Dear Mr. Lang . . .

[J.K.Mosher]

While I enjoy reading the ICAR Core book I have a couple questions . . .

1) Explain chaining . . . when it is first introduced it says check a section later in the book for more detail . . . but there is no extra details.

When I first read chaining in a blaster description I got the image of a guy with a pack full of ammo with a chain feed leading to his weapon so he could "lead hose" an area . . . similar to "Old Painless" that Jesse Ventura's character carried in "the Predator", or Arnold Schwarzenegger in T2

Is that what you mean by "chaining"


2) Where can I get more back story on Droids and the Droid wars . . . this little bit of "setting" really catches my attention and I would like to just for my own info read some more on what happened, and how things progressed.

[Rob Lang]

Hi JK. Thanks for the feedback. You're totally right, I completely do not explain chained ammunition. It's belt feed. Unlike a belt feed, the ammo sticks together using the same energy forces that propel the ammo (they're rail guns really).

The back story of the Droids is in the Fleet setting. I'll give it a read through and then post it up on the blog if it is in a reasonable state!

[J.K.Mosher]

So what does "Chaining" do other than reducing the need to reload your "firearms."?

Does it for example allow the Nelson to fire more than 5 rounds per turn?

Reason I'm asking is . . . after reading about chaining I'm seeing an image in my head of my character walking down a hallway, with a Nelson in each hand, both "chained" and just unleashing a steady rain of suppressing fire . . in classic "action hero / gun-fu" cinematic style . . . with a sound track of Imagine Dragon's "Radioactive" playing in the background.



Yes I know . . . I'm strange . . .

[Rob Lang]

Now that's a cool gun mod idea. I think I had a player with twin pistols that used chaining on his 2.2 ammo. Chaingun ammunition (7.4) is always chained (belt fed) but there is no reason that a pistol - or any other weapon would be the same.

For simplicity, I would rule that chaining means you don't have to change magazine - which is really handy. If you want to add high firing rates as a mod, that would be cool too.

[Evil Scientist]

How likely are these chains to jam/get stuck? Given that they are held together by force fields, not very likely...

[Rob Lang]

Hmmmmm.... good question. In reality - never. The force fields are like magnetic fields, allowing components to slide over each other but sticking together just the right amount. Repulsion and attraction can be controlled down to the tiniest degree - and changed at will. This level of control means that there are no components to get jammed on. As all rifles aren't chemical but really a kind of rail gun, there is no power emission to worry about either.

However, that's not much fun.

So, 1 in 100.


Because that's funnier.

In my group, some guns have a terrible reputation for jamming. This is just statistical, that a weapon has jammed (player rolled 100) at the worst possible time - more than once. I rather like that. Sure, all the players know that the weapon is reliable but because it has let them down a few times, it's got that name. As a game designer, it's not my intention for any weapon to be reliable over another (unless it says so explicitly) but these sorts of running gags are what make the games more interesting for all.

The two weapons that come to mind are the Arms 5 (get it in the Equipment Index now), because during one campaign they were popular (cheap, common) so the D100 was rolled against them a lot. In the last campaign, it was the super-user Claymore intelligent missile launcher (coming in the Fleet setting) that failed. Fortunately, it was only Byrn who seemed to roll 100, so the other players blame him more than the weapon, which is an interesting twist! It's not the weapon's fault, it's the player character!!!

[Evil Scientist]

[J.K.Mosher]

All weapons should have a chance of jamming/miss-fire/or failure, as no component is perfect.

Possible failure reasons (not as steeped in the ICAR codex so please forgive anything that has been addressed)
- a round slightly out of alignment
- build up of heat on internal discharge components causing safety shut off
- general wear and tear from use . . . it is possible for one of the "rails" to develop an imperfection over time.
- tampered with components . . . maybe someone somewhere tweaked something they shouldn't have and now the weapon is unresponsive . . .

[DOC_Agren]

but I have to agree every weapon should have a Malf chance, now better guns might be hard to have issues. But poor quality knockoff that Scav can get.. Well you know.

[Rob Lang]

Gun reliability are definitely in the realm of "Hey! GM! Have some fun with this!".

I would be thrilled for GMs to make weapons more unreliable (for Scavengers is a great example, DOC) for that bottom-clenching moment when you really need to kill something!