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lecher000
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 Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:09 pm Post subject: Alternate Weapon Type Rules |
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First played Star Wars D6 around 7 or 8 years ago and loved it, but one avenue I've looked at and thought could use some work was weapon variety, since half of the weapons are essentially the same, given a few minor differences in regards to price and availability, mechanics wise. As a potential solution to this I've given each type of weapon (so far mostly just energy weapons) a unique rule to accompany their standard use which are completely optional and can be added or removed very simply and leisurely from any game.
I've looked through the house rules and I haven't quite seen any that fit what I'm doing with these, and I've looked through a couple dozen D6 sourcebooks and haven't found what I'm looking for either. As it stands, weapon types (Heavy Blaster Pistols, Repeating Blasters, Carbines, Blaster Rifles, etc) are skill-relevant only, and I thought adding some unique mechanics might liven that up a bit.
BOWCASTER - Bowcasters have the distinct advantage of being able to punch through physical armor such as metals and alloys particularly well, ignoring 1D of armor/body strength.
OR, Dual-fire mode. You may choose to fire a regular blaster bolt dealing 4D damage, or roll the standard Strength check for reloading to fire an energy cocooned quarrel, dealing 5D+1 damage energy and dealing 3D+1 explosive damage in a 2 meter radius.
DISRUPTOR - Disruptor weaponry tends to vaporize targets indiscriminately. If the Wild Die rolls a 6 two times in a row during damage, the target, up to 3 meters tall (or long/wide) is considered completely vaporized.
CARBINE - Carbines offer the distinct advantage of being able to fire multiple times in a round with less of a drawback in aiming than their rifle counterparts. Firing a carbine gives one multiple options; the single shot or the burst fire. Firing a burst shot gives the user a 3-shot blast with only a -1D to their attack roll, rolling only once, but the effective range is halved when firing in this mode. If a hit is scored, the remaining two shots have a scatter die rolled to determine if they hit. If the target dodges the first shot, they are still susceptible to being hit by the scatter die shots. Burst shot takes the entire round. (If lacking a scatter die, roll a regular 1D6 with a 1 and a 6 being hit and a 2-5 being a near-miss)
Carbines can also be shot one handed as pistols, but suffer -2D to attack if using the burst shot.
SPORTING BLASTER - Sporting blasters can be easily and quickly disassembled to fit into smaller compartments or hidden, making them virtually impossible to discover if the ship or compartment is searched as they appear indistinguishable from the other assorted parts and pieces of scrap or tech laying about. It takes 1 minute to fully disassemble a sporting blaster and 5 minutes to effectively hide the parts. Only someone who knows the specific make and model can find it and requires a Difficult Perception roll.
BLASTER RIFLE - Blaster Rifles have the benefit of having a higher cycling fire rate than pistols, allowing one to make a second attack at -2 instead of a full hit die. Each subsequent attack gives a standard -1D which stacks with every additional attack thereafter.
HEAVY BLASTER RIFLE - Heavy Blaster Rifles, unlike their cousins, have a different advantage, they can cycle between their primary fire rate, or their high-power setting, increasing their Difficult aiming range by 200 meters and increasing damage by +1D+1. The High Power setting decreases firing rate to 1 time per round, if that is already its firing rate, it becomes 1/2. Lastly, each blaster bolt consumes 3 ammunition.
REPEATING BLASTER - Repeaters have the benefit of having a full-auto mode when firing, firing up to 5 shots in a round. The effective range of the light repeating blaster is considered halved when firing in full-auto and requires a single attack roll at -1D. If a hit is scored the remaining shots have a scatter die rolled to determine if they hit. If the target dodges the first shot, they are still susceptible to being hit by the scatter die shots. Full-auto takes the entire round. (If lacking a scatter die, roll a regular 1D6 with a 1 and a 6 being hit and a 2-5 being a near-miss)
Bracing the light repeater takes a full round, but removes the -1D penalty.
