Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

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AdamB85
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Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by AdamB85 »

Hi all,

Just looking for a reference to the cost of boom gun rounds. The party has acquired a Shemarrian rail gun and are looking at finding an ammunitions expert to fabricate ammo but I have no idea what the cost of that would be in a place such as merctown. Was going to use boom gun round as a starting point.

Cheers
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Orin J.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by Orin J. »

can't be a lot, it's a soda-can filled with slivers of MDC metal............

just checked, page 259 rifts rulebook. 3 credits per round.you'd probably be paying a higher premium for having to build them to the specs than you would for the ammo itself though.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by Blackwater Sniper »

I would figure in order to keep the tech out of the hands of non-Shemarrian, the materials would have to be reverse-engineered.

In order for the rounds to achieve full velocity they have to synch up with the magnets as they fire along the barrel. Any deviation will cause a slower round at best and a catastrophic malfunction at worse.

If a Black Marketer were to get ahold of a number of them, it would be a seller's market for sure. Be ware not to seem to desperate or the price will multiply quickly.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by Fenris2020 »

AdamB85 wrote:Hi all,

Just looking for a reference to the cost of boom gun rounds. The party has acquired a Shemarrian rail gun and are looking at finding an ammunitions expert to fabricate ammo but I have no idea what the cost of that would be in a place such as merctown. Was going to use boom gun round as a starting point.

Cheers



I thought the Shemarrian guns got destroyed with the robot; a safety feature to protect the tech.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by guardiandashi »

Fenris2020 wrote:
AdamB85 wrote:Hi all,

Just looking for a reference to the cost of boom gun rounds. The party has acquired a Shemarrian rail gun and are looking at finding an ammunitions expert to fabricate ammo but I have no idea what the cost of that would be in a place such as merctown. Was going to use boom gun round as a starting point.

Cheers



I thought the Shemarrian guns got destroyed with the robot; a safety feature to protect the tech.



I am going to toss out a "yes but"
the way i read the self destruct system the gun does not have an independant self destruct system, IE it is usually destroyed when the shemarrian bot self destructs.

if the arm is blown apart/off and the shemmarian is more than 25? ft from the bot (arm) then the gun wouldn't actually be destroyed. its one of the reasons that in shemarrian nation the shemarrians specifically go out of their way to retrieve lost shemmarian weapons and gear

sourcebook 1 pg 91
shemarrian bot
**Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will destroy the
bot. The robot explodes when all of its M.D.C. is depleted,
leaving no salvageable remains. Note: Additional body armor
or power armor can NOT be worn by bots.

shemmarian railgun note
weapons have made it to the black market, because they are
always destroyed when the Shemarrian is destroyed (self-destruction/
explosion). Undoubtedly, it would bring a high price, a
million credits or more, but only if the purchaser realized what
he was buying and planned on trying to duplicate it, otherwise
the weapon might sell for under 10,000 credits as an alien device
with limited useability.

sourcebook 1 revised pg 106, and 107
** Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body causes an Archie
'Bot to self-destruct, but in the case of the Shemarrians, its insides
bum and melt instead of exploding; no recoverable parts.

Black Market Cost: Not available! None of these fabulous
weapons have made it to the Black Market. The gun is linked to
its Shemarrian owner and explodes when she is destroyed or
when anyone other than a Shemarrian (or Archie, Hagan or an
Archie 'Bot) tries to tamper with it. The resulting explosion
does 506 M.D. to anyone within five feet (1.5 m) of the
weapon, and the entire inside and half of the rest of the weapon
is vaporized.

Shemarrian nation pg 36

Black Market Cost: Not available. No Shemarrian rail gun has ever
found its way on to the Black Market. This is because the weapon
is never given up by its owner and it's destroyed when its owner is
destroyed (self-destructs/explodes). The tiny number of people
who have managed to procure the weapon usually prefer to keep
them for themselves.
Furthermore, all Shemarrians will take the
weapon (or any Shemarrian weapon) from anyone they see in possession
of one. Undoubtedly, the rail gun would fetch a high price,
a million credits or more, from a purchaser who intends to study
and try to duplicate it, otherwise the weapon might sell for under
10,000 credits as an alien device with limited usability.

in conclusion it IS possible to salvage one of the railguns, but you need to be Extremely lucky (and a somewhat mobile fight) or come up with a plan and strategy to get around the difficulties involved.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

Even then, Archie has an 'effectively unlimited" Number of bots to send after you to get it back.

