[Savage Rifts] Particle Beam Weapons and Crew Served Options

Introduction

As expressed, however briefly, in a previous post, I am unsatisfied with how particle beam weapons work in Savage Rifts. They just increase the die type by one and leave it at that. From what I recall of the Rifts universe, particle beams were the energy weapon king of anti-armor warfare - or at least that was the intent. Palladium's stats tended to vary based on who was writing the book, so I can't really go off of them.

In any case, I've set out to standardize how particle beams function and bring them in-line with my own expectations.

In addition, I want to see heavy weapons viable as a crew served weapon and not require a robot, PA, or vehicle to hook up to. The second part of this post address that aspect.

So, without further ado, here we go.

Particle Beam Weapons

The premier energy anti-armor technology, particle beams are expensive compared to other forms of energy weapons and harder to maintain. All particle beam weapons suffer from Technical Difficulties. Remember, as well, that any weapon with a Mods value requires a Strength of d12+Mods to wield effectively as a personal firearm.

General rule of thumb for creating a particle beam weapon: take a comparable laser, reduce the range to 2/3 of the laser's. Increase the damage die type by one. Add +2 AP for personal weapons, +5 AP for heavy / vehicle weapons. Add +1 to the Mods value for heavy / vehicle weapons. Double the cost. Reduce shot count to 3/4 of the laser's (for personal weapons).

This gives the following profiles for Vehicle / Heavy particle beams

Vehicle Particle Beam Weapons

Weapon	Range	Damage	RoF	AP	Shots	Mods	Cost
Light	100/200/400	2d12	1	10	Special	3	900,000
Medium	100/200/400	3d12	1	15	Special	4	2,000,000
Heavy	100/200/400	4d12	1	20	Special	5	4,800,000

Notice the special under shots? That's where the second part of my introduction comes in ...

Energy Cells / Canisters

Sometimes you need a big gun, but you need it in the field with the grunts and not strapped to a lumbering behemoth. Problem is, those big guns need energy, and they're usually tied into the on-board power supply of said behemoth.

The solution are Energy Cells, although different manufacturers call them different things. Each cell has energy equal to its rating times 12. A weapon uses energy equal to its max damage, so a d12 uses 12 energy. 2d12 uses 24 energy, etc.

For example, an EC10 contains 120 power. That means that each shot of a Light Vehicle Particle Beam consumes 24 energy from the EC10, giving the weapon a realistic shot capacity of 5.

Energy Cell Costs

As can be imagined, Energy Cells are not cheap as they're handling a draw usually handled by fusion reactor. The cost to recharge a cell is the BASE number of shots unit rating (10, 20, etc) * 1000 credits, with a new unit costing 5 times the recharge cost.

Here's a table with all the math figured for EC10 up to EC80

Energy Cells

Cell	Energy	Weight	Recharge	New
EC10	120	5	10000	50000
EC20	240	10	20000	100000
EC30	360	15	30000	150000
EC40	480	20	40000	200000
EC50	600	25	50000	250000
EC60	720	30	60000	300000
EC70	840	35	70000	350000
EC80	960	40	80000	400000

Examples

Using an EC60:

Heavy Particle Beam - 15 shots (720 energy / 48 max damage)

Heavy Laser -  18 shots (720 energy / 40 max damage)

Heavy Ion - 18 shots (720 energy / 40 max damage)

Crew Served Weapons

Any Vehicle / Heavy Weapon can become a crew served weapon. It requires the use of Energy Cells (see above) to power the weapon, and it has to be outfitted with some form of ground mounting and stabilizing platform such as a tripod. Setting up or breaking down a crew served weapon requires a full round (six seconds), after which it may be used without a minimum strength. It is, however, immobile until it is broken down (again a full round).

When transporting the system, the individual pieces are typically distributed among the crew. Humping the weapon itself requires a minimum strength of d4 + Mods die steps (so 1 Mods requires a d6, 2 requires a d8, and so on). Depending on the size of the cell used, each crew member other than the weapon carrier has one or two cells added to their kit.The larger cells are almost exclusively used for semi-permanent fortified positions.

I'm still trying to come up with a good rule of thumb for how much the weapon itself weighs. For now, assume that anyone humping the weapon itself is considered to be encumbered with a -3 penalty as per the encumbrance rules as if he or she was at 3/4 of their max load, Reduce pace by 2 when carrying.

---

Update 2016-10-18: Simplified the math and design to make it much easier to use, coming back to "Fast, furious, fun".