I need help creating system for weapon customization

I need help creating a system for weapon customization

My friend David and me are creating our own scifi bounty hunter roleplaying game, currently under the name Vampires In Space. We've had a lot of fun during the two months we have been playtesting it. I promise I will make a big post about it soon where I will tell you all about it.

I've recently started working on a system for creating customized weapons, so that everybody can have the cool guns and rifles they have seen in games and movies for their own characters. I now need your help with comments and more ideas for weapon types and upgrades for this system.

How they get the weapons: During character creation, each point you put in the skill Own A Gun you get 3 Construction Points (CP for short) do build your own weapon with. You buy your weapon type, add diffrent modification and drawbacks. There will be rules for setting a monetary price on a weapon based on its CP cost later.

Guncrafting for dummies: pick a weapon size, pick a weapon type, pick modifications if you want them, choose drawbacks if you want them, choose special ammo if you want it

How to shoot in VIS: When shooting you roll a number of dices based on your natural hand-eye coordination + your skill with the weapon + other modifications (like bonuses for the strength of the weapon and penalties like darkness, moving target or long range). Each dice that comes up a 5 or 6 counts as a success, the more successess the more damage you inflict.

This system will probably use on three scales; personal weapons, for vehicles and starships. ATM there is no rules for overlapping these three scales.

All costs are just random things I made up and are subject to change.


- weapon size category -
Pistol - bonus +2, cost 0 pts
SMG - bonus +3 , cost 1 pts
Rifle - bonus +4, cost 2 pts
Heavy Weapon - bonus +6, cost 4 pts


- weapon type -
Bullets - the standard type, basic projectiles, 0pts
Plasma - thermal burns, are usually short ranged, usually prone to overheating
Ion/Electricity - burns, disrupts electronics
Gravity - experimental, very expensive, will probably not be in the game
Railgun - slow but strong
Burning - sprays of acid or the fire from a flamethrower, commonly have area effect
Sonic - sound weapons
Explosive - bombs, self-destuction, lots of extra damage but completely destroys the weapon
EMP - destroys electrical systems exclusivly
Microwave/maser -
Antimatter - only used in space, annihilates parts of the target
Large Projectile - grenade launcher, harpoon, missile launcher
Laser - n/a, David has banned them
Non-Leathal - net, taser, something that affects balance, glue


- custom modifications -
Accurate on Medium Range - 1 pts, reduce penalty by 1, may be taken multiple times
Accurate on Long Range - 1 pts, reduce penalty by 1, may be taken multiple times
Low Light Scope - reduce penalty for darkness, 1 pts
Red Laser Targeting Dot - reduce penalty for movement, 1 pts
Extra Large Ammo Clip - 1 pts
Additional Ammo Clip - 2 pts
AoE Spread - allows damage to an additional target
Extra Range - increases the range increments
Silencer - 1 pts?
Zoom - reduce penalty for range, 1pts
AI Targeting - reduce penalty for darkness and movement, 2 pts
Secondary Weapon - add another weapon type to the gun
Additional Barrel - may fire two shots at once
High Weapon Quality - increased durability, +1 pts
Weapon Stand - The weapon has a stand connected with it to increase stability and it reduces penalties associated with recoil from large weapons.
Damage Resistant - The weapon is specially designed to reduce to damage done to it by oponents/recoil or overheating.
Melee Viable - The weapon is equiped with spikes/bayonet/axe head etc... to make it a useful melee weapon.
Advanced Safety - The weapon is equiped with a special locking mechanism so that only certain people may wield it.
Defensive Qualities - The weapon is specially designed to double as defensive gear such as a shield.
Burst - fires multiple shots at once, gain a bonus equal to half the weapons damage bonus
All-out-attack - uses up all ammo, gain a bonus equal to the weapons full damage bonus
Additional Heatsink - reduces the risk of a weapon overheating
Heavy Caliber - weapon uses a larger caliber then normal, +1 equipment bonus on weapon strenght


- drawbacks -
Malfunctions Easily - the weapon is prone to jamming or other problems
Slow To Reload - reloading the weapons takes a long time
Short Range- the range increments are shorter then for normal weapons
Inaccurate At Long Range - the penalties for long range are even worse then for normal weapons
Small Ammo Clip - only a few shots before reloading, take twice for one use only
Heavy Recoil -
Overheating - may explode if used too much, should cool down between shots
Low Weapon Quality - lowered durability?, -1 pts
Dangerous Radiation - The weapon exposes its wielder to some form of dangerous radiation or fume.
Volatile Ammo - The weapon could explode if minorly damage or handled improperly.
Limited Ammo Selection - may only use a special type of ammunition
No Single Fire - weapon may not fire single shots


- ammunition -
Normal - standard, easy to find
Inferno - burning effect, fire or acid, core of oxy-phosphorus gel?
Explosive - causes minor explosion near/inside target
Cluster - contains pellets or nails, small AoE effect
Anti-Armor - destroys armor


