in zombie apocalypse you are expected to track consumables such as ammo. As a limited resource this makes sense. My question is more about how to go about it with a 10 second combat round. 10 seconds is a long time in a gun fight, presumably long enough to empty some smaller capacity magazines and cylinders. When a player gets a single action in 10 seconds to shoot, I imagine the narrative as an exchange of multiple rounds of fire, not as a single shot in most scenarios.

How do you handle this in your games? Is it reasonable to give a shooter extra positive dice for volume of fire similar to a bonus for aiming? If so would you tie the number of bonus dice to the amount of rounds shot (perhaps not at a 1:1 ratio)? Is there a more narrative way to handle tracking ammo while maintaining the feeling of dread that watching a limited resource dwindle creates?

What I would do is when the character fires i have him roll his dice and resolve the dice and how many positive dice are in the pool thats how many the character fired and have the player knock off that much ammo from his inventory. Thats what i'd do

The ability of an untrained person to fire under control, in a controlled situation, is pretty low/slow (~1 shot per 2 - 3 sec), so you factor in a stressful situation and maybe minor movement over the ground and it's even slower. That's why in my game (where I am gonna have players track ammo) I'm gonna go with 3 rounds per "attack".

This has made me think tho, I may make a houserule for if you want to pop off more shots in a round... Add # of Neg.-die for an increased base damage...?

Here's what I posted in another thread

I would leave it all abstract and work with the mechanics. Have 3 levels of ammo, low, enough and lots. If you're low on ammo that's stressful, add a negative dice. If you have a negative dice in your pool higher than your stat, you're out of ammo. If you want to conserve ammo, that's stressful, add another negative dice now you can't run out of ammo. If you're low on ammo but don't want to take the negative dice, then you run out of ammo after that shot.

If you've enough ammo, add a positive dice as you pump lead, you're now low on ammo...

Etc, etc.

I would say it also depends on the weapon. For example (optimal conditions) a single shot bolt action 243 hunting rifle at a sustained rate of fire can shoot roughly 5-8 bullets in a minute. A Military M4 (AR 15) at a sustained rate of fire can shoot 12-15 rounds in a minute. The same M4 can at a 3 round burst (with a unlimited magazine) shoot 90 rounds a minute. All of this is stock as well there are other modifications that can make the number of rounds a minute increase.

If the player declares that he's firing more rounds than one at his opponent (which is less accurate generally, but more likely to strike SOMETHING), then I would allow him to performing the "Pushing Yourself" option.

Sorry to thread necro, but this topic came up a couple of times through casual conversation; i.e. "How many times can I shoot before having to reload?" "10 seconds is a lot of time." and "Are there any rules for going full-auto?"

I myself can't help but think, after reading everyone's input here, that something simple would be best. Enter my concept of using the firearm's damage bonus as a base number of turns the item can be effectively fired before having to reload.

Pistols = 3 Turns of Ammo.

This would reflect popping off random amounts of rounds per turn on average with a standard 12-15 round capacity magazine. Seems realistic enough to me given the situation of having to slam zombies with multiple rounds of lower caliber/velocity ammunition.

Shotguns & Rifles = 4 Turns of Ammo.

Shotguns cover more area and inflict massive tissue trauma, thus the time that they need to be fired off is less than others IMO. Rifles are generally presumed to be discharged with enough time to shoulder and sight a target IMO as well. Throw these factors in alongside slower cocking speeds, higher caliber/velocity ammunition and standard 5-10 round capacity magazines and you tend to try and make each shot count a bit more than handguns.

Automatic Rifles = 5 Turns of Ammo .

Standard magazine sizes of 20-30+ rounds combined with a 3-round optimal burst configuration would easily allow you to discharge this weapon for longer time periods than the others IMO. They also have rather formidable stopping power as well.

If someone wants to go all-out and burn an entire clip in 1 Turn then by all means use the "Pushing Yourself" option to do so.

Bear in mind, these are merely suggestions. Nothing is written in stone for anyone and there are so many other factors to figure in as well; i.e. extended magazines, semi-automatic capable shotguns and rifles, etc. I just can't help but try to use the simplest of approaches to trying to resolve such issues as they arise.

Also bear in mind that if one was to use this method for handling ammunition consumption, that I would add that revolvers contain less ammunition than pistols. As such, I would probably reduce them down to 2 Turns of Ammo to reflect such a thing.

There is also the quandary over black talon hollow points vs armor piercing rounds, etc. I'd say hollow point ammunition would add +2 damage to the existing firearm and armor piercing an additional positive die to task resolution. Thoughts? Comments? Shotgun slugs vs buckshot might add a positive die at the cost of lowering its damage by -1?