Ammunition An Extended Discussion of Ammunition in Shadowrun Nothing is more important to the range and power a firearm has than the ammunition load. Match a light round to a powerful gun and you have a weapon with longer range but lower power. Match a heavy round to a weak gun and you'll have a weapon that has good power close, but rapidly degrades and is useless over longer distances. Put a heavy round with a powerful gun, and power and range are respectable. In short, what you load is atleast as important as what you load it in. It's worthless to have the most powerful handgun in the world if you're loading the weakest ammunition in the world. This is an extended look at all the published ammunition types in Shadowrun, as well as introduction of new types. Some of these are commercial "mixes" of ammunition, available in the same manner as other ammunition types. Others are military specificiation ammunition, like APDS, and will have to be obtained through less official means. **Regular: Standard round. Caseless in all forms. Generally is lead, a lead like substance or some other material that has similar properties; namely being mass in a small form (dense). If you wanted to get *really* technical, you would have to say that there should be a different weight for each "class" of rounds, and possibly multiple ammunition types in each "class". However, the first reason you wouldn't want to do this would be simplicity. It's simpler to just have the uniform guidelines. A case can also be made for the sizes of the ammunition. Weapons that fire at automatic speeds such as Assualt Rifles and MG class weapons generally load lighter rounds than do weapons that rely on lower numbers of rounds to inflict their damage, such as Heavy Pistols. But for those of you who would like to have that greater "realism" and precision, this is an attempt to change the "regular" class into something a bit more specific. Damage Weight per Calibre -Class- Code 10 rounds Holdout 4L .3 kg .22 short Light Pistol 6L .35 kg .22 long Heavy Pistol (base) 9M .5 kg 9mm standard Submachine Gun 6M .45 kg 9mm Submachine Gun 7M .6 kg .45 (11.43mm) Assualt Rifle 8M .4 kg .3 (7.62mm) Shotgun 00 Gauge, Scatter 10D(f) .65 kg - 00 Gauge, Solid 10S .65 kg - 10 Gauge, Scatter 9D(f) .6 kg - 10 Gauge, Solid 9S .6 kg - 12 Gauge, Scatter 8D(f) .55 kg - 12 Gauge, Solid 8S .55 kg - Sport 7S .43 kg .308 short Sport 9S .45 kg .308 long Sniper 14S .55 kg .4 (10.16mm) Light Machine Gun 7S .65 kg .3 (7.62mm) Medium Machine Gun 9S .8 kg .5 (12.7mm) Heavy Machine Gun 10S .8 kg .6 (15.24mm) Assualt Cannon 18D 1.25 kg 40mm Ok, now some explaination. Through the heavy pistols, things are fairly uniform. SMGs have lower base damage codes (while still having equal or larger calibers) as Heavy Pistols because their muzzle velocities are lower. Shotguns through Snipers should be uniform as well. The MGs are fairly simple, base LMGs firing at fairly high velocities. MMGs fire a larger round a bit slower, and HMGs have a slightly larger round than MMGs. Hopefully, this makes sense and doesn't confused anyone. All I can say is that I'm still not terribly happy with the results I've come up with above, but I can't think of anything better. Part of the problem is a small notation in "Never Deal with a Dragon" (Robert Charrette) that establishes the Ruger Super Warhawk as an 11mm (about .45) calibre weapon. You can make of things what you will. **Explosive Not something that gets a lot of use by shadowrunners, but when you do end up in a situtation where you can get away with loading these, they're fun. Not so much for the power increase, which is only minor, as for the knockback and flamable effect they have. The +1 power level is minor, but is certainly nothing to sneer at. But the explosions are very adept at chewing through objects, and for knocking even the largest target flat. I don't know how other GMs might handle this, but for knockback purposes I count each round that impacts the target as an +1 to the power level. It only makes sense to me, and makes it realistic to get slammed across the room after getting a six round burst of SMG explosive sparkled across the front of your armor. For all classes of explosive rounds, increase the weight by .25 kg. **Flechette These are often overlooked by people who number crunch the straight stats and decide they're not worth anything. Flechette rounds are positively lethal if used properly. Against armored targets they loose their increases and the target resists with double his highest armor rating, ballistic or impact. Against unarmored targets flechettes get a Damage Class raise. The way to use flechettes is to aim specifically at the target; don't load them with the intent of walking your fire or placing shots on the targets' chests. Load flechettes and aim for heads, faces, arms, feet; anything unarmored. Unstoppable. For all classes of flechette rounds, use the "regular" weights. **Gel I have to admit that I've never used these, so I'm not much of an expert on them. I feel if you really need to take someone down without killing them at firearms ranges, use a taser or chemical weapon; not a firearm. But if you like these, use the same general principles as for flechette rounds. Aim specifically. After all, think about it. "Lethal" rounds don't transfer much of their energy to the target, they generally punch *through* the target and cause their damage in that fashion. But a Gel round is basically a less lethal version of a squash head round; it transfers nearly all of it's energy into the target. If you have trouble picturing that, or picturing it as useful, just think of a punch hitting the target at bullet speeds (mach one plus, right?). As a result, I use double the Gel attack's Power Level for knockback purposes. For all classes of Gel rounds, use half the "regular" round weights. **Stun I have used these occasionally, but that's only because I've always been a sucker for a great shotgun. They're exactly the same as Gels though, just fired from shotguns instead of everything else. **APDS Now we're getting into the fun stuff. Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot. This is an adaptation of the type of ammunition that 90s main battle tanks use; a standard size round that "splits" when fired. The outer "shell" falls away almost immedietly after firing, leaving only the slimmer, smaller core to go down range and hit the target. The core is a dense material, and is going very fast, with a small impact area. This combination of high mass and speed and small impact area give such rounds incredible ability to penetrate. Shadowrun hasn't noted exactly what the composition of APDS rounds is, but it is safe to assume some fairly advanced composites are involved. The Street Samurai's Catalog mentions "high-tech neo-carbide" as materials, so I will leave it at that. Whatever you might choose to pick as a specific material should be fine, if you and your players need that level of detail for some reason. Because very little of the projectile energy is transfered to the target, use half the round's Power Level when determing knockback. One thing that was changed, apparently, in SRII from SRI was the damage that APDS did to target armor, something that I miss. This is an attempt to put that back without unbalancing the firearms game; I suspect the armor damage was taken out because the new armor rules combined with the new damage codes had finally made firearms combat lethal enough without also allowing the ability to strip a target's armor off too. When a target is hit with APDS rounds, what was done is important. Light and Moderate wounds to the target (after resistance tests) do nothing. Serious wounds lower the armor rating 1/1 (-1 to both Ballistic and Impact ratings). Deadly wounds lower the armor rating 2/2 (-2 to both). Further, every two addition successes above deadly damage that the attacker scores lower the armor rating 1/1 (-1 to both). This last is done even if the target reduces the damage below deadly, or even below serious. And the armor damage won't "take effect" until *after* the damaging attack. For all classes of APDS rounds, use half the listed weight. **APDU Armor Piercing, Depleted Uranium. These are hideously expensive, outrageously illegal, and incredibly effective. Where as APDS is some unnamed, but fairly common (in materials circles, anyways) material; Depleted Uranium has some very unique properties. First off is it's density, far greater than other materials; this gives a penetrater rod of DU much more mass than an identically sized rod of some other material. And that translates out to much better penetration. DU also has something called an "Impact Threshold". I'm not a physicist, so I can't explain it in detail; but I know the results. When DU hits something hard enough (for game purposes, I'd call "hard enough" anything moving as fast as even a slow bullet), it ignites. What was dense, solid metal becomes a burning mass that is impossible to extinguish and is at very high tempatures. So you not only have great penetration qualities, but you have incendary damage as well. The effect only lasts about fifteen seconds (arbitary game decision), but that should be more than enough to ruin any target's day. Because DU is so dense, not all firearms can fire it. Holdouts, Light Pistols and Machine Pistols may not load APDU rounds. If they do, the weapon will explode in their hand; the weapons simply don't have the power to move the heavy DU rounds. Further, reduce the range (reduce each range catagory) by twenty-five percent due to the weight; and apply heavy weapons recoil rules for any automatic fire with APDU rounds. Increase the Power Level of APDU rounds by 2. Use the same armor (only 1/2 available to resist with) and armor damage rules as for APDS. Targets are affected by