Core Ammunition

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**Anti-Robot PL 7**

A variant on electromagnetic pulse weaponry, anti-robot ammunition mixes in a wirelessly broadcast erasure program that specifically targets the central processor of a targeted robot. In addition to suffering damage from the attack (as per the standard damage of the weapon used), the robot also suffers 1d4 points of Charisma drain – a successful Fortitude save (TN 15) reduces damage to half – and 1d6 points of electricity damage. If the attack’s damage (including the electricity damage) reduces the robot to 0 or fewer hit points the robot suffers an additional point of Charisma damage (not including the point of Charisma damage that all robots suffer when reduced to 0 or fewer hit points, see the future SRD for more information).

During the early years of the Energy Age (PL 8), the second-generation anti-robot ammunition is produced to combat robots with shielded processors (see box).This ammunition completely ignores a robot with a shielded processor though it has no additional effect on a robot without a shielded central processor.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic/special.

**Purchase TN:** 14 (18 at PL 8).

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Armor Piercing Rounds PL 5**

Armor piercing rounds increase the damage of the weapon by +1. It cannot be reduced by armor.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic.

**Purchase TN:** 10.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Charged PL 7**

Looking like standard ammunition, charged rounds contain a miniature electrical device that can hold a charge for a few seconds.When fired, a charged round crackles with electricity, looking almost like a tiny blast of lightning.A weapon firing charged rounds inflicts 1d6 points of electricity damage in addition to its standard damage.

A standard weapon cannot fire charged ammunition; in order to fire charged rounds a weapon must be equipped with a charging chamber gadget (purchase TN modifier +3, restricted). Once a weapon is outfitted with a charging chamber it may fire regular ammunition and charged ammunition. Mounting a charging chamber on a weapon requires a Craft (mechanical check) (TN 20), a workspace, and four hours.A weapon with a charging chamber is one size category larger and is obviously modified.The weapon uses a standard power pack in addition to ammunition.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic/Electricity.

**Purchase TN:** 13.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Cyber Disrupter Rounds PL 7**

Commonly known as “cylock” rounds, cyber disruptor ammunition carries a specialized system that emits a micro-burst electromagnetic pulse the instant the round comes into contact with a target (armored or unarmored).

The damage is unaffected when a cylock round is fired at a character or creature that does not have any cybernetic devices installed. It’s when a cylock round impacts a cyber-enhanced character or creature that the ammunition really comes into its own; a cyber-enhanced character or creature that is hit by a cylock round suffers 1d6 points of electricity damage for each cybernetic attachment or enhancement and must succeed on a Fortitude save (TN 15) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. If the cybernetically enhanced character or creature rolls a natural 1 on its Fortitude save, each of its cybernetic attachments takes 1d6 points of electricity damage as well.

Cyber disruptor rounds emit such a small, brief electromagnetic pulse that most other electronic or computer devices carried by the attack’s target are unaffected – 2% chance of shorting out each electronic or computer device carried by the target.

Affected devices remain nonfunctional until repaired.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic/Special.

**Purchase TN:** 12.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Deflecting PL 7**

Deflecting ammunition creates a gravity deflection field that causes the bullets to bounce off walls. When used properly, deflecting ammunition can be bounced around any barrier, around corners, underneath vehicles, and so forth for maximum penetration potential.

Any character using deflecting ammunition immediately gains the benefit of the Skip Shot feat.

**Damage Type: –**

**Purchase TN:** 10.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Duralloy Flechettes PL 6**

The weapon’s typical rounds are replaced with plastic sleeves loaded with dozens of sharp, metallic nails that rip through armor more effectively than standard ammunition.While flechette ammo exists during the Information Age (PL 5) it isn’t nearly as effective as duralloy flechette ammunition.

When firing flechette ammunition, attacks suffer a -1 penalty to damage per range increment rather than the normal -2 penalty to hit (minimum 1 point of damage). Additionally, attacks with flechette rounds on armored targets ignore any armor with a +1 or +2 equipment bonus to Damage Reduction.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic.

**Purchase TN:** 10.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Electromagnetic Rounds PL 5**

This ammunition is an electromagnetic pulse caged in a titanium-rifled steel housing. They can knock even the toughest Terminator offline. It inflicts electricity damage and stuns constructs for 2 rounds.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic.

