Copyright 2001 by James M. Dugan - All rights reserved.

This is a set of Generic Weapon's Rules, intended to be included in the as-yet-unfinished-game Stellar Sanctums - either as the main rules or as an optional set.

The Weapon Basics are as follows:

• Penetration is modeled by Dice Type - d4,d6, d8 - etc.
• The amount of damage is by the Number of dice - 4d6, 3D8, etc...
• If it's a Vehicle Scale weapon, it does 100X as much damage to a human, Starship Scale does 10,000X as much to a Human. Starship Weapons do 100X as much to Vehicles.
• I might subdivide this to Melee, Combat, Vehicle, Vessel, Ship - each 10X the previous one, so that the scale jumps are not so grainy.
• Average Human is assumed to have about 4-8 Hit Points.
• Basic Weapon Groups - remember - these are classed by penetration ability:
• D4 - Fists, clubs, Maces
• D6 - Dull Swords (think - large bastard sword), Large Slow Bullets, Shotguns
• D8 - Sharp Knives, Speartips, Arrows, standard bullets
• D10 - HEAP, Armor Piercing Rounds
• D12 - Advanced Penetrators, Railguns
• D20 - Lasers, Plasma, Fusion Beams (ie - energy weapons)
• Some Examples (YMMV, and these haven't been playtested)
• Large Mace - 4D4/Melee - Range: HTH
• Conan Sword - 5D6/Melee - Range:HTH
• 45 Caliber Pistol - 4D6/Melee - Range: 50M
• 12 Gauge Shotgun - 6D6/Melee - Range: 25 M
• Small Dagger - 1D8/Melee - Range: HTH
• Zulu Spear - 3D8/Melee - Range: 30M
• Apache Bow - 4D8/Melee - Range: 40M
• 22 Pistol - 2D8/Melee - Range: 100M
• Armburst Antitank Gun -
• 50 Cal MG -
• 75mm Gun -
• 105mm Tank Gun -
• Antimissile Laser -
• Ship's Railgun -
• Hydran Fusion Beam -

• All armor at the low energy end of things is reflective - like modern steel armor vs an explosive shell.
• At the top of the energy scale, Armor becomes Ablative - Steel doesn't stand up well vs a Laser.
• Armor has a base Value - Battleships would be about 12, MBT's at 10, APC's at 6 (on average - YMMV)
• The material has a max value - thisis based on the energy it can absorb, not on it's thickness.
• The thickness can increase, but this adds HULL/STRUCTURE not armor - at a certain point, the armor ceases to be actually protective, and simply starts to absorb damage.
• Some Armor Types:
• Antique Wrought Iron
• max 8
• if armor > 2 add a hull per armor point
• If armor > 4 add 2 hull per armor point
• If armor > 6 add 3 hull per armor point
• Steel Based
• max 12
• if armor > 2 add a hull per armor point
• If armor > 4 add 2 hull per armor point
• If armor > 6 add 3 hull per armor point
• If armor > 8 add 4 hull per armor point
• If armor > 10 add 5 hull per armor point
• Chobham
• max 14
• if armor > 3 add a hull per armor point
• If armor > 6 add 2 hull per armor point
• If armor > 9 add 3 hull per armor point
• If armor > 12 add 4 hull per armor point
• Ceramic Based
• max 16
• if armor > 4 add a hull per armor point
• If armor > 8 add 2 hull per armor point
• If armor > 12 add 3 hull per armor point
• BPC (yeah, that Steve Jackson Imaginary stuff)
• max 18
• if armor > 2 add a hull per armor point
• If armor > 4 add 2 hull per armor point
• If armor > 6 add 3 hull per armor point
• If armor > 8 add 4 hull per armor point
• If armor > 10 add 5 hull per armor point
• if armor > 12 add 6 hull per armor point
• If armor > 14 add 7 hull per armor point
• If armor > 16 add 8 hull per armor point

Ok, fair Question...Mechanics:

• If you roll lower than 10 pips under your target number, raise your dice type by one type, IE:
• 10 under - d4 becomes d6, d6 becomes d8, d8 becomes d10, etc...
• 20 under - d4 decomes d8, d6 becomes d10, etc....
• 30 under - d4 becomes d10, etc...
• Ad Infinitum....
• If your system allows "specials", then raise dice type as above by one (or two)
• If your sytem allows "criticals", then raise dice type as above by two (or three)
• If you have already maxxed out your dice type, drop armor by two for each "step"
• For each range band away a target is (for ranged weapons), drop die type by one, drop a die, and drop hit percentage target by 10%. Missile type weapons with warheads only drop hit %, and don't drop damage dice or type.

• damage > armor is hull damage
• if damage is > 2X Armor Value, then you do a critical hit - some system(s) get knocked out - one per point over 2X Armor.
• if damage is > 3X Armor Value, then the target suffers overkill and is rendered inoperative, starts singing Klingon Opera, blows up, etc....