seventy five percent of the attack's Power Level for knockback purposes (multiply the Power by .75, rounding down, to determine the knockback Power). The incendary effect is the fun part, however. Any Light damage attack with APDU may be assumed to have not been in the target long enough for the heat to affect it. Moderate damage victims have momentary exposure to the heat. The target must resist 5S from this heat (in addition to the initial damage of the round), and may be assumed to be cauterized from the heat (not bleeding). Serious damage attacks are where things get deadier for the target. Such an attack may be assumed to have, for whatever reason(s) or factor(s) that the GM decides make sense, to have been stuck in the target. This means that the incendary effect will apply until it either burns itself out or is removed from the target. Every turn that the target is exposed a resistance test against 10S damage. Remember that this is damage coming from something *inside* the target, so armor (dermal included) will not have an effect. Deadly damage attacks would act the same as a Serious in incendary effects, though this is academic at best. Against Vehicles, APDU is very effective; after all this is a direct adaptation of tank killer ammunition. Any firearm loading APDU may damage a vehicle as if it were a heavy weapon (it does not suffer Power Level or Damage Class reductions). The incendary effect is still 10S damage for as long as it's stuck in the vehicle, but a Moderate or higher wound affects. Some intelligence will be needed on the part(s) of the GM and players when applying this to vehicles, which are larger and more "compartmentalized" than an organic body. For a Moderate wound, if the vehicle has armor, assume that the round is stuck in the armor and is burning there. That will damage the armor on that area (every round of burning lowers the Armor rating by 1). For a Serious or Deadly wound, assume the round has penetrated to the interior of the vehicle, to either the crew compartment or the mechanics areas, and is burning there. Either of these may inflict damage on the Body of the vehicle if the GM desires (burning away at the vehicle's superstructure). As noted earlier, APDU is highly illegal and very expensive to make. APDU rounds are 40% heavier than a "regular" round of their class would be (multiply the regular weight by 1.4 for the APDU weight). Cost (per ten rounds) for APDU is 300. Availabilty is 17/21 days with a Street Index of 5.5. If caught with APDU rounds, use half the Class J (Military Weapons) stats for fines and jail time. Further, they would automatically make any deaths that were inflicted with APDU rounds Murder 1 if it could be proved that the defendant knew he was loading such rounds. Any property damage done by APDU might also be charged as Arson. **Squash-heads This is an intermediete step between gel/stun rounds and regular rounds. The nose of the round is a soft material that flattens out on impact. This reduces the penetration ability of the round, and acts in a manner similar to gel/stun rounds. Reduce the Damage Class by one for squash-head rounds. Increase the Power Level for knock back purposes only by 50% (multiply the Power Level by 1.5, rounding down). The higher of either ballistic or impact armor may be used. Squash-heads are 30 per 10 and weigh 10% less than a standard round of their class. Availability 3/36 hours, Street Index 1.1. **Wadcutters A variation of squash-heads. The round is still a flattening round, but now it's of a slightly harder material and is cut so it fragments. Use the same knockback as for squash-heads, but there is no lowering of Damage Class. Wadcutters are 45 per 10 and weigh the same as a standard round of their class. Availability is 4/48 hours, Street Index 1.3. **Talons A variation on Wadcutters. The head of the round is hollow and cut so that it peels backwards on impact. Inside the space is a second penetrator point that allows the round some measure of penetration, but not as much as is achieved with standard rounds. The head peels into four or eight seperate "panels", each razor sharp and pointed. These add to the damage inflicted as the round plows through the target. Increase the Damage Class for Talons by one against any target armored with a ballistic rating of 3 or less. Against targets exceeding that level of armoring, the Damage Class remains the same. Further, extracting such rounds from targets is exceedingly difficult to do; both so as to not injure the victim further and for the attending medical person to avoid injuring himself or his instruments. Increase the target numbers for medical treatment of the wound by +2 if all due caution is being taken to avoid injuring the patient or care provider further. Not using this modifier inflicts an automatic Light wound every five minutes of time spent working on the patient, and risks injury to the care