Ammunition

World of Darkness - Armory

Without ammunition, a firearm is little more than an awkward club. Apocryphally, the first murder weapon was a rock. In time, people learned to throw rocks rather than holding them, reasoning that it’s better to hit the other guy from a distance so he can’t hit back as easily. A bullet is simply a thrown rock, refined via modern science.
Today’s cartridges place two distinct explosive charges within a metal cylinder, the end of which is sealed by the bullet itself. The resulting self-contained unit of ammunition is immune to casual spillage of gunpowder, resistant to short-term environmental hazards such as dust or moisture and easy to transport and to load into a gun.
The exterior portion of a cartridge, the casing, is a hollow metal cylinder, open on one end to accept a bullet. Casings are typically brass, though some manufacturers produce cases with steel (for extra durability) or aluminum (to cut costs). Before firing, the casing serves to keep the entire round together and to protect the propellant from the outside environment. After firing, the casing is merely a small empty cylinder that must be removed from the weapon before the next round can be fired. However, most casings are durable enough to be re-used with new propellant and bullets, which helps cut ammunition costs for a shooter capable of reloading used brass (see p. 164 for more information on “Reloading”).
The smaller explosive part of a cartridge is the primer. It is usually made of an explosive metallic compound and is located at the closed, flat base of the casing. The primer is sensitive to friction and impact – while not prone to spontaneously exploding if dropped, the primer will detonate if struck with a sharp, sudden blow.
The larger explosive part of a cartridge is the propellant. Smokeless powder, the usual propellant for modern ammunition, is made chiefly of nitrocellulose (cellulose treated with nitric acid). The propellant is intended to explode when subjected to the heat of the primer’s detonation. However, the propellant is sensitive to high temperatures and can spontaneously combust if exposed to open flame.
The solid portion of a cartridge, which becomes the projectile when the round is fired, is the bullet. “Normal” bullets are made of lead covered in a thin sheath of copper. However, a wide array of special bullet types exists, and these are detailed in the following sections. A modern cartridge’s case is crimped hard against the bullet, rendering it waterproof for short durations, but long-term submersion (or even brief immersion in oil or solvent) can ruin a cartridge’s propellant or primer.

Handgun and Rifle Ammunition

Ammunition for handguns and rifles is manufactured using the same basic design described above. However, some fundamental differences exist because of different design objectives. Handgun ammunition has to be relatively short in order to fit into a revolver cylinder or a magazine that fits into an autoloader’s grip. This means less propellant and a shorter bullet. In order to make up for this, a handgun round picks up some girth and sacrifices speed for mass in the kinetic energy equation.
By comparison, a rifle cartridge doesn’t have to conform to a comfortable length. This allows for both a longer projectile and a longer propellant charge. The bullet gets both mass and speed from being built larger in that dimension, so the bullet can be slimmer — which gives an extra added bonus of a smaller cross-section, and thus less resistance from whatever it’s passing through (air, Kevlar, people).
These differences in construction lead to a discrepancy between the performances of rifle rounds and pistol rounds. Pistol rounds move a lot slower than rifle bullets: compare a 9mm Luger handgun bullet (weight 115 grains, muzzle velocity 1,150 feet per second) to a .223 Remington rifle bullet (weight 55 grains, muzzle velocity 3,200 feet per second). The handgun round weighs about twice as much as the rifle round, but the speed of the handgun round is almost two-thirds lower. In addition, the handgun round has a wider cross-section, which means the round slows down faster; and, because it’s moving slower, it loses stability and altitude over a much shorter distance.
All of these factors combine to make rifle rounds deadly and accurate at much longer ranges than handgun rounds. Additionally, higher velocities and lower diameters mean that rifle bullets tend to go through things that would stop many pistol bullets cold: thin metal, tree branches, body armor and so forth.