PISTOL - All regular blaster pistols have the ability to charge a blaster bolt for longer, offering a +1 bonus to damage. It takes 1 round to charge the shot and uses 1 extra charge from the ammo count.
HEAVY BLASTER PISTOL - Heavy Blaster Pistols have the ability to charge a shot, offering a +2 bonus to damage. It takes 1 round to charge the shot and uses 3 extra charges from the ammo count.
HOLD-OUT BLASTER - Hold-out blasters can be hidden more easily, adding a +2D to the Perception roll for concealing them.
PULSE WAVE - Pulse wave weapons ignore 1D worth of armor if within point-blank range or Easy difficulty range, but suffer from lack of long-range penetration, dealing -1D damage at Difficult range.
PARTICLE BEAM - A Character scale particle beam weapon causes an explosion 4 meters large, dealing 2D damage to everyone within the blast radius if the particle beam makes contact with energy of some kind, such as a shield.
Feel free to offer alterations or suggestions for other weapon types.
*EDIT*
VIBROWEAPONS - Hits against organic matter grants an additional +1D when rolling for Damage.
CORTOSIS WEAVE - Some weapons can also be used to parry lightsaber attacks if they have a cortosis weave, as any other normal melee weapon would be destroyed. Cortosis-weaved weapons cost an additional 250 credits on top of the initial cost of the weapon. Power swords count as cortosis-weaved automatically and have no extra cost. Cortosis weaves are not in concentrated-enough quantities to short out lightsabers.
ION - Ion weapons deal stun damage to organic targets equal to the number before the stun damage die but in pips, so a 4D ion weapon deals 1D+1 stun damage to an organic. Ion weapons of 2D or lower are completely ineffective against organics.
SNIPER RIFLES - Blaster or slugthrower, all dedicated sniper weapons (That is, weapons that do not simply double as sniper rifles with an alternate feature) have built-in targeting correction systems giving the user a default Fire Control bonus when firing them. Unless stated other-wise, all Sniper Rifles have a base Fire Control bonus of +2 pips.
EXPLOSIVES - The initial blast radius of an explosive is powerful enough that anything caught within it, if they soak the damage, still suffers from the effects of the blast wave. Any creature who's height is at least equal to or lower than the damage of the explosive x2 (5D explosive damage = 10 feet) suffers from hampered movement for the rest of the round and cannot dodge until it's their turn again.
PIERCING WEAPONS - Piercing weapons such as knives and spears are ineffective against droids, dropping the wound category to a less severe one. Organics on the other-hand, if the wild die rolls a 6, suffer an additional +2 damage ontop of whatever is rolled.
BLUDGEONING WEAPONS - Clubs, batons, and brass knuckles all have the ability to add stun to a target. If a 6 appears on the wild die for one, they must roll a Moderate Stamina check. If failed, they suffer as if gaining 1D stun damage to Strength.
SLASHING - Swords, axes, machetes, and the like all have the ability to sever bodyparts. If the target fails to soak the damage of a slashing weapon by 10 or more, they have lost a limb.
SLUGTHROWER - In addition to being able to use silencers, using more varied types of ammunition, and being cheaper, slugthrowers still offer a few benefits now overlooked since they were deemed "technologically inferior" by Galactic Standard definitions. Slugthrowers travel significantly faster than blaster bolts and are virtually invisible, thus cannot be blocked by someone using a lightsaber unless they are Force Sensitive. If a bullet is blocked, it still deals stun damage as the burning hot molten metal sprays onto the target, suffering an automatic "stunned" state on the wound chart (creatures that don't feel pain are immune). Any creature attempting to block a slugthrower bullet even if Force Sensitive must roll a Very Difficult difficulty check.
Last edited by lecher000 on Sun Oct 24, 2021 11:01 pm; edited 27 times in total |
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Whill
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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Some good ideas here. The main issue I see is that a lot of this stuff should be cross-applicable as after-market mods, not limited to a specific model of blaster, particularly things like charge-up or rate of fire.
