The BrikWars Forums

I have a couple questions of which I could not find in the Core Rules (2005), and since my brother and I are just starting I was wondering if you guys could help me.

1) Shotguns. Those nice rifles that cover large areas with deadly fire: Take to rulers or tape measures, and start at the tip of the barrel of the shotgun. Form a V shape that should have a 2-inch gap in-between the 4-inch marks.
Use: Like a small ranged weapon (3). Attack: 1d10

Any suggestions for improvement?

2) Flame thrower. Death unto ye who dares to cross my path! A small ranged weapon, 6 inch range. Burn ability: Anything in the 6 in. is toast, attacks allies and enemies.
Use: 4. Attack: 2d6

Any suggestions for improvement?

I'll add more later as I build 'em.

Looks fine to me.

The flame thrower seems slightly overpowered for the use roll. At that roll, 50% of the time, a normal minifig could completely burn your incoming troops with melee weapons.

flamethrower should be limited to 2 usses or it runs out of gas

piltogg wrote:flamethrower should be limited to 2 usses or it runs out of gas

I second that motion!

In a recent game I played, we had a guy who wanted to use vehicle sized flamethrowers. We treated them as vehicle weapons that had half the standard range, but did damage as an explosive. It worked out alright, but there's probably a better way to handle them. Finger-cones and whatnot.

They had their good points though. They all had exposed hoses that were promptly shot off and sprayed fire all over the place, and that's always a good thing.

For a minifig-portable one, one idea for limiting the fuel would be to require them to carry around cans of fuel. Make one can good for three bursts or so, and have them treated as explosives for added volatility. Some pyro torching your dudes before they can stab him? Just shoot his fuel supply. That'll teach 'em.

Also, hello.

Here's an idea on shotguns from me.

Shotgun (2-handed) A reliable standby weapon, shotguns are typically employed when close-quarters fighting is expected. Or by rowdy thugs who relish the recoil and carnage that follow this gun.
Use: 3
Range: 6"
Power: 1D6

Ammunition: Pick which ammo the shotgun has at the beginning of the game.
Spread-shot: These shells explode on firing, blanketing an area with hundreds of metal bb's of death. You may fire at 2 targets with the same roll, provided they are within 1" of each other.
Solid Slug: Heavy, solid, and unreliable at long range, solid slugs are used tot ake down heavily armored or tough targets. Within 3", the Power of the shotgun attack is doubled to 2D6.

EDIT: Due to picky people.

Considering that hand weapon range is 6", 8" might be a bit much for a shotgun. I like how you handle the spread factor though.

Airpi wrote:Considering that hand weapon range is 6", 8" might be a bit much for a shotgun. I like how you handle the spread factor though.

Sorta. I figure it occupies that gray area between pistols and rifles, and is much more effective up-close than far away. 6" just didn't feel right, not did 12".

Mm, having it in between makes more realistic sense. I was thinking in sort of hyper-exaggerated terms. Video games have taught me that shotguns are useless against anything more than five feet away.

feuer_faust wrote:Here's an idea on shotguns from me.

Shotgun (2-handed) A reliable standby weapon, shotguns are typically employed when close-quarters fighting is expected. Or by rowdy thugs who relish the recoil and carnage that follow this gun.
Use: 3
Range: 8"
Power: 1D6

Ammunition: Pick which ammo the shotgun has at the beginning of the game.
Spread-shot: These shells explode on firing, blanketing an area with hundreds of metal bb's of death. You may fire at 2 targets with the same roll, provided they are within 1" of each other.
Solid Slug: Heavy, solid, and unreliable at long range, solid slugs are used tot ake down heavily armored or tough targets. Within 4", the Power of the shotgun attack is doubled to 2D6.

I like that. But I must say the range is a bit strong for a shotgun. Most would only have a range of at max (and that's a hunter's version) of 7". But that's me.

@ Piltogg:
What I meant by use is the Skill Roll.

@ Airpi:
Hmmm... Your right. I'll edit in a fuel limit. Something like rocket launchers, you have to buy a can o' fuel. My flame throwers don't use a backpack ammo stock. I have built a small can on the bottom of the weapon. A sniper or well placed shot would be needed to nail it.

That's fair, given the nature and size of Brikwars, doing 6" range would work easier.

No, i think 8" is fair.

What I do for flamethrowers is hide a bunch of red cylinder pieces around the battlefield. Each counts as a single burst of flame from a flamethrower. No units begin with a flamethrower, but they are hidden on the battlefield (usually in the most unreachable spots). So your troops can get a flamethrower, but they also need to find fuel tanks in order to use it.

yeah, 8" is totally fair!

as for flamethrowers, i see no reason as to why to limit them at all. of course, since i do fire differently than everybody else, that makes more sense.

what i'd recommend for your style is that it can only fire in bursts. as in, it can shoot for one turn, but it'd have to wait a turn before it could shoot again.