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It will only hit the main body, as all attacks do unless you make a called shot to target another body part. This is simply for ease of play.

There's this beautiful thing called a choke that scatter guns come with. Boomgun would be no exception I'm sure. Combat computer recognizes a smaller target area and chokes the muzzle accordingly to ensure maximum effectiveness of the BG. It all hits the main body unless there's a called shot to another area just like it would against a giant robot.

I've made up some Optional Boom Gun other then damage effects. Most of then are typed for a BG slug round but are convertible to BG fleechette rounds.
effective range: 11,000', 3d6x10 MD & SB flechette
effective range: 7000' (-1s per 1000' over 7000' ), 2d6x20 MD & knock back Slug

The BG slug looses virtually none of the kinetic energy that was used to launch in with in its total range, thus what ever is hit receives a knock back effect. If hit by a BG a 1.5 ton object will be knocked back 30' , tanks have a 40% chance of rolling over, Bots have a 50% chance of being Knock down, with PA getting Knocked Down unless the pilot makes a roll with impact/explotion roll & will loose init and -1 APM. A man sized object will be thrown back 300'+2d6x10' and a mortals in MDC armor will be knocked out for 3d6 min., MDC beings get a 60% of being KOed for 2d6 melees.

Dustin Fireblade wrote:It will only hit the main body, as all attacks do unless you make a called shot to target another body part. This is simply for ease of play.

Yep, though not 100% realistic, that's they way it is by the book. Technically speaking, even explosives only affect the main body, and the spread of the Boom Gun's shot is much more confined than the blast of a hand-grenade.

demos606 wrote:There's this beautiful thing called a choke that scatter guns come with. Boomgun would be no exception I'm sure. Combat computer recognizes a smaller target area and chokes the muzzle accordingly to ensure maximum effectiveness of the BG. It all hits the main body unless there's a called shot to another area just like it would against a giant robot.

Good thinking! That is an excellent rationalization for this.

Archangel23 wrote:Forgive my stupidity but i was not aware of where it said a Boom Gun round was spread shot I thought it was a Slug. Please tell me book and page # where i can find this.

Well it doesn't say "spread shot" but rather "flechette style rounds" - pg 72 RUE under the description of the Boom Gun.

"flechette style rounds" are Shot in the form of little arrows, so they do spread over the distance of the range. Just not much. I would say anything under say 6000' the flechette would impact the same relatively small spot, but after that they would spread out a bit so if striking a man sized object you would get some extremity hits. Outside the effective range you would nee to roll a % to see how many of the flechette hit the target, i.e. what % of the damage the man sized target would receive.

But these are real world assumptions for those that would like more reality in the game play, otherwise stick with the 'they all hit the main body/called shot target.

demos606 wrote:There's this beautiful thing called a choke that scatter guns come with. Boomgun would be no exception I'm sure. Combat computer recognizes a smaller target area and chokes the muzzle accordingly to ensure maximum effectiveness of the BG. It all hits the main body unless there's a called shot to another area just like it would against a giant robot.

Eccept that this would wreck the gun if infact the boomgun had a choke.

Why? the rounds don't actually touch the walls of the gun because it is a railgun; a weapon where the ammunition travels along a magnetic "track". The boomgun's round also does not begin to seperate until after it leaves the barrel, offering that a choke will have no effect anyways.



And to answer the OP; having the Boomgun as an AoE weapon is detrimental to you and your players*. I mean it is already going to destroy most personal body armours anyways, so what's the need in having this thing do more damage? At most I'd give the guy a generic bonus of +1-3 to hit, but make called shots impossible (except on large targets). But see below on the whys of birds, and how they make this a bad thing for themselves.


*what's good for the goose is good for the gander; basically if your players can do it, so can you - and they are all "man-sized" (I assume), so that means you will kill them in single hits as 3d6x10 to any location but the main body generally means death for all but the toughest of PC's.

Simple enough modification to the ammo canister for a boomgun to still see the benefits of a choke on the spread against smaller targets.

demos606 wrote:Simple enough modification to the ammo canister for a boomgun to still see the benefits of a choke on the spread against smaller targets.

That's the problem though; even if the round chambered were 1000 little balls with no casing, the magnetic force of the "rails" will still keep them from touching the walls all the way to the tip of the barrel.

So the choke goes on the canister instead of the gun barrel, simple enough adjustment.

Dog_O_War wrote:

demos606 wrote:Simple enough modification to the ammo canister for a boom-gun to still see the benefits of a choke on the spread against smaller targets.

That's the problem though; even if the round chambered were 1000 little balls with no casing, the magnetic force of the "rails" will still keep them from touching the walls all the way to the tip of the barrel.

A BG would not work if you just loaded it with loose shot of any type. the Why: The projectile(s) of a rile gun don't/can't touch the sides of the drive mechanism or it would cause it to short out.

macksting wrote:Pardon, hope y'all don't mind my asking, but is the Boom Gun more like a rail-gun, or a coil-gun? I'm asking about mechanics, not names.

A BG is a rain-gun. A rail-gun is weapon that uses EM fields to accelerate a projectile. A Coil-Gun is just one type of Rail-Gun.
Side note: The US already has a working prototype, coil-gun, of a Grenade Launcher /Mortar launcher about 95% done.

demos606 wrote:So the choke goes on the canister instead of the gun barrel, simple enough adjustment.

