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[Stormdrake]

After a debate with my players I came up with the following to follow the advancment of laser weapons in the Shadowrun world. Am looking for some feed back on the balance of the stats I came up with for the weapon and the implied draw backs. Wrote it up like one of the entries for the old street samurai catalog so there is some made up shadowtalk included at the end.

Ares
Infantry Combat Laser Assault Rifle

Designed by Ares and tested in the Desert Wars, the I.C.L.A.R. is the next step in portable laser weaponry. Measuring only 24 inches in length (without stock deployed) and weighing less than 4 pounds (with out clip) the I.C.L.A.R. has done away with annoying and dangerous external power pack’s or connector cables. Highly reliable, while easy to use and maintain the I.C.L.A.R. provides a devastating punch previously reserved for squad or vehicle mounted weaponry. The I.C.L.A.R. comes with a integral folding stock and smart gun link making the already recoilless weapon unbelievably easy to aim.
With the continued breakthrough’s in alloy’s and composites, personal armor is getting better and better making your security forces jobs more difficult and dangerous. The I.C.L.A.R. tips the playing field back into your favor by the expedience of not being a ballistic attack and being at its very basic a fire based attack. Essentially the I.C.L.A.R. burns through the targets armor. Delivering the additional bonus of destroying the opponent’s armor and any environmental protections they may have integrated into the armor.
A portable clip charger is available from Ares that can be adapted to any dependable power source making recharging spent clips a no brainier. Just slip the spent clip into an empty slot on the charger and 6 hours later your ready to go. Additional clips are available at purchase or can be ordered later with a proof of legitimate purchase.

Damage:10P
AP: Special (See Below)
Mode: SA
RC: 0
Ammo:10©
Availability: 20F
Cost: 12,000¥

To determine range, consult the Weapons Range Table and decrease the weapon's power level by -2 for each range beyond short (Medium -2, Long -4, extreme -6). Ballistic armor has no effect; reduce Impact Armor by half, rounded down. Smoke reduces the laser's Power Level by -1 foe every 2 meters of smoke the beam passes through. Recoil modifiers do not apply. The use of the I.C.L.A.R. requires the ranged exotic weapons skill for lasers.

>>>>>(Were can I get one of these? Me needs, me needs! )<<<<<
TrogKing (20:36:15/09-15-70)

>>>>>(Get real TrogKing these things are a sure ticket for a fire response team to pay you a visit)<<<<<
Peck (20:38:20/09-15-70)

>>>>>(Had a chance to see these things in action at the last Desert War. For the shadows they are not. Noisy as any hand gun and the light show pretty much screams “I’m here”. Plus they have a nasty habit of setting fires. They do deliver on the lethality though and armors a joke when some one decides to target you with one of these. )<<<<<
Were-Castle (03:05:25/09-16-70)

>>>>>(Were-Castle forgot to mention that the “portable” clip recharger is about the size of an old 55 gallon drum and the “dependable” power source had better be rock solid because if you loose power while recharging the clips they can be shorted out and ruined just like that)<<<<<
Desrtsmurf (08:09:05/09-16-70)

>>>>>(Great, something else to look out for on the next run. Bloody thing sounds pretty useless to a shadowrunner team but the corp. security forces are sure to love it for defending those high security locations Mr. Johnson’s just love to pilfer)<<<<<
Nightgal (14:30:15/09-16-70)

>>>>>(Hear that loud, minigun-like, whirring sound? That's Neon Samurai, spinning in his grave. Down with Ares! Fight the Power!)<<<<<
Lethe (16:15:32/09-18-70)

[Squinky]

I like it, but it seems insanely cheap....

Also, weren't there rules for smoke and other issues like that lowering the power in previous editions?

[emo samurai]

It's like a long-distance monowhip! And what's the range?

It makes sense from a realistic standpoint that it's cheap; technology tends to improve geometrically. If the quality triples from year to year, then three years from now, it'll be 27 times as good.

I'd say keep upgrading it along with the SOTA curve; why aren't guns obsolete yet?

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Laser would be an elemental attack - AP would be -half against impact.

Considering the comments on recharging... laser weapons in SR3 were better than that, and had more 'shots'.

[emo samurai]

Shouldn't AP be higher, anyway?

[Clyde]

Laser weapons in SR3 had more shots, but they were bigger. I concur with the
-1/2 AP figure, though. Mention that it uses Exotic Ranged Weapon skill and can't take most accessories - although a laser sight would be really useful.

[emo samurai]

Why shouldn't it take smartlink?

