Firearms

A RuneQuest 6th Edition Rules Supplement

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 New Special Effects
Some players of RQ6 often imagine that there are Marksman
few useful Special Effects for ranged weapons, Offensive, Firearms Only
despite the fact that many of the offensive options Permits the shooter to move the Hit Location
are easily transposed between weapon types (see struck by his shot by one step, to an immediately
Modified Special Effects). To redress this inequal- adjoining body area. Physiology has an effect on
ity, some new effects are presented below, specifi- what can be re-targeted and common sense should
cally for the use of firearms. be applied. Thus using this special effect on a

Circumvent Cover humanoid would permit an attacker who rolled

a leg shot, to move it up to the abdomen instead.
Offensive, High-Tech Firearms Only Conversely shooting a griffin in the chest would
Assuming that the shooter is using some high-tech permit selection of the forelegs, wings or head.

Overpenetration
weaponry, they can fire around the target’s cover.
In most cases this will require something along
the lines of self guided ammunition. If used as a Offensive, Critical, Firearms Only
trick shot, for example bouncing a laser blast off If shooting at lineally positioned opponents or
a mirror or ricocheting a bullet off a wall, then into a densely packed group, this special effect
the special effect should be treated as a Critical allows the shot to travel completely through the
Success only with a commensurate reduction in first victim to strike a second behind them, as-
damage. suming that it overcomes the first target’s body

Drop Foe armour. The second victim however, only suffers

half damage due to attenuation or slowing down
Offensive, Firearms Only of the shot. Overpenetration is generally of more
Assuming the target suffers at least a minor use with high powered weapons that inflict large
wound from the shot, they are forced to make amounts of damage or those which have some
an Opposed Test of their Endurance against the sort of armour piercing ability. Any special effects
attacker’s hit roll. Failure indicates that the target inflicted on the first target are not applied to the
succumbs to shock and pain, becoming incapaci- second.

Pin Down
tated and unable to continue fighting. Recovery
from incapacitation can be performed with a
successful First Aid check or using some form of Offensive, Stackable, Firearms Only
technological or narcotic booster if such exists in Similar to Press Advantage, this special effect
the campaign. Otherwise the temporary incapaci- forces the target to make an Opposed Test of their
tation lasts for a period equal to one hour divided Willpower against the attacker’s hit roll. Failure
by the Healing Rate of the target. means that the target hunkers down behind what-

Duck Back ever cover is available and cannot return fire on

their next Turn. Note that Pin Down works even
Offensive, Firearms Only if no actual damage is inflicted on the target (per-
This special effect allows the shooter to immedi- haps due to a successful evasion or shots striking
ately duck back into cover, without needing to their cover instead), as it relies on the intimidation
wait for their next Turn to use the Take Cover effect of gunfire passing very close by.
action. The character must be already standing or
crouching adjacent to some form of cover to use Although a pinned victim is unable to fire back
Duck Back. for the requisite time, they can perform other
actions provided they don’t expose themselves to
fire in the process, such as crawling away to new

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 cover, communicating with others, reloading a weapon Success only, unless the target is within close range
and so on. and is either stationary or unaware of the impending
attack. Telescopic scopes may extend this range (see

Weapon Spot Rules).

• Circumvent Parry: This is obviously of little use un-

Malfunction less targets are using firearm resistant shields, or you

are shooting at a lightsabre armed Jedi...
Attacker Fumbles, Firearms Only • Compel Surrender: Firearms are usually very intimi-
The attacker’s firearm malfunctions in such a way that it is dating weapons. Thus Compel Surrender need not
rendered useless until time can be spent field stripping and be restricted to only those targets placed at a tactical
cleaning it. disadvantage; and can be utilised at a distance also.
• Damage Weapon: Since striking a hand held weapon
at range is even more difficult than targeting a spe-
Modified cific body location, this should generally be reserved
for Critical Successes only. There are several excep-

