Mystral Weapons are bulky but powerful, with large lenses projecting the mystic energies into their targets. Mystral weapons act much like modern guns in their operation and general feel, but have a variety of effects at their disposal.
Skills
Actually using the weapons use the expected skills: beam weapons with the appropriate specialty for the hand held energy weapons, Gunner and Artillery for the cannon, and melee weapons for those of that type (which all still weigh the same amount).Energy Weapons
Energy weapons powered by Mystral technology take three basic shapes: the Gauntlet, the Arcus, and the Cannon. Gauntlets are worn on the hand as a sort of glove: the lens sits on top of the hand, with the glass rods and gems lying against the user's skin. When a fist is formed, the lens slides into place perpendicular to the rods. Guantlets can be picked up and immediately aimed or fired, but should properly be strapped onto the hand first -- the suffer -1 to all rolls until strapped on (5 seconds). The hand a gauntlet is on is only somewhat free, and gives -2 to delicate work with the hand. Reloading a gauntlet is about removing the spent gems and adding new ones.Arcus look a good deal like fat, stubby guns with bell mouths (or crossbows without the bow replaced by a large lens). The rod is controlled via contact on the bottom, near where a trigger would be on a gun. Arcus have a good deal more range than gauntlets, and are considered personal weapons.
Cannon should need little explanation. Its worth pointing out they still require the contact patch of the gunner, and that their ammunition is glass blocks, not gems.
Limitations
Like all mystral devices, mystral weapons rely on physical contact between the user and the glass -- and for best results, hand contact. This means mystral weapons either have exposed and delicate glass, or that they are firmly strapped on to the user. Mystral weapons have two stages: in the first, the energy is moved from gems to the energy rods. In the second, it is released from the rods. This normally takes two actions. Some people try to fast load and fire. This is done with a fast draw (mystral energy roll). On a failure, the energy is lost. On a failure by 5 or more, the weapon overloads cracks and is useful until the relevant parts are replaced or melted down and reformed.It should be noted that a large and additional cost of these weapons is ammunition. While the ammo is reusable, it has to be charged, and is fairly expensive. Multiply the weight of the ammo by 100 to get the number of gems for a load. Gems must be stored somewhere (taking extra time) or abandoned. They're round and made of glass-- not ideal for scattering on the ground and coming back to. And its not unusual for a single load to be 50% of the cost of the weapon or more.
| Weapon Name | Damage | Acc | Range | Weight | Shots | ST | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gauntlet | 3d | 2 | 5/15 | 2.2/.5 | 35(7) | 5 | $40 |
| Heavy Gauntlet | 6d | 1 | 7/21 | 9/2 | 19(7) | 10 | $170 |
| Long Gauntlet | 4d | 2 | 30/90 | 9/1 | 31(7) | 10 | $200 |
| Soldier's Gauntlet | 5d | 2 | 15/45 | 9/1 | 16(7) | 10 | $200 |
| Arcus | 5d | 4 | 50/150 | 9/1 | 22(5) | 9 | $390 |
| Heavy Arcus | 6d+2 | 4 | 28/75 | 20/3 | 22(5) | 10 | $430 |
| Long Arcus | 4d+1 | 5 | 300/900 | 20/1 | 26(5) | 10 | $480 |
| Cannon | 5dx3 | 5 | 900/2700 | 550/20 | 30(5) | 50 | $13,000 |
| Portable Cannon | 5dx2 | 5 | 800/2400 | 220/20 | 10(5) | 32 | $5,000 |
| Heavy Cannon | 5dx4 | 5 | 3200/9600 | 1600/40 | 25(5*) | 90 | $50,000 |
Types
The numbers given in the table are the basic form of a number of related weapons, each using a different kind of energy. Each kind of energy has its own properties and uses a completely different weapon: a Mortifier Gauntlet will never fire Blasting energy.Forcas: half damage, explosive burning damage
Mortifer: ignores objects not living or mystrally enhanced, toxic damage
Scorpus: half damage, armor divisor (3) ignores mystral sinks, corrosive damage
Blasting: x4 damage, no damage to living or mystrally enhanced things, crushing damage
Kinetus: half damage, x4 knockback, crushing
Mystral Blades:
A sword made out of glass and empowered by mystral energy. When active, mystral blades have a damage divisor (5), DR 20 , +2 HT, and do +2 or +1/die of damage. When not active, they are mere glass swords, extremely fragile and unsuited for all but the most gentle of cutting (as with a scalpel). Most Mystral Blades are either knives shaped for use as a tool or long slender blades (edged rapiers) taking advantage of the weapon's unusual resilience. most of these weapons only store enough gems for a few minutes of use at a time.Mystral Longsword (edged rapier): $2000, 3 lbs, 300 gems/hour
Mystral Smallsword (edged rapier): $1000, 1.5 lbs, 240 gems/hour
Mystral knife (various kinds, including spear heads): $300, .5-1.5 lbs, 120 gems/hour
Mystral arrow: $10, normal weight, gem included in cost, must be activated before shooting
These weapons are in their own ways as powerful as the energy weapons. Warriors often wear a gauntlet on their hand even as they swing their mystral blades -- the combination of near and far range weapons is potent.
