Modern weapons are a key part of combat when playing any of Palladium Books RPGs aside from Palladium Fantasy, and there many important rules concerning them. These rules are presented in a very basic form in most of the Main Books, and these rules were again expanded in the Rifts Game Mater Guide, but still some things were left out. This topic has also been explored by both Dustin M. Ramsey and by Mischa and Kitsune, and nearly all of the material in this document is merely a collection of their previous work, some of it I have tweaked as I thought necessary and expanded upon where I wanted to. I encourage people to read the original source material for this document through the links given above.
The most basic and important rules concerning modern weapons are similar to those that cover other types of weapons. When making a strike roll, a character must roll 5 or higher, including any bonus to strike, otherwise the attack automatically misses the target. Other modifiers, such as making a Called Shot, can modify this number and the bonuses that apply, but in the end, if the strike roll is four or less, then it automatically misses. Dodging a modern weapon, be it an energy weapon or a regular bullet weapon, is very difficult and the target suffers a penalty of -15 to dodge if the attacker is within point blank range (within 10' / 3 m), -10 to dodge if the attacker is in close range (between 10' / 3 m and 400' / 122 m), and -8 to dodge if the attacker is further away then that. Also, a shot at point blank range will automatically hit an immobile target. Parrying an attack from a modern weapon is also almost impossible. The attacker must have something appropriate to parry with, such as an M.D.C. or magical shield, and suffers a penalty of -8 to parry if the attacker is within point blank range (within 10' / 3 m), -10 to parry if the attacker is in close range (between 10' / 3 m and 400' / 122 m), and -12 to parry if the attacker is further away then that.
Normally, any character can pick up a weapon and use it without any previous training, as long as the character can identify how to fire the weapon, such as by pulling the trigger. However, by selecting a Weapon Proficiency and using that weapon provides a character bonuses to strike and gives them knowledge on how to keep that type of weapon in excellent condition, such as cleaning, disassembling, and reassembling. Even without the appropriate Weapon Proficiency, a character can still perform Aimed Shots, but they receive no bonuses to strike unless the specific weapon provides the bonus, which will be stated in its description, and all bursts fired by the character are considered to be wild shots and have all of the normal penalties associated with Wild Shots, even though they follow the Burst rules.
At first level, a character with a Weapon Proficiency has a bonus of +3 to strike with an Aimed Shot, +1 to strike with a burst, and has no bonus to strike with a Wild Shot. Pistols and revolvers of all types provide an additional bonus of +1 to strike with Aimed Shot if the firer has the appropriate Weapon Proficiency. The bonus to strike with an Aimed Shot and a Burst increases by +1 at levels 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15, while the bonus to strike with a Wild Shot increases by +1 at levels 5, 10, and 15. The character can also recognize the quality of weapons of the same type with a 30% base chance, +5% per additional level of experience. It is important to remember that a character's bonus to strike by having a high PP attribute or from any Hand-to-Hand combat skills do not apply to ranged weapons.
The W.P. Sharpshooting skill is a special skill that is applied to most other Modern Weapon Proficiency, such as W.P. Energy Pistol. With this skill, the character receives all of the bonuses listed above, and gains a bonus with an Aimed Shot or an Aimed Burst Shot of +1 to strike with a PP attribute of 20 and for every five points above 20 (at 25, 30, 35, etc.). The character also gains a special bonus when making called shots of +1 to strike with a PP attribute of 18 and for every three points above 18 (at 21, 24, 27, 30, etc.). Unfortunately, to use this bonus with a Called Shot, the character must spend two melee attacks. The sharpshooting skill provides additional benefits, but only these bonuses are important for the purposes of this article.
An Aimed Shot is a single blast from a modern weapon, such as one bullet from an assault rifle, and it is made accurately, providing a bonus to characters with the appropriate Weapon Proficiency. At first level, this bonus is +3 to strike. Each Aimed Shot uses a single melee attack and consumes only one round from the firing weapon. For example, a character with six attacks per melee could perform six Aimed Shots, each shot receiving the same bonus to strike.
