be up to 15 shots, but no less than 5.

One must calculate the AutoFire Modifier. For every three (3) shots fired in the burst, the modifier gets +1D. For every 1 Shot fired “extra”, it gets +1 pip (10 shots get 3D+1). Then, for every meter in burst arch, it gets a -1D. This modifier is applied to both the to-hit and the damage dice.

Ex. Light Rep. Blaster with 6D normal damage fires a 10-shot burst covering a 5m burst arch. This comes to a +3D+1 Autofire Modifier. The 5m area reduces this modifier with -5D. The Damage would be 6D (+3d+1) – 5D per target = 4D+1

Full Ex. Tirog fires his LRB at a door where STs are pouring through, the door is 3m wide so Tirog fires at maximum rate (15 shots) at a 3m wide area. Tirogs blaster skill is 5D so the total to hit roll is 5D+5D-3D = 7D for every target in the area, if a ST gets hit the damage roll is 8D (6D+5D-3D).

NOTES

The player can do other actions, but the all have to be reactions, and the MutilAction Modifier is applied to the AutoFire Modifier. Only one Autofire per turn. If using full-auto on a weapon that normally requires a tripod:

  • Light Repeating Blasters: -1D for the To-Hit only.
  • Medium Repeating Blasters: -2D (to hit and damage) to all targets
  • Heavy Repeating Blasters: -3D (to hit and to damage) to all targets