Special Effects tions however, the first being that a shield should,
by its very nature, be much easier to hit. The second
Depending on the type of ammunition or energy they concerns exotic weapons which fire a cone shaped
project, some Special Effects should be slightly modified, beam able to target hand held objects within its area
even restricted. It is impossible to cover all types of ranged of affect; for instance an induction gun that heats
weaponry as there will always be exceptions, but some metal objects.
general guidelines are provided for the most common • Disarm Opponent: As per Damage Weapon above.
effects. There’s nothing quite as satisfying than shooting an
enemy’s gun right out of their hands.
• : Since Bash relies more on catching an op- • Entangle: Although usually reserved for thrown
ponent off balance, rather than throwing them weapons such as nets or the bolas, entangling firearms
backwards by pure force, it is perfectly reasonable for are a staple for some golden and silver-age science fic-
projectile ammunition to cause a target to stagger if tion settings. Tanglers should be permitted access to
it strikes an extremity. Energy weapons are less likely this special effect.
to inflict such an effect unless the physics of the beam • Impale: The ammunition of most projectile-based
result in some sort of surface explosion. firearms will be able to impale. Game Masters may
• : Since most firearms produce very narrow wish to restrict or ban this effect for plasma or laser
wound paths, it is actually more difficult to nick or based energy weapons. Bullets, fléchettes and similar
sever a major blood vessel than it is with a slicing projectiles are clearly too small to impose any second-
or stabbing weapon. Due to this Bleed should be a ary impaling effects.
Critical Success only – unless the gun is some sort of • Kill Silently: Obviously this cannot be selected if
weird weaponry which fires shuriken, razor fléchettes, the weapon is inherently loud unless it possesses
flattened force fields or some such exotic ammunition. some sort of silencer. In general, any gun which fires
• Bypass Armour: Although Bypass Armour can os- ammunition travelling faster than the speed of sound
tensibly be used with any sort of attack, some types of will make significant noise, no matter what method
ammunition might either be prevented from access- it uses to accelerate the projectile. Sniping with some-
ing this effect (shot gun pellets due to their spread) thing like a Microwave Laser on the other hand will
or built into their base performance, granting it as be utterly inaudible.
a bonus special effect in addition to any others won • Maximise Damage: This special effect should be
(Teleportation rounds). Much depends on how the available for any firearm. Remember however, that
Game Master wishes to model the weapon. it only affects a single die. Something which should
• Choose Location: As per the default rules, Choose be taken into consideration by a Game Master when
Location should be restricted to being a Critical designing modern or futuristic weapons for their

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 mans really shouldn’t inflict any more than 20 damage

Overcoming Armour
maximum, but averaging just over half that, enough to
regularly inflict Major Wounds. A top of the line M24 or
Dragunov sniper rifle might be rated at 2d8+4 damage for Some previous d100 settings using firearms have compen-
instance. sated for the protective value of armour by boosting the
base damage to very high levels. Although this enables
Anything larger is just wasted ammunition mass or shot injury of those wearing significant body armour, it has a
energy, and works against player character survivability detrimental effect of making such weapons near instantly
when facing equally well armed foes. lethal against unprotected foes, which is not necessarily
realistic.

Projectile or Energy A better alternative is that firearms should reduce or

The type of projectile or energy shot from a weapon will bypass a certain number of Armour Points according to
have consequences on how it works. For example a vis- their penetrative nature. This permits the base damage
ible Laser may be able to pass through bullet-proof glass, of the weapon to remain within survivable limits. Some
bounce off mirrors, and yet be utterly useless in fog or weapons may be completely unaffected by armour entirely,
rain. like electromagnetic weapons of higher or lower frequen-
cies; or weapons which inflict other effects, such as brain
Whilst energy weapons are pretty much fixed as to their scramblers that induce unconsciousness.
effects, projectile weapons can be quite versatile accord-
ing to what ammunition they are loaded with. In fact the Of course, with more exotic weaponry there should always
type and amount of damage caused depends more on the be some form of counter or protection available to thwart
bullet, rather than the gun which projects it. The latter its effects. In a hard Sci-Fi setting, defending against an
having more influence over firing modes, range, accuracy X-Ray Laser might require 1cm thick lead-lined armour to
and such like. halve its effects (great for cross-genre Gloranthan trolls),
or conversely 150m of air, meaning that X-Ray rifles are

Ammunition Capacity going to be rather poor as long range sniper weapons.

Whether a firearm shoots physical projectiles or energy

beams, it will have a limited number of shots before
the magazine or power source needs to be swapped out.
New Weapon
This is important, not because of any real world or hard
science considerations, but without changing clips on a
Traits
regular basis, a firefight will simply be won by whomever The following list gives some new Firearm specific weapon
establishes suppressing fire first and then walks down his traits. Further traits can be designed for more exotic
cowering foes. weaponry.

With no need to reload, every battle may well turn into • Ablating: Designed to directly attack the protective
a bloodbath, which is fine if you are merely expending armour of an object or person. Damage is done to Ar-
clones or droids, but will become extremely frustrating to mour Points first. Once the armour has been reduced
players when rolling up new characters for the umpteenth to zero, any remaining damage continues through to
time. the target. Most HE (High Explosive) ammunition
fits this trait.
Modern projectile weapons currently have magazines of • Armour Piercing: Ignores a specific number of
about 10-30 rounds, which should be sufficient capacity Armour Points equal to half the maximum damage
to enable a decent amount of shooting until needing to capability of the firing weapon. So Armour Piercing
change the clip. Heavier support weapons which have a rounds fired from a .45 pistol would ignore the first
much higher rate of fire, should possess larger magazines. four points of any protection, whereas those fired

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