Shotguns [SWSE] P.E.A.C.H

[Kyrthain]

I was looking through saga edition, planning for a refluffed campaign using its rules, and noticed that there were no stats for shotguns. This may make sense for a star wars campaign, but I felt like the world I was designing might have them. Seeing that the shotguns in D20 Modern are pretty lame, I decided to design my own. I have just one type statted, but I may think up more.

Shotgun: Large weapon, requiring rifle proficiency to use. It does 4d8 damage, and has 1/2 the range of a pistol. In addition to becoming less accurate with each increment, it also loses 1 die of damage. Feats, items, and talents that increase range or mitigate range penalties, do not work with shotguns, nor can you benefit from aiming. An attack with a shotgun is treated as an area attack, but only covers one square. The wielder makes an attack against the reflex defense of anyone in the square, dealing half damage on a miss. Because the shotgun's blast is actually a number of projectiles, each die of damage is treated as a separate attack for the purpose of dealing with DR and shields. The wielder can apply their damage bonus to whichever die they choose. For the purpose of overcoming damage thresholds, the blast is treated as one attack, as normal.

Anything you think I should change? Anyone else with homebrew shotgun ideas feel free to post 'em

[Rainbownaga]

Weird- so it is impossible to actually miss with a shotgun unless the target has evasion; that said heroes with shotguns should never miss anyway:smalltongue:

I like how this rule system adds a lot of circumstantial effects to the shotgun- it's useless against anything with armor, sheilds or DR but is good against force deflecting jedi and anything with high reflex defense (without evasion).

Double tapping or burst firing with a shotgun could be confusing, however, as does the whole "high level commandos don't fear shotguns"

[Daisuke1133]

I'm not sure if this is really relevant, but there is a shotgun in Saga Edition. It's called the Scatter Gun and it is stated out in the Galaxy at War source book.

[Kyrthain]

@Daisuke1133: Huh. I hadn't looked there.

@Rainbownaga: Well, you can't burst fire with it, but yeah, double tap/rapid fire works.

[Violet Octopus]

The errata for SWSE state
"When you make an area attack, you make a single attack roll; if your modified attack roll is equal to 10 or higher, compare the result to the Reflex Defense of every target in the area."
So if the OP used said errata it'd still be possible to miss.

[Kyrthain]

Makes sense to use that.

[Ihouji]

Its funny I have always noticed the same thing most modern books disregard the shotgun all together or give (IMO) unsatisfying rules.

I think its because they are versatile and would frankly completely change stats depending on what it is loaded with. Target or bird shot would be a cone attack with low damage that would be extremely hard to miss with. Then it just needs to be walked up getting easier to miss but doing more damage until you get to solid slugs. At that point its more or less a rifle with greatly reduced range but extremely high damage.

I have always found all guns hard to make up rules for due to the diversity of gun styles and calibers on the market. Melee weapons it is just weight and size+shape of the business end+swing velocity(based on str) = X amount of damage.

Its a lot harder to calculate bullet velocity (based on cartridge size, bullet grain, and firing platform) + accuracy (shooter accuracy+target distance+target movement+firing platform+possibly 2-3 other variables) = ???damage???