Weapons, Toxins, and More.....

Shadowrun puts weapons into a vast number of separate catagories, such as Heavy Pistols, Light Pistols, Light Machine Guns, Medium Machine Guns, Heavy Machine Guns, and more. In the SRII RuleBook, weapons are restricted to a few per category. Players may opt for individuality and not want to carry around the very common Ares Predator. It seems that everyone carries roughly the same weapons. That works out nice if you've got a Concentrated Skill in Predators. I'm going to take a bit of time and expand on the variety of weapons available to the characters. I'm also going to introduce my Toxin Page, which will tremendously expand the current SRII sources.

Shadowrun Weapons:

The first aspect of weapons that I would like to explore is going to archaic, at least for 2050. Believe it or not, there are still weapons from the 20th Century circulating around the world. As it was in 1996, many 3rd world nations still relied on weapons from the 1920's. Now in the middle of the 21st Century, corporations own most of the third world countries and tend to support the primary forces with state of the art weapons. However, freedom fighters and rebels of every level take whatever weapons they can get.. The same applies with gangs across the country. Surplus weapons have surfaced throughout the sprawls. Some have been upgraded to accept the modified ammunition of the future, while others haven't. Below I have listed a series of 20th Century weapons that can be currently found in 2050.

For those of you GameMasters out there that would like to incorporate 20th Century designed into your campaign should make the weapons viable, yet have enough problems to want the characters to get 21st Century weapons. Here are a few applications that I've come up with.

• Weapons may be staged at any damage the GM wishes, thus a Colt 45 Peacemaker may do 10M, or Dirty Harry's 44 Magnum may do 8S. It is up to you to determine the damages, although I hope to provide you with my charts soon.
• Bullets fired from 20th Century weapons are less effective against 21st Century armor. For the sake of armor, the level of armor should be doubled when hit by a 20th Century bullet.
• Bullets for 20th Century weapons must be made specially for the specific weapons. Unlike 21st Century weapons, which most pistol ammunition is interchangable, the 20th Century bullets come in various calibers and various levels of each caliber. Ammunition costs are doubled, and the character must have a contact or buddy that makes (reloads ammunition). Plastic/polymer bullets can be made for the 20th Century weapons, however the damage would stage back to whatever round they are making. The 20th Century weapons, aside from the shotguns, had rifling which is adversely effected by the high grade polymers causing damage to the weapon over time.
• Weapons cannot accept any accessories that actually have to be installed within it. For example, a standard 30.30 Winchester Rifle could mount an external smartlink, but could not mount an internal one.
• Keeping with the antique or relic philosophy, the weapon itself is considered quite valuable to certain people, even to the runner. If a character opts to purchase, lets say a muzzel loader rifle and play Davey Crocket. During character generation, charge him significantly for it and the ammunition. If it's after character generation, the costs would be much much higher. I am working on a general table to use for cost/damage. Check back soon.
• Legality. As with any concealable weapon, they are illegal to be carried, without proper permits. Unlike an Ares Predator, killing someone with a 357 Magnum round is more apt to leave a nice trail to your front door. The rifling and the metalic bullets had a tendency to leave ballistic markings which could tell decernable things about the caliber and weapon. The 21st Century bullets have the same problem, however with plastic and polymer rounds, the rifling and markings are usually unclear.

Shadowrun Toxins:

Toxins and poisons are vaguely described in the SRII rulebook. Mostly, they cover Narcojet toxins and such. Other sourcebooks get into other toxins, or applicant (such as DMSO), but fail to correspond the varieties to toxins that would be available in 2050. Corporations and Law Enforcement Agencies would have such an inventory of toxins that I couldn't even begin to catalog them. What I have attempted to do was create a glossary of various agents and how they are used.

