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Of course. It's magic.

There is no logic to how much damage weapons do. They simply do what the authors say they do.

There is no rhyme or reason. MD weapons do damage that defy our intuition on how things should work. As a result, published damages (and damage capacities, for that matter) are entirely arbitrary.

Rant over.

--flatline

Last Czarian wrote:Can a weapon like a Rune sword be more powerful then a plasma gun or laser rifle? I seen on an OCC once that had a Rune sword doing 5d6x10 md while a laser did 3d6 md. Wouldn't the laser do more damage instead?

Rune Weapons are the most powerful magical weapons in existence. Generally, it is pretty easy for them to deal more damage than a laser.

Of course they can, but it depends on what the creator had in mind. Also, since most can also be oriented against a specific foe the damage potential in some cases is staggering.

I have seen people playing characters that did over a 1000 MD per melee round, and others that were lucky to do 50 in the same 15 seconds... that's just rifts. There is quite a disparity between possible characters when you allow all the megaversal rules, especially junk like super powers. As long as all the characters are in the same ballpark, damage wise, by that I mean within 2x or 3x difference between lowest and highest, and the GM is throwing appropriately scaled encounters at them, it seems to work. It's when one pc is doing 20x the damage of the rest of the party that rifts tends to break down. GMing Rifts is harder, imo, than any other game out there, because you have to get ahead of the power curve right away and make sure that one or a couple PCs don't break the game.

Use your imagination.

Last Czarian wrote:I have never seen a rune weapon katana do 5d6x10 mdc being wielded by a ninja though. The OCC I found called for a ninja to use one.

Well of course you haven't, they're ninjas after all...

But rest assured, it happens ALL THE TIME.

I don't think the question is so much about weapon damage as it is about how important it is to make sure that the damage output within the game being played is where it should be.

General Guidelines
1D6-2D4 = Standard Ranged Weapon
2D6 = Average Melee Weapon
3D6 = High End Melee Weapon/Standard Laser Rifle
4D6 = Grendades, High Powered Ranged Weapons
5D6 = Top of the line Military Weapons
Multiplier x5 = Normally reserved for Bursts or Sprays
Multiplier x10 = Mega Weapons (Giant Mech-Scale Weaponry or Massive Area Damage

Use this rough scale to keep in mind the hitting power of a weapon and roughly how common it is. If your character is going 5D6 M.D. with Supernatural Strength they're hitting with more force than the average CS grenade. Which are high end explosives that cost about 50 credits each.

That sword does more damage than most missiles with each attack and a missile is even MORE expensive than that. Go look at a jet fighter shooting a stinger missile at something on youtube and THAT is what the Rune Weapon is capable of doing (each swing).

In short, yes the magic sword (in this instance) is more devastating than a standard laser.

I hope this has helped somewhat.

Last Czarian wrote:Can a weapon like a Rune sword be more powerful then a plasma gun or laser rifle? I seen on an OCC once that had a Rune sword doing 5d6x10 md while a laser did 3d6 md. Wouldn't the laser do more damage instead?

The really powerful part of the mystique about Rune weapons is the small portion that are soul-drinkers. These can, if the conditions are met, with one cut kill the target by sucking that opponent's soul out of them.

Akashic Soldier wrote:General Guidelines
1D6-2D6 = Standard Ranged Weapon
1D6 = Average Melee Weapon
3D6 = High End Melee Weapon/Standard Laser Rifle
4D6 = Grendades, High Powered Ranged Weapons
5D6 = Top of the line Military Weapons
Multiplier x2 = non-energy short bursts
Multiplier x3 = pulse damage for energy weapons, long bursts for others
Multiplier x5 = Normally reserved for short MG style Bursts
Multiplier x10 = Mega Weapons (Giant Mech-Scale Weaponry or Massive Area Damage), or Long MG style bursts

corrections in red.

A sword cutting you in half or taking your head off should do more damage than a laser burning a hole through your leg. I think the way I look at it is Runeswords rarely just nick you. After all a low roll would be 50 damage.

you could always reduce the damage of the rune-sword for a hit roll that barely hits. On the same note a laser blast to the head could be multiplied by 10 since its such a vital area.

After all your looking at the base damage of a well placed shot. Adjust up or down as needed for a better or worse hit.

glitterboy2098 wrote:

Akashic Soldier wrote:General Guidelines
1D6-2D6 = Standard Ranged Weapon
1D6 = Average Melee Weapon
3D6 = High End Melee Weapon/Standard Laser Rifle
4D6 = Grendades, High Powered Ranged Weapons
5D6 = Top of the line Military Weapons
Multiplier x2 = non-energy short bursts
Multiplier x3 = pulse damage for energy weapons, long bursts for others
Multiplier x5 = Normally reserved for short MG style Bursts
Multiplier x10 = Mega Weapons (Giant Mech-Scale Weaponry or Massive Area Damage), or Long MG style bursts

corrections in red.

Thank you but in my experience (looking over what is commonly available) its safe to assume that most melee weapons do 2D6 MD. Smaller weapons (Vibro Knives Etc) do 1D6, larger or exceptional melee weapons (Vibro Katanas etc) do 3D6.

Also on average most common ranged weapons inflict between 1D6 and 2D4 (Pistols).

Ronin78 wrote:A sword cutting you in half or taking your head off should do more damage than a laser burning a hole through your leg.

Pretty sure a Rifts laser weapon wouldn't put a hole through your leg. Rather, your leg would detonate like an impromptu (and icky) frag grenade.