The Nintendo 64's Perfect Dark is an old game by industry standards, but its quality hasn't diminished with age. It's still a hallmark first-person shooter, complete with an engaging storyline, great gameplay, creative multi-function weapons, and great AI. However, beyond being fun to play, its futuristic tech, corporate espionage and feel all scream "Shadowrun" to me. While trying to fit the events of Perfect Dark into the Sixth World and remaining true to either might prove problematic (and so it probably shouldn't be done unless you really know what you're doing), there's no reason the video game's weapons and other equipment can't be adapted to the SR system. My attempt here is to create items that can be dropped into any game as the Game Master sees fit, and so I've made judgment calls on some things; while I remain as true to PD as I can, my primary interest is creating items balanced for SR play. Players, be sure you have the proper GM clearances before bringing these devices into the game.
And even if you never heard of the game, you may find these useful anyway.
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In recent years, two new companies have made names for themselves in the arms industry: Carrington Industries and the dataDyne Corporation. While not swimming with the Big 10 yet, their innovations are being lauded. Ares and Saeder-Krupp has made overtures to aquire dataDyne, while Evo, Horizon and Shiawaise are all interesting in Carrington. The two up-and-coming companies have something of a rivalry, and rumor is some runners have made a lot of Nuyen sabotaging or stealing from one company's facility at the behest of the other. Feeding the rumor mill are an aray of unusual weapons and devices the companies have that are unlike anything seen on the market before.
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You know what they say: competition is good for business. > Triggernometry
Any need to trot that old adage out? It's *so* overused. Whenever anything about corporations feuding hits the net, it never fails: someone manages to post that cliche drek. Like it's clever or something. It's not. Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. =D
Mox? You there?
I hate you. |
Firearms
Light Pistols
Falcon II: An upgrade of Carrington Industries' popular Falcon, this handgun is available with several options, including silencers, scopes and laser sights. The Falcon II is lightweight, easy to conceal and accurate, even when the weapon is fired in quick succession. Its only significant drawback is a small clip; a larger one would compromise the weapon's lightweight design and reduce accuracy. It's becoming a favored weapon among law enforcement officers and government agents.
MagSec IV: The MagSec IV is a fairly straightforward semiautomatic handgun. It has a three-round burst option, and the standard model comes equipped with image magnification. Its primary drawback is a modest clip quickly drained by bursts.
Mauler: The Mauler is a strange and awkward-looking pistol. It handles better than appearances might suggest, however. The Mauler has a standard single-shot firing option with rounds that can penetrate thin armor. The wielder can activate the pistol's charged shot setting, which burns from one to five rounds from the pistol's clip (and thereby reduces the number of shots between reloads); charged shots have an AP of 2 and increases the damage inflicted by the first shot fired immediately after to 5P. The charged damage is good only for one shot, and is wasted if the charged shot fails to hit. The Mauler doesn't resemble any other dataDyne weapon except the Reaper, so some suspect the weapon is based on a third-party design.
The Mauler uses a unique form of energetic rounds that function like one-use batteries; they can function like armor-piercing bullets, but the ammunition spent toward the charged shot is depleted and rendered energy-inert. All spent ammo must be removed from the gun. The gun can be adapted to use other bullets, but it will no longer deliver charged shots.
Phoenix: The Carrington Phoenix is a bulky pistol, but surprisingly lightweight. The casing is made of a permeable, plastic-like material cool to the touch, and is resistant to impact and heat. It can be used as a standard pistol, but this highly experimental weapon can fire plasma-charged explosive shots; firing the weapon in this manner is a Complex Action. Charged shots explode on impact, doing 1 box of damage to the target anyone within 2m; charged shots have an AP of 1 on the target only. Carrington Industries is known for its ethical business practices (or tries hard to cultivate that image), but the Phoenix's unique design and lethal nature suggests it isn't entirely their creation; whether they're in collusion with another designer or stole their secrets is an open question.
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Machine Pistols
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CMP150: The CMP150's small size, light weight, large clip and firing rate makes this dataDyne standard a favorite among street operatives and security forces alike. Just its standard features make it an ideal weapon, but enhanced smartlink lock-on makes the CPM150 especially effective: A minicomputer within the gun allows the user to lock on to living targets, increasing firing accuracy.