• MACE: This is a standard antipersonnel chemical primarily used to fend off attackers. Mace is deployed through use of aeorsols and can also be deployed via grenades. Mace cannisters have been created in various forms, ranging from simple little tube like cannisters to standard sized ink pens. Mace is legal for anyone to carry in acceptable deployment cannisters (i.e. NOT grenades!) When exposed to MACE a character must make a Willpower Check (target number 5) to make any complex action. Vision is reduced to short range only. Mace is active for 5 rounds (-1 round per initial WillPower success) Cost of Mace is 50 nuyen per dose. A Mace grenade costs 75 nuyen and is also available in mini-grenade. A combination Smoke/Mace grenade is avaiable for 100 nuyen.
• MIND-WIPE: This agent was developed shortly after the immergence of magic and magical creatures. Law Enforcement and Military Personnel were have severe problems capturing mages that were threats. This drug is designed to stun a characters thought processes. When struck by the agent a character must make an initial Willpower Check (target number 7) to determine the number of rounds it will last. It's base time is thirty minutes. For every success rolled subtract five minutes. When under the influence of MIND-WIPE the character is oblivious to everything going on around him. He is not unconscious. Characters able to use magic will not be able to cast or sustain any spells. Any character under the influence suffers a type of amnesia, and find themselves skill-less. They can still fire a weapon, or drive a car, but it would be as if they had a 0 Rating. Characters that make a subsequent Willpower Check (target number 4) can make one simple action per complete round. For example, a character that would normally take actions at turns 21, 11, and 1, would only get to take one simple action during one of those phases - not all. This drug is legal for Law Enforcment and Security Firms. It's cost is 500 nuyen per dose and it's availability is 2/1 week. Again the character is aware of everything going on around him, he's just not sure how to process the information. For example, a character in combat would see others shooting, but may not recall who is on his side or perhaps he doesn't recall that bullets are dangerous. This drug is available can be adminstered only through injection. Narcojets work well for a delivery means.
• MIND-BLANK: This drug is the same as MIND-WIPE, only in digestable form. It's duration is 72 hours. Initial target number is 9. For every two successes subract six hours.
• NERVE AGENTS: Nerve agents are designed to effect a persons nervous system. They work to degrade a persons system and then eventually kill them. There are a variety of delivery sources available, aerosol, powders, droplets, and injectables. Consuming a nerve agent is still very effective, however, there has been no market for consumable nerve agents. The most common means of delivery for nerve agent is droplets and powders. Often the nerve agent powders are integrated into various types of grenades and bombs. The droplets are generally released from drones over targets. Nerve agents cost 1000 per dose. Grenades must be specially made and often cost in excess of 2500. Although nerve agents are available in many strenghts, the most common agent is rated at 9D. As the nerve agent must come into contact with skin or be breathed, someone wearing proper gear or in a vehicle, which has a self-sustaining life-support would not be affected. Normal First Aid kits and trauma patches are virtually useless to cure nerve agent damage. A Med Kit may slow the effects of the agent until medical attention can be sought. A character will not die from a nerve agent until all of his Physical and Mental blocks are filled. A block is filled every ten minutes. Once the blocks are filled the character dies. If the Med Kit generates any successes, the time between blocks is raised five minutes per success. The drugs of the kit are needed, so standard first aid gear will not work.
• BIOLOGICAL AGENTS: As with nerve agents, these have been developed by the military to affect large amounts of people at one time. Biological agents can be introduced into the human host through every possible means. It can be put into a communities water supply or released into a buildings air filtration system. Unlike nerve agents, a biological agent will begin to degrade the human flesh upon contact, like an unseen acid. The longer it's in contact with flesh, the more damage it will do. Biolgical agents cost 10,000 per dose. Availabilities is 1/1 Year. As they are highly illegal and not used currently by any nation, they are rare. The damage for a biological agent is 15D. It follows the same follow through as a nerve agent.
• ANTIDOTES: As with most poisons there are antidotes for all Nerve and Biological agents currently in the arsonals. Unlike "Antidote Patches", these are actual cures for the agents. Once applied there is no rolls. The effects of the agents STOP! Normal healing can occur once these have been applied. Cost is 500 nuyen for a Nerve Anti-Tox and 750 for a Biological Agent. Unlike their counterparts the antitoxs are available 2/24 hrs. It seems that like many groups have promoted that the government is introducing these agents into various neighborhoods to test them out.
• POISONS: This category is used to cover all poisons or unknown toxins. As with many things the variety of poisons are to lengthy to list, and the strengths of poisons to lengthy to itemize. It will be up to the GM to determine whiche poisons fall into which categories. As with most things int 2050 poisons are made in all forms.
• Categories of Poisons:
  • LEVEL 1 POISONS . . . . .4L. . . . . . . .25 Per dose
  • LEVEL 2 POISONS. . . . . 8L. . . . . . .. 50 Per dose
  • LEVEL 3 POISONS. . . . . 6M. . . . . ...75 Per dose
  • LEVEL 4 POISONS. . . . ..9M. . . . . . .100 Per dose
  • LEVEL 5 POISONS. . . . .14M. . . . . . 200 Per dose
  • LEVEL 6 POISONS. . . . .8S. . . . .. . ..500 Per dose
  • LEVEL 7 POISONS. . . . .12S. . . . . . .750 Per dose
  • LEVEL 8 POISONS. . . . .15S. . . . . . .1000 Per dose
  • LEVEL 9 POISONS. . . . .9D. . . . . . . .2500 Per dose
  • LEVEL 10 POISONS. . . .13D. . . . . . .5000 Per dose

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