The Mass Driver/Rail Gun

This should be a crazy simple weapon, the only limitation is ammo. This would be unaffected by any existing shield/screen, much like a rocket. I'm thinking it'd still use the Energy Gunner skill, as it fires like a beam weapon. For the first few shots (if we keep development a secret) would be a real surprise for the target. Who'd think to dodge a ball? In theory, you could use a ship to tow small asteroids toward a planet and let gravity do the rest. Kyle wonders why no one thought of this sooner. Parts Needed: 15m piece of rifled pipe, 10cm diameter (Would rifling be necessary in space?) 6 sets of Electromagnetic Rings, to repulse against each other and propel the ball. Hydraulics to adjust the aim of the barrel A few 10cm metal balls for test ammo, spent Atomic Pellets as the standard ammo. (very dense and can leave radioactive contamination in the area they hit) Mass Driver or Rail Gun MHS - 3? FF, No RD Range - 6 (Ship to Ship. Unlimited in theory, until the ball hits something...especially for random planetary bombardment) Capable of planetary assault. Gravity would increase the speed of the projectile, causing lots more damage. Damage - 2d10 (3d10 with Depleted Uranium) 6 round magazine. If using DU, a rad suit must be worn for reloading. Imagine firing this from 20 hexes away. Would a ship even see it coming? It's not an energy weapon, therefore, energy sensors wouldn't see it. Skin Sensors would pick it up...when it hit. Cameras would likely miss it as well. Unless they can gather the projectile (which I envision disintegrating on impact) they'd think it was a meteor strike. We could nearly get away scot free. Granted, you could only do this against large ships (maybe HS10 or bigger). Thoughts? Improvements?

One problem with Star Frontiers KH is that it leaves out a lot of necessary details about how things work.  For example, wouldn't a shot at a space station be an automatic hit?  It's not, so there are clearly other factors at play.  As GM, I considered ubiquitous shields or screens, but it doesn't fit the theme - and they aren't mentioned.  Instead, I'm guessing it means there are defensive maneuvers (even for space stations), ECM, and small active defenses.  Furthermore, I'm guessing the sensors aren't very precise, so a large part of gunnery is trying to guess where the target actually is within the radar blob that you see. Furthermore, in Star Frontiers, if a free object in space reaches void speed, then it disappears.  This limits the effectiveness of non-guided long range weapons, because it limits how fast your salvo can fly.  If the target is making any maneuvers, it will be very difficult to predict trajectory. Remember that each hex in KH is 10,000 km.  It's closer than the moon, but it's further than Russia. That's a long distance for a shot.  Combat maneuvers are at high-G and random since they are punctuated with "stop" periods where the crew comes out of freeze and makes tactical decisions.  This is my explanation for why the rocket weaponry is generally short range.  The exception is seekers, but they actually move really slowly in comparison. Having said all that - if you want to invent a starship railgun, I agree it's very simple, and it definitely would work.  However, it must still fall into the same size to functionality ratio used by the other KH weapons.  As before, if you want to invent spaceship weapons - we can use the same rules as for personal equipment.  Propose stats, I'll decide if it is reasonable, then you spend the money and time, and then you roll.  OTOH, spent uranium pellets aren't magnetic (mostly lead), so probably not the best rail-gun ammo. As comparison, I bumped up the power of rocket weapons in the house rules (since you can now fire all your shots at once).  As such, I think the weapon stats above are not excessive.  Also, the pellets are small enough, that I don't see any reason to have an ammo limit. On the other hand, you could probably trade some more functionality if you added in range diffusion since it is an unguided weapon. As a side note, I've always wanted some more weapon choices for spaceships.  Especially for dogfights.  For example, KH p54 shows a UPF fighter firing some unidentified small guns at a Sathar fighter - but there are no rules for such.

Lead? Well poo. I was thinking more along the lines of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium</a> Yea, my pie in the sky thing is a little much, but, the basic stats were fairly comparable to canon, at least in my opinion. Forward Firing, no Range Diffusion, Range - 6 (a little more than a rocket battery, less than any other beam weapon). If we're not going with DU as the leftovers of a pellet, then we're using the steel. A sabot may be a better way to go. A big, nasty dart that punches neat holes. We could do what the Military is currently doing, just in reverse. The current projectiles are smaller than the bore, so they encase it in an aluminum sheath. This keeps the ferrous metal from sticking to the magnets, slinging it at around Mach 7. Mach 7 is well below void speed, so unless you're cruising at close to jump velocity, you should be cool. Funny though, shoot one so that it enters the void. Even if it was a pop can, moving at .099/c would make it damn near a nuclear strike.&nbsp; But, I digress. Leaving out my "wouldn't that be cool" stuff, what do you think? It would still do nasty things to a planet. Some of the meteorites they've found were only the size of a baseball, but left a crater 40-50' in diameter. That all depends on if you want a ship to be able to have planetary strike capability. Yes, torpedoes could hit the ground, they are nuclear bombs after all. Last thought, since these would be hull or physical damage, the DTM would have to be modified by around a -20? The lower numbers are more hull damage types of strikes. Jeez, I wish they had a weapons designer skill =)

Can't find any mention of ferromagnetism of depleted uranium, so I'm guessing it's not. &nbsp;Regardless, iron pellets encased in lead (or aluminum as you mention) would work just fine. Regarding void speed, I think I revised it to 0.01c, to make jumps reasonable. &nbsp;However, it's not really an issue regardless. &nbsp;It's fast enough to punch a hole right through a ship. &nbsp;The point is, it's not light speed like a laser and it's not a guided weapon, so range is probably not it's best suit. Regarding damage type modifier, whatever you think is reasonable. I can see it either way. &nbsp;It's going to tear small holes straight through the ship.&nbsp;I worked one summer at a navy research facility that had a working railgun. &nbsp;Never got to see it shoot live, but I did get to touch the 3" titanium plate that it used as a target. &nbsp;It had a perfectly smooth hole, not even a sign of metal deformation. &nbsp;Even if the shell shattered somehow on impact, it wouldn't really matter, because the vector of the shell fragments wouldn't change significantly. &nbsp;Does that mean odds of extra hull damage (destroyed structure) or more electrical (it might hit a critical system)? I dunno.