"Oh my group is totally BA! We killed 10 of them"

Ok the next time he sends 50... Oh your group killed 50? (Well your GM is using them wrong.. but...) The next time he sends 100... 250... 500.

He'll get ya.

You don't get away.

That's before you even factor in every Titan Robotics .... ANYTHING, also Records and informs on you.

He'll get ya.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

Fenris2020 wrote:
AdamB85 wrote:Hi all,

Just looking for a reference to the cost of boom gun rounds. The party has acquired a Shemarrian rail gun and are looking at finding an ammunitions expert to fabricate ammo but I have no idea what the cost of that would be in a place such as merctown. Was going to use boom gun round as a starting point.

Cheers



I thought the Shemarrian guns got destroyed with the robot; a safety feature to protect the tech.

They are supposed to, but there are 2 known examples that show the feature is not perfect:
1. SoT4 (pg106-8), one of the HLS adventures involves a recovered Shem Rail Gun (4x actually) in the hands of non-Shems, note these guns have been modified.
2. Titan Robotics per MercOps (pg84) sells a (what is believed to be a) copy of the weapon with their TR-004 Combat Robot. Now ignoring the metagame TR-A3 connection, would lead to those in-game to think TR managed to snag a weapon for study.

@the OP
Technically the Shemarians and Glitterboys (freelance, FQ, Triax, Japan, Orbitals, others) are not the only users of railguns that fire a Flechette canister round: Mastadon Robot (SA2 pg175-7 and is technically a boomgun), Naruni Juggernaut Heavy Hover Tank (Mercenaries pg131-4), Tarantula ATV Robot (New West pg194-5, technically it mentions it fires Flechette Rounds), Archons in SA2 have x6 systems (mecha and infantry) I'm not going to list them all, and the Bandit 5500 Rail Gun (New West pg176).

the Bandit 5500 Railgun in New West (pg176) includes the cost of new ammunition in its description, though it is unclear on how its bore size compares to other known examples of Flechette firing railguns: 80c per round or 10k for 14.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by slade2501 »

This is such a great question; as a rule of thumb I usually count refilling a railgun drum as 1-3 thousand credits, depending on the rarity/alien nature of the weapon. Boom Guns, are one of a kind, and would be an uncommon or rare round in most parts. CS or NG rounds would be super common, Triax fairly common. Naruni, Kitani or other alien weaponry would be a custom order, costing the most and taking time to make.

This in itself could lead to an adventure, as when news gets around that the snazzy robot or power suit has an empty main gun.......
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by Axelmania »

has anyone figured out why ARCHIE hasn't adapted Naruni forcefield tech into all his bots by now? I find it hard to believe he couldn't have gotten access yet
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Orin J.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by Orin J. »

Axelmania wrote:has anyone figured out why ARCHIE hasn't adapted Naruni forcefield tech into all his bots by now? I find it hard to believe he couldn't have gotten access yet


i seriously doubt the naruni have built their products in a way that reverse engineering would be reasonable from the position of groups that don't have their level of tech.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by slade2501 »

Orin J. wrote:
Axelmania wrote:has anyone figured out why ARCHIE hasn't adapted Naruni forcefield tech into all his bots by now? I find it hard to believe he couldn't have gotten access yet


i seriously doubt the naruni have built their products in a way that reverse engineering would be reasonable from the position of groups that don't have their level of tech.



I am betting it could be hand waved as "rare materials, unavailable on Earth" not unlike the crystal they use to make the plasma cartridges.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

.50 cal ball rifle rounds is about $3.30 right now. Scale the size of the price to the size of a BG round would be $40-ish per round. Then add in that they would be custom orders x10. That would bring $400 per round. then adding in 20% mark-up brings it to $440.
This would be for the initial order. Subiqusent orders might be cheaper.
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Re: Cost of Boom Gun Rounds

Unread post by Emerald MoonSilver »

Axelmania wrote:has anyone figured out why ARCHIE hasn't adapted Naruni forcefield tech into all his bots by now? I find it hard to believe he couldn't have gotten access yet



It would be easier to take the force field out of the ulti-max and copy it. The mech is pretty easy to get in North America now. Copying any system in it should be easy for archie.
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