Custom Weapons? Where do you stand?

[sasha]

Plausibility and the money and the availability of parts and the skill required and ....

[Dog_O_War]

There are two types of "custom" guns here;
The crap you can cobble together and go, "hya hya! I made a super weapon and my GM can't say that I don't have the technical skills to achieve this!"

And the other, "I have found/made/hired a manufacturing plant and made a new weapon."

The first one is expensive, but is more worth while than trying to salvage a boomgun.

The second is 10 times as expensive, and is rarely as good a gun as the ones already out there - but it's yours, it's unique, and it's the beginning of a new wave of weaponry.

Either way, these custom weapons should always be plausable. I'll list a few examples of what I'm talking about.

1a~ The Ork Supa-Kustom MastaBlasta: several guns tied to a stick, all set to fire when a single master trigger is pulled. Not known for accuracy, but more for the wave of destruction this beast lays out, you can build weaponry such as this, and it will do more than a boomgun yet weigh less than a borg railgun. Akward? Yes. Dumb-looking? Yes. Destructive? Yes, yes, and YES!

1b~ A modified version of (a), this is a more sane and logical. Take for instance 4 wilks' rifles, stripping down the outer casing and building a modified case to hold the "innards" of these guns. built for balance, the weapon maintains ease of firing at a weight comparable to our modern-day firearms. The damage though? 1d6x10+10. The cost? Still cheaper to buy Neruni, but the availability is simply unmatched.

2a~ You think that because you are some kind of super-rocket-weapon scientist that when you hit level X (when all your skills are maxed) that you can build some kind of ultimate pistol that never misses and does boomgun damage at mini-missile range. Wrong. But you can build some crap laser gun from scratch with a machine shop and all the appropiate parts. It'll suck worst than a wilks, but hey, you made it with your own two hands.

You might be asking, "why can't I achieve super-gun?" The answer is because if Northern gun has 40 people as smart (if not smarter than you) working for them in a weapons development lab, and they put out the mediocre stuff we see today, what the hell can you make that'll out-do them? Weapons development takes a very long time, and they have infinite resources, and you don't. You simply cannot compete, so don't think that you can just cause you hit 98% in weapons engineering.

2b~ Going to a place like Northern Gun and getting one built for you - to your specifications. How you did this? That's up to you and the GM to decide. Maybe you did a whole lot of Merc. werk for them, and are considered loyal beyond reproach; a hero of the people. Whatever the case, you've got their ear, and you're getting a gun.

With this method you'll get something that is actually half-decent; respectable even. It'll feel like no other gun, and you'll be proud to own it - like getting that FQ ion gun (coolest looking pistol ever, with great stats ta boot!), but it's all custom and stuff. Maybe it has a leopard print, or is made out of a gold/MD compound to better show how pimpin' you are. This is the most likely method of getting a unique custom weapon.

2c~ Finding an old factory, untouched (or relatively serviceable), that manufactured guns already. Highly unlikely - but stranger things have happened... This is for games where you (and your GM who is clearly on some type of imparring drug) make a weapons line. Why would you do this? Because most of the guns in the books suck, look bad, or are way cool but way unattainable (like finding your own guns factory isn't, eh?). More than once I've dreamed of this, making cool guns that were more awesome than anyone else produced, and storming Chi-Town, and......



Well, anyways - that's my take on "custom" guns. The Ork Supa-Kustom MastaBlasta FTW.

[Shorty Lickens]

I generally let operators and techno-wizards make whatever they want.
As for a player writing up a new item and asking me to somehow introduce it into the game world, I usually make it slightly more expensive than comparable items.
If its really overpowered and not directly comparable to anything around, I make it really expensive.

If the item is that great theres no reason someone would sell it to them cheap.

[Rimmerdal]

I'm new to the GM's Dice so I had my poor PC go into Valhalla and earn it. (I wasn't too tough about as there are four fairly potent demons and there minions going after the Knight.)

In general make I'll make them have a story to tell on how they got it. Regardless of skills and such. the difficulty level of getting it being based how powerful/useful it is.

I leave TW items as normal accessable.

[Yendor]

The weapons have to be plausible, and make sense (I don't mean "scientific rules" sense, but something like a pistol that fires 80mm mortar rounds would be right out).

If a player wants to take a Rifts weapon, and change the damage type (say the NG laser rifle from Rifts: Mercenaries) and change the damage type to Ion, with a reduced payload and range, but increased damage, more power to them. As for transformable weapons, within reason, I see nothing wrong with that, again, within reason (having a pocket knife transform into a rocket launcher would be right out, and not allowed).

AU: Galaxy Guide, in robot construction, lists an option that allows a robot's limb to morph into various tools, weapons, etc., so having a transformable weapon (again, within reason/size limits) is more than reasonable/allowable.

[Cinos]

I don't just allow it, I push for it! And not just weapons, but armor and items. Of course this comes with costs, weather in money, favors to NPC's for the right parts or the right skills to make this weapon, or the unforeseen side effects of their changes (Higher ammo drain, wild firing, bigger weight, etc.). In my main game (though a PF), the custom enchanted armor my player had made has put him about 3 Million into an enchanters and smiths debt. . .

