Guns & Ammo

[Adam Riemenschneider]

Not to try to pour smoke into the room, but here's perhaps another way to examine your question:

Do you want to use ammunition as a resource?

or

Do you want to use "out of ammo" as a purely random occurrence?

or

Do you want running out of ammunition to be based on how good a character is at dealing with it?

If you want to use ammunition as a resource: You simply must keep track of it as a resource. How tightly you want to keep track of it is up to you. You can track each bullet (this gun holds 5 rounds), or use a less demanding method (this gun holds 2 "gunfire exchanges"). How tightly you monitor this should be reflected in how accurately your mechanic system simulates your reality.

If you want to use "out of ammo" as a purely random occurrence: Decide how often you want it to occur, then model a mechanic to do this for you. You could impose a flat 5% chance each time you attack, or a 20% chance for it to occur at an inopportune time during the coming combat, or anything else. You could dictate that only 1 character will run out of ammo in a given combat, and have everyone (including NPCs) draw straws for it... it's up to you.

If you want to use ammo checks: Looks like someone has touched on this already. Fit the check into your mechanics as best as you can, then decide if certain weapons and/or situations make it more likely, or less likely, for a character to succeed/fail in the check.

Any of these options is perfectly acceptable, as long as the mechanic is doing what it is supposed to do. And the only person who can answer that question is yourself.

[Amadeo]

I'm thinking of doing this:

Name
Type (Determines size & range of weapon)
Ammo Capacity (Possibly also determined by type)
Damage (Maybe Determined by Ammo Type)
Cost
Mods/Accessories (Maybe you can't attach things to a gun, some come with scopes or grenade launchers and some don't)

I don't know. Swords are so much easier to deal with game-wise.

I think that captures enough realism without sacrificing your fast-paced gun-fun action archetype. The only thing I would suggest is  having whether or not the gun can have a mod as an addendum only if none can be added, for instance "The super-secret H&K Special cannot be affixed with any mods or accessories". Otherwise have what guns can be modded with a certain modification be listed in the mod's description, perhaps "This brand of laser-sight is too large to be affixed to pistols, but works well on shotguns and rifles".

[Bossy]

This is simple a tip that works on fixed dice number systems (not dice pools) that allows for exact ammo track without pen/paper/eraser.

Say that for each shot you have to roll 2d6, and say you have 6 bullets in your gun. Place 12d6 in a cup and pick 2d6 in that cup each time you shoot with the gun.
No more dice? Reload and put 12d6 in the cup again.

[mjbauer]

This is simple a tip that works on fixed dice number systems (not dice pools) that allows for exact ammo track without pen/paper/eraser.

Say that for each shot you have to roll 2d6, and say you have 6 bullets in your gun. Place 12d6 in a cup and pick 2d6 in that cup each time you shoot with the gun.
No more dice? Reload and put 12d6 in the cup again.

It's a cool idea, but yeah, it doesn't exactly work when you're rolling 5d6 and have 15 shots in a clip.

[DanielM]

Give players bonuses for reloading. Call it 'dramatic reloading', or something similar. When they run out of ammo, they have to do some crazy maneuver to get more bullets in their gun, but it makes them so cool they get an extra fate point, or Aim Point, or whatever. It'll make tracking ammo a lot easier, as players will feel it's a bonus, not a penalty. It will also lead to more over-the-top gunfights, as people actively want to run out of ammo.