provider (1-2 on a d6 inflicts a Light wound on him as well). Talons cost 55 per 10 and weight the same as a standard round of their class. Availability is 6/48 hours, Street Index is 1.75. **Hollow Points A low tech, inexpensive way to achieve an explosive effect on targets. The tip of the round is hollowed out, and explodes outwards on impact. Against soft targets, this has a drastic effect; against hard targets it worsens the preformance of the round. Any target with a ballistic rating of 3 or less is a "soft" target for these purposes. Increase the Damage Class by one. "Hard" targets (those with ballistic ratings of 4 or higher) use half the Power Level of the attack, rounding down, when making their resistance test. Hollow Points are 40 per 10 and weight 5% less than a standard round of their class. Availability is 4/48 hours, Street Index is 1.5. **Mercury Tipped. The next step after hollow points. The space in the round's head is filled with mercury. Because mercury is a fairly dense liquid, and toxic, this increases both the short and long term lethality of the round to the target. Soft targets (see hollow points) have the Power Level increased by 2 and the Damage Class by one. Hard targets have only the Power Level increased, same. For both, mercury is toxic if left in the body. Roll 2d6 and add that number in hours to 72; the result is how long after being shot the target will live untreated. Treatment to remove the mercury from the body is not difficult by 2054 standards, just extensive. Complete blood filtering will be preformed, as well as diagnostic tests and possible surgery to remove concentrations of the mercury in the body. Raise the Damage Class of the wound by one for treatment purposes, for a Deadly wound add +3 to the target numbers. If the target did not suffer atleast a Light Physical Wound from the mercury round, he is immune to the poisoning. Mercury rounds are 60 per 10 and weigh 10% more than the standard round for their class. Availability is 6/72 hours. Street Index is 2. **Timed Explosive The next logical step after Explosive rounds. The problem with standard explosive rounds is that they detonate on impact with the target, spending most of their energy on the surface and away from the target. Detonation inside the target will yield far greater lethality. Microcircuitry is added to each round that delays the detonation signal by just a tenth of a second. As the speeds bullets travel, only the heaviest armor will preclude this from being enough to allow the round to have penetrated before it detonates. For heavy armor, rounds set to .15 or .2 second delays are advised, though this will lesson the effects on lightly or unarmored targets. Divide the ballistic rating of the target by 3, round down. If it is less than 2, then the .1 delay is most effective. If it is equal to or more than 2, then the .2 delay is most effective. For .1 delay rounds; treat as a standard round for the class, resolving the attack normally. If a Moderate or higher wound was received from the round, then the explosion will occur inside the target; if only a Light, or no, damage was inflicted then the explosion will occur on the surface of the target. Then the target must roll a resistance test against a 5M explosion, armor helps only if the detonation was on the surface (if it explodes inside, only straight body, without dermal or orthoskin bonuses). For .2 delay rounds; treat as a standard round for the class. Against heavily armored targets (as determined above), a Moderate or higher wound from the round itself inflicts the explosion on the inside of the target. Less than that inflicts the explosion on the exterior of the target. Against lightly armored targets, the explosion will occur inside the target only on a Serious or Deadly wound. On a Moderate it penetrates clean through before detonation (explosion occurs harmlessly past the target), on a Light it stopped before penetrating and detonates on the surface. Timed Explosive rounds are 30 *EACH*, and weigh the same as an explosive round for their class. Availability is 8/96 hours, Street Index is 2.5. **Double Dense Rounds There are two key factors in the amount of damage that a bullet or other projectile inflicts, it's target's positioning and armor qualities not withstanding. How fast it's going and how heavy it is. Increase either of those two variables and you raise the effectiveness of the rounds, all other things being equal. Double Dense rounds aren't actually Doubled in density, that's just a catchy sounding name. But they are heavier (denser) than the standard round for the class, and inflict more damage as a result. Some of the weight increase is offset by a drop in velocity, but the net result is still that delivered energy is higher. Increase the Power Level of DD rounds by 1, but lower the range by 10% in all range catagories. Autofire with DD rounds is under Heavy Weapons recoil rules. Special composition rounds such as APDS, APDU, Explosive, scattershot and so on may not be DD. Weight is 35% higher than for standard rounds of the class (multiply the weight of a standard round by 1.35 to determine the weight of a DD round for that class). 