To use the enhanced lock-on option, the character must sight one or more targets (see SR4, pg. 150) and make a Logic + Computer test (this is a simple action); targets must normally be locked onto individually, though tight clusters of targets can be locked onto with a single test (each target beyond the first adds 1 to the threshold). The user gains a +4 smartlink dice pool modifier against targets the gun is locked on, instead of the standard +2; in all other ways, this functions like a standard smartlink. However, the gun loses lock-on if the target leaves the weapon's medium range, or it loses "sight" of the target for more than two Combat Turns.
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Heavy Pistols
.357 Magnum: A firearm based on a design more than 150 years old, the .357 Magnum is still a reliable high-powered handgun and sees use among a small number of enthusiasts. dataDyne still presses a small number of these weapons, though their collector's status shows in the price tag. While the weapon's significant recoil and inefficient cylinder-loading style shows its age, the massive kick on the receiving end makes this gun as deadly as ever. Magnums are very basic; those not specifically adapted with smartlinks or other technology are hacker-proof.
Golden Magnum: An man known only as Mr. Easton had a custom-made, gold-plated variation of the .357 Magnum. Since East's death, the whereabouts of his "Golden Magnum" is unknown, but a single handful of duplicates based on his design are floating around, most of which are securely in the possession of top-ranking dataDyne security. The Golden Magnum has a tiny diamond-tipped saw in the cylinder that selectively modifies bullets loaded into it, scaring the tips in a unique pattern. Any bullet fired by this gun mushrooms inside the victim's body, tearing organs and even bone to shreds; one hit is usually instantly fatal. This modification doesn't compromise the bullets' aerodynamic properties, and so the specific scarring pattern created by the Golden Magnum is well-kept dataDyne secret. Attempts to modify the Golden Magnum or directly examine the diamond saw mechanism destroys the gun's "killer bullet" feature and causes the weapon to lock up.
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Submachine Guns
Cyclone: While dataDyne's Cyclone isn't the most accurate or subtle weapon, nothing beats it for putting massive amounts of ammunition out quickly (except, maybe, the Reaper). The Cyclone is bulky: it's equipped with a pneumatic recoil compensator and a self-contained liquid nitrogen coolant system to prevent weapon overheating. (The weapon's weight and bulk could be halved if not for these features, but without them the Cyclone would be nigh-uncontrollable and would quickly overheat.) Such drawbacks aren't enough to dissuade the trigger-happy mavericks that prefer the Cyclone, as its primary appeal is that it can be used one-handed -- and those properly trained can use two Cyclones at once. Someone wielding dual Cyclones can put out four hundred rounds in only a few seconds, which outweighs these weapons' recoil, lack of accuracy, short range, excessive ammo usage, and the accompanying collateral damage.
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Laptop Sentry: This useful Carrington Industries gun is constructed of light, resilient polymers and plastics. It has little recoil when fired, making it highly accurate, and comes equipped with image magnification. Large 50-round clips round out its utility. However, the handle and trigger, barrel and clip may be folded into the stock, which can be outfitted with a variety of facades. While the Laptop Sentry can't be fired this way, it can pass for a portable item such as a briefcase or medkit (hence the name). The deception passes casual inspection, and can even fool scans unless the person manning it knows what to look for (Intuition + Computer check (3). The only drawbacks to the Laptop Sentry as a firearm is that it doesn't have much tolerance for impact or damage.
The premier appeal of the Laptop Sentry, however, is its sentry gun mode. When the wielder pushes two side-mounted buttons simultaneously and tosses the weapon onto a nearby surface (a Complex Action), the Laptop Sentry automatically folds into a sentry gun. An adhesive on the base allows it to stick to almost any surface. Within one Combat Turn of being activated and thrown (whether or not it's secured to a surface), the Laptop Sentry will begin firing on full automatic mode at any biological signature (such as a person) within sensor range (100') unless it has a "friendly" PAN. The gun doesn't make judgment calls, and won't know who its owner likes or doesn't; any PAN not programmed into the Laptop Sentry as a non-target can be fired on. The Laptop Sentry can only fire at one target at a time; it will pick the closest potential target in range and fire at it until the target is terminated or out of range, then target the next closest target and fire. The sentry gun mode has an attack die pool of 8, but characters always use their own die pools when firing it as a gun. It uses the ammo in the clip, and stops firing once this is depleted. The sentry gun can be folded back into a gun (or laptop item) and reused, or reloaded.
