I’d like to develop a set of house rules which develop various gun types and caliber sizes.
Revolver, takes an action to reload every 6 attacks
Lever-action, bolt-action, and pump action shotguns, action to reload every 10 attacks
Lever-action, bolt-action, and pump action rifles, action to reload every 20 attacks
Semi Auto handguns, shotguns, rifles, no action to reload
Small caliber guns +0 damage, Swift
Medium caliber guns +2 damage (x1 for each d20 explosion), Disadvantage +1 for multiple targets
Large caliber guns +4 damage (x1 for each die explosion), Disadvantage +2 for multiple targets
Is this horribly unbalanced? Thoughts, suggestions?
well, this adds more complexity, and a lot more you have to keep track of.
If you do multi-targeting for your attack does that still only count as 1 attack, or for purposes of reloading, does it now count for more based on number of targets? Will that then influence the players by them not taking as much risk in regards to multi-targeting.
The flat + to damage is usually not something recommended for Open Legend, normally you do this via advantage/disadvantage.
Also the attack roll and the damage are one in the same.
There are special ammo that you can create for the game via extraordinary weapons already.
Personally, I would use this just b/c it adds more book keeping and complexity.
NOW, you can achieve making “higher caliber” weapons more deadly by actually giving them the Deadly property (extraordinary items).
You can also give weapons Delayed Ready.
Thats helpful. It is more complexity and I want it as simple as possible but would like more realism for a campaign that will be relying heavily on modern weaponry.
I was thinking +X instead of Advantage because advantage seems like a really big potential increase in damage.
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Advantage has diminishing returns on it, so keep that in mind.
+1 Advantage is generally = to +2 to maybe +3
There’s a reason the colt 45 is listed on the extraordinary items’ list. Higher caliber, so it is Deadly 1.
EDIT addition:
or you can give Ammo the delayed ready (essentially Augmented ammo is delayed ready already, b/c you have to use a Move action to load the ammo into the weapon, etc).
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ALSO,
something to remember, your Attribute Aciton Rolls are how well you use the weapon, and doesn’t speak as much about the weapon.
So when you roll, it’s rolling your ability to aim effectively with the weapon.
Likewise, just b/c you “hit” the defense score doesn’t actually mean your bullet hit the target. A bullet wound is usually pretty serious. So the HP going down is them having to strain to not get hit, or the sudden fear at how close that bullet really was to hitting them.
Of course, it all depends on what kind of game you are wanting to play, and if you want a more gritty bloody, deadly game, then you might describe someone has getting hit by a 50 cal bullet. Otherwise, I usually avoid describing “damage” as actual hits, and more them having to strain or stress themselves to avoid NOT getting hit bad by the attack.
Lethal damage, however, I describe like being actually hit. In the case of a 50 cal, I’d probably describe it as exploding and shrapnel in the case of lethal, but yeah.
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Also a fair point. hmm. things to think about.
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I’m currently gaming a dark fantasy session. I myself haven’t used lethal damage beyond the feat and traps and have left the critical option rule out for the most part. But for a gritty game, treating hp loss in that fashion makes sense. However, would you only use the crit optional rule with the exploding d20. I feel that wouldn’t happen enough for the actually “target hits” or do you tweak it a bit to allow lethal damage to happen a bit more often. But only a little bit.
It depends what kind of feel you are going for. The optional critical hit rule makes fights scary; any attack could potentially be lethal damage, d20 explosions may not happen often but it’s an average of 11 lethal damage each time it does which is significant in this system. If you want a slower, more grinding dread, then you could use more environmental hazards which are lethal by default. Traps, crumbling ruins and sudden falls don’t do as much damage each time, but it will wear down your PCs’ hitpoints and really make them feel the pressure; especially if they don’t have time to rest and recover.
Yeah. I am usually using the latter method. Perhaps I’ll switch it up to out fear on there minds.