The Disruptor effect reminds of a more general idea I came up with several years before I joined the Pit, specifically a modification of the Character Damage Chart to include results above Killed: things like Gutted, Dismembered, Splattered and Vaporized to represent characters taking a Point Blank hit from a Thermal Detonator or Turbolaser, or similarly powerful weapons. I like your concept, but I think there are other weapons that should be able to achieve a similar effect.
I don't want to hijack your thread, but in the interests of an exchange of ideas, here's a few links where I discuss my own variations on personal weapons.
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lecher000
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| Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | Some good ideas here. The main issue I see is that a lot of this stuff should be cross-applicable as after-market mods, not limited to a specific model of blaster, particularly things like charge-up or rate of fire.
The Disruptor effect reminds of a more general idea I came up with several years before I joined the Pit, specifically a modification of the Character Damage Chart to include results above Killed: things like Gutted, Dismembered, Splattered and Vaporized to represent characters taking a Point Blank hit from a Thermal Detonator or Turbolaser, or similarly powerful weapons. I like your concept, but I think there are other weapons that should be able to achieve a similar effect.
I don't want to hijack your thread, but in the interests of an exchange of ideas, here's a few links where I discuss my own variations on personal weapons.
Welcome to the Pit. |
Thanks, and as for the weapon modification problem, I think I could work off that by just making the weapon mods specifically upgrade those aspects even further, for instance giving your Carbine a mod that increases the burst shot from 3 to 4, or the charge damage from +1 to +2 or +2 to +3. There's also nothing to stop your character from modifying a separate weapon type with the abilities of another type, like taking the parts from a Carbine and modifying it onto a pistol, or just buying a specific weapon mod that adds the abilities another type already starts with.
In fact, that's something I didn't think about until just now, but you could cross-apply various weapon abilities through modifications, putting carbine parts into a Blaster Pistol, giving your character a charged burst shot, each shot getting an additional +1 damage ontop of the 3 shot burst. It might even give characters more of a reason to collect different weapon types for specific pieces. |
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MrNexx
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:29 am Post subject: Re: Alternate Weapon Type Rules |
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I like the specificity and differentiation; I'll make comments where I've got alternates, suggestions, or questions.
| lecher000 wrote: |
BOWCASTER - Bowcasters have the distinct advantage of being able to punch through physical armor such as metals and alloys particularly well, ignoring 1D of armor/body strength. |
Since bowcasters fire explosive quarrels wrapped in an energy cocoon, I've always had them use the worst of the energy or physical armor. If you're wearing a personal shield that protects against blasters, the quarrel explodes and hits your physical armor. If you're wearing stormtrooper armor, the energy cocoon breaches the physical armor.
| Quote: |
CARBINE - Carbines offer the distinct advantage of being able to fire multiple times in a round with less of a drawback in aiming than their rifle counterparts. Firing a carbine gives one multiple options; the single shot or the burst fire. Firing a burst shot gives the user a 3-shot blast with only a -1D to their attack roll, rolling only once, but the effective range is halved when firing in this mode. If a hit is scored, the remaining two shots have a scatter die rolled to determine if they hit. If the target dodges the first shot, they are still susceptible to being hit by the scatter die shots. Burst shot takes the entire round. (If lacking a scatter die, roll a regular 1D6 with a 1 and a 6 being hit and a 2-5 being a near-miss)
Carbines can also be shot one handed as pistols, but suffer -2D to attack if using the burst shot. |
I'm not sure about all this; it seems like you're making less of a true carbine and more of a submachinegun.
| Quote: | | SPORTING BLASTER - Sporting blasters can be easily and quickly disassembled to fit into smaller compartments or hidden, making them virtually impossible to discover if the ship or compartment is searched as they appear indistinguishable from the other assorted parts and pieces of scrap or tech laying about. |
This needs a bit of mechanical specifity, IMO. How long to assemble? How hard to find? I'd rate time-to-assemble in actions (so someone who has taken cover can choose to do it in one round, taking a big MAP from their non-roll actions), probably three (barrel, stock, chamber), with pistols down to one or two (barrel to chamber). I'd also give a specific bonus to Hide for them... +2D for a rifle, +3D for a pistol
| Quote: |
HOLD-OUT BLASTER - Hold-out blasters can be hidden more easily, adding a +2D to the Dexterity roll for concealing them. |
This should be Hide, a Perception skill. From the skill description: "The skill is used when trying to hide weapons on one's person, conceal goods within luggage, plant objects to be left in a room and other similar tasks."