**Purchase TN:** 10.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Hollow-Point Rounds PL 5**

Hollow-point rounds inflict +2 damage again unarmored opponents. Against armored opponents, its damaged is reduced by 2.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic.

**Purchase TN:** 10.

**Restriction: –**

**Inertial Accelerator PL 7**

Inside each inertial accelerator round is a nanotech machine that, when the round is fired, activates a magnetic field that significantly increases the round’s velocity.

The damage inflicted by an inertial accelerator round is equal to the weapon’s standard damage +1d6. Inertial accelerator rounds can be fired from an unmodified weapon, the ammunition’s internal nanomachine detects when the round has been fired and automatically activates the magnetic field once the round leaves the weapon’s barrel.

Inertial accelerator rounds do not function properly in zero-g; the magnetic field requires a gravitational field that it uses as for guidance and without gravity’s focus the round careens off in an unexpected direction (the GM should select a random target when an inertial accelerator round is fired in a zerog environment).Use of inertial accelerator ammunition is illegal on public starports and starships.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic.

**Purchase TN:** 12.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Laser Prick (PL 7)**

With laser weapons on the rise, it was only a matter of time before a weapons laboratory experimented with mounting tiny laser projectors within the core of a standard ballistic round.When fired, as it leaves the weapon’s barrel, a laser prick round instantaneously fires a microburst laser beam. On a successful attack the weapon deals 1d4 points for fire damage to the target which is then followed by the weapon’s standard, ballistic damage.

Laser prick ammunition can be loaded in a weapon’s ammunition magazine mixed with regular rounds. The ammunition’s laser ability requires so special modification to the weapon – all of the work is done by the round itself which engages a nanomachine system that fires the laser the instant the weapon is fired.

**Damage Type:** Fire/ballistic.

**Purchase TN:** 10.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Manstopper Rounds PL 5**

This round, which can only be used in a shotgun, inflicts +2 damage.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic.

**Purchase TN:** 10.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Photon Sheathed PL 6**

Each round of photon sheathed ammunition is wrapped in an extremely thin foil of the same material used in the manufacture of starship photon sails. A nanomachine housed within the round collects energy from the sun through the external foil and converts that energy into thrust creating a final ammunition that acts almost like a gyro-jet round. This energy thrust increases the weapon’s speed – and damage – depending on the brightness of the area when the round is fired.

In direct, bright sunlight a photon sheathed round inflicts +4 damage when it hits its target. In partially sunny, cloudy conditions a photon sheathed round inflicts +2 damage when it hits its target. Under artificial light a photon sheathed round inflicts +1 damage when it hits its target. In dark, or shadowy conditions a photon sheathed round has no effect on the weapon’s damage.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic.

**Purchase TN:** 11.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Plasma-Coated PL 7**

Consisting of an armor-piercing round enveloped in superheated plasma, this type of ammunition reduces the Defense bonus provided by armor by 2, to a minimum of +1. Half of the damage it deals is fire damage, and half of the damage is ballistic damage.

**Damage Type: –**

**Purchase TN:** 10.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Seeker PL 7**

Each round of seeker ammunition contains a microscopic computer and gravity-bending generators. When seeking ammunition leaves the chamber, it immediately detects the distance to its current target. If that target moves, the gravity generators nudge the bullet into a new trajectory to intercept its target at its new location. Seeking ammunition grants a +1 bonus on all ranged attacks.

**Damage Type:** –

**Purchase TN:** 10.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Brainlock PL 8**

Using research in psionics, genetic engineering, and advanced mindscan technology the weapons manufacturers of the Energy Age have devised a ballistic round that is capable of stopping all activity in an individual’s brain. Additionally, the nanomachine housed within the round that releases the brainhalting electrical burst also impacts the target’s nervous system, completely freezing the target in place for a few seconds.

After suffering the weapon’s standard damage, the target of a brainlock round must make a successful Will save (TN 15) or drop prone and remain paralyzed for 1d2+1 rounds. The brain- and nervous system-affecting electrical burst released by a brainlock round functions through all but the most advanced of armors (armor of PL 9 or higher completely neuters the round’s special effect on the target).The ammunition’s special effect is very limited in range, though, affecting only the targeted character or creature.Rumors of brainlock grenades are currently unsubstantiated. After only a few years in military service brainlock rounds were declared illegal according to the galactic terms of warfare.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic/special.

