Bleeder Rounds

As discussed earlier what amounts to a "War Crime" is a bit more of a dubious era in AF10. This has led to the popularizing of a lot of technology of a military (and often, specifically anti-personnel) nature which would at the very least have raised eyebrows before The Fall if not been outright illegal. And in many habs with laws and formal governments, they remain illegal for private citizens to use. They may even be restricted from being used by the police. But, when things get bad these governments may often find they have a few of these tools in their back pocket. And, for members of technically illegal conspiracies who will stop at nothing to prevent a second Fall, fines and simulspace jail time for owning the "wrong" spec of ammunition seem like a small risk to take. Here's an example:

Bleeder Rounds: Related to Biter and Flayer (p. 338 EP) Smart Ammunition, the Bleeder round also alters it's shape and profile as it passes through a target. It can also alter its trajectory both in and outside the target when paired with a smartlink. However, the purpose of the Bleeder round is not just to cause more physical damage to the target, it is to specifically cause painful, incapacitating damage. The round shapes itself to make wounds more difficult to close up and prone to bleeding. It will adjust its trajectory to find joins, major organs or arteries, and nerve centers. If it passes through a region of vital anatomy it can fold, shape or sharpen to cut maximum numbers of blood vessels or sever nerves and ligaments. Or, if approached with a bone, it might harden, scrape or dig into the structure to cause more painful and inhibiting breaks. This means it causes +2 DV, and the target's Wound Threshold is considered 1 lower against the weapon using this ammo. Like Biter and Flayer, Bleeder rounds cannot be combined with other ammunition types. [Moderate]

Despite the name, Bleeders are just as effective against synthmorphs, targeting core mechanisms and internal components, though naturally the ability to filter pain makes synthetics more resilient. The primary saving grace against Bleeder rounds is that their high speed means they often have little time to adjust their trajectory or make dramatic repositions. They also have considerably less usefulness if something were to jam the Smartlink. The microcomputers on the Bleeder round when paired with a smartlink can make assumptions about the anatomy of the target and may even be linked with sensors to confirm - but against exotic morphologies such as aliens or entirely neogenetic creatures they may lack effectiveness. At their discretion the GM may decide that Bleeders have no additional effect on such a target. Luckily for Firewall operatives using them, that only includes some exsurgent types.

Bleeders were developed prior to the Fall, and almost immediately banned everywhere, and got a lot of media attention when they were illegally used, much like stories of "cop killer" bullets in the late 20th century. This did mean they were not thoroughly tested against the horrors of the Fall, and while many users swear by them, a single bullet can still only do so much on it's own. Even so, pop culture remembers the round a little, and restrictions on civilian and even law enforcement deployment exist in many polities. Even if not verboten, one can expect to get many angry messages and negative rep hits accidentally slinging the bullets around to hit an unintended target in a vital organ.

Shotgun Ammo v2

(Author's Note: Sorry about sporadic updating lately. I'm recovering from oral surgery right now, and have also been working on an unrelated homebrew project a lot. Expect H-Rep updates to remain infrequent for probably the rest of the week.

Additionally, this one basically has the same Author's Note as the original Shotgun Ammo entry)

Prices listed for 20 rounds.

API: An armor-piercing incendiary slug, really more of a flechette which ignites when fired. Modern rounds use self-oxidizing compounds so they work even in vacuum, and generally function similar to Reactive or Reactive-Armor Piercing ammo (p. 338 EP) for normal kinetic weapons. It improves armor penetration over the normal slug, but isn't quite as effective as total damage. Remove the Cone effect, and increase AP by -6 and DV by +1. [Moderate]

Bolo: Named after a tool to catch game or cattle, this round utilizes two slugs or balls linked together by a metal cable. The intent is that the cable forces the rounds to spin and maintain energy, as well as create more damaging wounds - however historically it was very much a novelty round as the cable could often snap or otherwise fail to work properly. Transhuman engineering has helped this problem, with stronger cabling material which maintains much better - creating an exotic round for those focused on any kind of "stopping" power. It removes the Cone effect, increases AP and DV by 2, and when dealing damage with this round, the target's WT is considered 1 less than normal. [Moderate]

Breach: Breaching rounds are a classic shotgun tool, a slug which is designed to immediately disperse after hitting it into a relatively harmless dust or powder - with the intent to breach doors or other obstacles without hurting persons behind them, which might include hostages or bystanders. Law Enforcement in urban habs may still use breaching rounds to destroy door locks and other barriers rapidly - and they also have a strong effect on bots and synthmorphs, but are made with a material which reacts similar to biter or flayer rounds and immediately begins to disperse when it hits a soft target to cause minimal harm. VS hardened or inanimate objects such as walls and structures, bots, vehicles and synthmorphs, this round has -10 AP and adds +1d10 DV, but against soft targets like biomorphs it doubles the target's AV and does -1d10 damage. Either removes the Cone effect. Commonly called "Master Key" or "Can-opener" rounds. [Low]

Flash: Part firework, part crowd control, these rounds work similar to Dragon's Breath ones, but with a combusting powder which is much more focused on light than heat. Fired, they produce bright flashes and gouts of flames which will blind those who look at it. This reduces DV by 1d10 which is reduced by E armor, but anyone looking at the weapon when it fires takes a -10 glare penalty to most actions, until the end of the Action Turn. A target hit by the flash round directly must make a SOM+REF test, if they fail they are severely blinded and take a -30 on actions which reduced by -10 every Action Turn until their sight completely returns. [Low]

Smart Ammo

Smart Ammo takes advantage of nanotechnology for nano-scale computing and advanced materials science to build rounds which can alter their shape and thus ballistics and aerodynamics, or take advantage of sensor data and telemetry, usually provided by Smartlink (p. 342 EP) systems embedded in every modern weapon system. But, while optical guidance can be useful and make impressive moves (such as indirect fire with Homing or Laser Guided rounds) advances in sensor miniaturization also means many traditional methods of guidance for larger rounds (namely vehicle-mounted missiles) can be placed in Seekers and even Kinetic ammunition to give a wide variety of advantages in a combat situation. Listed prices are per 100 rounds.

