Homebrew Weapon Compendium

By MijRai, in Dark Heresy House Rules

I've been hitting something of a rut lately when it comes to what kinds of weapons i should throw in my party's general direction recently; I don't want to burn them to a crisp with melta and plasma weapons of doom, and the variety of options out there... Currently isn't all that varied. So, I decided to write some up. That said, my imagination doesn't always work when I want it to or things sit in my blind spots. Having noticed a number of custom weapon threads here, I thought 'hey, bringing these together is a great idea!' People come up with awesome things all the time, and if we can get them all in the same spot, people can reference it and find what needs to be found.

Feel free to post your homebrew weapons in the thread so we can all get a look. If your weapon suggestion has a notable backstory, please share it! These details help flesh out and build the setting; in this way we can use homebrew weapons from each others' games to create a connection between all of them. While we all have our interpretations and foibles, weapons are something everybody understands.

If we can get a few people to agree that a weapon is balanced, I'll throw it into the master list in this post. Some communal vetting will keep things smooth and relatively balanced.

For simplicity's sake, I suggest using a 'standard' template. The one I'm going with is thus;

Weapon Type- Weapon Name (Class)

Description

Range- RoF- Dam- Pen- Clip- Rld- Wt- Avail- Special

Special Notes Here

Here's my submissions (I wouldn't just ram-rod my ideas in there!):

Solid Projectile- Stub Rifle (Basic)

Stub weapons are the predecessor to the modern auto weapons used by many PDF, Imperial Navy and Enforcer units throughout the Imperium of Man. The primary difference is stub weapons utilise cased ammunition, as opposed to caseless rounds; they are often used on planets whose technological level hasn't quite reached auto-weapon production capabilities. While less advanced than the autogun, the two weapons are comparable; the primary differences lie in the ammunition, as caseless ammunition is lighter, cleaner and can be chamber and fired faster than stub rounds. The trade-off is that a stub-shell controls the propellant better, providing more power behind the round while protecting the ammunition from various hazards, making it more reliable. In the end, a stub rifle is slightly more powerful, while holding less ammunition and maintaining a slower fire rate. While they take more effort to maintain than your usual autogun, the trade-off in stopping power is prized on death worlds and frontier worlds and with dangerous fauna.

Range- 100m RoF- S/3/6 Dam- 1d10+4I Pen- 0 Clip- 24 Rld- 1 Full Wt- 4kg Avail- AV Special- Reliable

Real World Comparisons- 'assault rifles' using 7.62x39mm or 5.56x45mm, the AK family, AR family, etc. Various special qualities can be used to represent different models.

Solid Projectile- Sub-Stubber (Basic)

Another member of the stub weapon family, sub-stubbers were designed for close quarters usage; they are often issued to vehicle crewmen, specialists who need more than a sidearm (radio operators, demolitionists, etc.) and close-quarters professionals where the length of a full rifle would hinder their operations. These compact firearms were developed using stub-automatic ammunition to save money and cut down on the weight carried. Able to spray down a hallway or through a doorway, the sub-stubber is generally popular amongst recidivists and criminal elements across the Imperium; Enforcers find the compact weapons to be of great use when combat extends past the effective range of a shotgun.

Range- 50m RoF- S/2/3 Dam- 1d10+3I Pen- 0 Clip- 40 Rld- 1 Full Wt- 3 Avail- Scarce Special- Compact, Pistol Grip, Reliable

Spray and Pray: a Sub-Stubber is capable of firing faster than a person can manage; if used in such a manner, the weapon gains the Inaccurate and Storm Qualities.

Pistol Ammunition: a Sub-Stubber can use Stub Automatic ammunition; Requisitioning ammo counts as one degree lower on the Availability chart.

Real World Comparisons- submachine guns, obviously; .45ACP or 9x19mm, etc. The MP family, PPsH, the venerable Thompson, etc.

Solid Projectile- Medium Stubber (Heavy)

Used by armed forces that require a weapon filling the gap between heavy stubbers and small arms, the Medium Stubber is meant to be operated by an individual, perhaps with an assistant carrying extra ammunition and barrels. More portable than heavy stubbers, a medium stubber can be quickly moved and positioned to provide suppressing fire on targets; while unwieldy, the medium stubber can be fired without

Range- 100m RoF- -/3/6 Dam- 1d10+4I Pen- 1 Clip- 60 Rld- 2 Full Wt- Avail- Scarce Special- Reliable

Walking Fire: a Medium Stubber is designed for use in standing and moving engagements where taking the time to set up is unfeasible; it can be fired on Semi-Auto and Full Auto Burst without bracing; the operator still takes the -30 penalty.

Real World Comparisons- light and medium machine guns, 7.62x51mm or 7.62x54mmR generally. M60, RPK, M240, etc. If you cut the magazine capacity, the BAR would be a good idea too.

These were all inspired by the fact that the Mad Max-esque Frontier World my campaign visited didn't have brass casings raining everywhere. I was going through when I realized autoguns are caseless ammunition weapons, which is silly. So I wrote the stub rifle off of that and the need for some more focused stub weapons came up, so I wrote up the sub-stubber and medium stubber to get some more options out there.