If someone wants to hack a Laptop Sentry (to spoof a friendly PAN, reboot it, etc.), it counts as a Rating 4 complex device.
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Laptop Sentries are great. You can use one to cover an escape, have one play watchdog while you're hacking, toss one on the floor behind your enemy and then draw your backup and fire (getting him from both sides), or just toss one fully loaded into a room of gangers and watch them go nuts. I've done all of that. And then I consider just how much Nuyen I've spent replacing the damned things. Still, LapSens are useful. Just be smarter than I used to be and retrieve 'em. > Triggernometry |
Assault Rifles
Callisto NTG: Carrington's Callisto NTG is a fully automatic rifle, lightweight and tolerant of long periods of use without overheating. It's composed the same technology and materials as the Phoenix. The Callisto's relatively limmited clip is a drawback, but the gun's ability to fire high-impact rounds makes up for this. Two ferrocobalt magnets housed in the stock near the barrel can be switched on (Simple Action), which help accelerate rounds that pass between them -- effectively, it becomes a miniaturized rail gun. This option increases damage to 7P, though slows the rate of fire (semi-auto fire only) and increases recoil.
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Grenades
N-Bomb: N-Bombs are portable neutron bombs developed by dataDyne. They've not managed to work the bugs out of these weapons yet, and the effects of prolonged exposure to the unused devices are still unknown. They're used as grenades; one turn after the button is pushed and thrown, an N-Bomb emits neutrons within five yards from the point of impact for two Combat Turns (the radiation affects a total ten-yard spread). N-Bombs cause no collateral damage and aren't as noisy as one might assume, making them ideal for covert missions. In addition, the highly energetic neutrons ignore conventional protection like armor and even Force Shields. The long-term effects of exposure to such massive doses of radiation aren't yet known, but they can't be pleasant.
These devices don't inflict much damage, but the radiation causes severe dizzyness and nausea; affected characters suffer a die pool penalty to all rolls equal to the damage they take. The victim can make a Body test each Combat Turn after the initial hit to shake off the vertigo; a successful test reduces this penalty by 1, and two successful tests eliminate this penalty completely. (Actual wound modifiers inflicted by the N-Bomb remain until the damage is healed.)
Proximity Pinball Grenade: This dataDyne creation is a standard-issue high-explosive grenade in most respects, and when used responsibly functions just like one. However, the secondary function becomes apparent when you slip off the hard plastic sheath, revealing a highly elastic core grenade. Once tossed, the grenade is designed to bounce around until it either hits a living creature or comes within 3 meters of one; sensors within the Proximity Pinball Grenade can detect biological signatures and tell the difference between creatures and objects, so it won't detonate prematurely. (Note: the grenade is not "smart" enough to tell friendlies from enemies!) The special polymer is specially designed to waste very little energy as it ricochets, so it can bounce around for several minutes before it finally comes to rest.
Rather than give a you a flowchart of scatter diagrams and rules, we'll do it like this. When a Proximity Pinball Grenade is bouncing in the area everyone rolls Edge. The one that fails (or fails the worst) is the one hit by the grenade; it lands 2d6-3 feet away (a result less than 0 indicates a direct hit). A successful Edge roll by everyone means that no one is hit; there is a 1 in 1d6 chance that the grenade bounces away. If this roll fails, or the area is completely enclosed, then everyone plays Edge lottery again to prevent getting hit. Note that someone that rolls well on his Edge test may still be hit, if the grenade hits someone close to him.
The amount of collateral damage and "friendly fire" deaths Proximity Pinball Grenades can inflict is difficult to overstate. And no few times have these things bounced their way back to those that threw them, blowing them to smithereens. There are few things more sadistic and irresponsible than just tossing an indiscriminate explosive and just hoping it hits something unfriendly. But there are few things more sadistic and irresponsible than runners or certain militaries, so there are enough buyers for these dangerous items to keep dataDyne manufacturing them... and to keep a team of even more dangerous lawyers on retainer to protect them from legal liability.