Handgun and Rifle Ammunition Types

Full Metal Jacket (FMJ): The de facto standard for rifle and handgun ammunition is the full metal jacket bullet (“ball” in military parlance). FMJ rounds, as the name suggests, are completely sheathed in metal. Their usual construction is a copper or steel sheath over a lead core.
Mechanics: None. FMJ is the default ammunition type with which all handguns and rifles are assumed to be loaded unless otherwise specified.
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 50 handgun cartridges or 20 rifle cartridges. FMJ ammo is available in all calibers and is legal anywhere guns are.
Armory Piercing (AP): Militaries often require ammunition capable of punching through cover, body armor or light vehicles. Armor-piercing rounds perform poorly against unarmored targets, often drastically overpenetrating, but small holes are still better than no holes. Armor-piercing rounds share similar construction with FMJ rounds, but contain solid steel or tungsten cores (“penetrators”) rather than lead innards. When an armor-piercing bullet strikes a solid object, this bullet’s core retains its shape rather than deforming. This allows the penetrator to keep moving at something close to its original velocity even as the lead around it slows down.
Mechanics: Armor-piercing bullets are, obviously, armor piercing, per the World of Darkness Rulebook (pp. 138 and 167). The rating of an armor-piercing bullet depends on its caliber:
Bullet Type | Damage | AP Rating
Handgun | 2 or less | 1
Handgun | 2 (9 again) or more | 2
Rifle | 4 or less | 2
Rifle | 4 (9 again) or more | 3
Acquisition: Resources •• for a box of 50 handgun cartridges or 20 rifle cartridges. AP ammo is rare in nonmilitary calibers and is illegal for civilians to possess in any nation with gun laws. Some calibers are innately armor piercing with their normal FMJ ammo and cannot be acquired as armor piercing for double effect (see “Handgun and Rifle Damage by Caliber,” p. 85).
Blank: Used for entertainment and simulation purposes, blanks are cartridges without bullets. A blank is dangerous at point-blank range because the propellant still explodes, but is harmless past about 10 feet. Because the gas from a blank expands without a bullet’s resistance, semi-automatic and automatic firearms will not work with blanks unless fitted with a blank firing adapter, a device inside the barrel that constricts the expanding gas — and causes catastrophic failure if a live round is fired from the gun.
Mechanics: A blank does normal damage within three yards. Otherwise, the blank goes “bang” and flashes with no other effect.
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 50 cartridges. Blanks are readily available in all calibers.
Frangible: These expensive bullets are a partial answer to the problem of overpenetration. Frangible ammunition, also known as Advanced Energy Transfer (AET) or prefragmented, is designed to break up on impact with a solid target. This maximizes the bullet’s transfer of energy to the object and minimizes the chances that pieces of it will exit at dangerous velocities. Frangible ammo comes in a variety of configurations, from hollow rounds filled with tiny metal beads (the well-known Glaser Safety Slug) to semi-solid bullets with grooves or notches to facilitate breakup. Frangible ammo has found acceptance in both military and law enforcement hostage rescue use and in civilian home defense.
Mechanics: Frangible ammo gains a one-die bonus to its Damage rating against unprotected living (or unliving) targets. However, against a target with a Durability or Armor rating, this damage bonus is lost and the Durability or Armor rating is tripled. An innately armor-piercing caliber loses this effect with frangible ammunition.
Acquisition: Resources •• for a box of 20 handgun or rifle cartridges. Frangible ammo is available in most handgun calibers (any with Damage of 3 or less and not listed as “Rare”), as well as some military rifle calibers (Damage less than 5). Frangible ammo is civilian-legal.
Hollowpoint: A hollowpoint bullet, as the name suggests, has a hollow point, usually taking the shape of a coneshaped section scooped from its nose. When such a bullet strikes a target, the hollowpoint expands (or “mushrooms”) more readily than a FMJ bullet. This results in more energy transferred to the target, and thus more spectacular wounds. The primary drawback of hollowpoints is that they do not discriminate between solid objects. For example, a Kevlar vest will serve just as well as a human torso for purposes of slowing the bullet down and making it expand. Still, against unarmored targets, hollowpoints are messily effective.
Various improvised types of expanding bullets, collectively known as “dum-dums,” perform as hollowpoints. The most common method of creating a dum-dum is to carve some or all of the jacket off a FMJ bullet, notching the lead underneath.