In addition to the bonus to strike, when making an Aimed Shot, a character can make a special Called Shot that allows them to specifically target a section of the enemy, such as a sensor or a hand, or any target that is not the Main Body. Making a Called Shot requires the character to roll over 14 on their strike roll, including any bonuses to strike with an Aimed or Called Shot, but hitting particularly small or hard to reach targets can cause further penalties, usually -3 or -4 to strike. If the target does not roll over a 14, but still manages to hit the target, which would occur if the target did not dodge or rolled poorly, the attack will hit the target's main body as normal.
A Burst Shot is performed when two or more shots are fired rapidly. A Burst Shot is not as accurate as an Aimed Shot, but it is not as inaccurate as the Wild Shot. With the appropriate Weapon Proficiency, an attacker firing a Burst Shot gains a bonus of +1 to strike; this bonus increases as the character gains new levels of experience, see Weapon Proficiency for more details. An attacker without the appropriate Weapon Proficiency using a Burst Shot fires it as a Wild Shot regardless of many bullets they are attempts to fire. It is important to note that all Burst Shots except for an Extended Burst only take one melee attack and only require a single strike roll unless otherwise stated. Also, some weapons are not designed to fire Burst Shots, instead they can only fire one shot at a time, such as most Plasma Cannons. Other weapons are designed to only fire limited bursts, such as many energy weapons that are designed to fire two or three pulse blasts. These types of weapons cannot be used to fire most types of Burst Shots and they can only fire a Double Tap and their own pulse blast as listed under their description. The most common type of weapons that use burst shots are contemporary modern weapons like the M-16 assault rifle and not energy weapons, which are usually designed to deliver pulse shots.
Using the standard rules from Palladium Books, a burst is based off of the percentage of the clip used, so a long burst used 50% of a clip whether a clip had 20 rounds or 100 rounds. The bursts listed below do not use this system, instead it uses a standard number of rounds in a single burst, so a short burst uses four rounds whether a clip has 20 or a 100 rounds. Using this does prevent some of the bursts listed below to be used with some weapons that have small clips, but it is more accurate based on the damage that a burst will inflict.
Wild Shots are the result of not taking careful aim with a weapon or being unable to take careful aim, such as when a character wants to spray an entire area with bullets or when firing from a moving vehicle. A character makes a Wild Shot if they are firing from a moving vehicle, when they are attempting to spray a whole area with fire, when they cannot see their target, or when a character without the appropriate Weapon Proficiency attempts to use one of the Burst Shots described above. If the character has the appropriate Weapon Proficiency, then they do not suffer any penalties for making a Wild Shot, but they do not receive any of their bonuses to strike either unless they have a high enough level in the Weapon Proficiency. If a character without the appropriate Weapon Proficiency makes a Wild Shot, they suffer a penalty of -6 to strike.
there are three different types of Wild Shots, the first is to attempt to hit a specific target, the second is to perform a spray while focusing on a specific target, and the third is to spray an area with shots. These four different types of Wild Shots can be performed by different types of Burst Shots, but only some can be performed by the smaller Burst Shots and only the first type of Wild Shot can be performed while firing a single shot. When attempting to hit a specific target, roll normally, applying any modifiers to strike, and if the attack misses, then there is no additional effect, all shots either hit or miss the target. However, when attempting to hit a specific target and spray an area, the attacker must roll a strike roll, applying all modifiers as needed, and rolling below five on this strike roll means that the attack completely missed the entire area, otherwise the area is struck. Use the same strike roll for all targets that are struck by the attack, but the roll against the primary target of the attack suffers a penalty of -6 to strike. When attempting to spray an area, the attacker must roll a strike roll, applying all modifiers as needed, and rolling below five on this strike roll means that the attack completely missed the entire area, otherwise the area is struck and the roll is used against all of the targets hit by the attack. To determine the number of targets hit by either a spray with a specific target or by a normal spray, see the descriptions below.
There are several special modifiers that apply when attempting to strike a target with a modern weapon and these modifiers are applied whether the attacker is using an Aimed Shot, Burst Shot, or a Wild Shot.