Difference between revisions of "ExMod/ModernLunarFirearms"

Revision as of 22:01, 10 January 2005

Disclaimer: Due to the evolutionary nature of Lunar Charms, these Charms have their prerequisites left intentionally blank. The Storyteller of an ExMod game is encouraged to place them within preexisting Charm cascades wherever he deems appropriate to the nature of the Charm or game in question. The author suggests the majority of these Charms go into the Ranged Combat cascades - they are fairly low-powered, and may be placed reasonably early in the evolutionary arrangement. - Balthasar

Nerve-Interweaving Reflex Technique</b>

<b>Cost: 4 motes 
Duration: Instant 
Type:  Reflexive
Minimum Charisma: 3 
Minimum Essence: 1 
Prerequisites:  Unfilled 

Activating this Charm reknits the Lunar's physique into a machine more easily involved in two-handed gunslinging. This Charm remains active as long as the Lunar splits a Firearms action at least once a turn, and negates two of the penalty dice associated with making split actions.

Bodily Concealment Kata</b>

<b>Cost: 1 mote 
Duration: Instant 
Type: Reflexive 
Minimum Manipulation: 2 
Minimum Essence: 1 
Prerequisites:  Unfilled 

The Beloved of Luna are beings of natural privacy and deception. Even unclad Lunars may hold a secret within their hearts: Sometimes, even literally. The Exalt activating this Charm opens a cavity in his body, and places a weapon within it. The weapon will remain there until it is drawn forth from the Lunar's concealing flesh. Drawing the weapon is a reflexive action costing one mote - if this is done the first turn of combat, the Lunar gains +3 to his initiative that turn.

Joint Dislocating Assault</b>

<b>Cost: 4 motes 
Duration: Instant 
Type: Simple 
Minimum Dexterity: 4 
Minimum Essence: 2 
Prerequisites:  Unfilled 

If the Beloved of Luna are upon you, not even shackles may stay their wrath. Activating this Charm, the Lunar may execute a melee or ranged attack, even if confined or restrained, so long as they have access to a weapon with which to attack.

Wriggling Eel Shot</b>

<b>Cost: 7 motes, 1 willpower 
Duration: Instant 
Type: Reflexive 
Minimum Dexterity: 4 
Minimum Essence: 3 
Prerequisites:  Suggested Charm - Joint Dislocating Assault 

Even from under full cover, a Lunar is a lethal thing to behold. On activating this Charm, the Lunar exits from his cover (or restraint) just long enough to gain instant reckoning of a combat situation. This Charm grants the Lunar one ranged attack, and then he coils up again, concealed once more in the safe confines of his cover (or restraint).

Weapon-Consuming Method</b>

<b>Cost: None 
Duration: Permanent 
Type: Special 
Minimum Dexterity: 4 
Minimum Essence: 2 
Prerequisites:  Bodily Concealment Kata 

(This Charm inspired by Eat-Man)

It is often said that "what does not kill you makes you stronger". The Lunars prove this axiom by literally making their weapons and ammunition a part of themselves. Beyond simply hiding the weapon within herself, One with the Gun allows the Lunar to make a weapon a part of herself.

By taking a firearm and eating it, the Lunar stores it within herself, allowing her to produce it from her body at will (usually the hands, though Lunars employing the Landscape Unity Method may create weaponry from walls and other places). Each weapon thus eaten costs 3 motes minimum, which are committed as long as the weapon remains within her. Ammunition magazines are smaller and so generally cost 1 mote to eat, barring exceptions such as cases of 40mm grenades, which usually cost 3 motes as well.

Weapons and ammunition thus consumed do not register on metal detectors, explosive detectors, etc. This benefit does not stand up to supernatural methods such as the Explosive-Sensing Meditation, Weapon-Detecting Stance, and so on (these result in an opposed roll of the Lunar's Larceny + Wits (to hide the weapon's traces) versus the tracker's Perception + Investigation ) but it will fool all mundane methods. This can be useful for when a Lunar is captured and tossed into a lock-up, only to produce a gatling gun and the requisite 1000 rounds of ammunition as her captors turn their backs and cut her way out of her prison.