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Special Weapons
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The Reaper: A nasty dataDyne weapon developed on the same technological principles as the Mauler, the Reaper's stock is the size of a child's torso; from this protrudes a rotating barrel equipped with three large, claw-like blades and numerous barrels. The weapon is heavy, bulky, unwieldy, and wildly inaccurate at long range; its large clips are slotted in the side. The Reaper's appeal, however, is that it fires a hail of bullets over a wide spread, making it an ideal corridor sweeper. Once the Reaper's blades are spinning and are throwing out bullets, the weapon is immensely damaging: it chews through armor, doors and even thin walls. The Reaper throws bullets in a haphazard spread, making it practically impossible for those in the line of fire to avoid the bullets (defense tests suffer a -2 penalty on top of other modifiers). When the gun runs out of bullets, or when the user switches the fire function off, the spinning claw-blades on the end shred anyone unfortunate enough to be in the way.
The Reaper has several drawbacks. First, it's such a unique weapon that one must train specifically to use it: Reaper is its own Agility combat skill (when used either as a firearm or as a close weapon), with specializations in ranged or close combat. It's apparently designed for trolls, since smaller wielders have problems controlling it. The rotating barrels/blades also take a few seconds to get revved up, reducing its effectiveness in the interim. Finally, this isn't a weapon designed with moderation in mind. The only firing option for the Reaper is full auto, and it goes through ammo very quickly. And ammunition for this rare weapon (the same as that used by the Mauler) is pretty hard for even well-connected runners to procure.
Special (and complex) rules apply to Reaper use. The weapon's recoil equals -8, reduced by Body + Strength (so a character with a Body + Strength total of 7 only suffers a -1 recoil); this replaces the standard recoil rules, and applies in addition to penalties for full auto fire (the only firing option for the Reaper). A successful Reaper attack means the player must determine the base Damage Value for that attack: roll 1d6 + 2, then subtract 2 for every range increment beyond Short between the attacker and target; and yes, DV must be determined again for every attack. Only half the net hits on the attack test count toward damage, since it's very hard to aim Reaper spray with any accuracy. When the blades are used for close-quarters fighting, the DV is (Str ÷ 2 + 4); the weapon's mass and blade motion imposes the above recoil penalties when the wielder uses it as a melee weapon.
Wrist Laser: The highly experimental Carrington Wrist Laser is strapped to the user's arm, who needs only point it at the target and sent "fire" commands with her smartlink to shoot a focused beam of light that causes highly localized and severe burns. (Damage comes not from the laser itself, but from the superheated air in the laser's path.) The Wrist Laser has two fire options: a short-burst fire and a highly accurate continuous short-range stream. The Wrist Laser weapon never requires reloading; as long as the batteries are charged, it can be fired as often as the wielder wishes. Conventional armor only offers half normal protection (rounded down), though items designed to be resistant to heat or that are reflective offers full protection against the laser. The batteries are sufficient to operate the device for fifteen minutes, or half that if the laser is fired in a continuous stream. The stream uses only the short range, but this function grants a +1 bonus to the attack roll.
As powerful as the Wrist Laser is, there are drawbacks. First, one must train specifically to use one: Wrist Laser is its own Agility combat skill, with specializations in ranged blast or short-range stream. The item is prohibitively expensive and very hard to procure. It's energy-expensive to recharge and requires specialized Carrington Industries-produced adapters for standard electrical outlets. And finally, due to the highly experimental nature of the weapon, it's prone to bugs, malfunctions and shutdowns; some rumors claim they leak radiation, though the veracity of this claim has yet to be proven.
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Reaper? No thanks. If I want something something messy and that kills indiscriminately, I'll just toss a frag grenade in and call it a day. (And not any of those prox pinball things either, anyone that uses them is insane.) > Moxie_Cotton
Hey, you and the gunbunny elitists can rip on how inefficient and messy the Reaper is. I've seen the thing in action and it's a lot more effective than people make it out to be.
Do tell.
I worked with this bugshit troll once on a run. He had a Swedish accent and had cat tattoos -- not tigers or anything, like tats of housecats. Weird guy. Anyway, I don't know if he was adept, bio, or cybered without obvious mods. But he was fast, strong and way aggro. Swedetroll had a Reaper -- I have no idea where he got it -- and ran out ahead of us firing the thing. And giggling. The bullets it threw out chewed up the opposition and a lot of the scenery. I think he got like four guys with the fucking thing. When the rain of bullets ran out, the psycho ran this one poor guy down with the blades and pureed him against a wall. The victim's ribcage jammed up the blades, because Swedetroll kept it on him after the dude died, and he was all pissed off trying to pry the mangled corpse off his goddamned toy while we all just stood there, mouths open. I'm a runner and done some stuff and all but... that shit gave me nightmares for a while after. Even now I don't like thinking about it.
