Future Weapons

[Darthmoe]

I really don't know if we how much more stuff can be crammed into e20, but because of the genres this game covers I wanted to start some sort of list of the most popular sci fi weapons.

Pulse Rifle: Originally appeared in the movie Aliens but was seen in other Sci Fi Franchises. Not a huge a leap forward from modern firearms technology though the method in which fires eliminates nearly all recoil and allows the weapon to have a higher rate of fire, maybe a bonus to barrage attacks. The weapon normally fires 10 mm explosive tip ceaseless rounds; this improved ammo has armor piercing explosive quality, consider giving it devastating 2, due to improved futuristic ammo.

Smart Gun: Basically the big brother of the pulse rifle, it’s a mini-gun that fires smart bullets.

Plasma Rife / Pistol: Also frequently referred to as “blasters” but not the Star Wars variant of blasters. These weapons are extraordinary popular and dominate comic books and other similar science fiction weapons. Typically these weapons have two settings a lethal setting, and a less lethal setting. The less lethal setting works about the same as the lethal setting except that it less powerful. Even with the reduced power setting plasma guns are often depicted as inflicting serious injuries sometimes requiring hospitalization. For the stats purposes I’d say the lethal setting does 3d8 damage and possibly has devastating characteristic. The less lethal does 2d8 non-lethal damage (even in the stun setting these weapons mess people up). Common examples of this weapon include the Marvel Universe, GI Joe, Exo-Squad and many other sci fi franchises. Another variant of this weapon that appears in more gritty settings has no stun setting, this is the kind of weapon you see in the flash backs from Terminator 1 and 2.

The Cable Gun: This is just a such a fun weapon I had to include it in my list, it’s the weapon that is carried by the X-Men character Cable. It functions like a normal plasma rifle except that it has a pump action mechanism and when the pump action is pulled the weapon is charged to fire a disintegration bolt, that vaporizes whatever it hits.

Blaster: The Star Wars variant enough said I can skip over this one without anymore explanation.

Phaser: The iconic weapon of the Star Trek universe. The technology of the phaser is dependent on the progress era. The most basic model has two settings stun and kill and is very similar to similar in function to the plasma weapons this variant that is seen in the show Enterprise. More advanced models have as many as 16 settings, but in reality the sixteen settings can be reduced to just 5. The lightest stun settings basically just inflict pain, the heavier stun settings are designed to render the defender unconscious but can be lethal under certain circumstances such shooting the defender from just a few inches away, or long sustained fire. The lethal setting inflicts serious injuries, the kill setting inflicts very high damage (compare to a vorpal sword in D&D 4.0), and the ultimate setting is the vaporize setting (which inflicts such an extreme amount of damage that one attack is likely to be fatal)*.
* I realize that many gamers will cry foul over anything resembling an instant death attack, but we have to properly represent the genre and Star Trek is really a surprisingly gritty setting. We have to at least give gaming groups the option to have vaporizing in their game it wouldn’t seem like Star Trek without them.

Super Laser: This weapon is often depicted as a squad support weapon similar to flame thrower or light machine gun, except it slices stuff up. The damage of this weapon is probably less than plasma guns or blasters, but the laser does a real number on against an objects hardness (ignores the first 10 points of hardness maybe?). The most fun example of this weapon is the movie Congo.

The Land Warrior System: Not a weapon this was in fact an actual defense project that was being developed by the United States Army, and a handful of prototypes were actually built before the project was scrapped. The land warrior system integrates a computer and real time video camera, into the soldier’s rifle. It allows the soldier to use a gun mounted camera to see around corners and cover, and a computerized scope allows the soldier to see in three different vision modes (normal, night vision, and infrared). For more information on the Land Warrior System see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Warrior

Smart Bullets: Again not a weapon but computerized bullets that are capable of doing any number of incredible things such as changing trajectory, or exploding over an enemies cover and doing damage. Again see wiki for more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_bullet also note that smart bullets are featured in the movie Aliens, but were only used in the bigger smart guns, not the pulse rifles. The smart gun and pulse rifle fire the same type of ammo so in theory you could adapt a pulse rifle to fire smart bullets.

