#lasguns

[typical-railgun-enjoyer]

idk if this is even how lasers work but here's an idea

[farsight-the-char]

Imperial Guard (and similar dudes like Chaos Guard, Genestealer Cults, Gua'vesa Guard, ect) should get "regiment lasgun" as an upgrade where they can pay like, a point or so per Lasgun using model to say it is a different variant.

Like, pay points for variants that are Assault 3 but 12 inch range, or a variant that is Assault 1 S4 and a 30 inch range.

[trve-grimdark]

Inking little miss Rat-thing.

Once I’m done with this piece I hope my painting bug comes back so I can work on my warlord conversion mini.

[pisswizzardrequiem]

I believe DUNE revolutionized laser weapons with internal power sources and personal force fields. All the books that happened to include such before then (and there were not many) seemed to really reinforce how finicky such gadgets are and while frank Herbert did as well they certainly seemed far more reliable when they were not both included in the same scenario.

Also same with the ability to defy gravity and fold space-time.

[tauman942]

China Creates Deadly Laser Rifle That Causes "Instant Carbonization"

Lasguns are real! Flashlights that can set you on fire are now a reality. Oh, and apparently it’s invisible and can go through widows!

[pelikinesis]

so i’m probably going to be running another patented Play Whatever the Hell You Want 40krpg campaign. prospective PC lineup seems to include the following: an Ork Weirdboy, a perpetually-malfunctioning Space Marine Dreadnought*, and Captain Falcon. There will be up to two more PCs yet to be determined or postulated.

I’m going to add in a very unassuming GMPC/DMPC who is in almost every possible respect a simple, if experienced, Guardsman. He’ll have a lasgun and flak armor, possibly best quality but nothing outside of regulations. No meltagun. No power sword. No missile launcher. Just a guy who can aim good, armed with a flashlight and a T-shirt hanging out with an Ork Psyker and a Dreadnought. And when I say ‘aim good,’ i mean he’s an excellent, though by no means superlative, shot.

His maximum possible damage in a single lasgun shot is 46(!) with a Penetration of 2. I made it a point to attempt the most unobtrusive and normcore form of powergaming possible. To take the blandest concept imaginable and give him a pretty decent shot at consistently racking up the highest damage each round. nitty gritty build details and explanations on why the hell i’m letting one of my players be a Dreadnought below the cut

*Dreadnought explanation: The friend who wants to play one is actually the anti-powergamer of the group. He wants every single component of his drednought to malfunction catastrophically whenever possible, so he can be a paladin whose only reliable role in combat is to serve as cover for his allies. As for the build (2000 starting XP, considering the other PCs scale), i made the Guardsman a Krieger for flavor purposes mostly and to justify the particular lasgun pattern choice (as well as him not talking much). Weapon Specialist, two advanced into Ballistic Skill to clear 50, enabling him to pick up Las Weapon Expertise and Mastery Talents. Extra damage and, effectively, extra accuracy are yum. He’s been kitted out by a Rogue Trader but refuses to go against regulations, so instead he’s picked up a min-maxed Lucius-pattern lasgun with the Accurate quality, Red-Dot laser sight, Modified Stock, Customized Grip, which collectively makes it technically impossible for him to miss at short range (50 meters) with a Half-Action Aim. And because all those likely Degrees of Success (A) impose evasion penalties and (B) increase damage, in addition to the damage boost from High Impact and Mighty Shot plus Overload Mode and Overcharge packs, he can end up with 3 damage dice and a +16 to whatever those rolls turn out to be. Actually, I’m not entirely sure how high the damage can go. Las Weapon Mastery grants +1 damage for every 2 Successes on hit. So depending on what he’s shooting, he might be able to clear 50 damage with one lasgun shot.

Other minutiae: Yes, I’d be allowing Overcharge Packs to be used with Overload Mode. Does that make any sense? It’s not explicitly disallowed as far as I know, and furthermore from a mechanical standpoint that means halving your clip size and quadrupling ammo consumption (Lucius lasguns have a standard clip of 35 shots) for a grand total of +3 Damage and +2 Pen. In terms of Overcharge Pack + Overcharge Mode alone, that’s ultimately +2 Damage for a halved Clip at twice ammo expenditure. When you consider the kind of damage output of an equivalent Plasma weapon on Maximal mode, or the fact that in this setting, a Hellgun would probably be a standard weapon, I consider it to be merely absurd, but certainly not overpowered. He’d get 4 shots before having  to change modes to finish off the clip. 

at first his character was just a litmus test to compare damage output and such per round, but while trying to figure out the maximum damage numbers of a lasgun i had to factor in talents and gear and lasgun variable settings and all of a sudden i’ve created this monstrosity of an average joe with the grey Honda Civic of ranged weapons for this universe, but if that grey Honda Civic secretly had all its parts blisteringly polished and configured in an extremely not-obvious way.

but at this point I believe I’ll include him in the campaign just so the players have a reference for how (in)effectual their own characters are. Some of  them have recently expressed interest in creating better characters after all. This would be an interesting exemplar for them to mull over. 

[trve-grimdark]

The kind of shit that makes you want to volunteer for the imperial guard regiments.

[actualgoblinelokin]

we refer to Lasguns here as “Laser pointers”