Mystral Armor
With all this death raging around the battlefield, some sort of protection is preferable. This comes in two forms: Mystral sinks and reinforced materials.Mystral sinks are pieces of glass worn to reduce the effect of an energetic blast. Sinks are worn on the chest, and absorb large amounts of the energy. Each sink blocks its DR in energy and then halves that amount again (so 16 damage against a DR 10 sink does 3 damage). If more than twice the rated energy is received, the sink shatters. The part of the body where the sink is worn is irrelevant -- the sink protects the person. The sink itself is quite fragile, and with DR 4 and 2 hp.
| DR | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | $40 | .5 |
| 7 | $115 | 1.5 |
| 10 | $350 | 4 |
| 15 | $1250 | 15 |
| 20 | $3000 | 35 |
Its also possible to reinforce armor with the energy. Only metal or glass can be reinforced. Passive reinforcement gives +1 DR (or +1 per 5 DR, which ever is greater) and allows the armor to work at half strength vs mortifiers and ignore blasting attacks. It adds +1 cost factor. Active reinforcement (only available for plate armors) Doubles DR, adds +4 CF, reduces DR when not active by -1 (or -1 per 5 DR) and requires DR * 600 gems/ hour. It uses full DR against mortifiers, and ignores blasting attacks.
Building your own:
The stats for the energy weapons were created using the Blaster and Laser Design article from Pyramid 37. The in the empty weight formula, use an E of 2. The Bc in the cost formula is $25. You can only ever use single shot generators for mystral weapons. When figuring out the number of shots, the base number is 1000 times the lbs of ammunition. In the range equation, use a Rb of 2.These numbers are calculated to be valid weapons at TL 6 (actually TL 4+2^), and as such are notably cheaper, heavier, shorter range, and less powerful than Ultra tech weapons.
Using Mystral Weapons
Mystral weapons are actually fairly short range weapons: most of the one man weapons operate at under 100 yards, and a gauntlet functions with full force at 5 yards or less. Of course, how far can you really aim? Mystral weapons are also significant for the amount of damage that they do and for the special damage types.When selecting mystral weapons, keep context in mind. Yes, an ordinary gauntlet is simple to block with a sink, but who will be carrying around a mystral sink in public? what's polite? what's appropriate? A blaster can be appropriate when a mortifier is not.
Soldiers generally train for close combat or for ranged combat. Close combat sees lots of gauntlets (especially scorpus) and mystral spears (and swords). Armor is usually passively reinforced and a small sink. Ranged troops train with the arcus (all sorts, but scorpus and mortifiers dominate), and wear big heavy sinks. In Civilian settings, the mortifier dominates, as it keeps down collateral damage, and small sinks are used as a form of power display. Mystral smallswords are quite common among nobility trying to display wealth (long-swords are enormous!).
This being gurps, these weapons may be found facing down traditional weapons off world. In fact, its expected. The weapons were intended to be on the low end of TL 6 in terms of power. The tech mismatch will cause some odd behavior though: a soldier with an blaster arcus will find dealing with a tank a mere matter of getting in range, while the sink around his neck won't do a thing to protect him from bullets!
Mystral weapons are intended to be used as in a setting with the rest of mystral technology, but they will function as generic weapons for alternate technology in a pulp setting or fast-forwarded fantasy. I hope you find places to use this, and find yourself inspired by it.
No comments:
Post a Comment