Rubber Bullets

[Killer Cyborg]

Also plastic, wood, and wax rounds.

How easy are they to get?
How effective are they?
How safe are they?
Why aren't they used more?

What should the effects be in game terms?

[Grey Death]

Also plastic, wood, and wax rounds.

How easy are they to get? Dont know never tried to get them as a civilian. I would think law enforcement, military would order them right from the manufacturer.
How effective are they? They can be very effective. High velocity (relativly speaking) rounds that dont break the skin ouch. Beside a lot of "rubber bullets" used are what they refer to as 30mm batons. 30mm peices of rubber/plastic smacking perps aroound.
How safe are they? much like any thing else when used improperly, like head shots. They have the potetial to kill. But its obviously far less than standard projectiles.
Why aren't they used more? They are used. But they have been largely replaced with tasers, and bean bags. Which have been judged more effective. Now other countries still use wooden baton projectiles for non-lethal situations. Of course there are contries like China that use main battle tanks as riot control devices.

What should the effects be in game terms?

In recon or megaversal rules?

[Killer Cyborg]

What should the effects be in game terms?

In recon or megaversal rules?

Either/or/both.

And thanks for your swift reply.

[Rockwolf66]

Also plastic, wood, and wax rounds.

How easy are they to get?
How effective are they?
How safe are they?
Why aren't they used more?

What should the effects be in game terms?

They are very easy to get, I gave a box of rubber buckshot to my grandfather. He has deer problems and they are not in Season.

The effectivness varries by range. at close range rubber rounds will do damage by blunt force trauma. Too far away from someone and you only tick them off even more.

They are safe to use, but getting hit by them is never safe( Said range and blunt force trauma bit.)

Why are they not used more... Well for riots CR gas and watercannon work alot better. As far as Home defence goes if you are justified shooting them use real bullets, it's safer for all involved.

[Jefffar]

In game terms, i'd say in Recon they do normal damage fo rhte weapon type, but it can be considered "Tavern Combat" for it's lethality.

In standard Palladium, I'd reduce damage to 1D4 to 1D8 depending on the round type, with a save vs Non-Lethal Toxin or Pain used to fight off the penalties.

Availablity would depend on local laws, but probably available as lethal ammo, but rarer due to lower demand.

In real life people can and have been killed with "rubber" bullets, especially at close range or a shot in the head. The trend to day is for slower, even lower velocty projectiles (ie bean bags), incapacitating agents (ie CS and OC), disorienting effects (ie flash bang) and water cannon. There are soem exceptions, for example the F303 uses compressed air to launch a 12 guage pellet that can be rubber.

Also no reduced force round cycles well in an automatic. Pump, bolt, lever and revolver only.

Also, any body armour should be able to preent a "rubber" round from doing any damage.

[Jefffar]

So Jarhead, we meet agian for the first time for the last time . . .


Perhaps overstated on my part, but most less lethal rounds will not cycle reliably in a semi-automatic weapon. There have been fatalities with rifle and pistol and shotguns firing less lethal rounds, though these are typically short range head and neck hits.

A lot of less lethal round manufacturers list a minimum safe range for engaging the target. Another advised tactic is to bounce the round off the ground or a wall to reduce it's kinetic energy before it impacts a person who is otherwise within the minimum range. I beleive I've heard this called Skip Firing.

When you get to the riot and gas guns and the grenade launchers, you do have a much heavier projectile - but the muzzle velocity is also much less. I think they are able ot make the inert baton and beanbag rounds after an even softer compound, but I'm not sure where I got that information from. So the result is a more forceful impact due to the weight, but less chance of an accidental fatality from penetration.

I've heard of both the stingball and peppeball and find them rather interesting. I've also heard of shotgun cartridges that combine the effects of rubber shot and OC or CS spray which would be nice for convincing someone to back off.

The FN F303 is basicaly a police duty paintball launcher, but it also fires solid rounds and I think an OC or CS round. It fires a "marker" round which can be used to colour a target and won't wash off so you can arrest them when they show their face days later.

The UDAR series of weapons made in russia have similar capabilites except they arebased off a 32 guage shotgun and put into large revolvers or concealable hand launchers. They'v included a noiemaker round that I think is basically a cross between a blank and a flash bang. It also has a vehicle stopper round designed to shatter a car's engine block - and do a nasty bit of trauma to any fool who gets in the way.