Pricing ammunition

By Leveton, in Game Masters

I'm trying to put together an index of different things players might want to use during character creation or when going on a shopping spree after landing a big score -- just tables with some basic stats, price, etc., with a page number to look up any additional rules. Naturally, one of the categories will be weapons. And while working on the weapons index, I've been tripped up by something in Dangerous Covenants. I can't find anything about how expensive flechette canisters (either anti-infantry or anti-vehicle) are for the FC1 Flechette Launcher.

The 25 credits for an ammo reload in the core book seems entirely too low, of course. Without being able to find anything else, I'm just trying to find something comparable to base the price on. For the anti-vehicle flechettes, the standard missile tube anti-vehicle missile seems to be the closest comparison. The missile deals 10 more damage, but when we're talking about vehicle damage, that's scaled down to 1 damage difference, and the flechette launcher has an extra point of Breach, so it's a wash against anything with 2 or more armor. The missile has advantages of extreme range and guided 3. So the missiles probably should be more expensive. The anti-infantry flechettes are even harder to find a good comparison for.

I hate leaving them without a price. And I just know if I left it blank, a player would see that and immediately want to know how much they cost.

The FC1 has Limited Ammo 4 and given its size, I could see house-ruling that it takes 1 Reload to replace a shot for it. The ship mounted Concussion Missile Launcher fires a missile that does 6 Damage (Ship Scale) and cost 500 credits. The smaller Missile Tube fires a missile that does 20 Damage (Personal Scale). I think 50-100 credits per Missile Tube missile, 300-600 for a full Reload since the Missile Tube holds six missiles, would reasonable. It's pricey enough for the PCs not waste them but it won't break the bank to resupply.

You could also rule it's a fire and forget weapon. Battlefield weapons often are single use and either left on the field or shipped back to the factory to be refurbished and re-loaded.

Comparing it to grenades and missiles, 400-500®/6 for a four shot antipersonnel load sounds about right. Say around 1,000®/6 for the vehicle load...

According to the book, the FC1 fires small missiles so the prices are probably as per the portable missiles on page 46. A concussion missile is probably the anti vehicle shot at 200 credits each (though it could also be the Plasma show at 160 credits but they are also Restricted), the anti-personnel is likely the fragmentation missile at 75 credits each. The spare ammo cost is specifically for those weapons which do not have the Limited Ammo quality, and are simply to counter the Despair effect of the weapon running out of ammo.