ARM: An abbreviation of "anti-radiation missile", this type of Smart Ammo may only be equipped to Seekers, and has a detection system which locks onto signals of Radio waves - including jammers, Radar, T-Rays and wireless radio communication, though they tend to only pick targets over a certain strength. It grants a total of +20 to attack rolls made against a target which is actively radiating (I/E using Radar, Radio Jamming or Radio communication), which does not stack with bonuses such as the Smartlink. Their tracking has a range based on the size of the round uses. Micromissiles have a range of 50 meters in close environments, and 500 meters in the open, Minimissiles have 1/20 km, and the Standard Missile 25/250 km. While the ARM is hard to defeat with ECM or physical countermeasures, they are limited by the strength of the enemy sensor/comm system and might be confused by shutting down systems if they are detected. [Low]

Heatseeker: These weapons are IR-guided, armed with small sensors which lock onto sources of IR radiation - namely those which radiate heat, though IFF though Smartlinks prevents targeting friendlies. This primarily includes biomorphs, most vehicles and many kinds of personal gear. When used it offers a +20 bonus to attacks (which does not stack with other weapon bonuses like Smartlink) against targets which are warm, and can also be used for indirect fire. However, while accurate in most situations, Heatseekers can be defeated by dampened or shielded targets, or may be blocked by decoys, flares or other active countermeasures. [Low]

Radar-Guided: There are two varieties of Radar-guided smart ammo. The first is "semi-active" which can be installed in both Seekers and Kinetic ammo. This uses a radar receiver communicated via Smartlink from the user (or an allied Radar if using TacNet) to guide it onto a target, functioning as an alternative to Laser guidance. It grants a +10 to hit a target so long as they are inside Radar range and visible to that system. "Active" Radar smart ammo can only be equipped on Seeker Mini and Standard Missiles, as it involves their own miniaturized Radar set. The size of the round is required in order to give the set sufficient battery life and range to work. These units home onto a designated target with their own Radar, which makes them very accurate and allows the user to "fire-and-forget" as they can cease guidance and even be jammed from the seeker round. It grants a +30 bonus to the attack, but this does not stack with any modifiers from the user such as Smartlinks or even Aim actions, and this bonus may be reduced if the target is protected against Radar. They are also limited by the sensor range of their home unit, able to lock on at 1 km in urban environments or 20 km in open ones for Minimissiles, and 25/250 km for Standard Missiles. [Low] for Semi-Active, [Moderate] for Active

Shotgun Ammo

(The following ammo types are designed to work with Shotguns from SquireNed's An Ultimate's Guide to Combat. AUGC is fairly simulationist and crunchy in terms of mechanics, adding on top of normal EP rules and adding new combat gear and rules - the concepts below are written more generally to be compatible with a broader ruleset)

Prices listed are for 20 rounds.

Hive: Similar to the Buzzer (p. 341 EP) this highly advanced and specialized round contains a special, streamlined nanoswarm hive. When fired, it releases the nanoswarm which activates and disperses into the air in a cone pattern at the target. It does no damage, only is used to deploy nanoswarms on target. Normally, this is used with systems like disassemblers or injectors to get multi-purpose swarms on target, but some units have utilized guardian swarm hive rounds to combat hostile nanoswarms. [Low], plus Nanoswarm cost

Riot: Also known as RIP (Round, Irritant Personnel) shell, these rounds contain a powdered form of CR Gas (p. 324 EP) with some inert filler and aerosolizing components so it expands as a cloud or vapor when fired. The purpose of this round is for crowd control or riot suppression. The shell does half damage, and doubles the targets Armor Value, but any biomorph which doesn't have environmental seals hit with this weapon must make a SOMx3 test, or be incapacitated for 3 Action Turns as they begin to cough or vomit. Those who pass still take -30 to all actions, which is reduced by -10 each Action Turn, from coughing, blurred vision and nausea. [Trivial]

Toxin ammo

Conventional firearms offer some of the broadest application of ammunition options, both "smart" and based in regular technology. Many of these have utility applications, like jamming or tracking rounds, or less-lethal options like plastic or zap gel rounds. Capsule or splash rounds can be used to deliver a wide variety of payloads, and many conventional ammunition designs such as armor penetrators or hollowpoints can increase conventional combat effectiveness. But, some people don't play by the rules of engagement - if they even have any. For those with access to easy refinement and separation of elements and compounds (via Nanofabrication) there are some nastier options with which one can load a gun.

Toxin: These rounds are specifically made from a blend of compounds and heavy metals which are toxic to most transhuman biochemistries. Some blends may even be mildly radioactive. The result is that being struck with such a round tends to release elements into the bloodstream, which can cause some acute effects in a short timeframe, but most bodies with basic biomods will also quickly take them out of the system, and prevents the most serious long-term side effects. When a biomorph or pod is hit by an attack using Toxin ammo, they must make a DUR test, taking 10 DV per Action turn for 1 action turn per MoF, which ignores armor. Medichines makes this a DUR x2 test, and those with Toxin Filters are completely immune. Passing the test still grants a -10 penalty to all tests for 1 Action turn, as if from a Wound. Luckily, the exotic or at least non-standard composition of this ammunition impacts their ability to function as bullets, reducing both the DV and the AP of the firearm by 2. [Low]