What ho, fellow forumites. As I get closer to restarting my Deathwatch game, I've come to the conclusion that bolters should have their pre-errata firing rate back, but with their optional damage values. Not earth-shattering, I know. However, something that's bugged me about the weapons as a whole is that the storm bolter serves as a complete upgrade to the standard boltgun, as opposed to filling its own niche. As such, I'm going to be trying out a few changes to the weapon. First, I'm cutting the SB's range in half, to 50m. Secondly, I'm returning it to its pre-errata firing rate of S/2/4. Finally, I'm going to fundamentally change the Storm quality.

Basically, my modification to the Storm quality boils down to this: a Storm weapon can be fired on semi or full auto as a half action, allowing the wielder to make a move action, representing the weapon's functionality as an assault tool. Due to the sheer amount of ammunition put out by the weapon, for every two degrees of success, the weapon will score an extra hit in addition to extra hits granted by firing rate. Hits granted by firing rate and by this quality are both limited to the listed rate in the weapon's profile- for example, a storm bolter fired on full-auto could hit a maximum of eight times with eight degrees of success, while on semi-auto it could hit four times with four degrees. Finally, the weapon will still consume twice as many shots as listed in its profile (four for two-shot semi auto, eight for four-shot full auto).

So how does it sound? I'm toying with the idea of removing the 'as many extra hits as you can get' with the two degrees rule. Maybe limit it to half the firing rate from the two degrees rule, rounding up? That would mean a max of two hits total for single shot, three for semi-auto, and six for full-auto. I know there have been threads about this before, and my ideas aren't totally new, unique, or revolutionary, but I'd like to get some opinions before I go throwing this new storm bolter to my Kill-Team.

Gaire said:

In case you didn't read it yet: (Reply #27 onwards, feel free to join)

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

Do not make it a Half Action or else some abilities/talents might end up giving you nightmares. Instead increase the distance you can move while firing on auto to 2xAG, effectively Full Move distance. If prefered, rule that there are no (or less) shooting penalties for moving this way.

The ROF thingie is a nice compromise. So the progression on full auto would be: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8? Instead of 2, 4, 6, 8? Nice. It would be better than the HB against hordes though.

Alex

Fair point on the hordes. Since it's still the same twin-barreled weapon, though, I'd probably rule a maximum number of hits on hordes equal to the rate of fire. I already had houseruled that a storm bolter on full auto could only hit four times against a horde, not eight. The idea of hitting the same target with two bolts only representing 1 magnitude worth of damage (increased by explosive, talents, etc.) breaks down when you work with, say, a five man squad of fire warriors represented by a magnitude 15 horde, but c'est la vie. I'll need to work a bit on that ruling, I suppose. I forgot that there were rules for moving and firing in Deathwatch, tbh. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll modify the property to better make it work. Probably remove penalties instead of letting them move farther.

Edit: And looking at that thread, that's actually what inspired me to work on this. I saw some of your suggestions about Storm and decided to try my hand at it.

Edit 2: And because I sometimes fail to be a polite, appreciative human being, thank you for your help and input. I'm much obliged.