My Auto-Fire Rules (the Final Version)

[CRMcNeill]

So, this has been evolving over time in various topics, but I don't think I've ever written it down in a topic of its own.

This is a unified Auto-Fire rule for various automatic (repeater) weapons in the SWU, ranging from assault-type personal weapons capable of selecting between a single round or a short burst (3-4 rounds) all the way to extremely high RoF weaponry like gatling guns.

Note: The original version has been retired in favor of this version, which is cleaner and easier. The original "final" post is included below for posterity's sake only.

Note that, in the real world, the 3-round burst mode was the result of extensive testing which revealed that, after the 3rd shot in a burst, accuracy dropped off precipitously, and any shot after the 3rd was likely going over the top of the target due to weapon kick. In my universe, I've gone with a 4-round burst instead of 3 because of how it squares with my Coordination bonus system, then explained it by saying that it is the result of either different physical limits (for blasters, where the fire rate is limited by the cool-and-reset capacity of the blaster's firing chamber) or improved technology (for firearms, where added stability and recoil-damping improves accuracy).


Weapons will have different ratings by class:

-A military blaster (the SWU equivalent of the modern assault rifle) will have an (optional) Auto-Fire rating of 1D. In essence, the shooter may fire either a single round or a short burst, where each short burst is treated as a single shot for MAP and Rate of Fire purposes, apart from increased ammo consumption.

-A full Repeater (Riot Guns, Repeating Blasters, etc), will have an Auto-Fire rating of 3D, but may choose to use less than the full rating at a time. The options are:
3D Auto-Fire: Fire Rate of 1, and expends 100 shots.
2D Auto-Fire: Fire Rate of 3, and expends 20 shots
1D Auto-Fire: standard Fire Rate, and expends 4 shots.

-A super Repeater (Gatling weaponry and the like), will have an Auto-Fire rating of 4D, but may choose to use less than the full rating at a time. The options are:
4D Auto-Fire: Fire Rate of 1, and expends 500 shots.
3D Auto-Fire: Fire Rate of 3, and expends 100 shots
2D Auto-Fire: Standard Fire Rate, and expends 20 shots

Auto-Fire Dice are applied as follows:

Weapons with a 1D rating may apply their Auto-Fire dice to either Damage or Fire Control, subject to the following restrictions:
Long and Medium Range - Fire Control only

Weapons with a 3D rating may apply their Auto-Fire dice to either Damage or Fire Control, subject to the following restrictions:
Long Range - Fire Control only.
Medium Range - Maximum of 1D to Damage
Short Range - Maximum of 2D to Damage
Point Blank - No restrictions.

Weapons with a 4D rating may apply their Auto-Fire dice to either Damage or Fire Control, subject to the following restrictions:
Long Range -Maximum of 1D to Damage
Medium Range - Maximum of 2D to Damage
Short Range - Maximum of 3D to Damage
Point Blank - No restrictions.

EDIT:When firing longer bursts, characters suffer from additional MAP penalties if they attempt to do anything other than fire their weapon. The penalty is equal to the amount of Auto-Fire Dice the character is using -1D. For example, a character firing a Medium Burst (equal to 2D Auto-Fire) and attempting to Dodge at the same time suffers a -2D MAP penalty instead of just -1D; -1D for the standard MAP, plus an additional -1D for the added difficulty of trying to fire a longer burst.

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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

[Methedor]

Thanks for the unified post. I usually enjoy Homebrew and such. With that in mind I do have a question. How does this apply to the idea of spraying in area or would that just be MAP with the Auto-fire dice set to Fire Control Mode?

Thank you for reading and responding.

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

Are there any penalties to using auto-fire on these weapons? Like a higher diff to hit cause of recoil? Possibility to overheat? Having to 'stand there' so gets penalized on dodge??
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

[Dredwulf60]

Overall I find this system very well thought out and extremely eloquent.

Bravo.

The only negative is the overheating.

As we all know, you can handwaive whatever; and star wars tech can be shown to be far in advance of ours in many ways. But to me it doesn't settle well, and here's my reasoning:

Weapons design (and most tech) always pushing an envelope. If you can shoot X amount without heat problems...then someone is going to find a way to push it to X+1.

Like initial desiger saying: 'This blaster has the technology to fire energy packets at a rate of 1 per second with perfect zero-ing and negligible heating issues under clinical trials.'

End product design: ' Perfect! I want it with a selector that allows it to fire 4 packets every time I pull the trigger; because on an assault its going to be a handy feature. Yes I know ding this a lot is going to cause some issues, but it's manageable with a bit of discipline'

This can be simulated with jury rigging rules, but I think the extra bit of effort devoted to some nod to extreme fire rates taxing a heat dissipation system would be worth it.

Nothing big...but surely just a nod toward it.

EDIT:
Full and fair disclosure;
I have my own autofire rules; but I'm considering adopting yours. My version doesn't have a nod to overheating either; which Is why I'm really wanting to see what you come up with.

[CRMcNeill]

The potential for overheating was actually my explanation for why standard Blaster rifles can only fire semi-auto or short bursts; any more and you start to run into overheating issues. Full auto weapons are modified with shielded and reenforced firing chambers and barrels to neutralize the problem, but as a consequence they are bigger and bulkier than non-repeaters. The more powerful the blast becomes, the bigger and more robust the Blaster has to be to handle it.
_________________
"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

[Dredwulf60]

[garhkal]

[CRMcNeill]

Maybe for a jury-rigged repeater, treat it as a Wild Dice failure. For every D of Auto-Fire dice used that round is a Wild Die, with the number of consecutive rounds on full auto as the baseline for Wild Dice failure. On a Wild Die failure, the Blaster overheats and stops functioning, requiring a Blaster Repair roll. Then you re-roll the Wild Dice, and on another failure, the Blaster blows up.
_________________
"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

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

[Naaman]