Weapons and ammunition can be produced from limbs reflexively at the cost of one mote, as the Bodily Concealment Kata. Larger weapons either take a simple weapon to manifest, or extra motes to produce at near-instant speed. Weapons thus produced are considered separate from the user's body, unlike the later Mimetic Weapon Method.

The ability to eat weaponry does is by no means restricted to firearms - a Lunar can eat swords, knives, hand grenades, although the size of the item may preclude her from finishing a weapon in one round. It usually takes one full round of frenzied gobbling to down a pistol, three for assault rifles, and five for such weapons as SPIKE antitank missile launchers or FN MAGs. Having a gigantic maw may help in this, and learning the Charms that allow the strategic placement of mouths on alternate limbs may help in stealing weapons. Weapons of the Five Magical Materials take longer to consume, given their magical nature, and their Essence signature (if attuned) can be picked up by the Essence Spectroscope Vision technique, among others.

It should be noted that stored weapons are delocalized throughout a Lunar's body - setting a Lunar on fire with a flamethrower will not detonate the fifteen C4 packs stored in him, though setting him on fire with a vial of nitroglycerine in hand would result in missing limbs. The limit on how many weapons and how much ammunition can be stored inside a Lunar varies according to the weapon's (and the Lunar's) size. A normal-size human can store an assault rifle, two pistols, and four mags for each in her body. CHildren obviously hold less, while grossly obese or oversized individuals can carry more.

Mimetic Firearm Method</b>

<b>Cost: None 
Duration: Permanent 
Type: Special 
Minimum Dexterity: 4 
Minimum Essence: 3 
Prerequisites:  Weapon-Consuming Method

Expanding on the properties of Weapon-Consuming Method, the Mimetic Firearm Method allows a Lunar to metamorphose a limb of hers into a weapon. Ergo, a Lunar could sprout a grenade launcher from his left hand and a machine gun from the right, allowing for devastating attacks which defy convention. An advantage of this method over Weapon-Consuming Method is that by simply eating the ammunition, one may reload the weapon on the fly, rather than having to disgorge it in a free hand and manually reload the weapon. Malakai Run-and-Gun is renowned for simultaneously firing two M60s, one from each hand, without pausing to reload, instead letting his mortal spouse literally feed him belts of 7.62mm ammunition

Among other things, considering that the weapon literally becomes a part of her, she may do such things as fire normally two-handed or even crew-served weaponry one-handed without penalty. In addition, the Lunar automatically converts half her Dexterity dice on firearms rolls into automatic successes, as she surrenders to her natural prowess. The Lunar may choose to completely extrude the weapon at the standard mote cost, and may freely switch between eaten weapons at will.

Additionally, the Lunar may spend an experience point after eating a weapon and permanently acquire its "core specifications". This basically means that the Lunar can generate a new iteration of the weapon from herself after expelling the first one, without having to eat it again. For example, Malakai has eaten M60s in the past, finding them quite delicious. He spends an experience point to learn its "core specifications", and regurgitates the M60 to give to his Lunar companion, Joneleth Crash-and-Burn. He is later ambushed by Dragonblooded commandos. Spending 14 motes to metamorphose both of his arms into M60s, Malakai delivers a withering hail of death to the interlopers. Explosives cannot be synthesized with this Charm, so a Lunar had better eat more ammunition before going on a shooting spree.

The amount of motes needed to synthesize a weapon from her flesh varies - usually 3 motes for a pistol, 5 for rifle-sized weapons, and 7 for larger weapons such as medium machine guns. A Lunar may synthesize any number of weapons, limited only by her limbs and her Essence pool. However, the weapons still consume ammunition, still weigh their regular amount and still have recoil, so an eight gun draw on a Solar would result in the Lunar flying from the recoil. Having multiple weapons ready when making multiple attacks helps somewhat - The Lunar halves all penalties for splitting dice pools so long as she has at least as many synthesized weapons active as the attacks she is going to make.

Weapon-Consuming Method and Mimetic Weapon Method by Damarus.