[teh603]

I'll be honest, for the core rulebook you could probably get away with just a generic "ray gun" type weapon, in increasing sizes. For example:

Holdout Raygun
Raygun Pistol
Heavy Raygun Pistol

Raygun Carbine
Raygun Rifle
Heavy Raygun Rifle
And then we're getting into stuff as big as the E-Web from Star Wars or an M2 from real life; big stuff that no human could ever shoulder-fire. If the setting is intended to be as modern to low sci-fi as it looks, then this is all you really need and the setting document will provide the details on actual weaponry.

Pulse Rifle: Originally appeared in the movie Aliens but was seen in other Sci Fi Franchises. Not a huge a leap forward from modern firearms technology though the method in which fires eliminates nearly all recoil and allows the weapon to have a higher rate of fire, maybe a bonus to barrage attacks. The weapon normally fires 10 mm explosive tip ceaseless rounds; this improved ammo has armor piercing explosive quality, consider giving it devastating 2, due to improved futuristic ammo.

Smart Gun: Basically the big brother of the pulse rifle, it’s a mini-gun that fires smart bullets.

The Pulse Rifle was an M-16 or M-4 clone. Modern weaponry. As for the Smartgun, I always got the impression that it was the equivalent of being droid-ified, and then used the droid's combat numbers instead of the shooter's. The ammo was just simple ammo, and the droid was just that accurate.

Plasma Rife / Pistol: Also frequently referred to as “blasters” but not the Star Wars variant of blasters. These weapons are extraordinary popular and dominate comic books and other similar science fiction weapons. Typically these weapons have two settings a lethal setting, and a less lethal setting. The less lethal setting works about the same as the lethal setting except that it less powerful. Even with the reduced power setting plasma guns are often depicted as inflicting serious injuries sometimes requiring hospitalization. For the stats purposes I’d say the lethal setting does 3d8 damage and possibly has devastating characteristic. The less lethal does 2d8 non-lethal damage (even in the stun setting these weapons mess people up). Common examples of this weapon include the Marvel Universe, GI Joe, Exo-Squad and many other sci fi franchises. Another variant of this weapon that appears in more gritty settings has no stun setting, this is the kind of weapon you see in the flash backs from Terminator 1 and 2.

The Cable Gun: This is just a such a fun weapon I had to include it in my list, it’s the weapon that is carried by the X-Men character Cable. It functions like a normal plasma rifle except that it has a pump action mechanism and when the pump action is pulled the weapon is charged to fire a disintegration bolt, that vaporizes whatever it hits.

Blaster: The Star Wars variant enough said I can skip over this one without anymore explanation.

These can be addressed as a simple ray gun weapon, so you can pass the buck to the setting designer for what they really use.

Phaser: The iconic weapon of the Star Trek universe. The technology of the phaser is dependent on the progress era. The most basic model has two settings stun and kill and is very similar to similar in function to the plasma weapons this variant that is seen in the show Enterprise. More advanced models have as many as 16 settings, but in reality the sixteen settings can be reduced to just 5. The lightest stun settings basically just inflict pain, the heavier stun settings are designed to render the defender unconscious but can be lethal under certain circumstances such shooting the defender from just a few inches away, or long sustained fire. The lethal setting inflicts serious injuries, the kill setting inflicts very high damage (compare to a vorpal sword in D&D 4.0), and the ultimate setting is the vaporize setting (which inflicts such an extreme amount of damage that one attack is likely to be fatal)*.
* I realize that many gamers will cry foul over anything resembling an instant death attack, but we have to properly represent the genre and Star Trek is really a surprisingly gritty setting. We have to at least give gaming groups the option to have vaporizing in their game it wouldn’t seem like Star Trek without them.

