All Weapons (Action)
 |
| Heroic Action Role-Play |
This is the full list of weapons for Action.
Melee
Melee Weapons Table
This is a list of Melee weapons for Action. Ranged weapons with the Throw property can also be used with the Melee skill when thrown.
A table with fantasy weapon only can be found here
Melee Weapon Descriptions
The categories are flavor and have no game effect.
Axes
Axes are aggressive to the point of being dangerous to use, but versatile and dangerous.
Hand Axe
A small axe suitable for use in the left hand. Used by some carpenters as a tool. A small sickle (known as kama in Japan) has the same function, as do small kukiri, but these cannot be thrown. Also known as a francheska.
Battle Axe
A heavy axe often used for woodwork. About a meter long with a metal or stone head. The back of the head is sometimes fitted with a prying bar. Also known as the fireman's axe, , bearded axe etc.
Great Axe
An axe balanced for use in two hands only, the great axe is about 1.3 meters long. Often used by loggers.
Flexible Weapons
Having a weapon that can move on its own gives great power and freedom of action, but it adds a dangerous element of unpredictability.
Poi
An oil burner at the end of a string, wire, or thin chain. Used with whirling motions, this looks very impressive but requires a fair amount of space.
Whip
Between three and six meters of corded leather, the whip tapers off to a narrow point. This amplifies the users movements; the end of the whip can move at super-sonic speeds to deliver smarting stings and create the trademark whiplash sound. The whip can be a very good weapon to stunt with and can attack a creature up to 5 meters away.
Net
A small weighted net, about a meter in diameter and fastened by a string. It can be thrown and is mainly an entangling weapon.
Nunchaka
Two short wooden sticks joined together by flexible joints, usually short chains. Similar to a flail but much lighter. Used as a threshing tool, this weapon was made famous by karate.
Flail
A hinged pole; a long stick connected to a short, heavy stick. The hinge is usually made of chain or steel joint, but primitive versions can use rope or sinews instead. Used as a threshing tool in agricultural societies. Also known as the footman's flail.
Morning Star
A short shaft with a heavy weight attacked to it by a chain. This is a proper weapon and harder to improvise. Also known as the horseman's' flail. A solid club with spikes in it is considered a Spiked Club.
Chain Whip
A long chain with a weight at the end. Called manrikigusari in Japan. Variants use cord or wire, or fasten blades at the ends to do cutting damage. Ninja like to attach chain whip to each other or to other weapons and use them with Double Damage Dealing.
Chain
Simply a heavy chain (such as a motorcycle drive chain) or a weight fastened to a cord or chain - the later version is called a slungshot. The Kyotetsu-shoge is a similar ninja weapon, with a dagger or sharpened ring instead of the weight (doing slashing or piercing damage). It is slung with a punching motion or twirled, and can be used to strike and entangle. Mostly famous with motorcycle gangs, it was also popular with 19th century gangs as well as ninja and other warriors of subterfuge because it is lethal and easy to conceal and improvise. It is often attached to another weapon and used as an offhand compliment to another weapon, or two of them can be wielded together or the two lengths of chain or cord are combined into a longer one that is only one object but still counts as two different weapons.
Afflox
The Afflox is a spiked metal ball attached to a foot-long haft by a variable-length wire. It is a favorite weapon of some techno-barbarian gangs.
When stored, the wire is retracted and the weapons appears to be a mace. During combat the wire is deployed, and the operator swings the ball in a circular motion, lengthening the wire to send the ball crashing into the target. This results in range and a kinetic boost. A skilled operator can strike a target up to ten feet away, and can also use the Afflox to trip or disarm.
Note: This weapon appears in the novel The Face by Jack Vance.
Clubs
Torch
A flaming torch used as a weapon; has less striking power than a cudgel, but the fire adds some additional damage. Often the only option available when fighting supernatural creatures immune to physical damage. Made of wood and between a half and a full meter in length. A dedicated fighting torch is made of metal and uses a burning rag soaked in oil.
Club
A stout stick of hard wood, plastics, or rubberized metal. About a meter in length, the club is easy to improvise. Commonly used in brawls.
Mace
A heavy club head mounted on a short (0.3-0.5 meter) stick. Early models use rocks fitted to bone or wood handles; later maces are made completely out of metal or high-tech materials. Very sturdy compared to other weapons of comparable technology. Known as a loaded shillelagh in Ireland.
Maul
A huge weighted club, the maul can have a hammer head or be a reinforced and weighted pole, like the Japanese tetsubo. Known as the long, loaded shillelagh in Ireland.
Spiked Club
A club with a beak to make piercing wounds. Often improvised with stout stick and one or more iron spikes.