Mechanics: Hollowpoint ammunition gains a one-die bonus to its Damage rating against unprotected living (or undead) targets. However, against any target with a Durability or Armor rating, a hollowpoint suffers a two-dice penalty instead. In addition, hollowpoints perform poorly over distance due to increased drag, and penalties for attacks at medium and long range are raised to –3 and –5, respectively. An innately armor-piercing caliber loses this effect with hollowpoint ammunition.
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 20 handgun or rifle cartridges. Hollowpoints are available in all calibers except the largest military ones (.50 BMG and up). Hollowpoints are legal for civilian purchase. The Hague Convention prohibits the use of expanding ammunition in warfare, so militaries rarely use hollowpoints.
Match Grade: Competitive shooters demand precision from their ammunition. Match grade ammo is FMJ ammo produced to exacting tolerances. After production, randomly selected rounds from each lot are tested for ballistic performance, and a record of these tests is packaged with every box of ammo, showing its behavior at known ranges (typically 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 yards). Some professional shooters swear that only match grade ammo allows consistent peak performance, while others insist that this ammo is too sensitive to humidity and temperature to give any real benefit.
Mechanics: Match grade ammo provides significant benefits only if the shooter takes time to set up the shot. If the shooter has access to current weather information (wind, temperature, humidity) and the data sheet for the batch of match grade ammo, the shooter may spend 10 minutes calculating performance and adjusting the weapon’s sights. This requires an Intelligence + Firearms roll (with a –3 penalty if weather information is unavailable). The number of successes is added to the maximum bonus the character receives from aiming (e.g., with four successes, the character may receive a maximum bonus of +4 from aiming, if he aims for seven turns). This bonus is lost if the weather changes significantly.
Acquisition: ••• for a box of 50 rifle cartridges. Match grade ammo is available in all rifle calibers, but it’s especially difficult to acquire in quantities of more than a couple hundred rounds at a time due to low production numbers.
Riot Control: “Rubber bullets” are low-velocity rounds intended for non-lethal use against crowds that refuse to disperse peacefully. Rubber bullets are made of medium-hard rubber or plastic and are intended to be fired at the ground to ricochet into targets, as these bullets can still cause serious injury or death if used directly at targets.
Mechanics: Riot control ammunition does bashing rather than lethal damage unless the ammo is aimed at the target’s head, in which case the ammo still does lethal.
Acquisition: Resources •• for a box of 20 handgun or rifle cartridges. Riot control ammunition is generally available only in common Western military calibers (5.56mm NATO, 7.62mm NATO, 9mm Luger, .45 ACP), as the vast majority of police weapons use these calibers. Riot control ammunition is technically legal for civilian use, but most vendors restrict sales. An innately armor-piercing caliber loses this effect with riot control ammunition.
Tracer: Tracer ammo is FMJ ammo with a small amount of combustible chemical compound (usually phosphorous or magnesium) on the back end of the bullet. When a tracer is fired, this chemical burns off over the course of a second or so (typically the bullet’s entire flight). To the human eye, a small illuminated object moving at supersonic velocity appears as a bright streak and afterimage. This provides a visual reference for the bullet’s track, which allows the shooter to adjust her point of aim when firing bursts. Because of the excessive chemical residue tracers leave in a gun, most shooters load one tracer round for every three to five normal rounds. Some shooters also load the last few rounds in a magazine as tracers as a visual reminder to reload during the heat of battle, though this also tells the enemy that the subject is vulnerable.
Mechanics: Tracers give no bonuses to single shots or short bursts. If a character uses tracers in a medium burst, she may add half her Wits (rounded down) to her dice pool. For a long burst, she adds her full Wits to her dice pool. In addition, while tracers are not hot enough to inflict fire damage (not even to vampires), the bullets can set targets (or scenery) on fire as a secondary effect. Whenever a combustible target is struck by tracers, roll a single die: if the result is less than the amount of damage inflicted by the attack, the target catches fire and begins taking a single point of fire damage per turn until extinguished (see p.180, the World of Darkness Rulebook). Characters are not normally considered combustible, but their clothes are. Any attempt to spot a character who’s just fired one or more tracers automatically succeeds if the observer has any degree of eyesight.
Acquisition: Resources •• for a box of 20 handgun cartridges, ••• for a belt or case of 100 rifle cartridges. Tracer ammo is technically legal, but rare, on the civilian market. Because tracer ammo is used almost exclusively in automatic weapons, it is produced only in common military calibers.