35 per 10. **Titanium Scattershot For shotguns, this is a buckshot, or scattershot, round that uses Titanium and other similarly hard materials for the fragmentation pieces instead of lead and other similarly soft materials. This increases the penetration of the frag, and lightens the weight of the shell since Titanium is so light for it's tensile strength. Treat as a standard buckshot shell (+1 to Damage Class), but do not allow the target to use the flechette rules against it. The titanium penetrates lightly and heavily armored targets equally well, and thus will not suffer preformance against armor. Titanium Scattershot is double the cost of standard scattershot shells, and weighs 10% less. Availability is 5/36 hours, Street Index is 1.75. **Toxic Rounds For when the target just won't go down from standard methods (shoot him until he stops moving), Toxic laced rounds add new variables to the mixture of who won and who lost. A standard round has four shallow grooves drilled out of it's sides, equidistant from each other. These groves are filled with a DMSO mixture of whatever toxin is desired, then glazed over with wax to restore the shape of the round. The air friction created by the speeds bullets travel melts the wax to where the toxin beneath is released; hopefully inside the target's body. Extreme range shots with Toxic rounds may not be attempted, atleast, not if the toxin is wanted inside the target; the wax will completely melt off and release the toxin before the target is struck. Other than that, any physical wound (lacceration, skin contact) of the round to the target exposes him to the toxin. Generally this will mean a Moderate or higher Wound, but occasionally a specific Light Wound would qualify as skin contact or as having drawn blood. 30 per 10, weight is +5% from the weight of the liquids. Availability is 6/48 hours, Street Index 1.2 **Handloads All of the game rules for shooting and for weapons and ammunition are for factory weapons and with factory ammunition. Professional shooters never use factory ammunition, they use handloads prepared by either themselves or someone they trust to do the job right. A handload is a hand prepared round of ammunition. The body of the round, the warhead, the powder is all measured and placed by hand. It is a far more time consuming process than preparing ammunition by machine, but when completed each round is as perfect as human skill and the skill of the preparer can make it. This ensures that the rounds haven't any imperfections of any note. The net result of shooting handloaded rounds is an increase in accuracy and reliability, and a reduction in the possibility of jamming, variations in the flight path or accidental detonation of the rounds in the weapon. Handloaded rounds have a -1 for their target numbers. Further, the likelyhood of serious accidents with the rounds is rarer. Any rule of ones result with Handloads must be "verified". Roll two dice (add the dice together) against 12 minus the skill of the preparer; any roll equal to or under this figure is a standard rule of ones result. Any roll above this figure is merely a minor rule of ones result, or a simple miss, as the GM deems sufficient (ie, a minor rule of ones result would be a jam, perhaps a dud round; not ammunition explosion). Handloads require a formula to prepare. Formulas for all factory rounds are available; if the materials are on hand they may be assembled. Without a formula, one must be prepared; Firearms Theory (6) test with a base time of 1 week. This represents testing, calculating and so forth; a Firearms Shop and a shooting range (area to test weapons without disturbance) must be on hand or add +2 to the target number for EACH of these things that is missing (without either a shop or a range it's a target of 10; assuming a firearms kit and the materials are still available). Once a formula is on hand, a Firearms shop and materials are required, and rounds may be prepared. To keep it simple, assume that the cost of 10 rounds is the cost of materials for 10 rounds. Some types of materials are a bit harder to obtain, such as depleted uranium or explosives, but if they're on hand the handloading may continue. The target number for preparing a batch of handloads is the Power Level of the rounds divided by 2, rounded down. A standard Heavy Pistol Handload's target number is 5; for a Sniper Rifle Handload it's 7. Any modifications to the rounds that increase the Power Level are included in determining the target number to prepare as handloads. Involvement of explosives like in Explosive rounds increases the target number by 1 and the base time by 5 