Sledgehammer
A heavy tool used in construction and smith-work. Made for war is has a reinforced handle but is otherwise similar.
Singlestick
A singlestick is a light club (about 0.3 to 0.6 meters) made of wood or rubber-coated metal. More demanding than a club, a singlestick can be improvised from more refined sticks or light metal pipes. Commonly used by peacekeepers, or as a practice weapon. Also known as baton, cane, club, tonfa, wand, switch, or swagger stick. Known as the Jo Staff in Japan. Often used as a walking stick.
Aspergellum
Also known as a holy water sprinkler, this is a stick with a dispenser at the end that can spread liquids such as holy water, alchemist's fire, acid, or whatever else is available. The damage type depends on the substance used. It is too light to make a good club.
Military Pick
A rod of metal or hardwood just under a meter in length, fitted with a weighted head that has a sturdy spike of quality steel for punching through armor and a hammer head to shock what it cannot piece. Also known as the armor-breaker or warhammer, this weapon evolved from the mace - there are several intermediate forms. The estoc is a thrusting sword variant; a stiff pointed metal rod used like a short pike, but otherwise similar in game effect. Demolition crews and miners use something similar even today.
Rocket Hammer
A two handed hammer with rockets mounted in the back of weapon head. Ignited by a switch on the handle, the rocket fires and delivers a very powerful blow. When the rocket is expended or not in use, this functions as a Maul.
Cattle prod
A light rod fitted with electrodes that deliver an electric shock, sufficient to cause pain in cattle and stun humans. Runs on batteries.
Thunder Hammer
The Thunder Hammer is a massive warhammer with an impact activated kinetic energy booster that uses a burst of plasma to increase the force of the impact. This creates a thundering noise and bright flash when the weapon is used. The Thunder Hammer is powered by a minicell which is good for 100 attacks. The cell is easily reloaded by plugging the weapon into a wall socket through a standard power cord.
Note: Battle Angel Alita and WH40K fans will recognize this weapon.
Gloves
Gauntlet
A weighted gauntlet, padded to absorb shock and allow more powerful blows. This can included padded gloves as well as the heavy gloves included with many types of armor. A modern boxing glove is a variant of this, as are hands wrapped in leather strips or heavy bandages. You can still use the hand for other purposes while wearing more articulated gauntlets. Also known as the cestus.
Knuckles
Knuckles, also called knuckledusters or brass knuckles are pieces of metal shaped to fit around the knuckles. Small enough to hide in a small pocket or in a closed fist, this makes punches do more damage. Can be improvised various ways, such as a snuffbox or using a belt and its buckle.
Galerus
The Roman gladiator arm-guaurd, the galerus is a long segmented glove with overlapping metal plates going up to the shoulder and an oversize shoulder guard, usually worn on the off hand. It is used by turning it against the opponent, blocking attacks and allowing quick punches. The usual practice is to wield a weapon in the other hand. The hand with the galerus can be used for other things, such as holding a weapon, but this prevents use of the galerus.
Katar
A thin dagger usually wielded in the off hand and used with a punching motion. Sometimes called the dirk or punch dagger. Can be worn fitted to a glove (cestus) or on the back of the lower arm. Not balanced for throwing.
Katar Kiss
A development of the katar, the blade of the katar kiss is a syringe that injects the victim with acid or poison.
Hand Taser
A palm-size, hand-held device with electrodes that deliver a stunning jolt of electricity on contact, the hand taser can usually stun a human quite easily.
Karatand
A glove made of impact-reactive plastic, that instantly hardens when subjected to kinetic force. It works like an improved gauntlet and can be a very effective parrying weapon as well.
Note: This weapon appears in the novel To Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner.
Power Fist
A large robotic fist, worn like an oversize lower arm and hand guard and used as a melee weapon. Power Fist use hydraulic rams mounted in the fingers of the oversize mechanical hand to cause a crushing grip that can tear steel like paper. The hand cannot be used normally when the Power Fist is fitted. Sometimes worn in pairs.
It is commonly used by power armor soldier on shipboard assault missions.
Note: WH40K fans will recognize this weapon.
Pole Arms
Pole arms are reach weapons, essentially more advanced spears. Pole arms don't have just a single point and instead have some combination of a point, hook, blade, hammer, or axe at the head. Infantry weapons, pole arms are very effective in large formations but most are also useful in personal combat.
Quarterstaff
A stout stick of hardwood, sometimes reinforced with leather or metal. Slightly taller than the wielder, some half again as tall, the quarterstaff is a surprisingly flexible weapon that can strike with either end, parry, and trip. Called the bo staff in Japan.
