Types of Weapon
Each weapon has a category based on the type of damage it does. Each category has its own strengths and weaknesses, and rarely certain armours will provide resistances against certain types of damage.
Primitive
“Primitive” weaponry is any weaponry which is primarily powered by the user's own muscles. This normally applies to melee weapons, but which includes ranged bows. Bows are uncommon weapons in the far future, though their simplicity as well as certain modern innovations make them popular amongst specialists, enthusiasts, or survivalists.
Like other primitive weapons, bows' simplicity of use gives them a further +1 to hit for characters with at least Significant training in using them. In addition, bows can be reloaded with a Move action, or faster if the Gunslinger focus is applied. At TL4 and above bows use special conductive materials to convert the kinetic energy of the draw into a force field “glazing” around the arrow, improving penetration. These so-called "conversion bows" ignore any usual protection from primitive weaponry, as their damage is classified as 'slug'.
Explosive
Explosive weapons enact their effect over a wide range. They can have a variety of effects depending on their construction, but most commonly will use a burst of heat or shrapnel in order to inflict damage. Explosive weapons always roll to attack AC10 instead of the target's armour class, and if their attack roll misses will always land and explode somewhere - though where exactly will depend on the weapon. A target's armour instead usually provides damage protection based on AC, and targets of an explosive weapon can normally make some kind of saving throw in order to resist some or all of the impact.
Slug
Bullet-firing weaponry or 'Slug-throwers' make up the most-common ranged weapons in human use. Despite advances in energy weapons and other offensive
technologies, accelerating a small piece of metal to high velocity is still one of the most efficient ways of killing someone.
Slug weaponry loses out on accuracy somewhat compared to energy weapons, and more types of armour are resistant to bullets than to plasma-fire, but even comparatively primitive worlds can fabricate and maintain such weaponry, plus the damage a flying chunk of hot lead can do is often worse than what a clean burst of energy fire might produce. Almost any world of TL2 or higher can provide projectile ammunition, and any slug weapon of TL4 or above will work even in vacuum conditions.
Slug-thrower weapons consume ammunition as they fire, and unlike plasma weapons this source of ammo is not interchangeable between different types of gun. Every gun is listed with its magazine capacity; the cost required to purchase a magazine's worth of that weapon's ammo; and whether the weapon has a replaceable magazine for easy reloading, or if it must be loaded using individual rounds. Note that some weapons have more expensive ammunition, particularly those which either have burst-fire capabilities or higher damage probabilities. See the 'Ammo' table for more information about ammunition.
Plasma
Directed-energy weapons first entered the battlefield as target designators and range-finders, but become capable of inflicting damage directly with the advent of portable-plasma - a neutral gas (normally helium) encased within a small shielded core, snap-charged to extreme heats which create a soup of positively charged particles (ions) and negatively charged particles (electrons).
The gas is compressed to such an extent that users do not need to worry about running out at any point in the weapon's common lifespan. However, the power required to affect such rapid creation of plasma is significant. All plasma weapons come with a battery pack that consumes type A power cells in order to create plasma within the weapon, this is either belt/wrist-mounted or integrated into the weapon itself. Either way, this plasma is then projected at the target in different ways depending on the firing method - though in all cases the lack of recoil compared with firing a bullet gives a universal +1 to hit for all plasma weapons.
Laser Weapons: Laser Weapons are the most common type of plasma weapon, using a laser-carried electromagnetic charge to create a narrow grav funnel - through which a jet of plasma is 'dropped' towards the target. This carrier laser however is vulnerable to atmospheric interference. Ordinary mist or haze won't make a difference but a thick cloud of thermally-resistant particulate matter such as ash or sand can seriously degrade the beam applying up to a -4 penalty to hit and cutting ranges in half.
Beam Weapons: Beam weapons are a specialised form of laser weapon, forgoing the usual sharp jet of plasma for a weaker but more persistent stream. This gives them excellent magazine capacity, and the capability to burst fire an additional 3 ammo for a total +3 to hit and damage. Beam weapons are susceptible to the same atmospheric interferences as normal laser weapons.
Thermal Weapons: Thermal Weapons fire a sphere of plasma contained within a tiny iron shard's magnetic field towards the target. These spheres tend to dissipate at much shorter ranges compared with laser weaponry but do significantly more damage to targets within range and are not affected by ambient particulates. Thermal weapons tend to be extremely loud in operation.
The range and accuracy of plasma weapons are often superior to their slug-thrower cousins, and the power to fire plasma weapons can come from a variety of interchangeable sources, but the infrastructure necessary for maintenance and repair of these weapons is substantially higher. Plasma weapons themselves make very little noise, but sound is created as the ionised air collapses back in behind the shot's wake. For the narrow-focussed laser weapons, this sound will be a high-pitched snap. For the larger spheres fired by thermal weaponry, the sound is a loud, deep, vibrating bass which can be heard from long distances.
Grav
Grav weapons are the rarest of all ranged-weapons, their operation using miniaturised gravity projection technology - at a rate of power and accuracy unseen outside of pretech manufactories - to damage remote targets through the manipulation of crohn particles. Like energy weapons, grav weaponry requires a power cell type A to recharge its magazine, and the lack of recoil in such weapons gives the wielder a +1 to hit. Grav weapons have the highest available damage output in the ranged weapons category.
Other
Ranged weapons in the 'other' category deal some kind of damage not listed above. Their exact effects will depend on their descriptions.
