Gaming Rifles

What rifle for your character is a bit stickier than the handguns.

Most games do give noticeably more damage to full power rounds than intermediate ones.

Though Top Secret has rifles and rules for them, it didn't come up all that often.

Getting into any kind of gun fight was a mission fail and normally led to character generation in short order.

Twilight: 2000 is where we started paying attention to rifles.

5.56x45mm and 5.45x39mm do Dam: 2.  7.62x39mm and 7.62x51mm both do Dam 4.

But that doesn't mean that the thirty caliber guns do twice as much damage.

The Dam number is a multiplier based on range.

Close range is 4d6 + (4 x dam).  So an M16A2 does an average of 22 at close range while an FAL or AKM does 30.  36% more...  x51's close range is longer than x39's too.

A "shot" in T2K is actually about 3 rounds.

So the M16 AK-74 and AK get 10 shots and the FAL just 7.  That brings damage for a whole magazine to 220 for an M16 and AK-74 and just 210 for an FAL (4.5% less).  300 for an AKM!

Mass gets into the act here.  That M16 is a mere 3.5 kg loaded, AK-74 is 4.5 kg,  AKM is 5 kg and the FAL is 5.75 kg.

Plus the basic loads... 6 spare mags for the M16, 4 each for the AK-74, AKM and FAL...

6.5 kg (70 'shots') for the M16, 6.5 kg (50 'shots') for the AK-74, 9 kg (50 'shots') for the AKM and 8.75 kg (35 'shots') for the FAL.

That drags our average damage (at close range) for a basic load to 1,540 for the M16, 1,100 for the AK-74, 1,500 for the AKM and 1,050 for the FAL.  The AKM appears to be winning until the math conscious players added five more magazines to their M16's load to tare with the AKM.  120 'shots' from the M16 gives an average of 2,640!

Bringing the AK-74 up to 9 kg only gets to 100 shots and 2,200 average damage.

And that's how we all ended up packing a 5.56 rifle in T2K.

Still with me?

GURPS does things differently.  First off, every cartridge is counted separately.

5.56x45 from an M16A2 will do 5d pi, 5.45x39mm from an AK-74 does 4d+2 pi, 7.62x39 from an AKM does 5d+1 pi and 7.62x51mm from an FAL does 7d pi.

This gives an average shot 17.5, 16, 18.5 and 24.5 points respectively.

Weights are M16A2: 8.9/1, AK-74: 9.1/1.2, AKM: 8.7/1.8, FAL:11/1.7

Totals for basic load come to 14.9 lb. (210 shots), 13.9 lb. (150 shots), 15.9 lb. (150 shots), and 17.8 lb. (100 shots).

Average damage for a basic load comes to: 3,675 for the M16A2, 2,400 for the AK-74, 2,775 for the AKM and 2,450 for the FAL.

50% more damage and 16% less weight?  That's how we all ended up packing a 20" M16A2...

For the record an M4 does the same 4d+2 pi as the AK-74 but does it lighter at 7.3/1 lb.  That brings the basic load to 13.3 lb. for 3,360 points of damage on average.  The +1 to Guns/TL8 - Rifle red-dot scope is a pound so 14.3 lb basic load; still better than the same weight AK-74 because you're more likely to hit!

And that's how we all ended up packing an M4A1 with a red-dot...