[Beta]

Run & Gun states on page 47 that laser weapons use the exotic ranged weapon skill.  Aside from the fact that this makes getting a laser a lot less exciting, I'm just checking that this applies to all the lasers:
- the ones in R&G
- the laser shotgun (Armatus) from Hard Targets
- the underbarrel laser from Hard Targets
- the repeating laser from Lockdown

(it seems odd to me that all these varied weapons have more in common with each other than similar firearms, but I also don't want a proliferation of exotic weapon skills)

[Tecumseh]

Run & Gun seems to imply that one instance of Exotic Ranged Weapon might be able to cover all the various options:

Laser weapons require the Exotic Ranged Weapon (Laser Weapons) skill to use.

I house rule things in one of two ways:
1) Either make Exotic Ranged Weapon: Laser Weapons a skill that can have specializations (like pistol, shotgun, etc.)
2) Or allow the weapons to be fired with the normal base skill, and have Laser become a new specialization of that skill.

I grant that lasers are a different beast from a ballistic weapon, but it seems strange to me that Elfy McPistolAdept turns into Sir Derps-a-Lot when he picks up an Ares Redline. If tasers can be fired with Pistols then a Redline doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

It's already a case of "Why Derp?" when Elfy McAgilityFace with no Longarms skill but 9 Automatics tries to use a hunting rifle.

That's what Substituting Skills (pg 130) is for. No reason a GM couldn't use -1, -2, or even -3 dice penalty with an appropriate firearms skill to govern laser weapon attacks.

[Marcus]

So this is one of those things that a little hard to deal with. Compared to shooting a gun, a laser is a lot simpler from the actual firing perspective.  No Recoil, no moving parts, no bullet drop. Point and click. From the simulationist stand point using a laser should considerably simpler that using an actual firearm. Of course there are risks using a laser just like any weapon. Keep in mind, you can't see a laser fire, it makes no noise, you will know you hit if your target if suddenly has a hole burned into it. 

So breaking even and calling it an exotic weapon, is as good a compromise as any imo.

[Tecumseh]

I don't disagree with any of that, but my counterpoint would be that many of the same arguments could be made for tasers too, yet they are covered by the Pistols skill. Recoil, moving parts, and projectile velocity (and thus dart drop) are all significantly different from a firearm. If tasers fall under the Pistols umbrella then I'd be comfortable covering a Redline pistol with it too. Thus my house rules.

Stainless Steel's suggestion for using the Substituting Skills rule is a good option too.

[Kiirnodel]

I've had this discussion with some people from my group before. I think we landed on allowing someone to use either the Exotic skill or substitute the equivalent firearm type skill with a -2 penalty. In addition, we said someone could learn a Specialization for Lasers in those normal firearms skills. This has the end effect of cancelling out that penalty.

Seems like a decent compromise.

[Beta]

SSDR somehow I had never noticed that rules box before, thank you!

Kiitnodel, that is exactly what I'm going to be doing.

Thanks everyone!

[Finstersang]

I´m also not a big fan of these granular Exotic Weapon Skills.

My Houserule for Lasers etc. is a separate Skill called Futuristic Weapons  that encompasses the different Laser Weapons you mentioned, but also the Sonic Rifle from Run&Gun or the Microwave "Pain" Gun (forgot the name) from the Core rules. All of these can also be taken as Specialization to the Skill.

Did the same to whips, monowhips, chains and similar weapons (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=499Aiwh_If0). In this case, the unified skills is called Whips and Chains 

[mcv]

It's already a case of "Why Derp?" when Elfy McAgilityFace with no Longarms skill but 9 Automatics tries to use a hunting rifle.

That's what Substituting Skills (pg 130) is for. No reason a GM couldn't use -1, -2, or even -3 dice penalty with an appropriate firearms skill to govern laser weapon attacks.

That's what I do. All firearms can be substituted for each other with a -2 or -3. This mostly came up because someone wanted to use an under-barrel grenade launcher without the Gunnery skill. If lasers are supposed to be easier to us, I might make that a -1.

Of course that makes it weird if you finally start investing in the real skill and your die pool shrinks as a result. This is sadly a problem that no skill-based system has solved well. Either you get nonsense like this, or you get extra complexity with basing a new skill on the default from an existing skill, like in GURPS.

[Cabral]

Of course that makes it weird if you finally start investing in the real skill and your die pool shrinks as a result. This is sadly a problem that no skill-based system has solved well. Either you get nonsense like this, or you get extra complexity with basing a new skill on the default from an existing skill, like in GURPS.

Well, RoleMaster (Standard System?) had an elegant(ish) way of handling it (at least, if you didn't take umbrage with the rest of the system). It used percentile dice with a skill group bonus and a skill category bonus. The category bonus advanced at a slower pace than the skill bonus and both used diminishing returns. Since the category bonus was shared, you had a defaulting bonus and advancing in the skill never resulted in a decreased bonus.