[Tanka]

Lasers are coherent light and are therefore not prone to wind shifts like bullets sometimes are.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[Fix-it]

less than two pounds????

we're talking imperial std units here??? :eek:

wow that thing is light.

[RunnerPaul]

>>>>>(Hear that loud, minigun-like, whirring sound? That's Neon Samurai, spinning in his grave. Down with Ares! Fight the Power!)<<<<< Lethe (16:15:32/09-18-70)



(Because, you know, its obligitory to bring up the feud whenever Ares introduces a new laser.)

[Stormdrake]

First off RunnerPaul, if its alright with you I am going to add your comment to the shadow talk, lol.

I completely missed the fact that past laser weapons halved impact armor. Will also put in the rules for range and smoke effects but will probably change them slightly to accommodate 4th edition changes.

The smallest laser weapon I ever saw listed in cannon was the Ares MP Laser III in Fields of Fire and that had belt mounted power packs that indeed had more shots than my creation. However as the clips for my creation are probably the size of early nineties cell phones the decrease in capacity seems justified.

Charging time for the clips I just pulled out of the typical place because I could find no mention in Fields of Fire or any other cannon source books.

Thanks for the comments and if you have any more please add them as they have caused me to change a couple things. Am going to edit the above discription so give it another look if you want.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Cannon Compendium, in addition, lists a heavy laser and a pistol laser, too - the heavy one with a 50 shot backpack and the pistol with a 10 shot clip.

Charging times were one shot per hour for the normal laser, 2 per hour for the pistol and one per two hours for the heavy version.

[Stormdrake]

Thanks Rotbart will take a look when I get home from work again. However as I am treating this as a rifle according to the charging times you mentioned it is some what faster on the recharge than the old style. I think at least, lol.

Fix-it, two pounds sounded about right to me as in 2070 construction of such a weapon is going to be from alloy's and composites besides just normal hard plastic. Could be off though as I am not a engineer by any stretch of the imagination.

Squinky, came up with the cost by looking at the weapons list in back of 4th edition. Compared to the prices listed there it is extremely expensive.

emo samurai, It does come with a Smartgun link and a integral folding stock. They are mentioned in the discription above the stats.

[Squinky]

One thing to consider though on costs, the ultramax hmg costs more than this laser rifle, and has a lower availabilty. And the panther cannon is almost the same price.

I would price it above 10k easily, and thats going easy. I think in the previous editions the cost was 70k for the redline, and realizing that there are price differences between SR3 and SR4 I still would say somewhere around 30k ....my opinion though, I played a sam with a laser in SR3 and it was the sickest crap out there, I loved it. It was well worth the purchase.

[Stormdrake]

Squinky, Panther assault cannon has the same availability and costs about 500 Nyuen less. May increase the cost though because it is cutting edge technology. My take on the pricing has been thats what it would cost if you could by it legally. Illegally, well that is up to the source and the dice I think. Am I taking the pricing in the books the wrong way?

[Jaid]

why would a laser come with an integral folding stock?

anyways, i think 2 lbs is a little light. try at least 2 kgs (about 4.5 lbs, roughly that is).

i mean, it's two feet long, which is not a rifle by any means, but probably about SMG size. that's gonna weigh more than 2 lbs IMO.

and i would also say this should cost more. 10k nuyen isn't all that much, IMO, for the kind of power this thing could bring...

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[Stormdrake]

Jaid and Fix-it, realised that my paintball marker weighs more than this weapon so am going to change the weight to four pounds (without clip). As for the length given that does not take into account the folded stock. With the stock deployed it will be more like three feet in length or a little bit longer. Rotbart is right, the stock is for accuracy not recoil compensation.

By the by whatever happened to Neon Samurai?

[emo samurai]

If you steal it, it's free! :D

[RunnerPaul]

[Stormdrake]

Made some final changes to the stats and rules for range and smoke. For range and smoke changed it to reflect the rules verbatim from Fields of Fire. I also increased the damage to 10P after looking at other assault weapons damage when fired full auto.
As a side note in my game the Panther assault Cannon has a 18P as its base damage.
Also added the requirment of needing exotic ranged weapon skills to use the laser.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

8P was quite good - thats a sniper rifle.

[Fix-it]

[Skitzboy]

For my SR4 2050 conversion I used a Damage modifier of -1 per range past the first for laser weapons...I felt that -2 was too stiff a penalty since the laser started with a damage of 10P instead of 15M. But I did come up with the same damage as you did at 10P