Bill
A short pole arm combining features of the glaive and halberd. Popular for guards as it can be made both beautiful and intimidating. It comes in innumerable variants, known as forks, spetums, ranseurs, and by a host of other names that can also be applied to longer pole arms.
Glaive
A blade fitted at the end of a pole, about two meters long. Used as a thrusting and slashing weapon and to deliver butt strikes with the other end. Known as a naginata in Japan. Later developed into the halberd.
Man Catcher
A two-pronged fork on a long pole, the fork of the man catcher is used to grab opponents and keep them at bay, while the wielder of the man catcher can hopefully remain out of their reach. Often used as a police weapon.
Halberd
The ultimate pole arm, a halberd combines details and qualities of the trident, spear, axe, and quarterstaff. It can stab, slash, parry, and trip. Most late medieval and renaissances pole arms can be classified as halberds; variant names include various combinations of the words guisarme, faucard, fork, vogue, and others.
Pollaxe
Often confused with the longer halberd, a pollaxe is chest high, with a heavy weapon head and a shaft reinforced or even entirely made of metal. It is a weapon used by knights and guards and other elite warriors. The fighting style is somewhat like that of a quarterstaff, employing the staff to parry.
Bayonet
A dagger fitted to the end of a Large firearm. Early models are called plug bayonets prevent the weapon from firing, later models merely interfere with loading making the firearm Unreliable.
Light Staff
Two blades of focused photonic energy protruding from a central handle, the light staff is used like a quarterstaff or double sword. When turned off it appears as a metal rod about half a meter in length.
Short Spear
Just under two meters in length, the spear is long enough to hold opponents at bay, but short and flexible enough to be used staff-fashion in restricted spaces.
Flower Spear
A bamboo spear over two meters in length and with a large, bright tassel. The bamboo is flexible, allowing all kinds of fancy maneuvers with this weapon.
Great Spear
A long spear, between two and five meters. Most often used in formation and always in two hands. A long, military version of this is the pike; as a hunting weapon called the boar spear it has a crossbar to prevent an impaled animal from working up the shaft to attack the wielder.
Lance
A great spear used mounted with stirrups, allowing the wielder to use the power of his mount. Used crouching in a charge or overhand in general melee. When mounded and used crouched under the armin a charge, the lance can use the mount's Body rather than the wielder's to calculate damage.
Trident
A short spear with a three-pronged, barbed head. Originally a fishing tool. Has less penetrating power than a normal spear, but useful for entangling foes and keeping them at bay. The sodegarami is a Japanese version, that uses several prongs in an irregular pattern to entangle clothes and sleeves.
Blades
Dagger
A short blade of 0.2 to 0.3 meters in length, mainly used for thrusting but balanced to be thrown. Highly concealable and very common as a tool; in many cultures it is unthinkable not to allow someone to carry a knife for daily chores, eating etc. Can be made from bronze or obsidian, but steel is the preferred material until high-impact plastics and ceramics become available. The seax is a similar Germanic tool/weapon.
Broad Sword
A sword with a long wide blade making it an excellent cutter.
Scimitar
The basic long cutting blade, known variously as broadsword, scimitar, tulwar, butterfly sword, panache and by a great many other names. The blade is about a meter long and can be straight or curved, with a sharp point and one or two edges. The balance is far out along the blade, making it somewhat like an axe in use and power. This weapon and tool is used in many cultures under different names.
- A falchion is curved, widening toward the point, and had a straight, unsharpened back edge. The balance is far out along the blade, making it somewhat like an axe in use and power.
- The machete is a tool for clearing vegetation and sometime weapon that differs from the falchion mainly in the lack of a guard and a simpler hilt, though some machetes do have a guard for greater protection of hands during work.
- A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword, with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket shaped guard. A common naval weapon.
- The kopis is an ancient Greek tool/weapon comparable to the machete. The makhaira and kopesh were also similar, but intended primarily to be weapons rather than a tool.
- The kukri is a Nepalese curved blade used for many purposes similar to the machete but also used for slaughtering animals. Small kukiris correspond to the Hand Axe.
- The parang is a Malaysian knife that many machetes are based on.
- The grosse messer is a large knife from medieval Central Europe, employed both as a tool and as a weapon.
- The fascine knife is a somewhat similar tool/weapon used by European armies throughout the late 18th to early 20th centuries.
- A very large meat cleaver can also function as a scimitar.
Short Sword
A short stabbing weapon suitable for tight formations.
Side Sword
A one-handed sword worn with civilian clothes, the side sword is a smaller longsword and strictly a one-handed weapon. A sign of nobility, you can expect to be allowed to wear your arming sword in situations where other weapons would be considered rude to wear. It is relatively short and lacks an elaborate pommel, making it easy to wear. An expensive weapon at lower tech, this is reserved for officers and nobles until late in the Blacksmith era. Side Sword is a modern word. People at the time might call this an arming sword.
