Forum

Tomas,

Thank you for all you do. Incredible work, and the email us backers got explaining how you all took feedback into account was amazing. You wrote in your email that we should make new threads about rules if there are some ideas.

One thing I want to absolutely make sure is not missed (I know it’s not in the Starter Rules), is the discussion on the F44AA. I’m sorry but I feel It just has to be weaker than in the BETA Core Rules. Lowering the damage and upping the ammo seems appropriate. There’s simply a reason that it wasn’t adopted by the USCMC and the M41A packs a good punch. It should be pretty meh against Xenos for sure.

It has the "unreliable" tag in the weapon cards, but we don't know what gameplay mechanic is attached to that.

I think dropping the damage and leaving it otherwise untouched would also work.

While we're here, the images of the Heavy Pulse Rifle and Shotgun are wrong; the pulse rifle is using the Weyland Storm Rifle image and the shotgun is the one from Alien: Isolation, not the marine shotgun from some of the games.

Quoting Professor Phobos

It has the "unreliable" tag in the weapon cards, but we don't know what gameplay mechanic is attached to that.

 
Probably that you can carry it to dissuade Xenomorphs from charging dead on, but you can't fire a single bullet or their acid blood will eat through the ship's hull.

Speaking of weapon issues...
The range bands on the shotgun and the flamethrower should be changed.
The shotgun is A/S while the flamethrower is S/M...

Why is a flamethrower twice the range of a shotgun? Excluding sawed-off action movie variants, full size shotguns are used for hunting waterfowl and big game which require being able to accurately hit and kill something from more than a few meters away. This does not even factor in slugs and rifled barrels...

I personally feel that the shotgun (and the revolver) should have the same range as pistols A/M while the flamethrower should just be S/S (Noone wants to set themselves on fire)

You could even rename the base shotgun into sawed-off while putting a new entry for full size shotguns and provide the option to choose between shot and slug ammo.
Slug ammo could be +1 modifier but range L.

Weapon stats in general are all over the place, TBH, from both lore and gameplay perspectives.

I'm curious about how people deal with encumbrance, specially refering to weapons and ammo.

For example... Would you allow someone to adquire... let's say... Ten M4A3 pistols? Each one with its corresponding magazine?. (let's assume availability is not a problem... he ransacked the armory or found a weapon's crate). Simply carrying lots of magazines may be more effective cost-wise, but with extra pistols he ensures himself practical immunity to 'losing' his weapon, and ammo wouldn't be an issue either, just switch to the next one when run out of ammo. You could easily last an entire campaign. And they just take 5 measly rows of your inventory.

Likewise, would you allow someone to deploy with an M56 smartgun, an M4A1 rifle, a Rocket Launcher, an M4A3 pistol, an M240 Icinerator unit, a knife, and some extra grenades? He has suffcient strenght to even don some light armor and other spare equipment... By the rules he is technically allowed... But how about the physical space?

Yes, I know the obvious answers are 'scarcity', 'availability' and 'common sense'... But sooner or later, you KNOW you will run into the scavenger-type player, which takes every weapon their friends/opponents drop, or the player that wants to play the one-man band, and by the "ROW rules" (pun intented) he is technically allowed.

Should it be a hard limit on how much weaponry+equipment can you actually carry?, and where that limit would be?. Three? Four weapons? One main weapon and a small sidearm? A heavy weapon and a Flamethrower like Drake? An M41A and a Shotgun like Hicks?...

I mostly have my own answers, but I'd like to hear what do you think/do.

Perhaps not the popular answer, but in my games if the PC has 1) the means of acquiring the gear and 2) the encumbrance value to carry it all, I typically allow it. As GM I can decide where such loot can be found, or which shops will sell rare/specialized gear, so the PC is essentially solving three puzzles and the fair reward is to let them have their gear.