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Ranged Weapons

Page 4 of 6

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Flame Weapons

Restricted almost entirely to military usage because of their sheer destructiveness, the flamer family are common squad support weapons that all operate around the same basic principle – a high pressure nozzle spraying blazing chemicals from a canister, designed to wash around cover to clear out trenches and bunkers.

The exact makeup of the chemicals varies from model to model. Sometimes it is simply promethium ignited by a pilot light, but other varieties use petrochemical jelly that ignites on contact with air.

Some exotic or alien weapons fire clouds of gas, acid or other substances, but work in effectively the same way. Of these, webguns and neural shredders are covered in this section.

Due to their nature, flame weapons cannot be fired in a combined movement action while moving any faster than walking pace. Strong wind may also impede accuracy, or even wash the spray back over the user.

Unlike most other weapons, flame weapons cannot be fired at extreme range – their long range is the very limit of their capability. Flame weapons cannot be aimed, and so cannot make placed shots.

When a character fires a flamer, the GM should judge which targets are liable to be hit. Flamers have a narrow fire arc of between about 10 and 30 degrees – some flamers have pressure valves that can regulate the spray of incendiary, or they can be swung from side-to-side to cover wider areas. All characters within this area and not completely obscured by, for example, a solid wall, are potential targets.

Characters behind any form of solid cover (walls, rocks, but not leaves or grass, etc.) halve the damage that they receive if hit by a flame weapon. Foliage or other non-solid cover will not protect against a flame weapon’s attack.

Roll to hit as normal (BS test) for each potential target. Should a target be hit, roll for damage. This damage is then divided equally amongst a certain number of locations, determined by the range from the firer to the victim. Effectively, the further a character is from the weapon, the less dense its spray, resulting in a greater number of locations being hit for less damage. If the same location is hit more than once, total up the damage inflicted on that location before penetrating armour, applying injuries and so on. Ammunition is marked off the flamer per shot, not per opponent attacked.

Essentially a pistol-sized flamethrower, hand flamers are generally only used in the cramped conditions of house clearance actions, where a bulky flamer would be difficult to manoeuvre.

Specialist Weapon: Hand flamers require the Specialist Weapon – Flamer ability.

Flamethrower: There is a 50% chance that each hit caused by a hand flamer will set the location on fire (D3 damage). See the GM’s Section for more details.

Splash Effect: Flame weapons are especially suited to flushing out bunkers, rooms and foxholes, since the liquid fire will splash of the walls of the enclosed space. As such, when a flamer is fired into an enclosed space, the GM can rule that the backwash from the spray potentially hits every character in the space, rather than just those in the weapon’s immediate line of fire. Range is measured from the weapon, to the wall, and back to each target, when determining the number of hits caused by a splash attack.

Also known as the neuro-disruptor or the scrambler, the neural shredder is a rare weapon used almost exclusively by the Callidus Temple of the Officio Assassinorum. It is suspected that the weapon was originally of Xenos design, specifically the Psy-Gore of the Perseus system. Observers have speculated on many occasions that much of some of the technology possessed by the Officio is so unusual that it could only be of non-human origin. Certainly, alien versions of the neural shredder do occasionally round up in the hands of Rogue Traders or other humans that have dubious dealings with Xenos species.

The weapon itself works by projecting a resonant stream of electromagnetism that scrambles the electrical signals of the target’s nervous system. This almost certainly stuns the target, and can lead to unconsciousness or death.

Specialist Weapon: Neural shredders require the Specialist Weapon – Flamer ability.

Neural Disruption: A neural shredder attacks targets in the same way as a flamer, but does not cause physical damage. The scrambling effect of a hit from a neural shredder will result in the target character being stunned for D3 rounds unless he successfully passes a Willpower test.

Instead of causing Injury points and location injury, 6D10 points are deducted from the character’s Willpower and Sagacity scores (roll for each characteristic separately), and 3D10 points from Initiative. Each hit to the head causes double damage.

Characters reduced to zero or fewer Willpower or Sagacity points will fall unconscious until they recover both characteristics to a positive number. If either characteristic falls so far below zero that it is a negative of the characteristic’s initial level (e.g. a Sagacity 50 character being reduced to –50), then the character is effectively brain dead and will never recover – his mind has been completely scrambled and he is no more cogent than a vegetable.

Ammunition: The neural shredder has no ammunition, its power being drawn from charged crystals integral to the weapon’s construction. These are capable of storing up to five shots worth of energy, and it takes one hour for each shot to recharge.

Firing a sticky chemical that rapidly solidifies, web pistols are frequently issued to law enforcement agents when the live capture of a suspect is imperative. A person ensnared in the restrictive web chemical cannot harm others, although the web reacts to a struggling target by contracting. To avoid crushing or smothering a captive, many web chemicals are laced with anaesthetic to knock the captive unconscious.

Specialist Weapon: Web pistols require the Specialist Weapon – Flamer ability.

Entangled: An arm or leg hit by a web pistol has a 75% chance of becoming entangled and rendered useless. This chance is reduced to 25% if the location is protected by a force field of any type.

Hits to the head have a 50% chance of covering the nose and mouth, and unless the character is wearing a re-breather, will suffer D6 points of damage (not location injury) each round until the web is removed.

Characters must take a Nerve test in order to resist struggling against the web and causing it to contract. The GM should apply modifiers as appropriate (proximity of enemies, if the character is currently being smothered by the web, knowledge of how web weapons work etc.). A failed test will result in the character suffering D6 damage to each ensnared location from constriction. If the test is passed, the character remains calm and does not suffer any additional damage.