Long Sword
The long sword is slightly longer than a broad sword (over a meter in length) and has a handle made for two hands. It can be wielded one-handed, but is often used with two hands to deliver mighty blows to pierce the improving armor of its time. Variously known as the hand-and-a-half or Claymore and is the epitome of knightly weapons.
Knife
A short blade, ubiquitous as a tool, most everybody up until modern times would carry a knife for a hundred practical purposes. It has a blade around 10 cm in length, pointed and usually single-edged. As a weapon, a knife is not impressive. It is a civilian's weapon of desperation.
Great Sword
A larger version of the broadsword, up to two meters in length and balanced for two hands.
Swordbreaker
A robust dagger or metal baton fitted with prongs for catching an opponents weapon. Japanese versions are known as the jitte and sai.
Rapier
An early fencing weapon, the rapier is a very long, thin thrusting sword. Generally more than a meter in length and square or triangular in cross-section it lacks an edge and is somewhat clumsy. Its assets lie in reach, penetration, and interception. If this does not match your idea of a what a rapier is, look up Smallsword.
Katana
A curved sword of extreme sharpness, the katana is an extraordinary cutting weapon, valuing damage over every other consideration. Exceptionally fine sabres and scimitars might work in the same way. The smaller companion wakizashi is a much more conventional blade, and considered a short sword.
Many katanas were actually court swords intended more for display than for action; only heavy swords intended for combat do this much damage. Connoisseurs know them under a variety of specialized names.
Smallsword
A thin thrusting sword, about 0.6 to 0.8 meters long and with an elaborate hilt. A development of the rapier into a shorter, more flexible weapon, the smallsword is mainly a thrusting weapon but may also have an edge. The Cane Sword or swordstick is a variant that is concealed inside a walking stick or similar item, giving up the elaborate hilt and Parry ability for its concealment. The smallsword is so versatile that you cannot use all the abilities at once, you have to decide between Rash and Parry/Interrupt.
Zweihander
A development of the longsword, the zweihander is overall a little longer, but is lighter and has a shorter blade and longer handle, making it possible to wield it somewhat like a staff or halberd. The oversize hand guard and wide, sometimes serrated edge is ideal for cutting spears and pikes and for occupying a large area on the battlefield.
Executioneer
A headsman's weapon, with its balance near the point and possibly with leverage-enhancing mechanism like quicksilver running inside the blade. This can be a sword or an axe with identical game values.
Chain Saw
A petrol-powered chain saw is a terrible weapon, if heavy and unwieldy.
Chain Sword
An electric chainsaw with a straight, light blade. Much easier to use than a regular petrol-driven chain saw. Uses a cord or runs on a rechargeable battery of short duration. A hedge cutter can serve as an improvised chain sword.
Power Sword
The apex of blade development, a power sword uses inertia-amplifying technology to deliver extremely powerful blows.
Beam Sword
A blade of focused photonic energy, the beam sword is similar to a smallsword in appearance and use. When turned off, it appears as a basked hilt; often finely decorated. This is a high-tech dueling weapon, and as such is often a sign of nobility.
Light Sabre
A blade of focused photonic energy, when turned on it is similar to the katana in use but with a straight blade. When turned off, it is a short rod about 0.2 meters in length. A prestigious weapon, the light sabre is associated with honor and martial orders.
Others
Rock
A simple rock, held in the had or thrown. Often the only ranged weapon available to ogres and giants. Some small, dense object that can serve as a rock in an emergency can be found almost anywhere.
Buckler
A small fencing shield, originally made of strong natural materials such as tortoise shells, later of metal as smithcraft advanced. A useful defense in melee, it combined well with maces and rapiers and can also be used to deliver solid punches.
Spiked Buckler
A buckler made more dangerous with a spike in the center and possibly more spikes or a sharpened rim.
Fan
Known as Tessen in Japan, this is a fan built on a metal frame with sharp, cutting edges. The fan can be made folding, but this is a matter of style more than function. Once used in combat, the soft parts of the fan are ruined making it lose it's Slickness, but this is pretty easy to repair and does not prevent the fan from being used as a weapon.
Blowtorch
Another tool that can be used as a weapon to great effect, the welding torch is a gas tank fitted to a burner. It is very frail; cutting the hose usually results in a jet of flame directly from the gas tank and might lead to an explosion. A blowtorch designed to be used as a weapon would not have this weakness.
Ranged
This is a list of ranged weapons for Action, for use with Shoot. Melee weapons with the Throw property can also be used with the Shoot skill, but only when thrown.
