Weapons vs. Armor questions/comments

[dascase]

This question stems from a thread I started in the Chaos Earth forum.

Mainly my problem is that of the major amount of MDC that most armor and power armor have versus the rather weak amount of damage done by most weapons. In addition there are the discrepancies between various weapons systems and the damage they do when compared to similar systems from other books, the intent with which sytems are offered for use (i.e. supposed heavy assault systems doing all of 6d6), and the fact that a 8 lb rifle does the same damage as a gun on a 10 ton robot.

My question is do you have any house rules you use to combat this problem? Or other suggestions?

(Note to Flamers, I do understand that this is a dead horse issue to many, I just haven't been around to read the responses)

[Dustin Fireblade]

Infantry vs. Vehicles/Robots: Likely one of the most sore points in the Palladium Rifts system. What I have done here is that infantry weapons have their damage divided by 10 against Vehicles or Robots (but not power armor) rounded down. The only exception is mini-missile's and rail guns that continue to do their listed damage as normal. So your C-29 that you just rolled 60 point of damage for against that tank now just did 6 points.
On the other side, those big Vehicles/Robots do maximum damage x2 to infantry. The T-160 laser cannon from the CS Linebacker would do 120 points to a infantry in EBA (or PA).

(copied from my post at Nexus Nine)

My players have seldom done a actual vehicle vs vehicle combat. so I have never made any changes in terms of what a vehicle weapon does vs another vehicles armor.

[Athos]

What I have done here is that infantry weapons have their damage divided by 10 against Vehicles or Robots (but not power armor) rounded down. The only exception is mini-missile's and rail guns that continue to do their listed damage as normal.

On the other side, those big Vehicles/Robots do maximum damage x2 to infantry.

That is certainly a logical solution in terms of today's technology, but in the Rifts main book it clearly stated that the advances in technology made a single soldier more powerful than a squadron of tanks. I guess it depends on if you like today's technology paradigm or if you want to go with the one Rifts gave us. Personally, I don't have a problem with using the damage as listed in Rifts. If I can assume that magic works, I can assume technology works as well.

[Dustin Fireblade]

but in the Rifts main book it clearly stated that the advances in technology made a single soldier more powerful than a squadron of tanks

It's been a while since I looked it over, but I think it says something or implies 20th century tanks.
But yeah I think a Rifts-era tank should be more powerful than a Rifts-era standard soldier in EBA and armed with a laser rifle.

[Dustin Fireblade]

Dustin:

Have you ever played the old West End Games Star Wars RPG? Cause what you describe there is remarkably similar to their system... There were various "size categories": Personal, Vehicle, Starfighter, Starship, and a couple even larger ones. The difference between all of them was a factor of 10 in weapon damage, so a starfighter laser did the # of d6 times 100 damage to a person, meanwhile their blaster pistol did damage divided by 100.

Just curious... you sparked an old RPG memory of mine

Naw never get the chance to play it. I based my system on some reference I stumbled across while reading the MechWarrior RPG.

[Killer Cyborg]

This question stems from a thread I started in the Chaos Earth forum.

Mainly my problem is that of the major amount of MDC that most armor and power armor have versus the rather weak amount of damage done by most weapons. In addition there are the discrepancies between various weapons systems and the damage they do when compared to similar systems from other books, the intent with which sytems are offered for use (i.e. supposed heavy assault systems doing all of 6d6), and the fact that a 8 lb rifle does the same damage as a gun on a 10 ton robot.

My question is do you have any house rules you use to combat this problem? Or other suggestions?

(Note to Flamers, I do understand that this is a dead horse issue to many, I just haven't been around to read the responses)

You don't need house rules to take out most people in body armor.
Just allow any laser or ion pistol or rifle with ROF: Standard or "Aimed, Burst, Wild" (Not including pulse weapons) to fire bursts and sprays as per p.34 of the main Rifts book.
Take the Wilk's 447 Laser Rifle, for example... A long burst does 3d6x3 MD. A Full Clip burst does 3d6x7 MD.

As for Vehicles,
My house rules is that any laser weapon built into a vehicle can fire bursts and sprays as per p. 34 of the main book.

[Dead Boy]

You don't need house rules to take out most people in body armor.
Just allow any laser or ion pistol or rifle with ROF: Standard or "Aimed, Burst, Wild" (Not including pulse weapons) to fire bursts and sprays as per p.34 of the main Rifts book.
Take the Wilk's 447 Laser Rifle, for example... A long burst does 3d6x3 MD. A Full Clip burst does 3d6x7 MD.

As for Vehicles,
My house rules is that any laser weapon built into a vehicle can fire bursts and sprays as per p. 34 of the main book.

Yep. To back this up check out the Cutting Room Floor section of the Palladium Home Page. In that section's Errata sub-section look for the official rules for Standard Rate of Fire. In there you will find supporting evidence to allow weapons listed wiht the ROF of "Equal to the number of hand to hand attacks" to fire bursts of all description. Believe me you, your players won't be comparing their Wilk's 457's with a vehicle's heavy 1D6x10 MD laser after they get hit with a long burst from it.