by Jesse VanValkenburg & Matt Steflik
Shotguns are very deadly in confined area�s if you use buckshot. This is why military and police use them for close quarters. To more accurately show this the following rules can be applied to shotguns. Remember firing a shotgun into the zombie clawing at your buddy is going to hurt him as much as the zombie.
When using a shotgun with buckshot or bb shot you receive a bonus to hit for the spread pattern of multiple pellets. This means as the range increases you receive an additional +2 to hit.(note the damage is reduced for each of those steps as normal). IE 6d6 +2, 5d6 +4, 4d6 +6, 3d6 +8, 2d6 +10, and 1d6 +12 this also allows for a larger group to be hit in the area. The second change is that buckshot has 10 pellets so to see how many hit the target you roll 1d10. any pellets not hitting the target may hit anyone within 5 feet of the target. (roll 1d6 for each pellet remaining on all additional targets.) all remaining pellets that do not strike a person will impact on anything near the target. IE the truck behind them or the shelf of medical supplies that the party is after or a wall and the floor. This also explains why only the point man in a raid has the shotgun as it would kill other members of the raiding party if fired from the back. The additional modifiers below show your varied ammo types and calibers available.
10-gage 12-gage 20-gage
buck shot (12 pellets dam.6d8) (10 pellets dam. 6d6) (8 pellets dam. 6d4)
Other types of rounds effect this number as follows:
Bb shot is the same as frangible +2 damage per die, increase the effect of armor by +2.
Bird shot damage is treated as wind. Increase the effect of armor by +4.
Homemade rounds should be considered one of these three types depending on what is placed in the shell. IE. 12 sinkers, 12 round wood pellets would be buckshot, 30 small tacks, screws, nuts would be bb shot, anything like metal shavings, rock salt, dirt and small pebbles would be birdshot.
Modifiers for chokes:
Sawed off shotgun: +4 to hit but reduce the max range by three steps. IE 6d6 +4, 5d6 +8, 4d6 +12. beyond that range there is no damage.
Full choke: reduce bonus to hit by two on all ranges. At pointblank range roll at least 5 pellets hit target (4 pellets automatically hit the target then roll 1d6 for remaining pellets as normal)
Adjustable choke: allows setting it to either setting on or off. IE normal modifications or full choke modifications.