The table shows weapons sorted by category, but the categories themselves appear only in the descriptions and have no gave effect.
Ranged Weapon Descriptions
Muscle-Powered Weapons
Bola
Three weights connected by strings. Thrown by spinning, it does limited bludgeoning damage but more importantly ties up the target's limbs.
Boomerang
A curved stick used as a throwing weapon. Made of hardwood, light metal, or plastic. In Action, all boomerangs return to their thrower.
Javelin
Shuriken
Shakram
A steel ring or disk about half a meter in diameter; sometimes worn as a necklace or head wear. Used as a throwing weapon. In Action, the ring can snare an opponent's weapon and perform other similar stunts.
Blowgun
A long pipe held to the mouth with both hands. A sharp thrust of breath fires a light dart that is usually poisoned with a Neurotoxin. A blowpipe is about as long as you are. An ancient blowgun cannot be used in melee without ruining the weapon, as they are quite frail. Modern metal versions could be made to perform like a Quarterstaff.
Sling
A strip of cloth or leather used to spin a rock or lead ball, then released to throw. Often with some sort of shallow pouch to hold the ball. Quite an effective weapon in skilled hands, and it has the advantage that it can be improvised. While it is technically possible to use a sling with one hand, it takes two hands to load.
War Sling
A much larger and more powerful sling, shooting lead balls and using either a very wide loop or a staff handle for extra leverage.
Shortbow
A light selfbow for hunting small game. Can be made quite easily from a sapling tree of the right sort. It differs from more powerful bows in that it has only a single curve to the bow.
Longbow
A powerful bow longer than the wielder. This can be a composite or selfbow. A selfbow differs from more powerful bows in that it has only a single curve to the bow where a composite bow has several, but either can be powerful if you make them large.
Horse Bow
A recurved bow of composite materials, the horse bow is more powerful and flexible than a shortbow but not quite as powerful as the longbow This makes the weapon suitable for skirmishers and horse archers. Elves and faeries make bows of similar effect by cultivating sprouts to grow into the desired form.
Slingshot
A Y-shaped piece of metal or wood and a flexible string, usually rubber, this is a weaponized children's toy. Fires pebbles or ball bearings.
Crossbow
A light crossbow with a laminated or wooden bow. Loaded with a hand lever, it is a practical and silent weapon and can be used while mounted.
Arbalest
A very powerful crossbow fitted with a winch or stirrup mechanism. The bow is of worked iron; some arbalests use torsion torque instead and have a rigid cross shape. Useful mainly as a siege weapon or for sniping. The legendary Chinese siege bow has the same statistics. It is an oversize bow that is fired lying down, the bow held by the feet and the arrow held in both hands.
Crossbow Pistol
A very light crossbow held in one hand and loaded by simple hand action.
Repeating Crossbow
A very light crossbow with a laminated or metal bow, loaded with a lever mechanism from a gravity-fed magazine on top.
Dart Gun
A bolt-action carbine adapted to fire darts. Intended for animal capture, it can be used as a kidnapping tool or with lethal toxins. Dosage so too uncertain that this is not considered a safe subdual weapon for law enforcement.
Grenades and Grenade Launchers
Napthta Grenade
A ceramic jar filled with naphtha, greek fire, or other simply manufactured combustible wrapped in a rag soaked in the same. The rag must be lit before throwing, potentially a very hazardous process. If all goes well, the container breaks on impact and ignites. These weapons are always considered improvised and blow up when ignited on a mishap or fumble. This is a secret super-weapon and would only be in the hands of trusted experts. While easy to make, it requires a suitable combustible which generally cannot be synthesized until the Coal technology level. Somewhat later, it makes a return as a weapon against early combustion vehicles and becomes known as the Molotov Cocktail.
Iron Grenade
The classical round black iron case with attached fuse, this is the first type of grenade and considered so special that it took special types of troops to use them - grenadiers.
Molotov
Dynamite
A stick or small satchel charge of dynamite, this is a desperate and dangerous weapon, but can be highly effective.
Hand Grenade
A modern grenade, factory-made to be used as such. The main improvement is that you no longer need to cut and light fuses - a chemical timer does this for you - and it almost never fails.
Incendiary Grenade
Flash-Bang Grenade
Entangling Grenade
Micro Grenade
A hand grenade small enough to be easily concealable. Variants are available that have the warhead of any other type of grenade.
Aifoil Grenade
A micro grenade with a discus shape and sophisticated balancing systems allowing it to be thrown further and more accurately. Effectively, this is a small suicide drone. An airfoil grenade can carry different types of warheads, different types of airfoil grenades can have the effect of any other grenade.