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PARTICLE BEAM - A Character scale particle beam weapon causes an explosion 3 meters large, dealing 1D damage to everyone within the blast radius if the particle beam makes contact with energy of some kind, such as a shield. |
I assume the 1D explosion damage itself explodes, like a Wild Die?
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VIBROWEAPONS - Hits against organic matter grants an additional +1D when rolling for Damage. |
I'd switch this; they reduce armor by 1D. The vibro feature won't have too much extra effect on flesh, IMO, but makes it a lot more effective against protection and armor.
I think you'll also want to include Ion and Stun damage. Like I said, I love the specificity and differentiation... it's nice for choices to mean things.
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:14 pm Post subject: Re: Alternate Weapon Type Rules |
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| MrNexx wrote: | | Since bowcasters fire explosive quarrels wrapped in an energy cocoon, I've always had them use the worst of the energy or physical armor. If you're wearing a personal shield that protects against blasters, the quarrel explodes and hits your physical armor. If you're wearing stormtrooper armor, the energy cocoon breaches the physical armor. |
Shouldn't it be the other way? What's the point of an energy cocoon otherwise?
| Quote: | | I'm not sure about all this; it seems like you're making less of a true carbine and more of a submachinegun. |
The technical definition of a carbine gets little fudged in the real world. A carbine can be either a rifle firing a pistol-caliber weapon, or a shorter and/or collapsible (folding or adjustable stock) variant of a standard rifle.
| Quote: | | This needs a bit of mechanical specifity, IMO. How long to assemble? How hard to find? I'd rate time-to-assemble in actions (so someone who has taken cover can choose to do it in one round, taking a big MAP from their non-roll actions), probably three (barrel, stock, chamber), with pistols down to one or two (barrel to chamber). I'd also give a specific bonus to Hide for them... +2D for a rifle, +3D for a pistol |
There's an interesting twist on this in recent years, where weapons can be folded (Examples: Full Conceal M3 and the Magpul FDP-9)
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MrNexx
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:57 pm Post subject: Re: Alternate Weapon Type Rules |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | | MrNexx wrote: | | Since bowcasters fire explosive quarrels wrapped in an energy cocoon, I've always had them use the worst of the energy or physical armor. If you're wearing a personal shield that protects against blasters, the quarrel explodes and hits your physical armor. If you're wearing stormtrooper armor, the energy cocoon breaches the physical armor. |
Shouldn't it be the other way? What's the point of an energy cocoon otherwise? |
I'm not sure how it would be the other way.
If you are wearing a personal shield (equivalent to ship's ray shielding), the energy cocoon is stopped by the shield, but the explosive bolt continues, impacting the physical armor.
If you are wearing physical armor, the energy bolt penetrates the armor enough to allow the explosive to hit.
Thus, you use the worst of the two armors.
| Quote: |
| Quote: | | This needs a bit of mechanical specifity, IMO. How long to assemble? How hard to find? I'd rate time-to-assemble in actions (so someone who has taken cover can choose to do it in one round, taking a big MAP from their non-roll actions), probably three (barrel, stock, chamber), with pistols down to one or two (barrel to chamber). I'd also give a specific bonus to Hide for them... +2D for a rifle, +3D for a pistol |
There's an interesting twist on this in recent years, where weapons can be folded (Examples: Full Conceal M3 and the Magpul FDP-9) |
I read this more as the traditional "Hide the weapon by taking it apart", like you see with sniper rifles in movies; guy gets to the vantage point and puts his rifle together. In this case, if you're hiding it among the junk on a workbench, it's several pieces that don't necessarily look like blaster parts.
