Howdy.
Thought I’d share a draft while Hurt Locker’s on its way toward editing. This is the appendix for the book featuring weapons, armor, and equipment. This is more or less what the appendix will look like, with some minor changes here and there, edits, and what-have-you.
It features a slightly different take on the way guns work, includes rules for explosions, and some Merits that pertain to all this. The Merits will go into a different section in the final book; they’re just here because they relate directly to these systems.
The idea was, we wanted a slightly more narrative approach to this kind of equipment, letting us focus on parts more appropriate to Hurt Locker specifically, while still giving a series of granular choices in the vein of Armory and Armory: Reloaded. We toiled over this content, and I think we’ve reached a good balance between the approaches.
“Board With A Nail In It”
RUN, KODOS!
On the one hand, yay! I like the use of Range Bands, though I can barely read the Speed to Range Band movement chart the way it’s not-formatted now. So I can’t judge that properly.
Also registering my obligatory complaint about the swords still referencing the katana as being more durable than European swords in their mechanics, which is patently false.
I think that’s a holdover from the old chart. I might fix that. Then again, I might not. Not sure yet. “Patently false” isn’t really what I’m interested in with this material. You likewise can’t shoot a nine-round pistol twelve times normally.
The formatting is weird. Sorry. The way we do it, we just use single tabs between all entries.
I’m firmly in the “it’s dumb to differentiate between ‘katanas’ and ‘all other swords’ in a system this abstract” camp, but frankly it’s no skin off my nose if the +1 durability for katanas and +1 Initiative for other swords thing makes it to the printed book. I’ll just ignore it anyway, and it’s not like a whole sidebar about it eating up precious wordcount.
Explosive rules are a bit unclear to me.
Damage rating is AUTOMATICALLY applied, according to the ‘Damage’ entry. Then, in the ‘Force’ entry, it says that you roll the dice and, IF THE ROLL IS SUCCESSFUL, Damage is added as automatic sucesses.
Is Damage meant to be added twice if the Force roll is a success?
would you mind sharing the rest of the huntsmen draft next?
I will do so once I feel it’s ready and I’m ready to do so.
I really like these mechanics, especially Capacity and Range Bands, but I had a few questions about these rules:
It seems that almost all weapons are now fired in bursts. Then why do short bursts still give a +1, if they are the default? Also, I misinterpreted it and single shots are still an option, how do single shots interact with the Capacity mechanic.
How does the throwing of grenades interact with the throwing rules? Specifically, do successes on your throw inflict extra damage? Also, how do you decide where the grenade lands, and who is in the primary or secondary blast area? I gather that making a successful throw puts someone in the primary area, but what happens on a failure?
How does firing a burst of grenades with a grenade machinegun work? Just adding a +3 for a long burst doesn’t seem to cut it for “catastrophic damage”.
Finally, the telescopic scopes do not seem to take into account the new Range Band mechanics, as they seem to assume that the long range penalty is still -4 and do not mention extreme range. Also, I was wondering whether the extra concealment penalties at range also get reduced by telescopic scopes.
Of course I meant “Also, if I misinterpreted it and single shots are still an option, how do single shots interact with the Capacity mechanic?”.
I still have to get used to not being able to edit my comments here.
do you want us to comment somewhere? Laser sight section reads weird, like it’s saying the same thing twice… and it feels like it should be a +1 for visible dot +2 in fog, etc.
to avoid ambush*
Seems to have the right feel to me. I think I’ve seen a similar capacity mechanic before but never tried it. Slightly disappointed about no differentiation between slashing and piercing swords, but I’ll get over it. I would ignore the katana/longsword difference in the chart anyway, so it doesn’t matter if it stays or goes to me. I focused on what I considered immediately useful, range and ammo. I liked it.
Bomb Suits are listed to protect Torso, arms, head. Bomb suits generally fully protect the legs as well. The only exposed areas are the hands and slight forearms so they can work with precision when disarming bombs. Is this entry a mistake?
The Steyr-Aug is still spelled wrong.
Is this some sort of running joke or..?
Occam’s Razor is that someone copied it from the old book, and it’s not a common word.
