[Mothership] Let's Make Some Guns!
GUNS!
Read time: 5 minutes
TLDR: Scroll to the bottom to find a couple of new Pulse Rifles to play with.
Shameless plug: if you enjoy my blog, I'm sure you would enjoy exploring my Mothership module with a shiny new Pulse Rifle, hmm? Beneath Ice and Snow.
Today, we're talking about guns. I want to make some, and I'm sure you could use some because I know for sure that the PSG's selection is far too small. Now why would I make my own guns when there is: Armory Expanded, Heat Signature, WEPT, and not to mention a bunch of others? Well in part because creating stuff is fun, and partly because I'm arrogant enough to think I could do something better.
So, are you ready to make some GUNS? Let's do this.
"It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum... and I'm all outta gum." - Duke Nukem 3D circa 1996 (I wish I didn't google that release date, oh god).
The Plan
When I was formulating this idea I was sitting on the train to work making casual pew pew sounds while looking out the window. "Pew Pew". It hit me. You can't go Pew Pew in Mothership, you are stuck with one Pew, always one Pew and by Pew I mean roll. Every gun is the same, you take a stack of d10's and roll them. Would it be possible to make a gun that let's you decide how many d10s to commit to an attack, and have that be some meaningful choice? Maybe. I certainly gave it a shot.
Holy Shit a Load of Probability Distributions
Let's take a quick look at the standard Pulse Rifle in the PSG. So, the stats are:
- It does 3d10 DMG.
- It works best at Long range.
- It has 5 "shots".
- It does gunshot wounds.
Alright. So, what if we were to design a version of the Pulse Rifle that let you choose how many damage dice you roll. You can roll 1, 2 or 3 DMG dice. It's not really a choice, I know, but before we get ahead of ourselves let's look at the probability distributions of DMG for rolling 1, 2, and 3d10s.
No, no bear with me, you've not stumbled onto a blog on Medium. All I'm showing here are how likely you are to do a given amount of damage when rolling 1d10, 2d10 and 3d10. The averages for each almost go up in 5's as you expect from: 5.5, 11, and 16.5, respectively. (The graph text has some dodgy rounding). Anyway, the point is, looking at the graph above, you would never roll anything but 3d10. It's just the best one!
How then can we make this a more interesting choice? We need to push together these probability distributions. One way of doing that is to add a flat bonus to your damage if you roll below some threshold. Say if you roll < 10 damage we add some damage. In the graph above I'm adding 10 damage and you get something cool: the probability distributions of 1d10 and 2d10 rolls become the same! (Er, your definition of cool may vary, but I found this very satisfying).
Okay, so that is a bit rubbish though if 1d10 and 2d10 are identical. You would just always roll 2d10 (or probably still 3d10 but stay with me). In the histogram above I'm now adding +5 DMG when you roll beneath 10 DMG. Alright, alright, this is looking nice. The 1d10 roll is now doing consistently double figures in damage, while the 3d10 distribution basically stays the same. We can work with this.
What's nice here is that the < 10 DMG trigger happens 90% of the time on a 1d10 but only 8% of the time on a 3d10. So, if the 1d10 roll did something useful other than damage then we are asking tough questions. Tough questions make tension. Tension creates delicious satisfying fun.
Now here is something that pushes you the other way. This time if you roll over 20 you get a bonus +1d10 damage. This means low damage rolls are just the basic distributions but for 3d10, 20% of the time you are going to push into that ugly little island of high damage and feel like you are going to bullet town. In this case, again, to make it feel worth rolling fewer dice to do less damage the gun should provide a tactical benefit.
The Pulse Rifles
Okay, so armed with my probability distributions, I present to you now two new Pulse Rifles for your next Mothership games that let you choose how many dice to roll. First up...
The Peacemaker Systems: Warrior
Sporting 3 shots, long range, and the option to fire up to 3 dice per shot. If you roll DMG that is less than 10, then you do +1 DMG but also remove a DMG die from the attack (see random thought). So, if you don't think a full spray of DMG will bring down the beastie, you can use slow bursts to nullify the attack. Bonus: If you have Military Training too, then 1 die does 1d10+6 DMG total, doing 11.5 DMG on average, better than 2d10!
Random Thought: It is possible that you do not run violent encounters like me. But, in brief, I roll the DMG for my enemies up front at the start of the round. This gives the players a little gusto.
The TS Industries: TS-42 Custom
With base stats that match the Warrior, except this is its sketchier cousin that prefers to unload everything but only in the right hands. So, the special trigger here is DMG < 15, which means 1 and 2 dice will make a target softer for whoever is attacking next thanks to the Shredder rounds. However, if you're a Rimwise ne’er-do-well then you know how to handle the TS-42. After all, you were given one before you learned to talk. Shooting rustlerats in the vents in the hive city under levels since you were a teenager.
If your team has two TS-42s then together they could bring down some of the toughest enemies in the game. The downside being that if you get hit the gun has a high chance of jamming. Shoddy workmanship and all that. But what else would you expect from TS Industries, eh?
Conclusion
Feel free to take the templates above, print them out onto cards for your next game (they are playing card size, perfect for sleeves). Or try making your own, I've been doing it all day. Making guns is strangely therapeutic...
Random Thought: Since in Mothership you want to avoid combat at all costs, making lots of elaborate guns for it is probably a waste of time. But what is life but to find enjoyable ways to waste time, eh?
Addendum
I made a couple more of these today and I thought I'd share. These are provided with no explanation. Enjoy!
