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Mortal Engines Engineer Lighting Gun

Started by mirryhalo, November 15, 2011, 07:21:39 PM

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mirryhalo

Hey I just recently read the mortal engines series again and I thought I'd make myself one of these guys I'm just going to use him as a normal techpreist but i was trying to think up some special rules for his weapons. In the last book, a darkling plain, the london people have a sort of lightning gun made by the engineers so I thought I'd give him one of those guys I've though up some rules but I left them at home so I can't get them until the weekend.

The rough outlines were a bit like a flame weapon but you couldn't reload it and it had bonus damage on electronic things servitors robots etc. and I was thinking it could have an effect like the shock weapons in that it could temporarily paralyze people if it got the rolls etc. I'll post the full rules on the weekend but any comments about it or proposed rules would be very welcome, thanks.

mirryhalo

Here are the rules for the lightning gun:
Type: Basic
Range: 35
F.mode: Flame
Acc: -
DMG: 2D6
Shots: 10
Reload: -
Weight: 10

Unlike other flame weapons you can aim but you do not set people alight or 'on sparks' however on a 30% chance when hitting a person with a forcefield the forcefield and the gun are disabled for D3 turns aswell the owner of the force field takes a toughness test at -10 to check if they are stunned from the forcefield generator short-circuiting  and zapping them.
If damage is caused by the attack then they must take a toughness test or be stunned for one turn.
Can only be reloaded at a recharge point.

So there are my rules any comments and ideas would be appreciated thanks

Draco Ferox

It's a good idea, and I like it. However, if I were to design one, I would probably use a variant of the Xenarch Death-Arc, as it seems like the sort of weapon you're talking about. I'm not sure that a flame firing mode would be appropriate, as it's not projecting a blanket of fire/sticky web/gas. Instead, the full auto rules seem more appropriate, to represent it arcing between characters. Instead of the flame rules, you could give it a range of A or B, and just give it a maximum range. This would also get around the aiming problems as well.
I like the idea of it affecting weapons and forcefields, and the idea of shorting them out. Have you considered the idea of being able to zap other things, such as cogitators/alarm systems, in order to overload them? The idea of recharging it seems good too. I assume that it would take 1 action to place it in the recharger, and 1 to remove it, maybe gaining 5 shots per turn left in the recharger. I would also give it a weight of 20, as 10 is a small pistol size.

I like th concept, being a fan of mortal engines myself, so keep up the good work!
Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

Kaled

#3
Quote from: Draco Ferox on November 19, 2011, 10:33:59 PM
It's a good idea, and I like it. However, if I were to design one, I would probably use a variant of the Xenarch Death-Arc,
Yes, I think that's the way I'd go as well - I haven't read the books, but the flame weapon rules don't feel right to me.

QuoteThis would also get around the aiming problems as well.
Again I haven't read the books but this doesn't sound like the sort of weapon you should be able to aim. An arcing bolt of electricity doesn't sound that accurate so making it a full auto weapon seems good.

I agree on the weight too, but think it should be more like 30-40 (depending on how the model looks).

Quote from: mirryhalo on November 19, 2011, 09:43:01 PM
If damage is caused by the attack then they must take a toughness test or be stunned for one turn.
I'd be very wary about this as being able to stun an opposing character at range  and cause damage as well makes this an extremely powerful weapon. As it stands, he could very easily put the entire opposing warband out for a turn from right across the board, and then keep firing at them when they're stunned so they can't get back up. I do have one character with a ranged shock weapon, but it has less shots than this one, is very inaccurate and only hits one target. Changing it to Full(5) would help as you wouldn't get so many hits on each character. And I'd probably make it range A, maybe with 15 or 20 shots before needing to reload.

EDIT: In fact, given that the Xenarch are the masters of building this type of weapon, I'd start with the rules for the death arc and then make them worse to represent a crude human copy. And if you want it to be able to stun it's target, then I'd make it significantly worse than the death arc.
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

mirryhalo

Yeah I'll look over combining some of my rules with the death arc but I can't for a while because of work......