Grenade Sling
Rifle Grenade
Grenade Launcher
Automatic GL
Handguns
Snuff Gun
An early holdout pistol, the snuff gun is a small caliber (for the time), short barrel weapon concealed in some everyday item - a snuff box is the most popular, but everything from cutlery to crucifixes had guns fitted in them. However, the craftsmanship is such that any close inspection will reveal the weapon for what it is. In addition, carrying one of these weapons around primed is quite dangerous.
Pepperbox
Multiple pistol barrels rotated to face the hammer one after the other, the pepper-box allows multiple shots without reloading. The lack of robustness makes the mechanism unreliable.
Dueling Pistol
A high-quality, thin-calibre wheellock pistol - later versions even had percussion locks - made for precision. Slow to reload and fragile, they seldom saw use on the battlefield, but these weapons were quite popular in duels.
Cavalry Pistol
Really a short carbine, the cavalry pistol is made to be as dangerous as a single-hand firearm can be.
Derringer
An early holdout weapon, the derringer is a single large caliber round in a very short barrel,
Revolver
The revolver is the first reliable handgun that can fire a number of rounds in rapid succession. Available in different calibers for different Body scores, commonly call Navy (light) and Army (heavy) calibers.
Automatic Pistol
Automatic pistols are introduced early, but early models are unreliable. At the Combustion tech level the technology matures. Examples of this include the various "wonder nine" or other auto pistols firing .45 or 9mm rounds. A weapon that is perfected during this era and very, very common, almost totally replacing the revolver except among gun aficionados.
Pen Pistol
Pocket Pistol
A mature small automatic pistol, fitting inside the hand of the user and still having decent ammunition capacity and stopping power.
Heavy Revolver
Revolvers kept an edge in power for a long time; the most powerful handgun in the world is generally a revolver. Even at this time, the frame of a revolver is somewhat sturdier than that of an automatic pistol - and in a cinematic game like this, revolvers should keep an edge in power. These big guns are double-action, but the recoil is such that they are mostly fired single-action anyway.
Heavy Automatic Pistol
With improved metallurgy, powder, and precision tooling, firearms can now be custom-built to fire calibres as big as they used to fire hundreds of years ago - but this time, they do it well.
Subsonic Pistol
An automatic pistol firing a high-weight round at subsonic velocities. This means it can be truly silent. Muzzle energy is still in the range of an ordinary pistol, and the heavy round has excellent damage transferring and armor-piercing characteristics. A drawback is that the ammunition of the weapon is heavy and ammo capacity is small.
Rifles
Pistola
A very early handgun; a metal tube at the end of a wooden rod. Fires a metal ball. More accurate than a rocket.
Arquebus
This overlong smoothbore weapon is a precursor of the musket. It must be fired lying down, braced, or using a "fork" support. As you must stand up to load it, lying down to fire is generally impractical. Most armies abandoned the arquebus quite early and settled for the more practical Musket. This weapon made a return in the middle east as the Jezail and in the pre-civil-war wild west as the Buffalo Rifle.
Musket
The basic military firearm of the period, a musket is a high caliber smooth bore weapon made to produce a high volume of fire against big targets, such as massed infantry.
Rifled Musket
An expensive hunting weapon of comparatively fine caliber. The barrel is rifled, which stabilizes the bullet through rotation. Early models are fitted with a wheel lock, later replaced by the flintlock.
Early on, these weapons are so expensive that they are only available to kings and major nobles. Usually fancifully decorated - a few hundred hours spent on decoration has only a minor impact on the price. Some horrendously heavy and expensive pieces have two barrels. Late in the period, these weapons become cheap enough to be given to military specialists - sharpshooters. This was a highly unpopular move among officers, who naturally became prime targets for such accurate fire.
Repeating Rifle
A revolver action or lever action carbine, typically firing .44 "army" caliber. Popular in the old west because it uses the same ammunition as the army revolver, this gun lacks the power of a true rifle. Historically it is rare to see a weapon like this outside America.
Bolt-Action Carbine
Bolt-Action Rifle
A bolt-action rifle, this is the main infantry weapon of the early twentieth century and the late nineteenth century European stage.
Semi-automatic Carbine
A bolt-action carbine firing rifle rounds, this weapon is intended for cavalry and light troops, but it is also a popular civilian weapon for hunting large game.
Semiautomatic Rifle
A self-loading long arm capable of bursts of very high rate of fire, if still much slower than full automatic fire. The military has always been skeptical of allowing soldiers to waste shots in this manner, and were slow to adopt this weapon. Technically, this can be either a carbine or a rifle - in this era the distinction is largely obsolete, the length of rifles reduced to where carbines used to be.
