Jamming and Weapon proficiencies

By SgtSmackface, in Dark Heresy House Rules

So I saw a thread asking about weapon proficiency penalties, and it got me to thinking that RAW in that area is kind of silly. So it led me to house ruling as,having shot guns in real life, there is enough of a difference to warrant such a penalty. Just because you know the ins and outs of an AK doesn't mean you're ready to pick up an m1911 and start shooting like it's nothing. The only thing that I might change is reduce the to hit penalty to -10. To replace the subtracted -10 out of the -20, an 85-100 is now a jam, and it takes 3 full rounds that can not be reduced to clear the jam. Instead of Arms Master reducing the penalty to hit, it should reduce the jam clearing to regular time, and jamming with an unfamiliar weapon would then occur on a 90-100. Of course, unreliable, etc stacks with this.

On 05.01.2016 at 7:08 AM, SgtSmackface said:

So I saw a thread asking about weapon proficiency penalties, and it got me to thinking that RAW in that area is kind of silly. So it led me to house ruling as,having shot guns in real life, there is enough of a difference to warrant such a penalty. Just because you know the ins and outs of an AK doesn't mean you're ready to pick up an m1911 and start shooting like it's nothing. The only thing that I might change is reduce the to hit penalty to -10. To replace the subtracted -10 out of the -20, an 85-100 is now a jam, and it takes 3 full rounds that can not be reduced to clear the jam. Instead of Arms Master reducing the penalty to hit, it should reduce the jam clearing to regular time, and jamming with an unfamiliar weapon would then occur on a 90-100. Of course, unreliable, etc stacks with this.

The first part is, yeah, you could just reduce penalty for "related" class or group like Pistol WT(SP) vs. Basic WT (SP) indeed. Maybe slightly increase total penalty, too.

The second - OW has tier 1 talents "Solid Projectile Weapon Expertise" {prerequisites: BS 35, Weapon Training(SP), aptitudes: BS, Finesse} - reload as a Free Action after successfully clearing a jammed SP weapon and lose only 1 round instead of the whole magazine. "Initiated Maintenance" {prerequisites: CL(Adeptus Mechanicus)+10, aptitudes: BS, Tech} - maintenance more qualified than what's painted in 1-page user manual, reduces Jams and Overheating.

Is this close to what you need? If you houserule different mechanics, you could make SP Weapon Expertise reduce time instead of giving a Free action next.

But consider that RAW clearing a jam requires a test, presumably affected by the same penalties for lack of training. With adjusted BS 30, one will clears it within 2 rounds about as likely as not (.3+.7*.3), and a little less than 2/3 chance to clear in 3; at 20 it's only 0.36 and 0.49 respectively.

And merely changing BS test to Tech-Use (still with penalties if not trained) would make it worse in most cases.