I got to thinking about this one, and I don't remember that many people getting vaporized in TNG or later. Maybe in TOS they did it a lot; I know they did it to the captain of the Reliant in Wrath of Khan, but I don't remember seeing vaporization used that much, except maybe when they overkilled something. I think Vaporize was more intended for use in blasting away large quantities of unshielded inorganic matter, like opening up a cave entrance after rocks fell.

Super Laser: This weapon is often depicted as a squad support weapon similar to flame thrower or light machine gun, except it slices stuff up. The damage of this weapon is probably less than plasma guns or blasters, but the laser does a real number on against an objects hardness (ignores the first 10 points of hardness maybe?). The most fun example of this weapon is the movie Congo.

The Bobbitectomy laser from James Bond?

The Land Warrior System: Not a weapon this was in fact an actual defense project that was being developed by the United States Army, and a handful of prototypes were actually built before the project was scrapped. The land warrior system integrates a computer and real time video camera, into the soldier’s rifle. It allows the soldier to use a gun mounted camera to see around corners and cover, and a computerized scope allows the soldier to see in three different vision modes (normal, night vision, and infrared). For more information on the Land Warrior System see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Warrior

Smart Bullets: Again not a weapon but computerized bullets that are capable of doing any number of incredible things such as changing trajectory, or exploding over an enemies cover and doing damage. Again see wiki for more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_bullet also note that smart bullets are featured in the movie Aliens, but were only used in the bigger smart guns, not the pulse rifles. The smart gun and pulse rifle fire the same type of ammo so in theory you could adapt a pulse rifle to fire smart bullets.

I don't think either of these are that believable, even if they do supposedly exist today. Most power armor systems I've seen except maybe the Space Marine armor from 40k and the mini-mecha from Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie) have a lot less gadgetry than either of these. Clone trooper armor only had a radio and night vision with built-in magnification.

[lucasjung]

You clearly put a lot of time and thought into your post, so I hate to say this, but this whole conversation is pretty much OBE. This thread went cold because we continued the conversation in more detail on the senior patron forums as part of the final design effort. All of the senior patrons have spent the past month actually writing the book, and the first draft is close to complete. I personally wrote most of the equipment chapter.

Unfortunately, space was very limited and we weren't able to accomodate a wide variety of futuristic weapons. Instead, we went with a very short list of relatively common weapon types. We implemented them using a tool we called "patterns," which are basically "templates for equipment." For example, to make a blaster pistol you apply the "blaster" pattern to a modern pistol, or to create a vibrodagger you apply the "hypervelocity" pattern to a conventional dagger.

[teh603]

Wow. So it looks like I got totally left out. And here I was hoping I'd get the chance to actually fix some of the more glaring problems that I've seen with the d20 system as a whole.

[lucasjung]

You showed up to the party very, very late. It would be nice to have the luxury to deliberate every aspect of this game to exhaustion with everybody who has creative ideas to input, but ultimately this is a project to create a commercial product, and that means we have to actually finish it and release it in a reasonable amount of time. As it is, we're already well behind the originally planned schedule.

Pretty much everyone involved in this project was motivated to one degree or another by the desire to fix problems from previous d20 games. In fact, the opportunity to do so was a major part of the kickstarter pitch. When the final book is released, I think you will find that a lot of the problems you dislike have been fixed.

However, working on this project has also demonstrated to me that different people have different ideas about what the problems are and how best to solve them. One man's bug is another man's feature; one man's improvement is another man's regression. In short, there's no way to please everyone, and there will probably be some things you won't like about e20. Heck, there are some things I don't like about it. I still think it's a huge step forward, but there are definitely some things that would have been done differently if I had my way. Those things weren't done wrong, they were just weren't done according to my personal preferences. I have a lot of respect for the deliberative process that led to these decisions and I think it's going to result in a great game.