Aw baby. You wanna talk about it?
Moxie, just how fucking callous ARE you?
Just kidding. Sheesh, Anyway Trig, you were saying...?
It's cool. I didn't flip out like our poor shaman did. And that Johnson never hired any of us again. Anyway, is the Reaper messy? Wasteful? Utterly gratuitous? Yes, yes and hell yes. But it's deadly and effective. I think I'd rather face almost anything else except a flamethrower.
Wow. The Reaper: the psychopath's choice. =/ |
Armor & Clothing
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Maialar Armor: This flexible material, developed by Carrington Industries, is nearly as thin as denim, flexible, comfortable, allows skin to breathe, and can be worn under other clothes or armor. Maialar is resistant to penetration by bullets and blades, and has a limited ability to re-channel kinetic and heat energy, distributing the force of impact over a wider area. However, fire, radiation and energy easily penetrate it.
StealthTek Boots: These boots are also known as "Ninja Boots" from the advantages they give the wearer. Developed by Carrington Industries for its security personell, they have since seen a great deal of use by police, military special ops, corporate security, and other dealers in espionage. However, they are costly and hard to obtain; Stealthteks are made of special materials, and each pair is custom-ordered to fit the wearer.
Each boot has soft, flexible soles and special gel-cushioned pockets. These features allow the boots to absorb fall impact and quiet movement. If the wearer securely lands on her feet, two boxes of damage that would have been inflicted to the wearing from a high drop is automatically negated. While extremely useful for low jumps and parachuting, StealthTeks won't save someone stupid enough to jump off a high-rise or from an aloft aircraft. If the character is actively attempting to move quietly, the boots add a die to the character's Shadowing dice pool.
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Graviton Shields
Force Shield: The Force Shield takes the form of a hand-sized device attached to a belt, normally worn around the waist or chest. It weighs less than a pound, and the protective graviton field it emits doesn't encumber the wearer in any way; thus, it doesn't count as worn armor. It projects focused gravitons around the wearer which absorb and redirect kinetic energy. The field extends several centimeters from the wearer, and is visible as a glowing shimmer when something contacts it. Each hit greatly drains the belt's graviton batteries, however, and the only way to recharge the device is paying at a factory or through a (very expensive) proprietary charger sold by said company. Both Carrington Industries and the dataDyne corpoation offer Force Shield technology, and both claim to have invented it; the matter is still tied up in Corporate Court.
The Force Shield has a Condition Monitor of 10 for tracking both Stun and Physical damage. Damage is subtracted from the force field's Condition Monitor before being applied to the wearer's Health track; any damage that penetrates the depleted shield is applied to the character. Note that some high-energy attacks, such as X-rays and the neutrons emitted by N-Bombs, will penetrate the graviton field. And the field surrounds the wearer, and so doesn't protect the character's held items (such as weapons). This practical feature allows the wearer to fire guns or otherwise attack while wearing the shield, but it also make him vulnerable to disarm attempts and his weapons open to attack by sharpshooters.
Improved Force Shield: The Improved Force Shield, or the "Turtle Belt" as it's known by Carrington Industry insiders and test subjects, is an experimental prototype of the Force Shield that produces a much stronger graviton field. It's able to absorb far more damage than the standard type (with a Condition Monitor of 15). However, the field produced by this item suppresses all kinetic energy within the field, reducing the wearer's speed and agility. It also fatigues the wearer, as he must apply twice the effort to perform physical tasks. While the weapon barrels protrude from the Improved Force Shield (and can be used normally), the character is slowed. His Agility and Reaction (round up) are halved except when making firearms attacks, his movement is half normal, and he can only take a Simple Action each Combat Turn (though two turns' worth of Simple Actions can be "traded" for a Complex Action on the second turn). In all other ways, the Turtle Belt functions like the Force Shield.
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| Shadowrun Index |
| Upgrades |
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Menagerie Metatypes Sapients |
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Mysticism Traditions Arcana |
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Dark Ops Tech |