I'd be more inclined to give the .50 BMG 4d6 or 3d6+6 for damage over 2d12.
if a 50bmg bullet hit you in the pinky finger,
it will not rip the top half of your torso off.... nor your arm from your body, not even your hand from your arm.
It will do just 2 damage to your pinky.
And they you will return fire.
The 2d12 has 1:144 (0.69%) odds of rolling 2 damage, where the 9mm has 2.8% odds of getting 2. you are 4x as likely to not do just 2 with a 50BMG when hitting that magical "Minimum Damage Location" like the Pinky..... you have to hit the last 1/4 tip of the pinky to just do 2 whereas the 9mm wil do just 2 with a solid centermass-pinky hit. ;)
But yes,
saying the Leather Jacket saved you from the 16" Navalgun slug is folly.
But then, you could tank-up and have all that armor not help you vs a m60 Autofiring you.
All guns should be 2dx, such as 2d60 for the Abrams120, or 2d35 for the 3" NavyAutocannon... making it a 3d35 DoubleTap rather than a 12d6 gun going to 13d6 for the DTap
.A few weapons ive come across use huge caliber bullets, such as the Barret .50 cal and there is even a 20mm antimaterial rifle. it seems to me that these bullets would pass right through just about any sort of body armor
I got news for you, a standard hunting rifle will punch through bodyarmor like nobody's business. The ONLY part of modern bodyarmor that can stop anything bigger than a handgun is the ceramic plate, which stands up well to intermediate catridges, i.e. ammo being fired by M16s and AK47s, but more than a hit or two with world war 1 era rifles, and those plates are worhless. Switch to specialy designed armor piercing rounds, or something in the 'magnum' catagory of 7mm or 30 calibers, and it won't even stop one good hit.
Ignore any benifits but keep all penalties for anything other than the highest tech armor.
Backstabbist is right, getting shot in the pinkie with an 50BMG won't cause your body to explode. It depends if you view such relatively minor wounds as 'rolling snakeyes on the damage dice' or if you consider that 'missing by one' on the hit roll.
However, a center of mass shot on that rampaging cyborg grizzly will sure do a lot of damage, more than shooting it twice with a 9mm even if you max your damage rolls. maybe the damage should be 1d100, that allows for the occasional pinkie shot, as well as massive damage for use against beyond human critters.
But basically, the modern system breaks down once you start getting beyond assault rifles and when you get heros/enemies with huge hitpoint piles
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can realistically handle situations with huge caliber rifles or obsolete armor?
The armour equipment bonus can be seen as representing a combination of material and body-cover. Since different types of attacks have different effects on armour (and the guy inside it), the unescapable conclusion that the fixed bonus-to-defense of armour is simply flawed.
Personally I don't loose any sleep over this. None of my players insist on running around in archaic armour anyways.
Removing archaic armour from your game resolves the issue niceley.
-K
A few weapons ive come across use huge caliber bullets, such as the Barret .50 cal and there is even a 20mm antimaterial rifle. it seems to me that these bullets would pass right through just about any sort of body armor, or at least the brute force of a 20mm hitting you would kill you if it didnt penetrate. And old armor, like breast plates and such, wouldnt really help all that much against a speeding bullet. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can realistically handle situations with huge caliber rifles or obsolete armor?
There is no need to do a full re-write of the weapons damage.
Archaic armor is still good against switchblades and baseball bats but not so good against modern firearms.
Just declare the the armor bonus for archaic armor is cut in half when hit with modern firearms (round down, with zero being a possibility for stuff like leather armor).
The weight and restriction from wearing such armor would make it very impractical in the modern world.
It's fair enough to say that even a conquistador's brestplate might contain enough strength to deflect a "glancing" blow from even a mighty .50 BMG round.
Men have by saved by luck and a solid item in their pocket before.
As far as explaining the low end of the damage roll for big caliber weapons, just think of that rare "2 point damage hit" as having an ear grazed or even a miss where the round struck the nearby brick wall...spraying brick shards into the target and drawing blood.
A good GM will make his narration fit to the damage rolls.
The bigboys need to have damage numbers against Large, and in some cases, Huge. The 25Bushmaster & 30Avenger need it for Gargan.
Consider the hole in ya from a Abrams120 dart, and a 40Bofors slug. Pretty much the same hole for pretty much the same damage to a medium, but we know the 120Dart could do far more damage to the elephant (after going thru the bear, after going thru you)
NIJ Level4 armors are rated to defeat 30-06AP.
Defeat includes keeping the non-permanent dent into your body at 44mm or less. So no, you dont get killed by the blunt trauma if the NIJ says it will defeat it. but unlike d20Modern, you can put a couple IIIA on top of each other and they do stack protection.
There is an upper limit to just how much energy dump a 50BMG can put into a medium creature.
Yes. 24 on 2d12. Other bonuses may aply.
Yes. 24 on 2d12
... and that aint it :P
not if the top of a .30 is 2d10