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I apologize if this has been asked before. I did a quick search and didn't see it. 

So from what I understand the actual round count isn't tracked. My issue is when would they ever need to reload, this is all assuming they never roll a 1 (not sure the official name) on the stress die? Do they just not ever need to reload or anything till they roll a 1 on the stress die? 

Not rolling a 1 (facehugger) on the stress dice during an encounter/act/scene is very unlikely, but if it happens, then that PC is a very calm and controlled person, only shooting Short Controlled Burst with his Pulse Rifle. Just like the android (p96).

You as a GM can always let a PC run out of ammo if you want to increase the tension, perhaps as a consequence of a skill failure (p59).

I would just assume that unless a 1 is rolled, the characters have controll over their ammo count and reload during opportune times, during natural lulls in the combat. 

"Off screen", as it were. 

I guess my biggest thing is just the resource tracking and buying of resources. I come from a big Pathfinder background where resources are heavily tracked. So then if they decide to reload in a downtime they just subtract 1 from their full count? 

I'm honestly a little surprised ammo wasn't a resource like food, air and water. You could do that and then just have a 1 on the stress die automatically lower it by 1. This does mean you risk players running totally out of ammo relatively quickly but it is a thought.

I'm honestly a little surprised ammo wasn't a resource like food, air and water. You could do that and then just have a 1 on the stress die automatically lower it by 1. This does mean you risk players running totally out of ammo relatively quickly but it is a thought.

If I had to guess I'd imagine the choice was made this way so as to speed up combat. I imagine a big reason ammo is tracked in the abstract (and not per bullet) is to streamline bookkeeping, but if you're doing that at the expense of making a supply roll after every attack you've effectively just doubled the length of combat encounters for the sake of not counting ammo, you know what I mean? It's not a great trade-off when you're trying to keep encounters quick and cinematic.

That said, I do like the mechanical synergy of making supply rolls for tracking ammo. Maybe you just make the roll at the end of the encounter? Say each magazine has a supply rating. The variability of a supply roll result could mean a lot of different things (rolling well after a long fight, you used controlled bursts and counted your shots. Rolling poorly after a short fight, you laid on the trigger a bit too much.) You'd still empty the magazine on a panic roll as usual. And maybe using Autofire is an automatic -1 Supply for that magazine.

This would still let you keep combat quick and smooth, you wouldn't have to track every shot, but it'd also eliminate the curious quirk of a non-stressed individual (or an Android) effectively having infinite ammo. But it wouldn't make it SO scarce as to be a massive change of game balance. You'd just need to come up with a good supply rating for each weapon('s magazine)

Sincerely, I have to love the ammo rules as they are stated in the rulebook.

Obviously but over the surface, it's an abstract system but inside I think it's realistic. I will try to explain it better:

In other games, players have bullets, clips, magazines, etc. They are a countable resource for characters. But then, the problems come with some situations which are not only unrealistic but frustrating for the GM:

- When players know that there is a predictable danger situation, or better said, when a combat might be guessed near the horizon; I have to insist (insistently) to the players to keep track of which weapons and ammo their characters carry. If you say nothing or forget it, they will tend to carry all the ammo a character has on his/her sheet. If they have 1.000 bullets, they will carry to combat the 1.000 bullets on his/her character (I don't know where, but they do; I suppose they have very big coats). For me, it's really frustrating to remember some players this fact... with these ammo rules, you avoid that since a character could have 1, 2 reloads, no more.

- In combat, there are some players who "forget" to keep track of his/her ammo constantly. I think they are not cheating, I prefer to believe that they tend to forget in some way but in some cases I had to warn someone in this way: "Please, remove three bullets from the last burst", "I did it" he answered and lied, "No, you didn't, remove the three bullets. Ammo is not infinite". Even I had to pick up the sheet and erase the bullets for them... This is frustrating too.

And then in Alien, all change with the Ammo rules. You don't have to argue, you don't have to remind all time to erase bullets and keep count of them. You only have two reloads, and when you roll a 1 you remove one reload. Perfect!     

I love the ammunition system as it dramatically adds tension to the combat in the game in a very simple fashion. As long as a player has some ammunition, they are good. However, every time they fire their weapon they risk the chance of it running dry. Obviously, this is a terrible thing to happen to them in the heat of combat. When this happens I rule it that in the stress of combat (it is a stress die after all) they simply emptied their magazine when firing at their target. And now they had better hope that the target is dead, because even if they have a reload, it is a slow action. Things just got extra hairy for that PC, because not only is their magazine dry, they now have to make a panic roll.

Hi guys.
I run the Chariot of the Gods once, and I am about to run it again. The game is fantastic, and the scenario has huge hacking/re-running potential, so I'm thinking about hacking the scenario.
My biggest pain to the game, that I want to fix first is the ammo. I like the fact that it is abstract, but from the other hand, magnum revolver can have infinite ammo. So I plan to test something abstract enough so I don't have to test every bullet, but more a bit more realistic.

So here goes my ammo mod:

I plan to divide weapons into 4 categories:

High capacity - needs reload only in case of failed stress dice roll. (Just as the core rule book states by default).
Normal capacity - needs one reload at the end of the fight but only if you shoot auto, or right after failed stress dice roll.
Low capacity - needs reload after each firefight you took part in. And after failed stress dice roll.
Single-shot - reload every other turn.

How to assign the capacity to the weapons?

Single-shot - as per description in core rule book.
Low cap. - all non single-shot pistols, and non-auto rifles (shotguns, sniper rifles).
Normal cap. - all full auto rifles.
High cap. - all heavy weapons except grenades / launchers. (yes, flamethrower is High cap.)

Consequences - ammo runs out just a bit faster. As Chariot of the gods is not combat focused, I'd just throw an extra mag each for the Service Pistol, Revolver, Pulse Rifle and the Shotgun.
They should be able to take down first two threats easily, but if the Cronus crew starts turning into abominations... they're screwed.
What are your toughs about it? Is it worth a run, or is it too troublesome?