Building a Space Opera Setting: Personal Weapons

 Combat is an important part of most RPGs, so in a Space Opera setting what should we use?

GURPS Ultra-Tech gives us a good assortment of tech but its a grab bag covering multiple tech levels and sciences. So how should we choose what to include?

Weapon Effectiveness

We want our weapons to be cool and invoke something we think is fun. They also need to make sense for the science of the setting. Good choices will make combat fun and interesting. They should be more effective than modern weapons but not too lethal or else everyone hits dies.

GURPS has a reputation for deadliness, though in my opinion its a bit exaggerated. If you go past 0 HP you risk falling unconscious and start requiring death checks at fully -1* HP. A person with average HT and HP has a chance to die after 5d6 average injury. Lucky rolls, armor, higher HT or HP can make it take more. Modern firearms can do this kind of damage, though small arms will usually require several hits. This means a big damage boost can be very lethal.

The author of GURPS Ultra-Tech, David Pulver considered this and one of his solutions was high armor penetration.

I prefer high armor penetration over massive damage as our heroes can still survive if caught outside their armor, or only wearing minimal armor. I do not want characters to feel the need for battlesuits outside of military actions. Armor Penetration makes armor less effective but gives unarmored people a batter chance than just scaling up the damage.

I also like high accuracy (ACC) and lots of shots so we can avoid reloads or carrying tons of magazines or battery packs. Energy weapons that can be recharged can also reduce accounting. Just recharge between fights.

Star Heist Weapons (TL10)

So I want grav weapons since the technology is a key part of the setting. Grav weapons can do crushing damage and be less than lethal and just recharge back at the starship.

Lasers are a classic, highly accurate, good range, quiet, and also rechargeable.

Slug throwers are often favored by players and can be good when you have special needs or a lower tech base such as on a frontier world.

These are all in Ultra-Tech and I think will use the same stats. So I list this in my campaign bible as..

When it comes to weapons, most civilians prefer the laser pistol (GURPS Ultra-Tech, p. 115) for self-defense, usually including Dazzle Mode. Private Security might carry an Electrolaser pistol (Ultra-Tech, p. 120) instead. Police will carry a variety of weapons depending on their need, sonic weapons for riot control, Gyrocs, and Plasma for tactical assault situations, and a Force pistol (Ultra-Tech, p. 129) as the standard sidearm.

Many people also like the Gauss pistol (Ultra-Tech, p. 142), less versatile than the laser pistol it is a bit more deadly – especially against armor.

Space stations often restrict people to force pistols, while non crew is restricted from any weapon on spaceships and starships.

This sets expectations upfront for the players and gives them decent options. One thing missing though is the Blaster. I really like blasters. GURPS Ultra-Tech has these as TL11 particle weapons. However the effect I have in mind is more like a plasma blast (also TL11).  I will need to make up my own stats but the idea here is..

Blasters fire micron sized spheres of varying material at a high velocity. Personal blasters usually use carbon pellets that are charged before firing (a brief arming cycle) and accelerated at high speeds using magnetic coil guns. They are fairly short range, especially in atmosphere but pack a heavy punch and a surge effect. They are effective against armor with initial impacts weakening the structure for following pellets, though not as effective as lasers or particle weapons.

The pellets can have cores of other materials, including fissionable material for larger explosions and radiation damage. Hydrogen cores are used for starship weaponry but require containment procedures and very high speeds to be effective.

I was inspired for this version of the classic blaster by this Spacedock clip.