Ammo

[Jonos]

Anyone use a different system for ammo expenditure in their games? I cannot recall ever having a PC run out of ammo when I was using the by the book system.
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[dicemauler]

We use ammo wheels for Savage Worlds and they work well in Star Wars to track ammo. It has the added bonus that it doesn't lose track between sessions and holds up pretty well being made out of card stock. I've toyed with printing Star Wars themed stuff on them and it makes it easier to keep track of which wheel goes with which game.

I wasn't happy with 100 shots per ammo pack and so I limited it to about 20 for blaster pistols, 30 for blaster rifles, and 60 for light repeating blasters. My group likes grittier though, so it was suited especially well for us.

[tetsuoh]

we cut them all the ammo counts in half basically.

[Pel]

Ammo only came up during a couple of extended firefights and a briefly contested wild die flub. The player in question rolled a couple of 1's in a row and I ruled that his pistol was out of ammo. The conversation went something like this:

"And another 1 on the wild die. Ok, your blaster is out of ammo."

"What? Are you serious? Do you have any idea how many shots this thing has?"

"Yup. And when's the last time you reloaded?"

A dramatically appropriate pause, then, "Yeah, ok. Point taken."
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[Naaman]

I use a "real world" approach when it comes to ammo consumption.

Pistols hold between 4 and 20 shots, with thr morw powerful pistols on the lower end of the spectrum.

Rifles between 10 and 30.

Repeaters 100 to 200 (and every "shot" uses up several rounds).

When we first started playing, our favorite weapon was the "modified heavy blaster pistol." It did 6D damage and was dry in 4 shots. It was pretty much 5 or 6 reloads per encounter, and it kept the pacing in the fight nice and dramatic. Also required the players using thm to consider fighting from cover in order to have a safe place to reload.

[garhkal]

Being eack stormie taken out has at least 2 spare power packs, i rarely worry about ammo.. THOUGH i too have often used the 'pack runs dry' as a complication on blaster rolls.
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[Jonos]

I've only used this modification. My players weren't really happy about it, they prefer (obviously) to keep track of every shot. I am going to make a rule before the next session as I am NOT at all happy with the lack of reloading during combat.


When a 1 is rolled on the wild dice while making an attack with a weapon, the player must roll a variable number of dice depending upon the capacity of his power pack. If any of the dice rolled come up 1- 3, the pack is depleted and must be replaced.

Power Pack Capacity Dice Rolled for Depletion
< 10 4
11 – 50 3
50 – 100 2
>100 1

For weapons that have a low ammo count, this system is actually pretty beneficial. It can be imagined that the character is either taking care not to waste ammo, or is performing a tactical reload “off camera” as it were.

Of course, this wouldn't apply for single shot weapons or missiles or such.
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[CRMcNeill]

I don't really mind energy weapons having unrealistically large ammo capacities (compared to real world firearms, at least). It's not unreasonable to think that energy weapons might make more efficient use of whatever base material they use to generate a shot, and high comparative ammo capacity would be one of several reasons for the popularity of energy weapons over Firearms.

Apart from that, I like the idea of running out of ammo being a Wild Dice complication...
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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

[garhkal]

Also one often overlooked thing is that technically you should not just have power packs, but GAS packs for blasters.. So both should be needing to get replaced.
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[Jonos]

I always thought that a pack contained both gas and energy.
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[CRMcNeill]

[Jonos]

It does make sense that energy weapons would be an improvement on slugthrower type weapons.

My characters often upgrade their blasters, and for every pip of damage they add, I increase ammo expenditure by a single shot. So, if a blaster rifle was increased +1D damage, it would consume 3 shots per. It is simple, and the players think it's fair.
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[tetsuoh]

Thats why they are called blaster packs and not e-cells.

In the books they show you that the packs contain both a gas cylinder and an energy cell.

In my games the recharging stations have large blaster gas canisters that get clipped into their back ports to refuel all the packs put into them, these cost credits.

This is why blaster packs can be rigged as improvised explosives, IMO.

Hell in my games there are even different kinds of blaster gas used by different models, and some of the high end models use rarer gasses.

[Whill]

I've never bothered much with blaster shot/ammo pack accounting. Most blasters hold a lot of shots, and I just assume that PCs recharge/reload at every opportunity (like in between adventures and when back at the ship). You don't see film characters running out of ammo and reloading blaster packs, so I don't see a need to nickel and dime it like that for the cinematic reality of a space opera RPG.

Like others, I have occasionally used running out of ammo as a complication for the a 1 on the wild die. I remember one player complained that his PC always recharges/reloads at every opportunity and there was no way he could possibly be out of ammo in the first encounter of the adventure. I said, fine, the ammo pack has a manufacturer defect and began leaking blaster gas after the last shot. Same immediate effect, but the pack can't be recharged later so must be tossed. That complication gave him an idea and the next round his threw the blaster over the cover the goons were shooting from behind and told the sharpshooter PC to shoot this in the air. It was such a cool idea and they made some good rolls so I ruled that it worked - The shot was close enough to the blaster to ignite the blaster gas and blow the ammo back - The blaster exploded over the heads of the enemies. The goons remaining conscious were wounded and retreated, and the PC just had to borrow a blaster for the rest of the adventure.
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[Naaman]

Some good points about ammo consumption not being a factor in the films.

I tend to feel this way: either track it or dont. But if you do, reduce ammo capacity because its not worth tracking ammo on a blaster rifle than can shoot 100 rounds before its empty.

Now in real life 100 rounds would be used up pretty quick, since its common to shoot multiple rounds at every target, as well as to shoot a bunch of rounds in the general direction of the enemy to cover your advance and hopefully hit them as you move (reacting to a near ambish, for example).