I like the capacity rules in general. I’m a little confused by the “Low Capacity weapons empty…on a failed roll.” Should this be a dramatic failure like medium capacity? (In which case their isn’t much of a difference between medium and low capacity save the number of bursts.) Or does this mean any failed roll results in running out of ammo? (Which means you either hit or click empty, leaving no chance to miss your target)
On a similar note, what happens if your first attack in a scene is a dramatic failure (medium) or failure (low)? Do you just run out of ammo on the first attack, having stupidly forgotten to load the weapon? I feel like other options should be available such as these weapons jamming on an early dramatic failure, or even having the character forgetting to take off the safety for a first-shot dramatic failure.
I think the explanation is that you fire all of your available shots in the magazine/clip/chambers and they all miss. Considering we’re talking about double-barrel shotguns and derringers, this probably translates to one or two shots.
The heavy revolver has range and capacity swapped in the ranged weapon chart
Can I ask why the bow merit needs Quick draw as a requirement? The entry hasn’t really changed much from the one in Armoury.
Also I noticed there is no prerequisites listed for Loaded for Bear, but it does have the label.
I have to say I really dislike many Of the changes:
You basically go from the more concrete stats of the previous books to unspecific words.
I think it is a bad idea for one reason mostly. You can rather easily turn numbers into vague categories, the reverse is much harder. I have been playing New World of Darkness for many years now and I can definitely say that many times, we did go for exact measurements, just so people where actually on the same page when it comes to inagining the scene and playing it out.
Taking then out seems so extremely unnecessary…
I an also not that amazes with capacity. Bows and ceossbows for example woul need a reload action only after short bursts or a failed attack?
And with firearma it is also about how many bursts of what kind you get?
I see this as being much more confusing (looking it up to see when the chars need a reload) then just having the old clip…
Like the door mechanic for social interactions, it seems new for the sake of being new and like the doors, I see this as not being used at our table in the end…
Lastly, the rule for thrown object size is still lacking. You get strength 1 characters being able to wield a knife but not throw it, you get strength 2 notmal folks unable to throw a javelin. This is highly counterintuitive and really needs to be changed because it is the same problem as the strength needed to wield a spear in the original new world of darkness book.
Also, you have probided one single theown weapon, I would rather like to see more than just knives. Hatchets should work fine for throwing axes, a boomerang could be modelled on one of the stun type weapons, a javelin wouldalso be nice.
Reloads only last for a scene after you visit the store? Without intent to give offense, I feel that this is more likely to break immersion than to aid it. Can you not carry a clip of ammunition in a jacket or a duffel bag or the glove compartment or whatnot? Or maybe a better question – what are “reloads” modeling, that decays so quickly?
Bullets can be scrounged from bodies and re-used? They don’t deform or shatter or…whatever bullets do, I don’t know ballistics, I just didn’t think you could reload a fired bullet. I assume that a Wits + Firearms success grants a single “reload.”
If you have Quick Draw, do reloads still require an action? I guess you can just buy a bunch of handguns if it seems like it might come up.
Again without intent to give offense, I feel that the decision to remodel the existing firearms rules, with which I am not sure there was a consensus of complaint, is fixing something that wasn’t broken at the strange cost of immersion. That is, it seems harder to believe in a world where Guns Don’t Work That Way than one where they do but it probably never comes up because you aren’t going to fire a gun nine times in a scene, you’re going to fire it two or three times at most, and then either the thing you were shooting is dead or escaped, or you’re dead or escaped.
To some extent it’s half dozen of one and six of the other, but knowing explicitly that I can recover bullets but not carry clips – I think of rules as at least partly narrative statements – makes a change to the fantasy that knowing that I have nine shots and two extra clips doesn’t impact.
Maybe this is just preference. I’d rather a Dirty Harry style situation than the one in Underworld where Selene shoots through a bunch of werewolves and then the floor using two automatic pistols with like four hundred bullets each. I would prefer not to see the rules move towards that particular kind of narrativism, not because I disagree with narrativism, but because the standard model was unintrusive and this model seems, like a too-friendly person trying very hard not to bother me, to end up bothersome.