I think @FrankF mostly has it, but I would add that there is some allowance for characters to arm themselves with their appropriate national “kit”. It’s also worth noting there is very, very little of this. The weapon balance is, in the vast majority of cases, very good.
It’s something of a legacy of the game’s design process - in order to keep things simple, some aspects of weapon stats from earlier drafts were simplified as we iterated the rules… and in the process, some of the mechanical differences between similar guns were lost. In this case, an earlier draft had rate of fire mechanics more similar to the way it works in Mutant Chronicles/Infinity and in Fallout (where guns have a specific RoF value which caps how much ammo they can spend and the bonus gained from doing so), where semi-auto rifles like the Garand had a lower damage but higher RoF than bolt-action rifles like the SMLE (but there was a talent that let characters boost the RoF of their gun because they were skilled at reloading, to reflect things like “Mad Minute”)
There’d be nothing wrong with just standardising all three to 5 damage dice as a house rule.
@FrankF, I can accept that answer for the most part, but it’s not a mechanical answer. All character mechanically have access to all Restriction 1-3 weapons at the start of the game when they create their character.
Player characters may choose one additional item of Restriction 3, two additional items of Restriction 2, or three additional items of Restriction 1 to round out their character.
@BrickSteelhead So far a lot of the game is very nicely balanced and explained, but there are a few little flaws here and there (which is to be expected since it’s still in development). I have had mixed reviews from players on this system despite really liking it myself, so I have been going back and forth over the rules in order to justify them.
@Modiphius-Nathan, Thanks for the update!
I had figured it was something along those lines, that the mechanics had been simplified to a point where some of the legacy stats no longer made sense.
Is there a plan to reintegrate some of the more complex rules into the book again or as a rule expansion?
I hear you. I got too excited and started my campaign in its current state–not yet fully edited and published–and the little errors are so much bigger/worse, in actual play, than I expected them to be.
I hope to reset the whole thing soon…
Hello! Is ammo spent every time a ranged attack action is made? Or only when a Salvo is declared as part of the attack action?
Ammo is spent when you choose to make a Salvo attack, though it can be lost by Complications as well.
Weapons with the Munitions quality (like bazookas) use 1 Ammo on every attack and cannot make Salvo attacks.
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Are there tips for running the quickstart mission A Quick Trip to France with only 1-2 player characters? Specifically scaling the combat encounters with fewer heroes? Are there guidelines for that sort of thing in the gamemaster’s guide? I’d like to run this adventure and the Operation Steel Vanguard but that’s recommended at 4 players.
The scenario has the option of adding Resistance characters as allied NPCs to the group. Make good use of this - and maybe give them better weapons than the ones in the stat block - or let them loot Black Sun Troopers’ SMGs.
A single PC is most likely too few - especially as those PCs are supposed to be starting characters. If you have a very experience character - the equivalent of James Bond with lots of Talents, maxed-out stats, etc. - then that might work as a solo operation, though in the end scene, the sheer action economy of having quite a handful NPCs at work against a single PC would make things hopeless for the PC. Therefore the single PC or even two PCs need allies. A bunch of them, about 5 or more I suggest.
And if the PCs in question are not tough combat-oriented characters but more scholarly, then they are in trouble anyway. You need a very good mix of skills for this quickstart adventure - and nearly every approach the players might come up with, you have some characters who are good at the relevant skill and many more who are untrained and plain suck at such things required.
It will probably be easier to find two more players, I guess.
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Gotcha. Appreciate the write up. I wasn’t sure how to interpret the alternating activations during a combat encounter in th heroes are outnumbered. Or opposite, if the PCs down enough enemies and they outnumber the opposing forces.