Shotgun Ammunition

Shotgun Ammunition Types

Slug: The de facto standard for shotgun shells is the slug, a thumb-sized lead cylinder with no subtlety or finesse whatsoever. Slugs are used for hunting large game and humans.
Mechanics: None. The slug is the default ammunition type with which all shotguns are assumed to be loaded unless otherwise specified.
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 25 shells. Slugs are universally available anywhere ammunition is sold.
Buckshot: Shot ammunition is the source from which shotguns derive their names. A shot shell contains multiple lead or steel spheres that travel in an expanding cone from the muzzle of the gun when fired. Buckshot is the largest type of shot. A #00 (“double-ought”) buckshot shell, the type most commonly used for combat applications, contains nine 0.33-inch pellets. This shot is brutal at close range, and, at longer ranges, the spread of the shot makes it likely that a well-aimed blast will catch at least part of the target in its pattern. Firing shot in close proximity to a friendly subject is dangerous at range — a shot pattern typically expands one inch for every yard the shot travels.
Mechanics: At short range, buckshot gains a one-die bonus to its Damage rating against unprotected living (or unliving) targets. At medium and long range, buckshot loses this bonus, but suffers only half the normal range penalties, and any other character in physical contact with the target (e.g., grappled or grappling) also suffers damage equal to half the damage the primary target receives (round down). At all ranges, any target’s Durability or Armor rating is doubled.
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 25 shells. Buckshot is universally available anywhere ammunition is sold.
Birdshot: Intended for hunting birds and small game, birdshot is similar to buckshot but composed of much smaller pellets: 0.05 to 0.18 inches. It quickly disperses over range, and is barely dangerous to human-sized targets over most distances.
Mechanics: All of birdshot’s ranges are halved and its Damage rating is reduced by 1. At medium and long range, any other character in physical contact with the target (e.g., grappled or grappling) also suffers damage equal to half the damage the primary target receives (round down). At all ranges, any target’s Durability or Armor rating is tripled.
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 25 shells. Birdshot is universally available anywhere ammunition is sold.
Breaching: Breaching ammunition is specialized ammo developed for law enforcement use when a door has to be opened right now. A breaching shell contains granular or powdered metal. This payload strikes as hard as a slug at point-blank range, but rapidly disperses, losing all significant force within 20 feet of the gun, ensuring that the ammo will not penetrate walls or doors or ricochet to strike bystanders. Typically, a SWAT team’s entry man carries a pump-action shotgun loaded with breaching shells, and can blow the lock and hinges off a door in under six seconds.
Mechanics: At close combat range, a breaching shell does normal damage. At short range, a breaching shell does bashing damage. A breaching shell has no effect at medium or long range. When a character chambers a breaching shell in a semi-automatic or automatic shotgun, roll a die: on a 1–5, the gun jams, requiring one turn to clear.
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 25 shells. Breaching ammunition is technically legal for civilian sale, but almost all suppliers are law enforcement retailers that will not sell to clients without credentials. Breaching ammunition is available only in 12 gauge.
