Weaponry and Hazards

"Holy crap, that looks dangerous."

Weapon Traits

Strength

The strength rating listed with weapons is the strength needed to use the weapon effectively in two hands. If the character's actual Strength exceeds that, they may use it without difficulty in one hand, unless it is Large or Huge in which case their strength must exceed that by 2 in order to use it successfully in one hand. If the strength value of the weapon exceeds the character's Strength, the threshold to strike a target is increased by the difference, in addition to needing two hands.

Size

• Small (S) weapons can be concealed in a pocket
• Medium (M) weapons can be concealed under a coat
• Large (L) weapons can be concealed in a car
• Huge (H) weapons do not really fit into cars

Ranged Weapons

Ranged weapons are used with Agility + Combat. Each weapon is accurate out to a given range (in parenthesis) and also has a maximum range beyond which the weapon won't work at all. If the target is beyond your weapon's accurate range, increase the Threshold to hit by 1.

A: Weapon fires in automatic mode.
C: Weapon ignores most cover.
F: Weapon does fire damage.

Automatic Weapons

A weapon firing on automatic throws out many bullets in a short period of time. This allows it to be used for suppressive fire, to be fired at multiple enemies who are close together, and makes it more likely to hit something. A weapon fired on automatic gains 3 dice on the attack roll, but the spread of bullets makes fine aiming more difficult - the increase in threshold for firing at enemies with cover is doubled (basic cover increases threshold by 2, heavy cover increases threshold by 4). Also the character can't take the Aim action with an automatic weapon, but they can take the Spray-n-Pray action.

Bullets

The amount of bullets fired off in genuine firefights is extremely varied and often frighteningly large. During a 12 second combat round, an assault rifle could easily fire 100 rounds or more (if it even had that many bullets in its magazine or belt-feed). Actually resolving where all of those bullets end up would be far too time consuming to consider doing in most battles. As such, the game doesn't really distinguish between characters squeezing off large numbers of bullets and characters taking hard seconds to line up their targets and fire devastating double-taps into a target's vitals. As such, the game also doesn't bother writing up exactly how many bullets weapons contain. During survival horror segments, ammunition conservation can (and should) be a major concern, but in regular street combat it shouldn't really come up.

It is also important to note that while the game only models those bullets that have a significant chance of hitting their target, every bullet fired eventually hits something. Stray bullets do not individually hit people we care about often enough to have such events generated by any combination of numbers on the dice, relegating that very real possibility to the realm of plot devices. However, in cases where the target is very close to other targets that these other targets are very likely to catch a bullet one way or another. If the target is getting cover from a creature and the target is missed by just the difference caused by the cover, then you can assume that the living cover is hit. Similarly, if the target is in or in front of a dense crowd of people, someone is getting hit. Deciding who is left as a narrative exercise. In such situations, Extras catch stray bullets much more than Luminaries.

Special Ammunition

Characters in After Sundown will often want to fire bullets that are specifically made of iron, wood, or silver. While these bullets have different characteristics than ones made of copper or lead, that's a level of detail that combat in After Sundown does not actually go to. Special ammunition exists that is generally more effective. Whether it's made out of depleted uranium or is special explosive ammunition or whatever, such exotic equipment increases the damage of the gun by 1, costs quite a bit, and puts a real strain on the character's claim to not be a military-grade super villain.

Smooth bore weaponry such as shotguns can be loaded with grains of pretty much anything. Of special interest to characters in the realm of horror is that they can fill the shells with salt, sand, or live grain in order to suppress Astral, Infernal, or Orphic sorcery respectively. This is quite effective, and the character's Agility + Combat test can suppress magic out to the range of the weapon.

Silencers

Weaponry enthusiasts will get mad at you for calling them "silencers" because they don't actually reduce the noise of firing a weapon to nothing or even the point of inaudibility. Nevertheless, the "sound suppressor" is called a "silencer" in ordinary conversation, so it is reasonable that characters in the game will refer to it (incorrectly) like that as well. Silencers reduce the sound of using the weapon substantially, to the point that its use will probably not be noticed on the other side of a wall, but this comes at a price. The weapon loses a lot of power, which reduces the Damage by 1 and reduces the accurate range by one category (for example: if you silence a light pistol it has a base damage of 1 and loses accuracy if fired at ranges beyond Adjacent). A silencer also falls apart with use. After more than five shots, a silencer is basically garbage.

Melee Weapons

Melee weaponry differs from ranged weaponry primarily in that it simply goes as far as it will reach and therefore doesn't have a "range" value on the table. Many melee weapons inherently do Normal rather than Lethal damage, and their damage values are followed by an "N". Unlike Ranged Weaponry, which is mostly designed for the purpose, a majority of things that people beat on each other with in hand to hand conflicts are actually improvised weapons - tools and household items that happen to be at hand when a fight breaks out.

N: Weapon does Normal Damage.