Blaster Power Settings

[CRMcNeill]

A while back in my re-write of personal blasters, I proposed the following:

An evolution of what I've discussed in the past here...

In broad terms, I'm thinking most blasters would have three settings: Standard, High and Low Power, with effects as follows:
Standard - Uses listed damage, with no RoF restrictions. Characters can get off as many shots as their skill level v. MAPs permit.

High - More intense shot consumes more ammo, but requires a cool-down period before the weapon can be fired again. +1D to Damage, RoF: 1, consumes 2 rounds of ammo per shot.

Low - Less intense shot allows weapon to fire a short burst. -1D to Damage, RoF: 1D Auto-Fire, consumes 2 rounds of ammo per shot.
Been chewing on this for a while, and decided to go ahead and post it.

Now, I originally proposed this for use with personal weapons, but after some consideration, I'm thinking it's applicable to all blaster weapons. There are at two on-screen examples that come to mind:

-In ESB, Veers orders "Target. Maximum Firepower," and his AT-AT fires a paired blaster shot that is visibly more intense than any fired previously.

-TIE Fighters in ESB and ANH appear to have different weapons, with the TIEs in ANH firing what seem to be rapid-fire pulses while the TIE Fighters in ESB fire more standard lasers. I had originally thought this was because they had two different weapon systems, but it could also be the same weapon firing in two different modes.

I'm getting ready for work, but this has been on my mind recently, so I figured I'd put it out for discussion. Thoughts?
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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

[Darklighter79]

Power settings would solve many on screen bugs where the same weapon seems to be producing various damage scale effects.

In movies there also seems to be two settings: pulse vs beam.

Mace Towani was using continuous beam for heating and blowing the rock that was blocking the cave entrance in Ewoks: CoC. For regular fights in Battle of Endor, his gun was in pulse mode.
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Don’t Let the Rules Get in the Way of a Good Story.

[RyanDarkstar]

Video games show this a lot, so I like the idea of multiple settings.

The Dark Forces games feature blasters with 2 modes: a standard and a special. Kyle Katarn's Bryar blaster pistol had a slow standard shot and a charged shot that could take out opponents in one hit. The enemies' E-11 rifles' special was a rapid fire mode (which jives with the falling stormtrooper firing full-auto during the cell block attack in A New Hope).

In the X-wing series of games, the players can change the rate of fire of their weapons, typically all-at-once, pairs or individually.
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Currently playing D&D 5E and painting an unholy amount of miniatures.

[Naaman]

What about weapons that already have 1D auto fire? Does it become +1D (total 2D) auto fire?
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SpecForce Combat Elements
All About Lightsabers: Designing, Building, and Fighting

[Ray]

Loved me the pump-action heavy shot blaster in Rogue One, that's for sure!

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

[Raven Redstar]

Baze uses it a couple of times. He executes a Stormtrooper on Jedha, and then he does it on Scariff near the end.
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RR
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[CRMcNeill]

[Whill]

[CRMcNeill]

[Naaman]

Seems easy enough:

You can "pump" it to overcharge the weapon and release a shot with greater ammo consumption and higher damage (perhaps bump the damage scale up without imposing the attack role penalty).

A nice bit of flavor would be that if the shot is not fired within one round, the energy is dissipated for safety reasons, and the ammo is lost.
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SpecForce Combat Elements
All About Lightsabers: Designing, Building, and Fighting

[Darklighter79]