I'm writing the player handout for my next game. I've just written the following sentence:
"We're actually keeping track of ammunition this game."

But I'm afraid I don't really have a good way of doing that right now. What sort of system do you all use? Spreadsheet with check boxes? Computer spreadsheet/program? Tokens? Some mechanical counter?

This might help.

Not the right game, but I've used it for a variety of systems.

my players keep a tally themselves.

I'm actually thinking of investing in a box of those hand counters they use to track attendance numbers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I think i might have better compliance if my players can get the viceral *click!* everytime they pull the trigger in game.

But till then, spreadsheets are my front runner.

I trust my players to keep track of their own ammo, too.

Now that I think of it, would it be useful to add an ammo tracking sheet to the cheat sheets?

I think it would, I trust my players to keep track of their ammo but I want to make it as painless as possible for them to do so.

Most of the time, I just ask the players to keep track of that kind of thing. Except when the characters are panicked/not used to combat situations or generally not cool-headed. In those cases I tend to count several shots for 1 shooting action and keep track of it personally.

As for the way to do it, most of the time I just use pencil and paper.

I take the "Do you feel lucky punk?" approach.

I make notes during the game anyway, so if it's important I can often reconstruct it. If it's important and I can't we simply roll a dice.

I think bullets run out whenever the story demands it. However if you have been firing three rounds of supressive fire then you run out on round four.

Make life easier for yourself. If however you feel the itch then I can recommend scrapping Shadowrun combat and just running combat in say Advanced Squad Leader or Phoenix Command.

-Chrysalis

problems arise with different shooty modes in one weapon . . SA, BF, FA . . now how many times did i do what?
but usually we keep track of everything ourselves too . .

"Keep track of your ammo. You lose track of your ammo, you had loaded a short magazine, and it's now empty. I don't care if you only got a single shot off, you only had the one in the chamber. How does that work? Magic."

*grin* I was about to suggest that very same ammo sheet, CanRay. All Flesh Must Be Eaten is probably the only game where bullet count is as important as the story. Or rather... the important part is knowing when you're OUT of bullets.

Rule #1 of zombie horror survival: Always save the last bullet for yourself.


I use that sheet for almost every game we play, -if- i am concerned about how much ammo the characters are packing.
Generally my players carry so much around in shadowrun that i don't need to even think about it. "Conserve your ammo, Trog. There's like to be a lot of them," says an NPC. Player's Character replies, "I'm not running out of ammo -this- century, chummer," and pats his bulging pockets.

Ah yes, nothing quite like the Rambo-Way of Ammo . . sling the belts around yourself untill you can't walk straight anymore, then drop one off *g*

I'm usually very liberal with ammo tracking (I've only had a couple of real running gun battles) but the next game were playing is survival oriented. Even getting regular ammunition is going to be an adventure onto itself.

So, looks like spreadsheet check boxes it is. I was kinda hoping there'd be a more exotic solution but hey, that's me making problem where there aren't any.

Oh by the way, I hope you're being funny Chrysalis, I've flipped through those books exactly once and my eyes started to hurt. I want to count rounds not calculate correalis effect and morale modifiers due to unseasonal weather.

One fast and easy, though very expensive solution to keeping track of ammo is to have each player bring a firearm and a number of high-capacity magazines equal to the number of magazines his character has. Load each magazine with blanks (equal in number to the fictional weapon's capacity) and whenever the character fires the player also fires (into a designated box full of sand or water just to be safe).

The problem with this method, other than the neighbors calling the police to report all of the gunshots and cleaning up the brass, is potential hearing lose from the noise so use ear protection.


Other than that incredibly cool yet incredibly impractical method, a dry-erase board is the only way to go. Plain paper won't work because they're going to be refilling their magazines and using different types of ammo. The amount of erasing needed is just too tedious for regular paper.

For best detail I recommend having an assortment of markers with eac color representing a different ammo type. Draw a rectangle and fill that rectangle with lines of the appropriate colors to represent the ammo stack. Also have a little box to represent the chamber. Each virtual magazine is marked with two letters representing the character who holds it and the weapon it is in if any. As the magazine feeds the weapon erase lines from the top of the magazine and draw them in the chamber as necessary. This gives you a running tally of every magazine as well as every chamber. Revolvers are represented by a several chambers and loose ammo in each character's position is can simply be written as a number.

I used to just keep a "round expended" tally for each player on a piece of scrap paper.

If you're going to count rounds, remember to count 1.) ammo weight and 2.) number of magazines. Few things are sweeter than a player getting pwnt because he has 500 rounds of ammo for his rifle but only 5 30-round magazines.

Frankly, if you're in a Shadowrun where reloading anything save a Revolver is needed, you've screwed up very badly.

Unless you're the distraction, then you screwed up accepting the 'Run in the first place. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

If it's a real issue, I'd suggest mixing hyzmarca's ridiculous idea with a little sanity, and pass out poker chips. Each time the character fires, have the player toss the appropriate amount of chips into some form of receptacle.

Currently I track ammo via players with sheets. But its slow and annoying and I hate it, so I'm thinking about changing a few things

A) Adding some number to something to account for ammo costs. Maybe you buy ammo like lifestyle? So mages only firing normal bullets pay 100 yens a month or whatever, but street sammies with automatic weapons pay more. And if the street sammie just hands over ammo to the mage, he has to pay for the mages 'ammostyle'.

B) Players run out of ammo for whatever they are shooting whenever they roll a glitch, in addition to whatever else happens, whether or not they spend edge, until the end of the adventure/you'd have a chance to really get some more ammo.

Actually I played in a legendary campaign set in the Vietnam war called Charlie does not surf. Phoenix Command is the only game I know that takes into account spalling and penetration. It is just very very slow without the software that does the modeling. Yes, I am being funny. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

Poker chips is actually a pretty good idea. You can make separate stacks for each magazine, have one position for the weapon's chamber, and use different color chips for different ammo types. It would probably be faster than a dry-erase board.

Now, wait a minute, Hyzmarca's idea is the pwn! Just go to Master Shooter's Supply in Las Vegas, where they've got a box of AR15 mags sitting on the floor near the counter, and get a bunch of ammunition. Pass out loaded mags to the players representing their character's equipment and have the players remove rounds from the magazines as they fire! Wow, talk about atmospheric.

I like it. But then, I'm kinda crazy. Style over substance, baby.