Questions about starship weapons

[denderan marajain]

What are the exact differences between blaster, laser, Pulse Wave and Mass Driver?

I can not find any useful explanations why there are so many different ones

I can not even find importand differences in respect to their stats

I hope you can help me

Thanks in advance

[Xain Arke]

Blasters use energised gas to produce a bolt that is sort of more like plasma than a laser.

Lasers use coherent light and in Star Wars are older tech than Blasters, mainly found on starships.

Pulsewave weapons are really old tech which I believe are similar to primitive Blasters but create localised spatial distortions which damage the structure of objects and are generally only effective at shorter ranges.

Mass Drivers are projectile weapons like firearms or cannons, using either explosive charges or magnetic acceleration to fire physical ammunition. These are probably also ancient tech.


There are different types of weapons in Star Wars because it's an ancient space travelling setting where technology has progressed but at different rates on different planets and sectors, so some aliens use Blasters while others have only just invented firearms. In places on our own world we have remotely operated drones and laser-guided missiles on battlefields alongside machetes and old rifles from several wars ago, so it's not that unusual a concept.


Stat-wise, most of the D6 weapon stats are not that varied even with similar weapons, I think it's down to the system being less complex than many others, making actual weapon details often just flavour text with minimal effect on the stat mechanics.

Hope this helps

Xain

[CRMcNeill]

Actually, lasers in the SWU are just blasters writ large.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[denderan marajain]