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 2:56 pm Post subject: Re: Alternate Weapon Type Rules |
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| MrNexx wrote: | | I'm not sure how it would be the other way. |
Because the energy cocoon expends itself against the armor, since it's the first part of the bolt to come into contact. Thus, the armor resists the bolt as though it were an energy attack, but the solid portion of the bolt allows the shot to be tailored for specific effects. From a design standpoint, why go to the effort of sheathing a projectile in energy if the energy doesn't provide an advantage?
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lecher000
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:24 pm Post subject: Re: Alternate Weapon Type Rules |
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| MrNexx wrote: | | Since bowcasters fire explosive quarrels wrapped in an energy cocoon, I've always had them use the worst of the energy or physical armor. If you're wearing a personal shield that protects against blasters, the quarrel explodes and hits your physical armor. If you're wearing stormtrooper armor, the energy cocoon breaches the physical armor. |
That's another interesting take but then if someone is using armor that provides equal bonus against energy and physical there's invariably no benefit to using a bowcaster. I do think Bowcasters are one area in which D6 star wars fails, as you you see it take out a speeder in one hit in ROTJ, you see the one guy use a bowcaster-type blaster in Rogue One to take out a TIE Fighter, and in Force Awakens you see it cause an explosion killing multiple storm troopers in Force Awakens. If I may offer a suggestion, I could add an alternate dual-fire mode instead, where it fires a regular blaster bolt dealing 4D energy damage, OR with a strength check, firing an energy cocooned quarrel, dealing 5D+1 energy damage or physical damage (whichever armor rating is lower) and causing a 3 meter wide explosion dealing 4D damage.
| Quote: | | I'm not sure about all this; it seems like you're making less of a true carbine and more of a submachinegun. |
I'm just not sure how I would balance out a "true carbine" in the sense for a blaster weapon, since modern carbines tend to just be automatic rifles that have a shorter effective range and are lighter anyway.
| Quote: | | This needs a bit of mechanical specifity, IMO. How long to assemble? How hard to find? I'd rate time-to-assemble in actions (so someone who has taken cover can choose to do it in one round, taking a big MAP from their non-roll actions), probably three (barrel, stock, chamber), with pistols down to one or two (barrel to chamber). I'd also give a specific bonus to Hide for them... +2D for a rifle, +3D for a pistol |
Well with Sporting blasters, the point I was trying to make with them is that if given enough time (say, 1 minute), they can be disassembled and hidden (lets say, another 5 minutes), but once hidden, they are virtually impossible to discover, since they are designed to be taken apart quickly and easily. As for finding them, making them virtually impossible to find is sort of the reason to buy one, but I suppose if the individual knows which sporting blaster they're looking for, they can find it more easily, requiring a Difficult search check to find one that doesn't belong to them if they know the make and model.
| Quote: | | This should be Hide, a Perception skill. From the skill description: "The skill is used when trying to hide weapons on one's person, conceal goods within luggage, plant objects to be left in a room and other similar tasks." |
Corrected.
| Quote: | | I assume the 1D explosion damage itself explodes, like a Wild Die? |
Yup.
| Quote: | | I'd switch this; they reduce armor by 1D. The vibro feature won't have too much extra effect on flesh, IMO, but makes it a lot more effective against protection and armor. |
I was reading through the Wookiepedia entry and it said that it was more effective against organic materials like soft tissue, which is why I made that specification.
| Quote: | | I think you'll also want to include Ion and Stun damage. Like I said, I love the specificity and differentiation... it's nice for choices to mean things. |
Ion Damage I was thinking of making it so that it does Stun damage to organic targets equal to the number before the Die but in pips, so a 4D Ion weapon would do 1D+1 stun damage to an organic target.
