yea, i know "wheel"

ok so the odd-ball power and damage codes on fireamrs have been deriving my crazy. so i decided to take this on scientifically.
i want to make a formula for calculating the power and damage codes.
with any firearm we can get 3 measurable stats: projectile weight (grains), feet per-second, and ft-lbs-force.

so i want to create a plug and play formula, takeing those numbers, to get the power/damage code.

to get a base line i have taken 5 guns and given them a damage code that i feel is accurate for them, if not scientifically derived.

30-30, 170gr / 2200fps / 1826ft-lbs-force / 9S @14" barrel
I chose 9S because i have hunted deer with it.
deer i would give :body 2+1(toughness) (3):
a good but not great shot :rifle 3: can kill a deer with one well-aimed hit, but an off shot will not kill.

22 short 29gr / 1046fps / 70ft-lbs-force / 4L @6" barrel
Anything weaker and you should throw the gun, it'll hurt more.

22 long 36gr / 1328fps / 140ft-lbs-force / 6L @6" barrel
you can normally get a squirrel with a 22 long

.45 APC 185gr / 950fps / 371ft-lbs-force / 6S @5" barrel
normal body armor dose a good job of stoping this, but it has a good reputation for stoping unarmored targets.

9mm 124gr / 1150fps / 364ft-lbs-force / 6M @4" barrel
most armor is designed to stop this round. Bad reputation of not stopping targets.

.50 rifle 700gr / 2978fps / 19001ft-lbs-force / 15D @45" barrel
Serious round. armor not normally designed to take. can be deadly if taken in the extremities due to shock from extreme tissue damage.

So.. any arguments with my damage codes above?

and the important question, any ideas on a formula to calculating damage codes? I have a few ideas, but nothing solid yet.

have you checked Raygun's site? he's got a big ol' table of damage codes by caliber and weapon type.

yea, i like his recal on weapon damage, but i'm actualy working on a bigger project than just this, and i want a dynamic damage code caculator.

Formulas for damage are, as a rule, a bad idea. I was intrigued by the idea once, before I knew anything about terminal ballistics, but it turned out to be more of a bother than a boon. The granularity of just about any RPG system for determining damage from firearms means that allowing the limits between ratings (at what point exactly does 11S become 12S, for example) to be determined more or less at random, such as by which particular caliber/barrel length combination averages 1 ft-lbs higher, will be bad for balance -- and you're more capable of logically deducing the optimal (for realism, game balance, or anything else) damage code for any weapon than any possible formula is.

You'll get much better results if you do the whole thing "manually", thinking through what the damage code for each and every firearm should be, considering all the factors that affect the performance of that weapon with different kinds of ammunition as measured by whatever standards the particular damage code you're trying to come up with is best at measuring. Like Raygun did it, and every other more-or-less successful alternate take on damages I've seen for any RPG has been done.

First coming up with a short list of standards to compare any other caliber-barrel lengths to, like you've done above, is a good idea anyway -- although in the case of SR3 it may be a bit of a waste, as mfb pointed out.

It can come out ok as long as you change the weapons to fit the formula. For example, if you have the formula ft/sec = Power and round diameter in inches = wound level, you simply say that all Ares Predators fire a 2-inch-diameter bullet at 9 feet/second. As long as you don't mess around with the timing rules, your formula works and is no less balanced than the preexisting rules.

It may prompt some of your players to jump off of tall buildings, but that can't be avoided.

~J

2 inch barrel diameter weapon, I just found this recently online so I thought I'd link it. It's fiction I know, but still funny.

http://www.thelegendbegins.com/weapons_of_...mors4.html#punt

Punt guns are, or at least were quite real. Like so.

There's another, somewhat more dramatic, Punt Gun vid here.

I must say that I found this demonstration very amusing.

Yup, that'd take down a troll.

To do: make rules for Trolls carrying punt guns. Possibly reuse old shotgun rules?

~J

Depending on how large the shot is, this is not necessarily a very good weapon for killing a troll, but doubtless it'd be a fun gun for a troll to kill smaller critters with.

Devil Rats?