Monster Gun
Named either for what it is or, in some settings, for what it is used to hunt. This is an oversize rifle, with cartridges the size of cigars. Used to shoot big game, light vehicles, and creatures man was not meant to hurt. Sometimes optimistically named anti-tank rifles.
Sniper Rifle
A rifle specifically designed for sniping, with flash-suppression and advanced targeting systems, capable of killing a man behind a brick wall or inside a light vehicle. This is definitely not the first weapon used for sniping, but earlier sniper rifles were just be normal rifles with telescopic sights.
Assault Rifles
Rifles, firing rifle caliber rounds in full automatic mode. Standard infantry weapons of the Electronic age.
Machine Rifle
Light machine guns carried by a single man; these are heavier than assault rifles and considered support weapons. The classic example is the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle.
Assault Carbine
A lighter and handier version of the Assault Rifle initially for soldiers whose primary duty is not to be riflemen, over time the assault carbine became the universal handarm and Assault Rifles reserved for special roles. Typically this is a 5.56 caliber weapon.
Assault Rifle
A fully automatic rifle for general use. Brings a whole new level of threat to personal combat.
Advanced Combat Rifle
The final development of the chemically propelled rifle. Features such as caseless ammunition, computerized fire control, bullpup design, superimposed loading and a variety of other features, different by brand, makes this a compact, deadly weapon. Still in prototype during the Electronic era, these weapons reach maturity in the early Fusion era, but are soon supplanted by entirely new technologies. This makes them popular with criminals and thirdly world armies of the fusion era.
Minigun
A machine gun carried on a belt slung, making it uniquely mobile for an assault weapon.
Sub Machine Guns
A mix of pistol and assault rifle, firing pistol rounds with a full automatic action.
Machine Pistol
A full-auto pistol commonly fired in one hand. Dangerously inaccurate in most cases, with a great potential for collateral damage. Still, it is dangerous enough to give an advantage in a close encounter, and very intimidating. Firing light pistol rounds, stopping power and range is not impressive.
Submachinegun
A weapon firing pistol ammunition on automatic, the sub machine gun is the first common automatic handarm. It suffers from the low power of the pistol and the bulk of the rifle, but it is still an excellent short-range weapon.
Subsonic SMG
A submachinegun firing heavier bullets at reduced velocities, maintaining efficiency while allowing the weapon to be truly silenced.
Shotguns
Shotguns are weapons firing bursts of shot, smaller projectiles that come out together and slowly spread out in a cone. Depending on the choke of the weapon and the length of the barrel, this cone can be wide and short or long and narrow. Shotguns are smoothbore, which makes them easy to make, but limits their range. An advantage of this is that there is no barrel signature for forensics to analyze; shot and even slugs cannot be linked to any one particular weapon. Another advantage is that it is easy to make custom ammunition. Shotguns can fire slugs (a single large mass) instead of pellet, removing Scatter but increasing damage by one. They are also suitable for firing nonlethal loads, such as salt or rubber loads, replacing Scatter with Stun. High-tech shotguns might fire flechettes or explosive rounds instead of shot with no change in rules.
Dragon
The pistol version of the blunderbuss, itself a primitive precursor of the shotgun, this is is a high-caliber pistol firing shot. The trademark flared muzzle assists in loading, but was generally not very pronounced. It is a cavalry or ship boarding weapon.
Blunderbuss
A primitive precursor of the shotgun, a blunderbuss is a short, high-caliber musket firing shot; in an emergency it can be loaded with gravel, or whatever junk is available when loading it. The trademark flared muzzle assists in loading, but was not generally very pronounced. It is mainly a weapon for city fighting and shipboard defense.
Sawed-off Shotgun
A twin barrel shotgun with a short barrel, either made this way or actually sawed off. A very dangerous and powerful short-range weapon, practical because it is relatively easy to acquire both the weapon and ammunition.
Shotgun
This is a large-caliber shotgun (usually 12 gauge) pump action firing heavy shot. Smaller bird guns would do about three points less damage.
Trench Gun
A pump action, short-barreled shotgun for use in trench warfare in WWI. The Germans accused the U.S. of war crimes for using these weapons; being captured with one could get you shot. It still remains popular but infamous for city fighting and close encounters. Police generally call it the Riot Gun.
Assault Shotgun
A fully automatic shotgun for close-in fighting.
Projectors
Taser
The taser is an incapacitating weapon, firing darts that give off electric pulses to shock the target. Intended as a police weapon, it has since become a favorite among criminals who want to avoid killing.
Because the battery is housed in the gun, there must be a wire between the gun and the dart, which gives the weapon an absolute maximum range of about ten meters. At the Electronic this is no longer the case.
