Some caliber stuff for weapons

[BPMasher]

Okay so I started working on this game again, hopefully coming up with inspired stuff. So weapon damage is tied to its level. We can apply a variable into this damage by introducing weapons base damage by "caliber" and chassis. Here's what I've come up with so far.

Pistol calibers:
-Very light (.22, 5mm etc.) d4 base damage
-Light (9mm and below) d6 base damage
-Heavy (10mm upwards) d8 base damage

SMGs use pistol caliber as their base.

Rifle calibers:
-Light (5mm, 5.56mm) d10
-Heavy (7.62mm upwards) d12

So on weapon types we get by taking a chassis and introducing a caliber to it. The chassis is the basis for the weapons properties and battlefield role.

Small Arms (weapon qualities & notes):

-Autofire pistol (automatic, L weight)
-Submachine gun (L weight, automatic, longer range than pistols)
-PDW (free hands 1, L weight, automatic, uses rifle calibers, shorter range than rifles)

Long Arms

-Assault rifle (automatic, bulk, good range)
-Designated Marksman Rifle (sniper up to 250 feet, bulk, light or heavy caliber, shorter range than sniper rifles)
-Sniper Rifle (long sniping range 500 plus feet, bulk, unwieldy)
-Light Machine Gun (long range, automatic, bulk)

So yeah the purpose is to introduce some variety and a bit of verisimilitude to the projectile weapons, and a way of putting together some guns suitable for Shadowrun -type games. I'll add to this once I come up with fresh ideas.

[Metaphysician]

Not sure that would *really* be important in Starfinder. Projectile weapon damage is not just dependent on caliber, but mass, composition, shape, and velocity. A higher damage projectile weapon in a space opera setting is as likely to be firing the same size of bullet at higher velocity as anything else.

[E-div_drone]

Metaphysician wrote:

Not sure that would *really* be important in Starfinder. Projectile weapon damage is not just dependent on caliber, but mass, composition, shape, and velocity. A higher damage projectile weapon in a space opera setting is as likely to be firing the same size of bullet at higher velocity as anything else.

To build on this, consider the Mass Effect saga; the weapons fire absolutely minuscule projectiles, but they fire those projectiles at a noticeable fraction of the speed of light. In terms of stopping power, size really isn't everything when it comes to a projectile.