A character can spend actions trying to tear his way out of the web. To successfully free a location, he must pass a Strength test with a –25 modifier. If this test is failed, damage is suffered as above.

Web solvent spray can be used to free a webbed character without risk, but a character who cannot move his arms obviously cannot spray himself.

Designed to be attached to another weapon as an auxiliary system, the exterminator is particularly popular with the Redemption and other fanatical religious groups. It consists of a stripped down flamer – literally just a hose attachment built into a single-shot canister. Firing the weapon breaks the seal on the canister, so it cannot be refilled after use.

Specialist Weapon: Exterminators require the Specialist Weapon – Flamer ability.

Auxiliary Weapon: A single exterminator cartridge can be fitted to any weapon of rifle-sized or above. Close combat weapons may also be fitted with an exterminator, although any matched failure when attacking or parrying with the weapon will rupture the canister, causing a point blank hit to both combatants. The exterminator increases the Encumbrance of a weapon by +10.

One Shot: Once fired, the exterminator cartridge cannot be refilled.

Flamethrower: There is a 50% chance that each hit caused by an exterminator cartridge will set the location on fire (D6 damage). See the GM’s Section for more details.

Splash Effect: The exterminator has a splash effect as detailed under the rules for hand flamers.

Another disposable flame weapon, the flame cannon is cheap, but of limited use. Although boasting a longer range than a normal flamer, its firing mechanism is roughly the same as in the exterminator. As such, the four integral canisters each empty after a single shot, after which the weapon is useless. Its one boon is that it is cheap, and criminal gangs frequently collect flame cannons for ‘special occasions’.

Four Shots: Once the integral canisters are emptied, the flame cannon cannot be reloaded.

Flamethrower: There is a 50% chance that each hit caused by a flame cannon will set the location on fire (D6 damage). See the GM’s Section for more details.

Splash Effect: The flame cannon has a splash effect as detailed under the rules for hand flamers.

A standard squad support weapon in virtually every branch of the Imperial military, the flamer is the most common specialist weapon in the Imperium. The weapon’s reputation is as important as its actual effects, and many soldiers will flee a fortified position rather than let a flamer-armed squad attack them. Those that decide to stick around inevitably have to kill the flamer soldier or be destroyed themselves. Life expectancy for an Imperial Guard flamer operator is only marginally higher than that of a plasma gunner.

Specialist Weapon: Flamers require the Specialist Weapon – Flamer ability.

Flamethrower: There is a 50% chance that each hit caused by a flamer will set the location on fire (D6 damage). See the GM’s Section for more details.

Splash Effect: The flamer has a splash effect as detailed under the rules for hand flamers.

Also known as a web gun, glue gun or strangler, there is hardly a law enforcement agency within the Imperium that does not have at least a few of these in its armoury. They are vital for the (usually) non-lethal suppression of unruly demonstrations, being able to immobilise and restrain dozens of targets in a single shot.

Specialist Weapon: Webbers require the Specialist Weapon – Flamer ability.

Entangled: Webbers can ensnare targets, as detailed under the rules for web pistols.

The heavy flamer is far more powerful and long-ranged than its smaller cousins, but still suffers from the relatively low fuel capacity of all flamer weapons. For this reason it is generally mounted on vehicles or stationary positions where it can be supplied with fuel from larger tanks.

Specialist Weapon: Heavy flamers require the Specialist Weapon – Flamer ability.

Flamethrower: There is a 50% chance that each hit caused by a heavy flamer will set the location on fire (D10 damage). See the GM’s Section for more details.

Splash Effect: The heavy flamer has a splash effect as detailed under the rules for hand flamers.

Essentially a sealed metal flask of pressurised flamer fuel, this is screwed into flamers or hand flamers. Some guerrilla fighters and terrorists have been known to use flame canisters as part of bombs, or even as powerful (if unreliable) incendiary grenades.

Holding approximately twice as much fuel as a normal flame canister, this high-pressure canister is used with heavy flamers.

Similar in design to a flame canister, but with far less volatile contents, web canisters contain pressurised web chemical.

As the name suggests, the backpack canister is worn on the back, replacing the fuel canister in either a flamer or heavy flamer. Sometimes this is the soldier carrying the weapon, although in many cases a second soldier carries the canister, sparing the flamer soldier the weight. This is an unpopular option, since it requires the two members of the team to remain within a few feet of one another, which is easier said than done in the urban warzones in which flamers are most used.

A backpack canister attached to a flamer increases its Capacity to 24 shots, and decreases the Encumbrance of the weapon by 10.

When attached to a heavy flamer, Capacity is increased to 16 shots, and Encumbrance is reduced by 20.

The wearer of the backpack is in grave danger if he gets hit though. Any attack from the rear one hundred and eighty degrees that hits the torso will have to pass through the backpack’s Armour Value of 6 before it causes any damage to the wearer. However, if the backpack’s armour is penetrated, the backpack will rupture. Every character within 2D6 yards takes D6 hits as if from a heavy flamer.

An attack from the front that passes through the wearer’s body and causes an exit wound (i.e. any ranged attack and certain close combat weapons causing more than one level of location injury) will also hit the backpack, with the same effects as those detailed above. The backpack still counts as having Armour Value 6 (it’s armoured on all sides, just in case of exit wound hits).

Some web canisters contain specially treated web chemical that passes a contact sedative into a target’s system upon ensnaring him. A character entangled by web anaesthetic chemical must take a Toughness test each round of entanglement or lose consciousness. Unconsciousness lasts for D6x10 minutes, but it takes a successful Toughness test to wake up at the end of this time if the character is still trapped within the web (and then, of course, there is always a chance of falling asleep again).

Web anaesthetic will not affect characters in sealed armour or clothing.

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