The only way for there to be a "Choke" on a Rail Gun, is for it to be a "Negative Choke" pushing the flechette apart.
Note: flechette is French for 'Little Arrow"

To hypothesize about using round shot in the BG, you'd cut the damage and range at least in half. You might get a better spread but for use in Anti-Personal, it would be darned near useless vs armor.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:

macksting wrote:Pardon, hope y'all don't mind my asking, but is the Boom Gun more like a rail-gun, or a coil-gun? I'm asking about mechanics, not names.

A BG is a rain-gun. A rail-gun is weapon that uses EM fields to accelerate a projectile. A Coil-Gun is just one type of Rail-Gun.

incorrect. a RG-14 Rapid Accelleration Electromagnetic Gun, as described, is a coilgun.

now little timmy (bane-of-all-mages) will ask, "well mr. Glitterboy sir, what is the difference?"

a coilgun uses a series of electromagnets to pull a ferrous projectile down a barrel. the electromagnets are external to the barrel, and at no time is the projectile touching the propelling magnets.

a railgun uses a pair of charged metallic rails. the projectile bridges the gap, creating a circut between the rails. the resulting electron flow generates lorentz force that causes the projectile to accellerate down the rails until it is no longer bridging the gap. the projectile has to be touching the two rails for it to work. as such, there is no barrel per say, although the rails are usually housed in an assembly refferred to as a barrel. one quirk of railguns is that their projectiles do not need to be ferrous. infact, they work best using non-ferrous but conductive materials, like copper, in the projectile to bridge the two rails.

*demonstrates the differance in firing methods...*
"oh dear....We're gonna need another timmy!"

Side note: The US already has a working prototype, coil-gun, of a Grenade Launcher /Mortar launcher about 95% done.

haven't seen any information on this, and a google search turns up nothing, even from the normal military tech sites.
however, i've found plenty of stuff on the railgun the US navy is working on.

glitterboy2098 wrote:now little timmy (bane-of-all-mages) will ask, "well mr. Glitterboy sir, what is the difference?"

OK so I was making a simplistic definition of what a Rail-gun is. But that is sort of what PB did when they use the name rail-gun for most every type of EM gun.

Side note: The US already has a working prototype, coil-gun, of a Grenade Launcher /Mortar launcher about 95% done.

haven't seen any information on this, and a google search turns up nothing, even from the normal military tech sites.
however, i've found plenty of stuff on the rail-gun the US navy is working on.[/quote]

Well I was looking @ the youtube videos on the research on the navy's new mass driver for their ships, I stumbled across a video of prototype of a coil-gun made about the size for a mortar. And when I say 95% done I mean the basic research was 95% done. It still needs to be worked up for weaponization. As in made practical to be used as a weapon.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:

glitterboy2098 wrote:now little timmy (bane-of-all-mages) will ask, "well mr. Glitterboy sir, what is the difference?"

OK so I was making a simplistic definition of what a Rail-gun is. But that is sort of what PB did when they use the name rail-gun for most every type of EM gun.

which isn't palladium's fault. it's pretty common for writers to use the term 'rail gun' when they write about coil guns. frankly this is because "rail gun" is sexier than "coilgun". to the point where the term has become a catchall for all such weapons, including mass drivers and linear motors.

a good example of what i mean comes from Battletech. 'Guass rifles" are a popular weapon, and they are described specificaly as functioning as coilguns. and yet, the first use of the weapon in the novels and mech fluff was under the manufacturers listing "von ryan railgun". doubly ironic was that in the novels, after specifying the name, the writer then goes on to describe the mechanism it works on and how you can shoot anything the magnets can jet along.

this sort of thing is why you have to look at how the weapons are described when figuring out what they are. for RIFTS, most of the 'rail guns', like those used by the Coalition, the boomgun, and so on, better fit the charicteristics of a coilgun than a rail gun. the use of ferrous projectiles, the dipiction of said weapons as having rifled bores, and so on.

since many 'rail guns' have no specific description of their ammo or mechanism, there may be some true rail guns in RIFTS. but most are probably coilguns.

Side note: The US already has a working prototype, coil-gun, of a Grenade Launcher /Mortar launcher about 95% done.

haven't seen any information on this, and a google search turns up nothing, even from the normal military tech sites.
however, i've found plenty of stuff on the rail-gun the US navy is working on.

Well I was looking @ the youtube videos on the research on the navy's new mass driver for their ships, I stumbled across a video of prototype of a coil-gun made about the size for a mortar. And when I say 95% done I mean the basic research was 95% done. It still needs to be worked up for weaponization. As in made practical to be used as a weapon.

you mind providing a link? just becase it's mortar sized doesn't mean it was built by the military or intended for use as a weapon. but if there is such a plan i'd love to learn more about it.

glitterboy2098 wrote:
you mind providing a link? just becase it's mortar sized doesn't mean it was built by the military or intended for use as a weapon. but if there is such a plan i'd love to learn more about it.

Un fortanately this was somthing like 5-8 months ago and I didn't bookmark it. *shrugs*

However, it was in a link chain from a video of the nave rail gun test. But the thing was, it was described as a mortar.
Spent about 2 hours trying to find it again but no luck.


Hereis a nice vid showing a tank grape shot round being fired. It seams appropriate from the way some parts of this discussion.

Not a video, but definate confirmation of a 120mm mortar coil gun weaponization program.

The 'coil gun' mortar I saw was actually on a ep of FutureWeapons.