Damage: Firearms do piercing damage, except in special cases, but old style armor is not very effective against guns. Any non-modern armor, i.e. chain mail, uses half of its Piercing protection against firearms.
ROF: Some firearms have more than one number listed for ROF. Any firearm that has a number not exceeding 2 is considered to use the normal ROF rules. A number 3 indicates that the firearm can fire three round burst. Any number above 3 indicates that the gun can fire fully auto. The rules for these modes of fire are listed below.
Recoil: Whenever a gun fires more than one shot in a CT it suffers the effects of recoil. Recoil imposes a cumulative penalty of -5% to a persona's BAC per shot. Therefore, firing two shots in a CT would impose a -5% penalty to the second shot. When the shots are done in separate actions, i.e. not auto fire, recoil can be negated by taking on a 1 SF penalty per BAC penalty between shots. For example, if a HP fires three rounds, but decides to lower the recoil on the third shot, 1 SF would make it only -5%, while 2 SF would negate it completely. Some guns have built in recoil compensators to reduce this penalty. All recoil penalties disappear at the end of the CT.
Burst Fire: This mode of firing is usually restricted to machine pistols, SMGs, and assault rifles. It involves firing a quick three round burst at a single opponent. Roll individually for each shot, suffering the recoil effects above. Multiple bursts may be fired in a single CT. In order to decide how many just look up the ROF multiplier under Combat, Hand Weapons, Missile and use that number as how many bursts can be fired in any given CT. However, the recoil modifiers are cumulative unless the extra SF penalty is taken. The penalty cannot be taken in the middle of the burst. It is possible to fire less than three rounds only if the clip has less than three rounds remaining in it.
Firing Full Auto: Weapons capable of burst fire are usually capable of firing full auto. Other weapons, like machineguns, are also capable of performing this action. Firing full auto prevents the persona from do any other combat action in the CT. The persona rolls each shot individually, taking full recoil penalties, until his BAC drops to 0% or below. At this time the persona is allowed one last roll, at "Extreme". If this roll succeeds then the persona got lucky, and d6 additional rounds managed to find targets. Full auto fire can be spread between targets, at the loss of one round per meter traveled.
Sustained Fire: This is also available to weapons that can fire full auto. By using sustained fire the persona forgoes all other actions that CT. The persona then lays down an area of suppression fire, making it difficult for anyone in the area to take any further actions. The area is determined by the number of rounds fired. The maximum distance is an area equal to one meter per round fired. The shots could be placed closer together (increasing chances for a hit) to a minimum spacing of one meter per six shots fired. Anything less would be considered full auto fire. A single roll is made at "Hard" to determine success. If successful, then anyone in the area is affected as follows:
A failed success roll in performing sustained fire indicates that the cover was not effective, but stray shots are still possible.
Stray Shots: When rounds are spread between targets, or when sustained fire misses, there is a possibility for stray shots to occur. The GM must determine if there are an eligible targets in the area. For sustained fire spread the target to three meters on both sides and then determine, ignoring the initial targets. There is a 35% chance that anyone in this area is struck. If more than one round is available to strike the target, roll for the first one. If that one succeeds then roll for the second, and so on, until a round misses or there are no more stray rounds.
New Hit Location Rules: Armor is no longer considered to just cover Non-Vital, Vital, etc., it now covers specific body areas. When using old armor it is the GMs discretion and common sense that dictate what locations are covered. Modern armor will list what each piece covers. When a persona is hit roll on the Cyberpunk Hit Location Table, then roll for the severity of the wound on the Mythus Strike Location table. Armor is subtracted after the location and severity are determined.
When a limb is hit, if it is not cybered, and if the damage, in a single shot, is more than half the persona's P Trait, then roll on the Permanent Damage table in Mythus and apply it to that limb only. Scarring can usually be covered up to negate Attractiveness penalties. Cyberlimbs have their own P Traits and are damaged accordingly, but any excess damage transfers straight to the torso. Averaged armor is figured out by adding together all the armor values from each location, multiplied by the number of chances that each location can be struck (i.e. the torso has three numbers assigned to it to be struck , 2,3, and 4, so the armor there would be multiplied by three) and divide by ten. These are the average armor values.
Shotguns: Shotguns use different rules when firing pellets. The damage and size of the pattern (spread) is determined by the range of the target, using the following chart, no extreme range:
Range Pattern Size Damage Mod.
Point Blank, Short 1 meter x3 Medium 2 meters x2 Long 3 meters x1