Shadowrun Ammunition

## **Ammunition**

Ammunition is defined first by its various types (standard, gel, APDS, etc.), second by the class of gun for which it was made (light pistol, assault rifle, MMG, etc.), and third as cased or caseless.

For simplicity, each kind of gun can trade ammo with another of its class; for example, all light pistols can share ammo. At the gamemaster’s discretion, other weapon types may be allowed to share ammunition (some different firearm types do use the same ammunition in real life).

In these basic rules, the difference between cased and caseless ammunition is that caseless ammo has its own propellant and does not have a cartridge case. A gun can fire cased or caseless ammo, but not both.

* **APDS Rounds**: Amor-Piercing Discarding Sabot (APDS) rounds are specially designed to travel at high velocities and pierce armor. APDS reduces the effectiveness of Physical Armor by 2D+2.

* **Assault Cannon Rounds**: These highly stable explosive rounds are made of HDX superplast compound.

* **Explosive Rounds**: Explosive rounds are solid slugs designed to fragment and explode on impact. They increase the Damage by 1 pip. Explosive rounds will misfire whenever a critical glitch is rolled. When this occurs, the character firing the weapon is automatically struck by one “attack,” with a Damage Code equal to the normal damage done by the weapon. The character may make a damage resistance test as normal. Any attack the affected character is making at the time misses.

* **Flechette Rounds**: Tiny, tightly packed metal slivers function as the business end of a flechette round. They are devastating against unprotected targets, but not very effective against rigid armor. Versus Physical Armor reduce damage by 1D+1, versus Unarmored targets increase damage by 1D+1. Targets with natural armor are considered unarmored.

* **Gel Rounds**: These non-lethal rounds use a hard jelly-like substance and are often employed for riot control. They are usually semi-rigid slugs that flatten on impact, disbursing their kinetic energy over a larger-than-normal area. Gel rounds inflict Stun damage.
* **Hollow Point Rounds**: Hollow point or dum dum rounds have their tips indented, so they are designed to “mushroom” or expand on impact, becoming a hail of deadly fragments not unlike flechettes, although hollow points are a much older technology. Like flechettes, hollow points work better on unarmored targets and tend to flatten against armor. Physical armor resists Hollow Point Rounds at an additional 1D+1.

* **Injection Darts**: For use with dart guns of various types—such as the Parashield pistol and rifle—injection darts carry a single dose of a drug or toxin. Effects depend on the drug payload, but to successfully deliver the payload and penetrate armor, the attacker needs to successfully hit the target.

* **Regular Ammo**: Standard full metal jacket rounds for all kinds of uses (mostly killing).

* **Stick-n-Shock**: Stick-n-Shock rounds deal electrical Stun damage of equal to the damage of the base weapon –1D. Damage is resisted by the target's energy resistance rating.
* **Tracer Rounds**: Tracer ammo burns along the line of flight, making it easier for the shooter to home in on the target. This type of ammunition can only be used in Full Auto weapons and, being loaded as every third round in a magazine, is an exception to the restriction of one type of ammunition per magazine. They improve the Accuracy of your gun by 2 pips when you fire more than one round in an Action Phase (cumulative with a laser sight but not a smartgun).
* **Taser Dart**: These darts are designed to be loaded into taser weapons.

## **Source**

* Shadowrun 5th Edition Core Rulebook (2nd Printing) (pages 433-434)
* thedemonapostle