- example weapons -
EMP Grenades: EMP, Explosive -> 20 dmg dice, split into 4 grenades = 5 dice of damage each
Smart Gun: Rifle, AI targeting, XL ammo mag
M406 Hydra Grenade Launcher: Rifle, Large Projectile, 3* Extra Ammo (fragmentation, gas, smoke, EMP), 4*Small Ammo Clip, Slow Reload
Plasma Pistol: Pistol, Plasma, Short Range (may have the Secondary Weapon and Explosive mods for a grenade like overload ability)
Pirate Cannon: Heavy, Bullet (basic projectile), Heavy Recoil, Slow Reload
Hand Flamer: SMG, Burning, AoE, Short Range, 2*Small Ammo Clip (one use only)
Twin Shreadder: SMG, Bullets, Additional Barrel, Additional Ammo Clip
Sniper Rifle: Rifle, Bullets, Extra Range, 4*Accurate At Long Range, High Weapon Quality, Zoom, Silencer, Slow To Reload, Small Ammo Clip

Changes:
2008-06-12 - created the post, some updates and rewordings, added example weapons
2008-06-13 - added more weapons and modifications
2008-06-14 - minor additions
2008-06-16 - 2 additions

 

Somebody's got a lot of free time...
Sorry, but I can't help you.

 

We want the players to be able to have almost any weapon from their favorite game or movie. And as for the free time comment, it took me longer to write everything down then to think it up.

 

weapon type: melee... IE, lightsaber, halo sword...
example weapon: Lightsaber: melee, laser *COUGH* erm, plasma ->drawback: short range... size... lolwut? i don't know what size it would be...

 

Wow! You have a very good imagination...

 

@EMR: I recently got David to expand the melee weapons into three categories; small, meduim and large. Before that the all used the same stats. He don't like them in this game, it's all about things that go boom.

@LT: It a combination of two things; I think fast and type slow... I'm still working on the wording and the examples, doing lots of minor editing where needed.

 

LOL Will that be a flash game or...?

 

No, it is a pen and paper RPG we have been playing every sunday for about 2 months now. I will make a big post about it soon, I promise. Right now I'm waiting for David to email me the latest version of the rules.

 

no, role-playing... like, on a table... at least, that's what i think it is <.< >.>

Would Predator's razor-disc thingy be considered "large projectile"?

And would 'radioactive' be considered a weapon type? what about 'magnetic'?

edit: ignore first sentence...

 

I'm not sure how the system would handle the Predator disk... Hm... Rifle or Heavy, maybe Large Projectile, with AI Targeting for the built-in tracking system. It's is a good question and I will talk to David about it.

Please describe in more detail what you mean with radioactive and magnetic. How do they work? How do they inflict damage?

 

i don't know i'm just throwing stuff out there... radioactive could inflict damage over time, like poison...

 

I'd treat the Predator disc as something else, maybe projectile type, you can lump throwing stuff in with that catagory.

I'm also wondering what the difference between the "inaccurate at long range" and the "short range" is

Radioactive: Damage over time, more vunerable to poisons, and reduced melee power (Sickeness)

Magnetic alone wouldn't be too useful (Except against robots), but couple it with a Damage over Time type, and you can increase the time of effect (Cause it would stick to them) However, it would most likely reduce the initial attack power simply cause it's designed to stick on them, not penetrate.

 

the difference is medium range... one says it is only accurate at short range, while the other says it is only NOT accurate at long range... also, i think short range MAY mean it can only attack at short range, but im not sure...

 

We are still working on the damage over time rules. We haven't had the need for poison or things like that yet...

Short Range: the range increments are shorter then for normal weapons
Inaccurate At Long Range: the penalties for long range are even worse then for normal weapons

 

I think most RPG's have yadda yadda damage each turn. As far as poisons go, why not?

 

We are leaning towards of X dices worth of damage each turn, but we need to do some testing on that. We talked about it briefly after last sundays game..

 

Cool, so are you going to program it? I've made something like this that entertained me for a while in middle school. After that... You show anyone a pencil-paper game and they'll think you've lost it.

So, what exactly are you asking us? To think of more weapon types/ damage or to think of weapons we could create using this system.

EDIT: BTW both medium+ long range weapons cost the same ammount to upgrade, so you might want to think about changing that. You should also multiply all prices by 10 so that you could make some upgrades/weapons cost 5 or 15, rather than .5 & 1.5, since you wouldn't want decimals in your costs.

 

No, I'm not gonna program anything. I'm going to present this to the other players in nice easy-to-read tables.

Yes, I need help with comments and more ideas for weapon types, upgrades and drawbacks. I want a flexible system that can recreate most of the popular guns from games and movies.

3 is the number David descided on, so that's what I have to work with.

 

What exactly does the number 3 represent? Also, when are you planning on actually playing this with your friends? At your house or at lunch?

flamethrower: Rifle, burning, Lasting damage, Extra Large Ammo Clip, Inferno, Short Range -
rocket launcher: Heavy Weapon, Large Projectile, AoE spread, AI Targeting, Anti-Armor, Heavy Recoil
taser:SMG, Electricity, Short Range-
smg: SMG, bullets, Extra Large Ammo Clip, Short Range -, Normal
sniper rifle: Heavy Weapon, bullets, Accurate At Long Range, Red Laser Targetting, High Weapon Quality, Low Light Scope, Silencer, Slow To Reload-

 

The number 3 is something David picked when he started working on the game. The average of the attributes is 3, an experienced user usually have 3 ranks in his skill, points in Own A Vehicle grants 3 points for building vehicles, we usually get 300 XP per session. This is the reason you get 3 Construction Points.

Me and about 5 or 6 others have been playing it for 5-6 hours each sunday for about 2 months now.

Thanks for the example weapons, but what I need the most is more examples of diffrent modifications and drawbacks.