[Basic]

I wanted to know how do you go about finding out how much damage an item can take before it breaks. Example one of my players got stabbed with a Katana and wanted to break it by shooting with a calvary deputy firing ADPS rounds at it. How would I go about firing out how much damage she would need to break it ?

Also could maybe an adept use a sword to block bullets in shadowrun ?

[Lethe]

Well there are no rules for either in shadowrun. No attributes describing the stability of weapons. If its an off-the-shelf katana, let it break - even more though if APDS is used. But remember that shooting that katana while stuck inside the player will move that katana inside that player... he should definitely get some extra unresisted damage.

[TheNarrator]

Attacking a weapon held in someone's hand would be a called shot (-4 dice to attack). There's no real rule that I know of to determine how weapons and other objects take damage, but I don't really know of any weapon that could remain functional after being hit with a bullet. After all, in game terms, if a car only has a Body of 8 or 10, then how little would a one meter by three centimeter blade have?

I would suggest using the Barrier Rating Table, but destroying a wall is a lot different than breaking a sword.

[Lysanderz]

I think this, much like emptying a clip into some poor slot's head, goes to GM common sense. If a guy in my run drops an armor piercing round to cut a katana in half, so long as he rolls it I'd let it fail. I've had players shoot at everything from Fire Extinguishers (CO2 versions tend to go semi-missile) to commlinks (No, your buddies will not be receiving your call today). GM decides what breaks and what doesn't.

As for blocking a bullet with a sword..... I'd say possible but incredibly unrealistic. The amount of successes would be huge. And then of course comes the second shot, or burst fire that just rips you apart. Invest in body armor (And a ballistic shield if you want to block bullets)

[TheNarrator]

There's a Missile Parry adept power, but it rather pointedly doesn't include bullets in the list of things it can deflect.

[Netzgeist]

In fact, considering how speed is considered in this system, even the fastest Adept reflexes are not enough to try to deflect a bullet; they can't even dodge the projectile (when you roll your dodge or whatever while defending from ranged attacks you are either moving erraticaly in order to turn yourself a harder target or you are trying to avoid the general direction the weapon is being aimed at).

So, short of bullets slowed down by the infamous Slow spell (it's in WAR!), there's no way an adept would make such a feat (and, in this particular case, it would be pointless, anyway).

[Lethe]

In fact, considering how speed is considered in this system, even the fastest Adept reflexes are not enough to try to deflect a bullet; they can't even dodge the projectile (when you roll your dodge or whatever while defending from ranged attacks you are either moving erraticaly in order to turn yourself a harder target or you are trying to avoid the general direction the weapon is being aimed at).

That made me think. In the same way you would not dodge the bullet, but out of the way where the weapon aims, you could put your sword in the path of where the bullet would go, when fired. So you don't react at bullet speed, but at the same speed the shooter moves his weapon. You would of course need some extraordinary mental power to calculate or guess the flight path, i.e. use logic or intuition instead of reaction for trying to deflect. Actually i think it might be an option for an houserule, and the weapon might break.

[JustADude]

I would suggest using the Barrier Rating Table, but destroying a wall is a lot different than breaking a sword.

Check Arsenal, p159.

It says to do exactly that, for the Martial Arts "Break Weapon" technique. However, the melee version gets you a +1 modifier, not a -4.