minutes. Involvement of any microelectronics increases the target number by 1 and the base time by 5 minutes, and requires rolls for the electronics as well. Involvement in multi-step or multi-part rounds such as ADPS or two-stage rounds like GyroJet ammunition increases the target number by 1 and the base time is doubled (double it after any other modifiers are determined). Preforming the work in a Firearms Facility lowers the target number by 2, but the base time remains the same. The base time to prepare a batch of 10 handloads is 25 minutes, reduce the time as usual with successes. Checking that the work was preformed on the rounds correctly is a second Firearms B/R roll against the same target number. The GM makes the first roll, and should alter the time accordingly to keep the player from judging by that whether or not he succeeded (lower it even if the roll failed, to make them think they succeeded). The Player may make the second roll, but if that fails he thinks he did everything correctly. Generally, handloads may not be purchased, even through a fixer. But if an arrangement can be struck between an armorer and a character to obtain handloads, the price for labor will generally start at 25 per skill point per hour of work on the rounds, plus materials cost. Markup for profit, greed, illegality of the rounds and anything else the GM can think of is unlimited. **Custom Weapons The compliment to handloading your rounds is to assemble your weapon yourself. This isn't the standard breakdown and cleaning, this is a total building of the weapon from parts. You use the factory specs, but you're inspecting each individual part for quality and using only the perfect ones. After assembling the weapon is test fired through atleast three full clips of ammunition, then broken completely down, cleaned and oiled, then reassembled again. If this is all done correctly, the weapon is as perfect as it can be made. All target numbers with the weapon are at -1, and rule of ones results on tests must be verified as described in handloads. If done incorrectly, depending on how the GM feels, the weapon is either unusuable until broken down and the problem(s) corrected or merely a "standard" weapon like received from the factory (no Custom bonuses). This process is a Firearms B/R test with a target number depending on the power of the weapon and it's class. All Pistols and SMGs have a base of 2, all Rifles have a base of 3. Add one if it is an automatic weapon, and add half (round up) the Power Level of the weapon (A Colt Manhunter has a target number of 7, an Ingram Smartgun has a target number of 7 as well, a Walther 2100 has a target number of 10). If the weapon incorporates a smartlink add 1 to the target number, and an Electronics B/R test is required against half (round up) the target number of the Firearms B/R test, to get the smartlink right. Base time is 10 minutes for Pistols and SMGs, 20 minutes for Rifles (add five minutes for automatic weapons, add ten minutes for smartlinked weapons) multiplied by (the Power Level of the weapon divided by three, round up). Base time for a smartlinked Manhunter is (10+10*3=60) 60 minutes, for an Ingram smartgun (10+5+10*3=75) 75 minutes, for a Walther 2100 (20*3=60) 60 minutes. All of these are for the actual work itself; time spent obtaining parts is additional. A Firearms B/R shop is required to preform this work. Utilizing a facility lowers the target number by 1 and the base time by 20%. The Base Cost is the retail cost of the Firearm in question (list price) multiplied by 8. Successes on the B/R test may be applied to reduce this multiplier; one extra success may be used to reduce one multiplier (a net of two extra successes reduces the multiplier to x6). The lowest the multiplier may go is x3. When completed, the armorer will have a enough parts on hand to build a number of "standard" weapons equal to the multiplier used minus one (if the cost multiplier was x7, then 6 standard weapons may be built from the parts passed over). These may be used or sold, accordingly. Final notes on these expanded items for firearms and ammunition. Some players and GMs may not like these, think them too complex, too varied, too hard to keep track of, too this, too that. Fine. I realise that some groups do not like specific variables, do not like trading a bit of speed or a bit of playing ease for the options and/or realism that rules such as these give. But other groups do like these options, and I encourage them and anyone else who does to play as they see fit. Any additional ideas, either fully fleshed out or in outline form, please send them in. I am always on the lookout for new things to add to my world, and to put in future issues of Shadowbuzz. Remember, if I use it, you get full and complete credit; your name and address, if you desire, on something that can reach hundreds, possibly even thousands, of gamers. Couldn't hurt, right?