Flamethrower: The pinnacle of exotic shotgun ammunition is the flamethrower shell. Sold under various brand names (“Dragonsbreath” being the most infamous), these shells use low-explosive propellant charges to expel burning powdered zirconium. The volume of the shell limits the amount of incendiary material that the shell can contain, but the tongue of flame can reach as far as 75 yards and lasts two to three seconds. Flamethrower shells are of limited value for direct attacks, but can flash-blind anyone looking in the direction of the blast (especially at night) and are likely to ignite flammable substances such as dry leaves, wood or clothing. Flamethrower shells are advertised to not damage guns out of which they’re fired, but they do leave a greater than normal amount of chemically unique residue in the barrel.
Mechanics: A flamethrower shell attack is resolved as a long burst of autofire with a base Damage 0: the shooter gains a +3 bonus to her attack roll, and may attack multiple targets if she’s willing to suffer the required penalties (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 160). “9 again” and “8 again” do not apply to this attack. All damage from a flamethrower shell is fire damage. The flame emitted by a flamethrower shell is the size of a bonfire (Damage 2) and burns with the intensity of a Bunsen burner (+2 Damage bonus). Thus, an attack with a flamethrower shell will never inflict more than four points of damage. On an exceptional success, combustible items on the victim (hair or clothing, for instance) will catch fire, and, the following turn, he’ll begin taking two points of lethal damage per turn until extinguished (see p. 180, the World of Darkness Rulebook).
Because a flamethrower shell burns for up to three seconds, using it in any shotgun that ejects spent shells automatically is hazardous to the shooter and everyone around her. Using a flamethrower shell in a semi-automatic or automatic shotgun means that the shell will be ejected while it’s still spitting fire. Everyone within 20 yards of the shooter, as well as any significant target (e.g., anything whose destruction could have interesting story effects) is subjected to a separate chance roll attack from the shell as it flips end-over-end. The shooter suffers the effects of all dramatic failures caused by these chance rolls.
Acquisition: Resources • for a blister pack of three shells (about $5/shell on average). Flamethrower shells can be ordered online, but over-the-counter sales are usually limited to sporting goods stores in rural areas, where it’s rare to find more than four or five packs in stock at a time. They are illegal in some regions — laws vary. Where available, these shells are sold as novelty items (“Hey, y’all, watch this!”) or used by forestry services for starting controlled burns. Flamethrower shells are manufactured in limited quantities and only in 12 gauge, and mass purchases will arouse attention.
Flare: Shotgun flares are intended for emergency signaling use. When fired into the air, a flare round is visible for up to a mile in daylight and up to 10 miles on a clear night. Shotgun flares are available in a wide variety of colors, with red, white and green being the most common.
Mechanics: When fired at a specific target, a flare’s ranges are halved and its Damage becomes a flat –1, also losing any “8 again” or “9 again” effects. The flame emitted by a flare is the size of a torch (Damage 1) and burns with the intensity of a chemical fire (+3 Damage bonus). Thus, an attack with a flare will never inflict more than four points of damage. On an exceptional success, combustible items on the victim will catch fire, and, the following turn, he’ll begin taking one point of lethal damage per turn until extinguished (see p. 180, the World of Darkness Rulebook).
