Alright, as a GM, I become a little too generous after a difficult mission and gave one of the P.C.s a Barrett Sniper Rifle as a reward from a generous Johnson.

I'm trying to design the stats for the rifle and I am finding myself in pickle. Upping the damage of the other sniper rifles would put the Barrett at the same damage level as the Panther Cannon. In fact, just adding EX Explosive ammo to the Ranger Arms provides the same damage and AP as the Panther. I figure just the special rounds of the Barrett would probably put the damage at 10P and -5 AP.

Does anyone have any house made rules for the Barrett I can compare my stats to? I'll post what I've done so far, once I fire up my other computer.

Barrett Sniper Rifle (Ranger Arms SM-4). Accessories: Scope with every damn available perk on the planet + box of APDS ammo.

That wasn't too hard.

I stat it at 9p -4AP, with the option of putting any ammo you like in it. 10P -5 with ex ex
or 9P -8AP with APDS.

I do trust that the Barrett will be in Arsenal?

Thanks for the ideas. I would like it to be a bit different and a step up from the other sniper rifles. Here is what I have so far - transfered from Cannon Companion.

Sniper Rifle___Damage_AP__Mode_RC__Ammo_Availability__Cost
Barrett 121____10P___-7____SA__(2)___10____20F________7,5000

The Barrett is a specially designed .50 caliber anti-material rifle designed to take out lightly armored vehicles, combat drones and materialized spirits. It's heavy caliber gives the Model 121 a -2 recoil modifier on each shot (including the first). This recoil can partially be offset by the weapon's folding bipod, which provides 2 points of recoil comp. The custom ammunition for the Model 121 costs 200 nuyen per box of 10 and has the same availability as the rifle.

The Barrett Model 121 comes with an integral barrel mounted silencer, a internal smartgun system and a scope with electronic vision magnification, low light and thermographic vision.

Too much? Note that there is a snowball's chance in hell of him getting more ammo for it anytime soon (he has 20 rounds now).

The point is that you can make it different and even a step up without actually making it more powerful stat-wise.

Good Point. Perhaps I'm over thinking this. Call it a Barrett, give it a stat boost, and call it a day.

Good posts. I think I have what I am going to use. I like having the Barrett designed as a anti-material weapons with specially designed ammo for that purpose. Here is what I have:

Sniper Rifle Damage AP Mode RC Ammo Availability Cost
Barrett Model 121 8P -7 SA (3) 10 20F ¥7,5000

The Barrett is a specially designed .50 caliber anti-material rifle designed to take out lightly armored vehicles, combat drones and materialized spirits. Due to its heavy caliber, the Model 121 suffers double recoil modifiers for uncompensated recoil. The weapon comes with a rigid stock with a shock pad, a folding bipod that provides 2 points of recoil compensation, an integral barrel mounted silencer, an internal smartgun system and a scope with electronic vision magnification, low light and thermographic vision.

The Barrett Model 121 has custom designed .50 caliber depleted uranium titanium alloy APDS ammo that negates hardened armor and can penetrate vehicle armor even if the DV does not exceed the vehicle’s modified armor rating. The custom ammunition for the Model 121 costs ¥200 nuyen per box of 10 and has an availability of 18F. The Barrett Model 121 can use regular APDS ammo, but does not negate hardened or vehicle armor.

there is no vehicle armor... vehicles don't actually have a different kind of armor, it's just that as objects they are immune to stun damage.

Vehicles ignore damage below their modified armor. I just looked it up. It's exactly like hardened armor from SR3, they just didn't call it that.

I haven't checked errata to see if they changed the rule...but the rule is on page 158 of the base book.

"If an attack's modified DV does not exceed a vehicle's modified Armor rating, then the attack automatically fail."

The fluff is different, the rules are the same. Vehicles don't take damage from DV below their armor rating. Which is exactly what I said in the Barrett description I wrote up.

Why are you arguing with me again?

because it has nothing to do with vehicle armor. as written, the attack still gets converted to stun, and still does nothing to vehicles.

and if you change it so that the gun does physical damage even if the DV goes below the armor rating, then the gun has to do the same thing to regular armor, because they use the exact same rules.

in any event, if you want to add a gun that basically makes armor meaningless, then go ahead... but don't be surprised if everyone in your group starts ignoring every other gun, because this one completely ignores how armor works.

Having a bit of knowledge/experience with the Barrett and other big-bore rifles, here are my two cents on this topic. For the record, l33tpenguin and I are pretty close to complete agreement.

Damage: 9P

I went with this because the PJSS Elephant Rifle in the RAW is given a 9P DV. As a double-barreled rifle designated as an "elephant gun" it more than likely is represented as firing one of the traditional heavy safari-grade cartridges. These traditional big-bore safari rounds (.505 Gibbs, .416 & .450 Ribgy, .500 Nitro Express, and .460 Weatherby Magnum) are all in the same tier as the .50 BMG as far as damage is concerned. Slightly less-powerful safari-grade cartridges (the most famous of which is the .375 H&H Magnum) are more commonly fired from bolt-action rifles.

