RailGuns!!!

[Arachknight]

I like this question.

So, I'll try to give my view on the answer.

Ok, for the purposes of my answer, we're going to assume that we are dealing with "stock" Machine armaments. That means just stuff found in the book, not "rifted" in or anything.

So, with that in mind, on a cursory inspection, I find two railguns: one mounted on the Sky Fighter, and the Light Robot Rail Gun. There may be more, but let's start there.

This question, in my mind has two answers:

The first is "Nothing. The world is hazardous enough, do we really need to add more grief to the populance?"

The second is "Something Bad," and will be the one that I will be exploring.

(Note: Yes, I know technically that there are three answers, including "Something Good," but is getting shot really something that could be considered a good thing?)

Ok, we *could* rule that each round of ammunition is considered a Simple (non-complex) Metal Item, and roll on the Hostile Response Table. This is an easy answer when dealing with a single-shot wound. One shot, if it hits, roll the damage, then roll on the Hostile Response Table after the appropriate amount of time (1D4+1 melee rounds, in this case) has passed for more mayhem. This is basically the bullet that keeps on hurting.

Now, taking it a step further and delving into bio-regeneration, we *could* rule that the bullet/round is expelled from the body after there has been enough time to pass to heal the initial wound. This means very bad news for Host Armors with only basic Regeneration, and could be dangerous to those with Enhanced Regeneration depending on the die rolls. Those with Super Regenerative capabilities should be more or less ok.

From a single shot, that is.

Note well that this would also apply to SDC weapons also (against SDC targets anyway, as they can't penetrate MegaDamage armors) so if you're unarmoured and shot with let's say a revolver, you will be dealing with a hostile response unless you have a Saint standing by on the scene.

Now, given the rapid fire of Rail Guns, it is assumed by this author that the damage dealt is due to multiple bullets/rounds hitting their target. So the question is, how do we determine how many rounds hit? I don't see a formula instantly with these particular weapons to be able to answer that properly. If we used say, for example, a rail gun that fired 40 round bursts, and did 1D4x10 MD, then we could say easily that "Ok, 10 damage means 10 rounds hit" and work from there, rolling on the Hostile Response Table 10 times after 1D4+1 melee rounds have passed if the Host Armour has not regenerated enough to cover the 10 damage dealt by this attack. Now, we could say that if the Armour regenerated 4 of these points, it would have expelled 4 rounds, leaving only 6 inside to be dealt with. I'm not a complete sadist.

Though it does look pretty mean, considering the regeneration rates and damage done by railgun bursts. A way to balance this would be to say, expel the foreign object in half the time (10 damage, it's expelled from the body after healing 5 points of that damage, for example.)

This all an excercise in dealing with the topic intellectualy for me though, I doubt I'd use this in my games unless either the player's power levels demanded upping the ante to keep them on their toes, a neat gm option to punish problem players, or for teaching them a moral lesson about Why We Don't Offend the Technojacker with the .45s.

Ok, so deep down i'm a "little bit sadist." All GMs are, and you know it.

[Spinachcat]

You will want to consider that high speed rail gun rounds probably pierce right through the body and keep going. Many modern day bullets do that without a supersonic magnetic launcher. Therefore, most bullets will cut right through.

This of course leads to concerns for rounds to continue through the next guy, but I think it is reasonable to assume that some rounds will get stuck in the body / armor of the target.

In fact, it would make sense that the Machine would want to make weapons whose job was to drill through the Host Armor's MDC and implant metal fragments which then become nano-terrors.

[taalismn]

Ouch...too evil for me...

[slappy]

I made something a while ago that addressed this idea. I called it the Inflictor Hunter Killer.

It's posted here on the board somewhere.

[NMI]

I made something a while ago that addressed this idea. I called it the Inflictor Hunter Killer.

It's posted here on the board somewhere.

http://www.forums.palladium-megaverse.c ... hp?t=39770

[sHaka]

Another thing to remember. Super sonic rounds do more damage passing trough than they do by staying in. It is called hydro-static shock and it is extremely lethal.

I think the point being made though is that by staying lodged in a wound, the rail-gun round's contact with flesh would trigger the nano-plague and cause havoc.

[Metathiax]

Boom gun speed was recently upgraded to Mach 5