Acquisition: Resources • for a blister pack of three shells. Flares are legal for civilian sale and are available in most large sporting goods stores. Flares are available only in 12 and 20 gauge. Large quantities are hard to acquire due to limited production, and mass purchases may draw attention.
Flechette: A flechette shell replaces buckshot with about 20 small metal darts. Flechettes individually pack less kinetic energy than shot pellets, but are less likely to deflect off scenery or body armor.
Mechanics: Flechettes function as buckshot, but body armor does not provide double protection against them (though Durability does).
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 25 shells. Flechettes are legal for civilian sale, but produced in limited numbers.
Gas: A “CS penetrator” shell features a steel end cap over a reservoir filled with tear gas. Gas shells are designed for police use against barricaded suspects — a gas shell will penetrate reinforced safety glass, a car door or up to two inches of hardwood before expelling its gaseous payload. Police generally try to gauge what they’re firing through before taking the shot in order to ensure that the round ends up on the other side of the barrier.
Mechanics: A gas round’s ranges are half normal. If fired at a character, the gas round does normal damage. If fired at a solid object (or a character wearing rigid body armor), the gas round gains the Armor Piercing 2 trait. The shell’s tear gas payload is enough to fill a 10-foot radius (see p. 128 for the effects of tear gas). On an exceptional success, the gas round lodges inside the target, inflicting one additional point of fire damage at the end of the next turn from heat and the pressure of spewing tear gas. When a character chambers a gas shell in a semi-automatic or automatic shotgun, roll a die: on a 1–5, the gun jams, requiring one turn to clear.
Acquisition: Resources •• for a package of five shells. Gas shells are restricted to law enforcement and military sale, and are available only in 12 gauge.
Riot Control: Less-lethal shotgun ammunition is available. Some riot control rounds are solid rubber, while others fire vinyl beanbags full of lead shot.
Mechanics: Riot control ammunition does bashing damage rather than lethal damage unless the ammo is aimed at the target’s head, in which case the ammo still does lethal damage. Riot control ammunition can be acquired in both buckshot and slug equivalents.
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 25 shells. Riot control ammunition is legal for civilians, though rare. It is available only in 12 gauge.
Rock Salt: Rock salt ammunition is not sold commercially, but is handmade by many a rural resident by replacing an ordinary shot shell’s contents with chunks of rock salt. The irregularly shaped chunks of salt strike with enough force to embed themselves in the victim’s skin, causing superficial but excruciatingly painful wounds.
Mechanics: Rock salt functions as birdshot, but does bashing damage at any distance greater than close-combat range. However, any character struck with rock salt suffers a penalty to all rolls equal to the amount of damage she took until she has a chance to pluck the salt chunks out of her flesh and rinse out her wounds.
Acquisition: Resources • for enough rock salt to convert a couple hundred shot shells. Rock salt is not a controlled substance.
Sabot: A sabot round consists of a small, dense core surrounded by a lightweight jacket (the sabot itself). When the round is fired, the sabot falls away within a few yards of the muzzle, leaving the projectile to travel on at extremely high velocity. In a shotgun, this provides no additional damage effect, but increases the effective range of the slug.
Mechanics: A sabot functions like a slug, but all ranges are increased by half again.
Acquisition: Resources • for a box of 25 shells. Sabot slugs are available in 20, 16, 12 and 10 gauge.