[Kesslan]

I know this is a touch old but one suggestion for those wishing to allow some weapons mods into the game is to look at books such as the Aliens Unlimited series. They have a number of basic weapon mods without going overboard. If I recall correctly thats also the book where you can do things like modify guns to fire larger caliber rounds etc.


You could apply a similar line of thought to the energy weapons as well. Maybe add 1dX to the weapon damage or something and lower the payload. NG-45LP for example.. beef it to a wooping 6d6 a shot but now it's down to 2/3rd the usual payload or what have you and maybe it'll overheat time to time.

Granted it's nowhere near as versatile as some gun modification systems out there (Shadowrun for example) that has rules layed out for building a gun litterally from scratch, but most of the time you dont really need to.

[Lenwen]

I voted yes with the plausability , the capital to build , the inginuity to create something else weather its a new techno-wizard item or a strickly tech based item I would allow it .
So long as it does not overpower them or thier allies compared to what is currently running around in my own game .. that is heh

[Captain Shiva]

I would require them to possess the proper skills, has access to a shop with the proper materials, and make skill rolls in my prescence. And the more outlandish the combination, the more penalties I would impose. For instance, adding a grenade launcher to a plasma cannon or rail gun would be doable, but a Gatling Boom Gun would result in a resounding: (BLEEP) NO!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR (BLEEP)ING MIND??!!

[Vrykolas2k]

The second choice is the only logical one...

[Cinos]

I would require them to possess the proper skills, has access to a shop with the proper materials, and make skill rolls in my prescence. And the more outlandish the combination, the more penalties I would impose. For instance, adding a grenade launcher to a plasma cannon or rail gun would be doable, but a Gatling Boom Gun would result in a resounding: (BLEEP) NO!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR (BLEEP)ING MIND??!!

I had a player develop one of those, the end result was a power armor which had to spend about 30 seconds to lock down, couldn't it anything smaller then a tank with out a massive amount of luck for a notable effect, and jammed so often (any D20 natural roll of an 8 or less, which then required a crew of three people about 30 seconds to clear), that after spending the parties entire funds (in addition to running them into debt), and months of development time, it was sold to a scrap yard

[bigbobsr6000]

I voted the seconded one.

[Jerell]

I voted the seconded one.

As did I. I had a player make a double-decker crossbow once (ala Lady Hawk), worked for me, worked for him. Didn't encounter any problems from it.

[Vrykolas2k]

I would require them to possess the proper skills, has access to a shop with the proper materials, and make skill rolls in my prescence. And the more outlandish the combination, the more penalties I would impose. For instance, adding a grenade launcher to a plasma cannon or rail gun would be doable, but a Gatling Boom Gun would result in a resounding: (BLEEP) NO!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR (BLEEP)ING MIND??!!

I had a player develop one of those, the end result was a power armor which had to spend about 30 seconds to lock down, couldn't it anything smaller then a tank with out a massive amount of luck for a notable effect, and jammed so often (any D20 natural roll of an 8 or less, which then required a crew of three people about 30 seconds to clear), that after spending the parties entire funds (in addition to running them into debt), and months of development time, it was sold to a scrap yard

I take it he made some really bad skill rolls to invent it...

[drewkitty ~..~]

If you are not running a high powered campain then don't let them have the laser rifle/vibro sword or the pull it out of your rear and lay waste to all you see weapons.

These clasifications can apply to cannon weapons like the DeathBringer Magic sword. Since it is a Magic sword and a point and shoot weapons and a Talismon. Even if you have to supply the power to make it work for the P&S and Talismon.

If you limit the players to what is found in the books for weapon modifications, you can screen out 90% of the munchkinisum.

[Damian Magecraft]

i gotta go with the plausability option...
and not on just the weapon itself...
explain to me why character x would have weapon y.

[GA]

I went with plausibility option but probability might have been the better word to use here. If there's a decent chance he could've acquired the weapon without anything unusual about it (no complicated backstory on how he got it) then i'm like whatever. With rifts though this is a real pain in the ass. Rifts has SO many weapons and they are all screwed up that making a good plausible weapon just gets on my nerves.I mean every book is like 100 new weapons. With that much volume I don;t have a lot of patience for new weapons in that world. Armor though yeah probably ok.

[Nemo235]

Only if their character stabs themselves in the eye with it on a called shot.

Oh wait, they can't!

[demos606]

Depends on the item, the game and the character really. I've had folks go as far as trying to design soul drinking battle fury gattling boom guns with no recoil - they were no longer welcome at my game after said attempts. I've had folks that wanted Armor of Ithan amulets that self activated and had 6th sense, they didn't get quite what they wanted but they did get AoI amulets that would self activate as soon as the wearer was under detectable attack.

[mellowmaveric]

first they need to have the know how and with that sever penalities. then there is research time development time funding for development and research. how did they get the idea? by they i mean the character not the player. you would need multiple skills for enginering a weapon. most of them would be needed to be maxed out and also a understanding of the principles behind each of the weapons functions. all in all i would make them work for it and unless they could devote a significant ammount of time to it i would say no. and as for each part of it they would need to have a kind of eureka moment of sorts and one roll each day under the apropriate skills to make progress. if all the skills passed they made progress but if even one failed they were stuck in place.