Unreliable weapons

By cogollo, in WFRP House Rules

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HOUSE RULE

I propose the following very simple house rule for Unreliable weapons (I'll give feedback as we advance in our campaign):

1. A Chaos Star rolled while shooting an Unreliable weapon starts a Misfire sequence (this is independent of the actual result of the shot).

2. Take as many difficulty dice as the Unreliable attribute of the weapon and roll them.

2a. If all of them give a Chaos Star as a result, then a major Misfire happens: the weapon explodes and causes 1 Critical Wound to its user (draw until you find an appropriate one). Roll again the dice and cause another Critical Wound to the wielder if all results are again Chaos Stars... continue with this process until not all results are Chaos Stars.

2b. If, in the first roll, not all results are Chaos Stars, then a minor Misfire happens: the weapon is jammed and its wielder must spend one Manoeuvre to solve the jam before being able to shoot again... alternatively, you can interpret the number of Failures and Banes obtained as a measure of how badly jammed the weapon is.

REASON WHY MY GROUP DOES NOT LIKE THE STANDARD UNRELIABILITY RULES

My group is not too happy with the Unreliable weapons rules for the following reasons:

1. We think the penalty for a misfire is too low (only 1-2 normal wounds).

2. We think that the probability of a misfire is too high (1/8 for Unreliable 1; 1/64 for Unreliable 2 if rolling two difficulty dice). Also, using an Unreliable 2 weapon in normal circumstances would never result in a Major Misfire (does not seem too realistic for Gunpowder weapons).

3. The rules as written are not scalable, meaning they could not be applied to Unreliable 3 or Unreliable 4 without giving a ridiculously small chance of a Misfire happening.

4. Historically, the effect of a misfire could be devastating (having a pistol explode in your hand is not too healthy), but the possibility of misfire was low (a group of 20 soldiers shooting arquebuses did not lose 1 soldier to misfire every 3 shots as a 1/64 possibility suggests).

ADVANTAGES OF OUR HOUSE RULE

With this rule, major Misfires can be simulated but their probability is low enough:

1. For experimental weapons (i.e., Unreliable 1), the chance of a major misfire will, in regular circumstances, starts at 1/64. This seems appropriate considering that only crazy people (example, Skaven) are reckless enough to use them.

2. For regular Gunpowder weapons (i.e., Unreliable 2), the chance of a major misfire will, in regular conditions, starts at 1/256. This seems to be reasonable... a "2nd rank mishap" (i.e., getting 2 Critical Wounds) would have a 1/256*1/64 = 1/16384 chance of happening.

3. You can simulate even safer Gunpowder weapons (i.e., with Unreliable 3, etc.). This ways, you can adjust the probabilities to what you think should be reasonable.

4. You can achieve very very bad Misfires (very Warhammerish and historically realistic) in which the wielder of the weapon suffers very critical wounds or even dies, but the possibility is very low (I can imagine such a roll would be very fun indeed)... If you decide to use this house rule, I propose adding to this post any casualties caused by the rule (a kind of Hall of Misfires Fame).

PS: My excuses for any misspelling or grammar error; I'm native Spanish speaker (actually from the Old World Estalia).

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I like it! If my players ever got their hands on gunpowder weapons I could very much see myself using these (or similar) rules.

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I like your idea a lot, cogollo, but might use a different implementation. Here's what I'm considering as a house rule...

Replace the "Unreliable X" entry on p. 74 of the rulebook with this text:

Unreliable X: These weapons are often experimental or otherwise not to be trusted. Whenever an attack with an unreliable weapon generates a number of Chaos Star {S} results equal to or greater than the weapon's Unreliable rating, the attack fails and the weapon is unusable until repaired.
To determine the extent of the failure and the repair time required, the weapon's wielder rolls a number of challenge dice <P> equal to 5 minus the Unreliable rating (4 dice <P><P><P><P> for Unreliable 1, 3 dice <P><P><P> for Unreliable 2, etc. ). Base repair time is 1 manoeuvre: add 1 manoeuvre per bane {B} result or increase to 1 hour per challenge {C} result. Any Chaos Star {S} result means the weapon cannot be repaired.
If the weapon is a blackpowder weapon, this roll also determines effects inflicted upon the weapon's wielder, who suffers 1 stress for each bane {B} result, 1 wound for each challenge {C} result, and 1 critical wound for each Chaos Star {S} result generated. Furthermore, if the dice pool contains any Chaos Star {S} results, roll the dice again and add the new results, repeating until a roll does not generate any Chaos Stars. Wounds and critical wounds inflicted in this way bypass the wielder’s Toughness and soak value.
Analysis:
This house rule keeps the frequency of failure the same as in the core book (1/8 for Unreliable 1, 1/64 for Unreliable 2), but makes the effects of failure much more variable. A failure may just mean you need to perform 1 extra manoeuvre (perhaps to reset the weapon's hammer mechanism), or it may leave the weapon unusable, or (for blackpowder weapons) it may hurt, or it may hurt a lot.
Using a fixed number of challenge dice seems to me to fit in with the environmental-hazards rules; I have, however, borrowed your idea for making the roll open-ended based on Chaos Star results, so that a failure can possibly, though rarely, inflict enough wounds and critical wounds to kill the wielder of a blackpowder weapon.
This rule would also allow for Unreliable 3 and Unreliable 4 weapons.
(Just to clarify, my general logic is that for blackpowder weapons, banes indicate misfires, challenges indicate minor explosions with weapon damage, and Chaos Stars indicate disastrous explosions. So bane results just cause stress and take a few rounds to clear, challenges cause wounds and require significant repair work, and Chaos Stars cause critical wounds and leave the weapon in pieces.)
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I really like the OPs rule. I have printed it out and attached it to my rulebook.

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This rule blew up our Hochland Long Rifle which was integral to our parties long term goals. Hilarious, but frustrating!