AP: -3 or -4

This one is really a toss-up and could go either way. Standard ammo for the Barrett is a .50 BMG full metal jacket cartridge. In target shooting, it will SOMETIMES penetrate 1-inch steel plate, but I've seen it ricochet just as often. I would probably lean towards the -4 AP value though.

Mode: SA (you could incorporate the cheaper single shot version as well if you wish).

RC: 2(4)

I agree almost completely with l33tpenguin on this one. Using the bipod is very important to get the full effect. I would like to add one other importnat matter as well. The most important aspect of the Barrett's considerable built-in recoil compensation its huge muzzle brake. The rifle actually has far less recoil than you would expect from such a high-caliber rifle (even considering its weight), but if you are ever near one when it is fired without any form of hearing protection, your ears won't stop ringing for 4 days. Attempting to put a silencer on a Barrett would require the removal of the brake (and possibly remove two points of its RC). In any case, I'm not even sure that you could find a silencer for such a weapon. One would have to be custom-made and would almost certainly only be good for one shot. I also agree with the idea of its uncompensated recoil modifiers being doubled.

The Barrett is NOT concealable by any stretch of the imagination.

Okay, now for the tricky part - specialty ammo. I would allow runners to fire explosive or EX explosive rounds through the Barret with the same modifiers listed in the book, however APDS is another story.

As Dizzman mentioned, the special armor-piercing ammo that is currently made for the Barrett is made from a depleted uranium alloy. It is available to the millitary only (I've never seen anyone who had any), and I would imagine that it is obscenely expensive. I have no issues with giving the rifle a -7 AP mod when firing this type of ammo, but I would give it something like a 20F availability and give it a price in the 100 nuyen per shot range (plus whatever extra you have to pay to get access to it).

I would personally be extremely reluctant to add this or any other "home-brewed" gun to the firearms list, because I think that ranged combat is already quite powerful enough in the RAW, and once you open the Pandora's box of adding real-world weapons to the game, things can get out of control pretty quickly. That's just my personal preference though. You should, of course, do as you wish in your own game.

I hope I've been of at least some assistance.

I much prefer the .416 sniper rifle and round. Makes the .50 Barret look weak.

Vehicles Armor isn't immune to Stun damage. Vehicles are, but not the Armor. Which is awfully silly considering the abstract nature of damage in this game. Would have been better to give them a Stun Condition Monitor but have it leave the vehicle unaffected; but once you exceeded it, Physical damage begins to occur. (Hell, even give it some kind of bonus against Stun, like twice its rating, and it would still be better from a logical point of view.)

That said, I see no reason a baseball bat wouldn't be able to completely demolish a microdrones. Yet, apparently, they can't due to the Stun nature of the damage and them being a Vehicle. Nevermind the Body 0/Armor 0 portions.

the .416 is basically designed to be a long range sniper round. The .50 is not basically designed to be one.

Check out the Military Channel's "Future Weapons" show, it as a segment on the .416,,it has a longer range than the .50 too.

D'oh!

Modeling the 50 BMG round as 8(-12) seems to work. This gives you the ability to hit light vehicles very hard but keeps it from turning PCs into immediate paste and helps reduce the ping or death problems arising with vehicular armor. See full math in my thread.

Not to mention, the stun baton CAN disable cars. The car/whatever gets body+armor vs hits on attack. If they have more, they're unaffected. If the hits for attack has more, They stop working for 2 + net hits combat turns. Thats pretty huge. (Don't forget, that goes with sticknshock too.)

There's no reason to allow 'special' ammo when the rifle is already supposed to be using special rounds. Just give the thing the stats you want it to be using and don't worry where they come from.

Almost every weapon in the game would use a different type of ammunition, yet they are still listed at the same price. there is no need to give a sniper rifle a special type of ammunition 'just cause'

No, but you may want the Barret to fire special ammo, because they are supposed to be armor-piercing, 50 cal. motherslugger that can ake out armored cars, not 7.62 FMJs used to cull puny bankrobbers.

Also, with all those stats flying around here, we basically get a gun that outdamages the Panther Cannon AND can be used without learning a new skillgroup, and that mother is supposed to "fire special rounds similar to that used by tanks" or somesuch...
Now, as much I liked Findley's description in Shadowplay and drooled over the thing in FOF, why not just give the guy a Panther and be done with it? There are stats for that thing, and it basically achieves the same effect: smothering the opposition. And maybe a bit of raised interest from the man...

Okay. Going back slightly to the "double uncompensated recoil" bit... If it has 2(4) built-in recoil compensation and runs at Semi-Auto max, how would you ever generate recoil to be doubled because it's a heavy weapon?

Hey, a little late, but I just read that people didn't like " -Half AP vs Vehicles" because Vehicular armor wasn't a unique rules object. Except their is a an anti-Vehicular rocket on 314 with and AP of -2/-6*
If people liked that as an idea it does have precedent.

Just Googled and found .50 bmg at Ammobank (still available) for $50 for a box of 10. Its steelcore magtech, so I would imagine it isn't too shabby. The last time I seriously priced it was a month or two ago. maybe its changed very recently