Backpack ammo supply...needs to be toned down

By Lanceus Maximus, in Deathwatch House Rules

Posted at

I don't know about you. But keeping track of ammo is not that interesting to do.

It can be cool to send out the Marines on a mission with limited resources where they have to make them count but for most missions the rule of 'they have enough ammo for the mission' seems to be the best way to go.

For the OP. As the Backpack got 200 rounds, that means 20 rounds of continuous shooting. Where the other marines will have 18 rounds of fire with their reloads of 3. So you could rule that he can either jug around 3 clips of 60 ammo or 1 backpack with 200.

Posted at

Sister Callidia said:

I don't know about you. But keeping track of ammo is not that interesting to do.

It can be cool to send out the Marines on a mission with limited resources where they have to make them count but for most missions the rule of 'they have enough ammo for the mission' seems to be the best way to go.

For the OP. As the Backpack got 200 rounds, that means 20 rounds of continuous shooting. Where the other marines will have 18 rounds of fire with their reloads of 3. So you could rule that he can either jug around 3 clips of 60 ammo or 1 backpack with 200.

Backpack is 250 rounds. There is no defined limit as to how many reloads you can carry, so I'm not sure where you get 3 reloads, unless that is just your house rule.

Posted at

Sister Callidia said:

I don't know about you. But keeping track of ammo is not that interesting to do.

It can be cool to send out the Marines on a mission with limited resources where they have to make them count but for most missions the rule of 'they have enough ammo for the mission' seems to be the best way to go.

For the OP. As the Backpack got 200 rounds, that means 20 rounds of continuous shooting. Where the other marines will have 18 rounds of fire with their reloads of 3. So you could rule that he can either jug around 3 clips of 60 ammo or 1 backpack with 200.

My question to you would then be do you have them actually reload their guns? I'm just thinking tracking ammo in a clip is essentially the same as tracking your total clips, it's not that much extra work. If I didn't care about ammo, I wouldn't really worry about reloading either, unless I was going for drama (which still feels forced to me). However yo do it, it's totally about style and theme, I'm not saying either way is wrong (just that my way is right, dammit! gui%C3%B1o.gif ). Segue into next comment...

Pyrus said:


I do not mean to resurrect an older thread, but having just registered, I thought I'd put my 2 cents in.

In this type of game, I've always found that it is not so much how much ammunition you carry overall, as it is how often you have to reload, and how long that takes. I do not know if it mentions how long reloading an ammo backpack takes, as I don't have a copy of the book handy, but logic would dictate that it'd be a lot longer than reloading the weapon itself. Sure, you may not have to reload very often, but 3 or 4 rounds is a long time when there's a lictor stalking you.

But your basic Bolter get's 7 shots at full auto not counting the fire selector, which would increase this essentially to 21 shots before you run dry- full auto the whole time. The ammo backpack give you 25 full auto bursts with the HB. How long are your fights that you use that much in one encounter, unless it's a special 'defend the base' style encounter or the like where this becomes a plot point or complication? And if your encounters aren't that long, why aren't your marines reloading their weapons when the firefight quite downs? If you're a devestator worth his gun, you're refilling that backpack every opportunity you have. I'm just saying, the long way, that reloading will not be a significant issue (and has not proven to be in any of my adventures). Ammunition totals just seem to make my players think that much more about how they're going to go about things

EDIT: Hi Pyrus! A newb to noob welcome to you gran_risa.gif

Posted at

Conveniently both the bolter and the boltgun can fire 6 times at maximum firing speed. For fights that last longer then 6 rounds, keeping track on how close you are to reload is interesting in most cases though, it is not. After each fight you just a fresh clip.

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Sister Callidia said:

Conveniently both the bolter and the boltgun can fire 6 times at maximum firing speed. For fights that last longer then 6 rounds, keeping track on how close you are to reload is interesting in most cases though, it is not. After each fight you just a fresh clip.

I think DW bolters are 7 on a single clip (I read 28 when I last checked, but I'm being 'that guy' and quoting something without a quote right now, and full auto is 4 rounds), but you also have the whole fire selector thing which allows you to have three clips attached to one gun at a time, with a free action to switch between the clips. This essentially triples your ammo capacity between reloads, making running out of ammo in a firefight a tough sell unless it's a plot device.

And what do you mean by your second sentence- that it IS ineresting to track the clip or it is not?

Posted at

in the missions my group has done they have taken around 8 clips, and despite smashing huge amounts of hordes, it was only into the second session near the end of one adventure that they actually started to worry about ammo, having 3 clips (ish) left.

The last session we played they had loads of ammo left.

so in may ways tracking ammo is almost pointless. It's rare they fire on anything other then full auto, and that gives them 56 rolls with 8 clips.

they also took weapon oath last time, so they didn't even lose clips due to Jams.