Wrath & Glory Ammunition/Reload Rules Revamp

I am tired of tracking ammo, my dudes. Tired of tracking it for my PCs and tired of tracking it as a GM. W&G may have provided an alternative. In the new game, ammunition is an abstraction that can be used for or against a player, mostly determined by them. Check it out:

Reload
A character can spend their action Reloading one ranged weapon. See below.

Ammunition and Reloads
A Reload is an abstracted quantity of Ammunition, defined as “enough Ammunition for a combat scene.”

All weapons owned by the Heroes are fully loaded at the beginning of the game. Every Hero comes with 3 Reloads per session by default. Under typical circumstances, a Reload is not expended through firing the weapon normally. However, Reloads can be spent or lost in the following ways:

- Complications: If a player rolls a Complication, one of the character’s Reloads may be removed as a result. If the character has no Reloads remaining, then such a Complication renders a weapon unusable until more ammo can be located.
**For FFG Games, I think making any roll of 90-00 on BS would be a complication. This gives a 10% chance per attack and increases incentive for players to use FPs, thereby making them a more demanded commodity. Complications would include: jamming as per normal rules as well as the need to reload.

- Use: A character can choose to expend one or more Reloads as part of an attack to gain an increased effect. A character cannot spend more Reloads on an attack than the weapon’s Salvo value. Reloads spent can add bonus dice to the attack roll, allow the weapon to Multi-attack, or add additional effects depending on the weapon.
**Since FFG Games do not have a "salvo" rule, an easy fix would be to allow only one use per attack action. Effects may include: giving an additional attack, adding a d10 to the damage die, increasing the RF range, etc. Randomizing it by leaving it up to a roll might be fun too.


I think up to this point tracking ammo has been an exercise in futility. This could be a solution. Agree? Disagree?

I like this a lot actually, makes it much easier for both the players and the GM.

^ agree completely. I feel like 10% chance to lose a reload is a little high though, it may make fp's a little too scarce.

That very well may be the case. But we have been playing Tau for over two years now and no one has once ever ran out of FPs (if I can remember). And I think it only happened in Bastards maybe once or twice.

Only one way to find out though. I am going to play test it as is and then adjust if need be.

I have been meaning to reply to this for a while.

Counting Ammo sucks.

I like the gist of it but interested in the detail that you'll house rule. Have you considered what the talent Rapid Reload might do?

1d10 extra damage is potentially a lot, especially when combat doesn't happen very often (so temp FP rarely used). Perhaps 1d5?

I guess opponents will also use these rules so consider the impact vs players also.

How might special ammo work (man stoppers etc...)?

Counting ammo definitely does suck.

The Rapid Reload talent has two options as I see it: ditch it entirely or change the effect to something like granting the player an extra reload. Easy fix at least.

1d10 is as potentially a lot as it is potentially terrible lol. I am not totally against nerfing it, but I would like to see how it plays before the nerfing begins and go from there.

Only Elite/Master level opponents would get reloads. Mooks get nothing. Ever. Stupid mooks.

I have been thinking about special ammo and there are a few ways to go about it, but I don't know if any are particularly amazing.

- 1) Apply the profile to the weapon and once it is time to reload, it goes away.
- 2) Apply the profile to the weapon and allow it to continue until all reloads are gone.
- 3) Allow the player to switch back and forth between standard weapon profile and special ammo profile at will until reloads are gone.
- 4) Profit?

I feel like an extra reload is a good option for the rapid reload talent. It's T1 right? An extra reload feels like a T1 power.

Also, I like the idea of a special ammo counting as one reload. I think that it's easiest to give the character an extra reload when they requisition or otherwise obtain a spare mag of special ammo, to represent the physical object. Thoughts?

I am good with both of those, at least until we playtest them and potentially hate them.

I think out of those, I guess I like option 3 the best. Though I like the idea of rounds being super rare, almost like 1 time use items (though that is a bit excessive).

What if, by req the items, you get 3 uses of the special ammo?

One time as in you can activate the special ammo profile at the beginning of a combat/encounter and once it ends you have expended all of that special ammo?

I like that... It separates it from the Reload "Use" rules and assumes the special ammo is special enough to stand alone.

Just had another idea for Rapid Reload. What if when a player rolled 90 - 100, necessitating a reload, they would then roll 1d10 and on 1-5 they reload as normal, but on 6 - 10 they don't lose it.

50% chance to keep. Something like that.

This is quite similar to the FFG star wars system. Essentially, running out of ammo is a complication of sorts. Should work out well.

It may end up being a bit silly for two-weapon shooters though, or for certain types of low-ammo weapons. How would this system interact with a hand flamer? Or a melta weapon?

Yeah. Vra'fa (nitafrong) has been the first PC to use the new rules and it seems to have worked out really well, especially in that shitty situation.

I think it will be the same for two-weapon wielders as long as GMs and players work together to find a loadout that makes sense. What I have been doing for drones is giving them less reloads so that they can be super powerful, but also lose all of that relatively quickly. A similar solution might be made for TWW.

I don't see any reason why the system would interact differently with hand flamers or meltas. But any heavy weapon or specialist weapon, like a melta, should come with less reloads - say 2 instead of 3. Did you have a particular worry in mind with these weapon types?