**Purchase TN:** 18.

**Restriction:** Illegal (+4).

**Cryonic PL 8**

Each round of cryonic ammunition carries a miniature liquid nitrogen injector that releases a small spray of liquid nitrogen that instantly freezes anything it comes into contact with.

When a cryonic round impacts a target, immediately after inflicting the weapon’s standard damage, the round 2d6 points of cold damage to the target. A successful Reflex save (TN 15) halves the damage. Unlike a cryonic grenade, this ammunition does not carry enough liquid nitrogen to automatically stabilizes any creature reduced to negative hit points by the blast – a target can be killed by the liquid nitrogen blast of a cryonic round.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic/cold.

**Purchase TN:** 18.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Crystal Carbon PL 8**

Used by some mecha as armor, crystal carbon is a composite fiber material that’s grown in orbital laboratories. When used in creating ammunition, crystal carbon makes a denser, heavier round that delivers a brutal punch when fired at a target. Weapons firing crystal carbon rounds inflict +2d4 points of damage in addition to the weapon’s normal damage.

Due to the increased density of the ammunition, an off-the-shelf weapon is incapable of propelling a crystal carbon round at speeds necessary to make it a devastating weapon. A weapon must be modified with a barrel extension that includes a gravitic accelerator – only then can a weapon fire crystal carbon rounds.This specialized accelerator gadget (purchase TN modifier +3,restricted) requires a Craft (mechanical check) (TN 20), a workspace, and six hours. The weapon uses a standard power pack in addition to ammunition.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic.

**Purchase TN:** 15.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Nova PL 8**

Specially designed for military forces in the Persei Spectral system, nova rounds duplicate the effect of a nova – a destructive nuclear explosion that takes place naturally, often near a white dwarf star – on a miniscule level.Decades of research and several accidental deaths – and the destruction of a Class IV military research station of Spectral VII’s sole moon – eventually led to the release of one of the galaxy’s most dangerous ammunition types of the Energy Age.

When a nova round impacts with a target it releases a nova flash that bathes a a 1-meter burst radius – centered on the target – in a nuclear fireball. All creatures and objects within the burst radius take 2d4 points of fire damage. The blast also ignites clothing and other flammable items. The weapon’s original target also suffers damage as per the weapon’s standard rules description. Rumors abound of a true starship-scaled nova weapon (not the inaccurately named nova burst missile systems regularly seen during the Energy Age), though no substantiated reports have yet surfaced. If true, such a weapon could very well change the future of stellar combat.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic/fire.

**Purchase TN:** 19.

**Restriction:** Military (+3).

**Psionic PL 8**

First seen in the Energy Age, psionic ammunition is created using the same technology that produced psionic grenades. When it impacts with a target, in addition to its standard damage, a psionic round releases a psionic blast that only affects the character or creature targeted – and then only creatures with psionic abilities or powers. The targeted psionic character or creature must make a Reflex save (TN 18) – on a failed save the targeted psionic character or creature cannot use its psionic abilities or psionic powers for 1d4 rounds. In addition, it must succeed on a Will save (TN 15) or suffer 1d6 points of temporary Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma damage.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic/Special.

**Purchase TN:** 16.

**Restriction:** Restricted (+2).

**Mutator Rounds PL 9**

A twisted merging of genetic engineering and accidental mutation following an apocalyptic event, mutator rounds knock the target unconscious and then twist and distort the target’s genetic structure until a damaging genetic mutation permanently changes the target.

After suffering the firing weapon’s standard damage an unarmored target must make a successful Fortitude save (TN 20) or drop unconscious for 3d6 minutes. When the target awakens he has permanently gained a single [drawback] mutation (exact drawback determined by the round fired – mutator rounds come in as many different forms as there are mutation drawbacks).This drawback may be removed through genetic engineering at the GM’s option.

**Damage Type:** Ballistic/Special.

**Purchase TN:** 25 (+ the MP value of the drawback, a frailty round would have a purchase TN of 28 (25 +3)).

**Restriction:** Illegal (+4).