Tufenk
Flamethrower
Strictly a military weapon, the flamethrower consists of a backpack tank and a hand-held hose. Flammable liquid or gel is sprayed through the hose and ignited. The flamethrower is a truly terrible weapon, that can turn a defensive position such as a bunker into a deathtrap.
Fire Extingusiher
A carbon dioxide fire extinguisher is a sturdy metal tube with high-pressure carbon dioxide under high pressure. When released, this forms dry ice and does damage through shock and frost burn. Tough it has a range of only Reach it is always used with Shoot. Variants of this can use other substances, such as an incendiary or corrosive chemical or high-pressure steam. These work the same, but do other kinds of damage.
Incinerator
Gyrojet Weapons
A high-power civilian weapon, gyrojet weapons fire miniature self-propelled rockets. A tiny explosive sends the rocket out of the gun, then the rocket ignites and gives it further power. While rockets are rather simple, giving them precision and control is not; in fact each rocket is a miniature smart missile. Because there is hardly any barrel interaction and the rocket is destroyed on impact, there is very little to link a gyrojet projectile to the weapon that fired it, a popular feature among criminals. Gyrojet weapons are common among police, security forces, criminals, and for home defense. They are accurate, have long range, and do great damage. The guns are cheap, even flimsy. The drawback is that the ammunition is both complex, bulky and very expensive. This makes these weapons popular among those who mostly want their guns to impress and for the occasional firefight but unpopular with the military and combat units.
Holdout Gyrojet
A tiny gyrojet weapon, often camouflaged as something else; a cigarette, pen, piece of jewelry or other tiny, harmless object.
Gyrojet Carbine
This is a box-like gyrojet weapon popular for personal and home defense and with hitmen and irregular forces.
Lasers
Lasers fire very short and intense pulses of coherent light in rapid succession. When these hit, they vaporize some of the target, causing a small surface explosion. Because the weapon is almost instantly ready to fire again, a laser can be played over the target for additional damage or zig-zagged to provide suppressive fire. Lasers are accurate, light, and cause a lot of damage but cannot use special ammunition. The weapons are expensive, but the chargeable energy cells are cheap in the log run, making lasers popular as military weapons. They are also quite common as improvised weapons, made from mining and construction tools or communications equipment. Such improvised laser weapons are Unreliable. Contrary to popular opinion, lasers are not silent when fired in an atmosphere; they create a vacuum tunnel in the air that collapses with a sonic boom. Forensic scientists can identify laser hits by burn patterns, so these weapons can be traced.
Laser Pistol
Purpose-built lasers pistols are common sidearms for military police, pilots, technicians, and staff. A small hand laser popular as a tool and easily modified into a laser pistol.
Laser Carbine
Used for hunting and to fire at drones, a laser carbine is rare as an infantry weapon but popular among marines as the poor penetration leaves ships undamaged. Can be improvised from a heavy duty laser, such as a mining or construction tool.
Laser Cannon
Scavenged from the construction or communication lasers or built as a military support weapon, the laser cannon is definitely a dangerous weapon. Firing a short, very strong puls and then needing time to cool down and charge capacitors, the laser cannot is a single-shot weapon.
Needlers
A long rifle capable of a high volume of accurate fire, needlers are military weapons. Rail guns are magnetic accelerator weapons that hurl thin slivers of magnetic metal at the target at high velocities. Penetration and striking power are high, rate of fire is spectacular, and ammunition is cheap and easy to manufacture, which makes these popular military weapons. The price of the weapons themselves and the difficulty of building them makes them uncommon among civilians. In addition, needlers need to be long to work well, making them hard to conceal and transport. Needlers can be rail guns, coil guns, or use other magnetic acceleration models; the technical differences are beyond the average user, and needler is the name that stuck.
Needle Pistol
Calling this a pistol is very generous, it is the size of a regular submachinegun and capable of very rapid fire.
Needle Rifle
A long handarm similar to a light machinegun of today, only lighter and more handy.
Railgun
A railgun is a needler that gives up rate of fire to fire longer, heavier projectiles.
Electro Weapons
Electro weapons, also called blasters, are man-carried particle weapons. Electro Guns use a laser to make a vacuum tunnel through the air, then channel a burst of electrons and possibly neutrons through the tunnel. With charged particles, the weapons Stun. If firing neutral particles, the weapons Penetrate. You must choose one or the other, but most blasters can change mode with the flip of a switch. Civilian models are available that always fire charged particles to Stun.
Electro Pistol
A handy electro sidearm.
Electro Carbine
A standard military electro-weapon.
Electro Rifle
An electro long-arm used by big game hunters, snipers, and other specialists.