Re: Out of Ammo in FMA

On Tue, 13 Jul 1999, Adrian Johnson wrote:

> >How about:
> >Firefights being the unpredictable things they are, sometimes you
> >consume more ammo than expected. Each time you fire, you are rolling
> >your quality and FP die, and if you roll double ones, you need to
> >change mags after that shot. However, some troops will have time to
> >check their ammo status ahead of time. If you've spent an action
> >checking your ammo loadout, then that unit will automatically avoid
> >the next such 'out of ammo' condition. This can be tracked on paper,
> >with a bead, with a chit, or just in your head. This means you could
> >constantly be "in ammo" if every time you rolled a botch, you (before
> >rolling another) checked your ammo.
> 
> 
> Working along the "elimination of record keeping and keeping it
simple"
> lines, how about saying we use a Necromunda style roll (you roll snake
> eyes, you're out of ammo), but Veteran and Elite troops are immune to
this
> because they are experienced enough to know better.
> 
> That keeps it recordless, chitless, and so on, while eliminating the
> situation of a spec ops trooper accidentally running out of ammo.
> 

I've not played with the rules, but I didn't find a mechanic for weapons
'jamming'.  So this 'out of ammo' rule could be renamed 'weapon
malfunction' - the trooper is either out of ammo, has a round jammed in
the barrel, or has had the firing pin scoot past his ear and into the
brush.	Such circumstances could happen to any trooper - but will depend
greatly on the reliability of a weapon.  I would suggest that should a
'botch' occur, a further die should be rolled dependant on the weapon to
determine whether the barrel has been fouled or whatever.  If you wish,
this die could be stepped up or down dependant on the troop quality (an
elite trooper maintains his weapons better).

If this doesn't make sense take the following examples.

Untrained civilian who happens to have picked up a carbine from
somewhere... fires it and gets good ol' double one.  Lets say that the
carbine has a reliability code of d8, but this is modified to a d6 for
the
inexperience of our 'marksman'.  This rolls comes up a one, and the
hapless civilian discovers that resting the gun barrel down into the mud
was not a good idea!

This also allows scope for optional rules on weapons that may cause
damage
to the firer in malfunctioning. (Our civilian could easily have caused
himself an injury by blocking his barrel)  Or even for the 'secret
weapon'
scenarios with an amazing weapon that has a reliability of d4-1.

just my 2 bits.

Colin Plummer aka Medains

UK