Last edited by lecher000 on Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Whill
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:26 pm Post subject: Re: Alternate Weapon Type Rules |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | | From a design standpoint, why go to the effort of sheathing a projectile in energy if the energy doesn't provide an advantage? |
I agree. From a real world standpoint, the effect of the bolts was intentionally designed to be something vey similar to blaster bolts, which means there was a clear intention of bowcasters being an exotic energy weapon. Fluff added that there was a bolt inside, but there is clearly meant to be a strong energy weapon aspect to bowcasters. It should mean something.
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lecher000
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:40 pm Post subject: Re: Alternate Weapon Type Rules |
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| Whill wrote: | | CRMcNeill wrote: | | From a design standpoint, why go to the effort of sheathing a projectile in energy if the energy doesn't provide an advantage? |
I agree. From a real world standpoint, the effect of the bolts was intentionally designed to be something vey similar to blaster bolts, which means there was a clear intention of bowcasters being an exotic energy weapon. Fluff added that there was a bolt inside, but there is clearly meant to be a strong energy weapon aspect to bowcasters. It should mean something. |
I think the fluff was added because from the design of a Bowcaster, it appears like it uses the draw-string of a physical crossbow. If it were purely just energy, there would be no need for the draw-string. |
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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Yet it very clearly fires an energy blast in RotJ, is never seen to be cocked (as one would expect with an actual crossbow), and has fired an energy-sheathed dart since practically the beginning of the EU (see the Brian Daley Han Solo Trilogy). The presence of a bowstring in certain models is just one of those unfortunate prop contradictions that has been lost in the shuffle.
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lecher000
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | | Yet it very clearly fires an energy blast in RotJ, is never seen to be cocked (as one would expect with an actual crossbow), and has fired an energy-sheathed dart since practically the beginning of the EU (see the Brian Daley Han Solo Trilogy). The presence of a bowstring in certain models is just one of those unfortunate prop contradictions that has been lost in the shuffle. |
Well, quarrels are small and would be hard to spot inside the blaster bolt it fires, and we rarely ever see it fire on film. Never-the-less, for Chewbacca to hold on to that bowcaster from A Now Hope all the way to Force Awakens, we have to assume it's pretty darn good. |
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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| lecher000 wrote: | | Well, quarrels are small and would be hard to spot inside the blaster bolt it fires, and we rarely ever see it fire on film. Never-the-less, for Chewbacca to hold on to that bowcaster from A Now Hope all the way to Force Awakens, we have to assume it's pretty darn good. |
Oh, absolutely. We've actually gone rounds quite a bit here on bowcasters over the years. Based on how the bowcaster operates in the Han Solo novels versus how Chewie is seen to be using it in RotJ, it's pretty certain that Chewie either upgraded it, or that it was lost (confiscated at Bespin, maybe?) and he had to build a new one. Specifically, while the Han Solo novel version required hand-cocking between shots, the version in RotJ appears to be semi-auto.
In an attempt to resolve all of the various contradictions we encountered while discussing it, I came up with this version.
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Whill
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| Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:31 pm Post subject: Re: Bowcasters |
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I think the Daley take was the main inspiration for the WEG version. The Daley novels are listed sources in the Star Wars Sourcebook.
| lecher000 wrote: | | Whill wrote: | | CRMcNeill wrote: | | From a design standpoint, why go to the effort of sheathing a projectile in energy if the energy doesn't provide an advantage? |
I agree. From a real world standpoint, the effect of the bolts was intentionally designed to be something vey similar to blaster bolts, which means there was a clear intention of bowcasters being an exotic energy weapon. Fluff added that there was a bolt inside, but there is clearly meant to be a strong energy weapon aspect to bowcasters. It should mean something. |
I think the fluff was added because from the design of a Bowcaster, it appears like it uses the draw-string of a physical crossbow. If it were purely just energy, there would be no need for the draw-string. |
Yes, that is why the bolt fluff was added by Brian Daley. I never said it was purely energy. But based on its first appearance in the films, the energy aspect is significant. It's hardly any different than a blaster bolt.
I like the fluff and exotic combination of projectile and energy. But interpreting that for the game has been a subject of much debate among gamers, as CRM referred to.
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