But What About...?

Thanks to popular entertainment and dedicated monster-hunters, many nonstandard ammunition types are available to enterprising characters. None of the following ammo is commercially available. Characters must load their own using the reloading rules on p. 164. An innately armor-piercing caliber loses this effect with any of the following custom ammunition types.
Cold Iron: Folklore from across Europe speaks of the vulnerability of fairy folk to cold iron, and monsterhunters faced with inexplicable child abduction cases may prepare for combat by applying this ancient remedy to modern ammunition. Loading cold icon is a tricky proposition due to its melting temperature and solidity. However, iron bullets are unlikely to de-form for these same reasons.
Mechanics: A solid iron bullet functions as an AP round. An iron hollowpoint functions as a normal (FMJ) bullet. Iron shotgun slugs and buckshot function normally.
Gold: Gold is much denser than lead, which makes for a heavier bullet. Some legends place a few supernatural creatures as being vulnerable to gold, but the softness of this metal makes it impractical for ballistic use.
Mechanics: Gold ammunition suffers a –1 penalty to its Damage rating and ranges are reduced to three quarters of their standard.
Ice or Meat: According to some television shows, firing a meat slug or ice bullet into a target will confuse forensic investigators, who won’t be able to pick the shredded hamburger out of the shredded victim. In actuality, meat isn’t solid enough to have good ballistic properties, even when frozen, and ice will just sublime to water vapor in the heat of the propellant’s detonation . If the gun is close enough for such a round to actually kill someone, the autopsy still will show the powder tattooing, stellate blow-out, and other signs of a close-range gunshot.
Mechanics: Ice or meat ammunition functions as a blank.
Mercury: “Drilled and filled” rounds are FMJ bullets to which a gunsmith has taken a tiny power drill, excavating a cavity in the nose of the bullet, then filled with mercury and sealed with a dab of wax. Contrary to popular belief, this is not because of the chances of inflicting mercury poisoning on the target. A shooting victim is much more likely to die of his gunshot than of belated mercury poisoning. However, mercury’s density roughly equals that of the lead that was removed to make the cavity, and this liquid metal tends to fragment into hundreds of tiny droplets when the bullet comes to a sudden stop.
Mechanics: Mercury-filled bullets function as frangible ammo. Mercury-filled shotgun slugs disintegrate on firing, functioning as birdshot. Mercury-filled buckshot is a waste of time and mercury.
Silver: The traditional cure for werewolf problems is a silver bullet. Silver and lead are slightly different in density, so a silver bullet is weighted roughly the same as an FMJ round. Silver is a softer metal than copper, though, which means that a silver bullet will leave a lot of itself on the inside of the barrel and will deform more from the initial stress of firing.
Mechanics: Silver ammunition suffers a –1 penalty to its Damage rating.
Stone: Arcane scholars with gunsmithing ability may attempt to create stone bullets for some obscure ritual use. This process, while time-consuming and inefficient, may be effective to a limited degree.
Mechanics: Soft stone (sandstone, limestone) bullets or shotgun slugs function as frangible ammunition. Hard stone (marble, granite) bullets function as FMJ ammo. Hard stone shotgun slugs function normally, as does all stone buckshot. In all cases, stone ammunition reduces all Range brackets to three quarters of their standard distance.
Teflon: Teflon and other lubricants do nothing to enhance a bullet’s armor-penetrating capabilities. Lubricants do reduce the amount of metallic residue that a bullet leaves on the inside of a gun’s barrel when fired, which makes maintenance slightly easier.
Mechanics: No effect.
Wood: Wood bullets are historical curiosities now, last seeing use in World War II when German ammunition manufacturers attempted to save metal and create bullets that would splinter on impact to produce greater wounds. Some desperate vampire-hunters, aware that driving a wooden stake through a Kindred’s heart will paralyze the creature, may attempt to make wooden bullets in the hope of scoring that lucky heart shot. However, wood is even less dense than silver, and much less likely to survive being fired.
Mechanics: A wooden bullet acts as a frangible round, but a wooden bullet’s ranges are halved and it suffers a –1 penalty to damage. A wooden shotgun slug splinters on firing, acting similar birdshot. Shooting a vampire in the heart with wooden ammunition does absolutely nothing special. The heart must be completely transfixed with a single shaft for “staking” and paralysis to occur. A bullet simply isn’t long enough (and neither is a toothpick, so don’t bother with the toothpick-filled shotgun shells).

He Was Comin' Right For Me!

Breaching, flamethrower, flare and gas shotgun shells are not considered viable combat ammunition. Using any of these ammunition types on living targets will provoke an immediate and intensive investigation, even if the shooting was justifiable self-defense (“So, let’s get this straight . . . you were just watching television when this guy kicked in your door . . . and you just happened to have a shotgun loaded with Dragonsbreath rounds stashed under your couch in case of just such an emergency?”). The usual reaction of police officers to finding an apparent crime scene where any of this ammunition was fired at a human will not be “Huh, the vampire-hunters must be getting busy again.” It’ll be closer to “Hey, there’s a sick fuck on the loose, better get ready for another weird murder and start up a serial killer task force.”