Ranged

BOLT

FLAME

LAS

LAUNCHER

LOW TECH

MELTA

PLASMA

SOLID PROJECTILE

EXOTIC

GRENADES

Melee
CHAIN

FORCE

LOW TECH

POWER

SHOCK

EXOTIC

Real World Comparisons- 'assault rifles' using 7.62x39mm or 5.56x45mm, the AK family, AR family, etc

Well, since 1d10+4I is the damage for things like heavy stubber or Armageddon-pattern autogun listing such damage for anything resembling real-world low caliber assault rifle ammo (like 5,45x39mm or 5,56x45mm) looks well, strange to me.

More look like while "regular" autogun is roughly an equivalen to real-world AK-47/AKM assault rifles, your Stub-rifle would be that of a higher-caliber battle rifle like the real world FN FAL or H&K G3.

Las weapons - Laser Support Weapon (LSW)
First developed by Martian tech-magi in early M34, the Laser Support Weapon was to bridge the gap between common infantryman's lasgun and more heavier, tripod mounted support weapon used by heavy weapons team. More geared towards the light infantry of the Astra Militarum, LSW uses fast discharge capacitators to provide full-auto covering fire (it should be noted that no provisions for special single-shot mode been made), when needed while having a relatively low weight. To make it easier to use and supply, Laser Support Weapon was designed specially to be fed from twin standard lasgun power packs, being used consequently by the discharge capacitators. Like the common lasgun, LSW power could be adjusted, however it is prone to overheating when used on highest possible power of shots.
Such weapon is supplied standartly to many Imperial Guard's light infantry regiments, but is rare among the "civilian market".
Laser Support Weapon benefit from variable setting rule. When fired on overcharge it gains +1 damage, but use two times the power for the shot, reducing the ammo capacity to 60. When fired on overload more it gains +2 damage and +2 penetration, however using 4 times the power (reducing the clip to 30 shots) and gains "Overheat" quality.
Range- 100m RoF- -/-/10 Dam- 1d10+3I Pen- 0 Clip- 120 Rld- 2 Full Wt- 8kg Avail- Rare Special- -
Real World Comparisons- light machhine guns

Those stub weapons have no penetration, however. Not quite as good as a heavy stubber. Though your comparison to the FAL and G3 is better than mine, yes.

Two things; is the LSW Basic or Heavy? And how else does it maintain such rapid fire? Two barrels to allow one to recover and charge while the other fires?

Those stub weapons have no penetration, however. Not quite as good as a heavy stubber. Though your comparison to the FAL and G3 is better than mine, yes.

Two things; is the LSW Basic or Heavy? And how else does it maintain such rapid fire? Two barrels to allow one to recover and charge while the other fires?

Those stub weapons have no penetration, however. Not quite as good as a heavy stubber

And I made some alterations to the LSW - here comes the final version

However - it is still the "light machine gun for the Imperial Guard armoury"

------------------------------------------

Las weapons - Laser Support Weapon (LSW) (Heavy)
First developed by Martian tech-magi in early M34, the Laser Support Weapon was to bridge the gap between common infantryman's lasgun and more heavier, tripod mounted support weapon used by heavy weapons team. More geared towards the light infantry of the Astra Militarum, LSW uses fast discharge capacitators and an powerful heat dispersal system (based of incomplete STC template recovered on Zeta-123C) to provide full-auto covering fire (it should be noted that no provisions for special single-shot mode been made), when needed while having a relatively low weight. To make it easier to use and supply, Laser Support Weapon was designed specially to be fed from twin standard lasgun power packs, being used consequently by the discharge capacitators. Like the common lasgun, LSW power could be adjusted, however it is prone to overheating when used on highest possible power of shots.
Such weapon is supplied standartly to many Imperial Guard's light infantry regiments, but is rare among the "civilian market".
Laser Support Weapon benefit from variable setting rule. When fired on overcharge it gains +1 damage, but use two times the power for the shot, reducing the ammo capacity to 60. When fired on overload more it gains +2 damage and +2 penetration, however using 4 times the power (reducing the clip to 30 shots) and gains "Overheat" quality.
Range- 100m RoF- -/-/5 Dam- 1d10+3I Pen- 0 Clip- 120 Rld- 2 Full Wt- 12kg Avail- Rare Special- -
Real World Comparisons- light machhine guns
Edited by Terran Ghost

So where is this Master List living? PM me link? Thanks!

Well I will submit

Kavan Munitions
Maker of weapons that make you go huh.

It's living here, but nobody has submitted anything recently. I'll check out Kavan Munitions in a moment!

The Stub Rifle seems better than the Autogun in almost all situations. It can fire four Full-Auto Bursts before reloading while the Autogun can fire three, it deals more damage than the Autogun, and it is Reliable. The smaller number of bullets fired per Full Auto Burst will rarely come up, as it is very unlikely to hit with more than six stub rounds.

A good place to find extra weapons would be the Inquisitor's Handbook or (even better) the fan-made Macharian Handbook from DH1E. Many of them will require some tweaking of rarity or possibly stats to match DH2E weapons, but these books offer a wealth of ideas for new weapons.

Also, the Black Crusade core rulebook has an interesting set of rules for weapon modifications. Essentially, you can add any of a number of modifications to a weapon and increase the rarity by one step per upgrade. There are also a slew of negative modifications that could represent construction quirks or faulty manufacturing, and each negative mod reduces rarity by one step. This lets you build a rather unique weapon from one of the base options in the rulebooks.

I'll have to look for that, and drop Reliable on the Stub Rifle. I based the idea on a Kalashnikov, which is one **** reliable weapon, but the point is valid.