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JohnK
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Sat 29 Apr 2017, 18:09

Re-reading the combat chapter, specifically the rules regarding Stress and Damage, there's no mention of armour under the Stress section. I've taken that to mean armour is ineffective against Stress. Is that correct? Because that would also mean stun weapons ignore armour. And that's something I'd like to get right at the table once I start running. :-)
Hullo, blaster219,
Yeah, that's the way I interpret it.  (And it makes sense that armour wouldn't have an impact on Stress damage done.
Oh, and for the record, I'm using the Crit 2 for the Stun gun business, and it works really well in play.  So that's my House Rule for the matter.
...As for the border, the border is wherever the fleet sits at the moment. (Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh)

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Tomas
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Sat 29 Apr 2017, 20:23

Indeed, armor does not work against Stress.
Fria Ligan
 
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Sensei
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Sat 29 Apr 2017, 22:17

I think there's a problem of perception here, and I admit it may be completely on my part...
I understand that people keep saying, 'stun weapons don't crit,' but what I'm saying in response to that is that I don't understand how they're supposed to be at all effective then. (I now see the Blast Power explanation, which makes the grenade far more sensible, thanks! I had overlooked the explanation of Blast before, but I see that the grenades are more useful now.)

If I hit someone with a stun gun, on a single regular success, I do... one lousy point of stress?  Against most PCs' average MP of 5, that's laughable. If that's accurate, who's going to use a stun gun, like, ever? That's far less effective than real-world modern police tasers, which drop people immediately, and almost every time they hit. 
Am I missing something here?  I mean, if that's how they work, I get it, I just want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding. 
Thanks!
 
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blaster219
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Sat 29 Apr 2017, 22:43

First off, stun has a listed damage of 2, not 1. Which is the same as most other pistols. It has two advantages (situation dependant of course) over regular firearms. It ignores armour, and CANNOT kill. Something we can't say about real world "stun guns". Of course there are more powerful weapons. But they all run in the risk of severely injuring the target if not killing them. Right tool for the right job and all that.

The description of Stun on page 125 says its available "as an add on to all thermal weapons". I can't see stun addons listed anywhere, but if they work by just adding the "Stun" feature, then you could use one to convert a Thermal Rifle to Stun 5. That would be a devestatingly effective weapon for crowd control. Or a Thermal Carbine.
 
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Sensei
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Mon 01 May 2017, 02:37

You're correct, Blaster; the gun has damage 2. I was actually thinking of the stun baton (shock stick, damage 1), which one of my players has through char-gen. 
Yes, stunning someone instead of killing them is an advantage if you want to take them alive, but I guess we're just seeing the usefulness of that in far different light. My players don't want to stand toe to toe in melee trying to shock an opponent repeatedly to drop them with stress, while they themselves are getting stabbed lethally with duraknives. It just seems like a poor trade-off, your HP for their MP. 

And yes, I see what Blaster means about adding stun to thermal weapons, which I'd forgotten about since - as he points out - there's no actual description or cost for how that's done. But turning a more powerful weapon into a stun-weapon would make much more sense.

At this point, I now see that my dubiousness at the practicality of stun mechanics is just my group's take on it, and not something I've overlooked in the rules, so it's all good. My questions have been addressed, thanks to all for your thoughts. 
 
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Tomas
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Mon 01 May 2017, 23:18

Also remember that extra sixes can be used to increase the damage (stress in the case of stun weapons). So even if they can't crit, you can spend extra sixes to increase the effect.
Fria Ligan
 
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Kaeam
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Thu 04 May 2017, 11:55

How do you handle stun weapon attacks against beings that lack Wits and Empathy and don't have mind points listed (e.g. most of the creatures statted in the core book)?
 
VoxenTass
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Fri 05 May 2017, 23:08

Hiya,
It would seem none of these creatures are intended to be stunned, according to the book. The best I've found is simply MP = stress damage / mental strain. The argument could then be that such creatures aren't sufficiently capable of enduring mental fatigue of any kind. That puts stun weapons at a slight disadvantage though, and doesn't present a....safe alternative to taking these guys alive. My suggestion, have stun damage stack with standard damage but scored separately, when the creature drops, the higher damage pool determines a kill or an incapacitate. You could use the creatures strength rating to provide stun resistance to keep the players guessing, or to reflect the difference between damage types. For every 2 or 3 points of STR the creature has, only 1 success of stun is automatically negated, or some other quick formula.
 
Erianerson
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Mon 13 Aug 2018, 07:49

Is there a difference between a Taser and a stun gun?
 
drewannrez
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Re: Stun Gun Question

Fri 24 Aug 2018, 08:30

2nd post

You can't crit with a stun weapon. That's pretty much the official word. Everything else is house rules.
Yeah! I Agree ...

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