Jesse Lowe

Here's a second attempt, more in line with Champsguy's method. There's a good bit of handwaving involved to make it "feel right." Rough Damage Correspondence Table Megadamage Hero DC's Points Highest KA Rifts Example Hero Example 1d4, 1d6 3-6 15-30 2d6 Light pistol Derringer, Luger 2d4, 2d6 7-8 35-40 2 1/2 d6 Medium pistol .357 magnum 3d6, 4d6 9-11 45-55 3 1/2 d6 Heavy pistol, medium rifle .44 Magnum, AK47 5d6, 6d6 12-15 60-75 5d6 Plasma cannon 1d4x10 - 1d6x10 16-18 80-90 6d6 Railgun burst, small fusion block Heavy machine gun 2d4x10, 2d6x10 19-21 95-105 7d6 Heavy railgun burst Light tank gun 3d6x10, 4d6x10 22-27 110-135 9d6 Glitter Boy Boom Gun Heavy tank gun Looking at this, I'm pretty happy with most of it, but the damage on the lower and upper ends still seems a bit off. I'm pondering dropping the +3 DC for megadamage, since 2d6 RKA seems excessive for a light pistol. On the other hand, I do like the idea of lethal combat. A note on the plasma cannon in question. In Rifts, it's pretty underpowered, IMO. There's a rifle that does more damage (1d4x10 as opposed to 6d6). And here's a quick look at defenses. The average CS soldier wears 80 MDC body armor, which would translate to 9 rDEF by this table. He uses a 3d6 or 3 1/2d6 RKA weapon. Body Armor Conversion Table MDC Resistant Defense 30 4 40 5 50 6 60 7 70 8 80 9 90-100 10 110-120 11 130-160 12 (Edit: added armor table)

Rifts-Hero damage table This is largely based on Champsguy's 4th edition Hero notes for converting damage. He suggests finding the closest Hero weapon equivalent for the weapon you're trying to convert and adding 3 DC's to it to represent Megadamage. The table below is an attempt to work something faster out. It includes the most common damage numbers from Rifts and converts them to the equivalent in Hero 5th. There's a bit of rounding to keep the numbers (and dice) easy to deal with. (I hope the table comes out okay) Rough Damage Correspondence TableMegadamage Hero DC's Energy Blast KA Points Rifts Example1d4 2 2d6 1/2d6 10 Single rail gun round1d6 3 3d6 1d6 15 Light pistol2d4 4 4d6 1d6+1 20 Medium pistol2d6 5 5d6 1 1/2d6 25 Heavy pistol/light rifle3d6 6 6d6 2d6 30 Average rifle4d6 7 7d6 2d6+1 35 Heavy rifle5d6 8 8d6 2 1/2d6 40 6d6 9 9d6 3d6 45 Man-portable plasma cannon7d6/1d4x10 10 10d6 3d6+1 50 Rail gun burst8-9d6 11 11d6 3 1/2d6 55 10d6/1d6x10 12 12d6 4d6 60 Smallest fusion block17d6/2d4x10 13 13d6 4d6+1 65 Heavy rail gun burst20d6/2d6x10 14 14d6 4 1/2d6 70 Medium fusion block30d6/3d6x10 15 15d6 5d6 75 Boom gun40d6/4d6x10 16 16d6 5d6+1 80 Largest fusion block Do these numbers look kosher?

I've a question regarding Energy Blasts and Ranged Killing Attacks, and the reasonable magnitude thereof. I'm converting a large number of blaster-type weapons from another system (Rifts). Most give damage in d6 increments, so for the sake of convenience, I'm just doing a direct translation of 1d6 MD to 1d6 RKA. (I'm reading SDC as Normal damage, MD as Killing damage. Easier that way.) At low levels, this works out fairly well. A Hero Colt .45 is a 2d6-1 RKA; a Rifts C-18 laser pistol, which fills roughly the same niche, is 1 1/2d6 RKA according to my system. However... at higher levels, I've got things like fusion blocks (a kind of bomb; most powerful is a 40d6 KA) and particle beam rifles (7d6 RKA). How many dice of killing attack are too many? Bear in mind that the average foot soldier in the setting wears 16 PD/ED Armor with full Damage Resistance. I guess the real question I'm asking is: are RKAs of 4d6+ (Damage Class 12) too powerful to be commonly available?