Converting Weapons from Warhammer 40,000 to d20-40k

The primary concern of a role-playing game is flexibility for the heroes. I aim to give our primary source of heroic characters – humans – as much equipment and modifications as possible to make each character different or ‘customized’ when compared to a different character. A d20-40k player that selects an Autogun as his weapon is not any Imperial Guardsman with an autogun; he’s a special character with an autogun that may have a rangefinding laser scope, a variable ammunition chamber and a standard suppressor. He may even protect it with a Voice Recognition System. His armour and other equipment will likewise be unique, as will has ability scores. In a whole squad of Imperial Guardsmen it is quite possible that no two soldiers will be similar. Even statistically similar guardsmen are ultimately different. Some may hide a mutation, others may use drugs and still others will be wealthier or less-wealthy.

A tabletop battlegame does not have this sort of scope. Its scope is much broader. It deals with alien armies and the standard equipment used on the mean. There is a tremendous wealth of guns and wargear that are canon in the universe of the dark millenium that can be found in the various Wargear sections of a Warhammer 40,000 codex. However it is not a good use of an RPG’s resources to write out descriptions and explanations for all the various weapons presented in the table top battlegame. However, I also understand that players will want to use an eldar, or an ork or perhaps even a Necron in their RPGs and they will want to know how the weapons system works.

This section aims to allow you to convert any weapon from the Warhammer 40,000 game into a weapon in the d20-40k game without exception. The explanations below will also be accompanied by examples. The sample weapons being converted will be assorted Necron Weapons from Codex: Necrons & Codex: Assassins.

WEAPON STAT BLOCKS IN WH 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 weapons have 4 categories of information. Range; Strength; AP and Type. These things can be converted into appropriate range increments, damage amounts, DRP and rate of fires for d20 Modern. The rest of the information; such as damage type; will have to be defined on a per weapon basis. First however lets look at Strength to Damage.

Strength à Damage

Weapon Strength	D20 40k Damage	Sample Weapon
1	2d4	Stubpistol
2	2d6	Stubgun
3	2d8	Lasgun
4	2d10	Boltgun
5	2d12	Heavy Bolter
6	3d12	Assault Cannon
7	2d20	Plasma Gun
8	3d20	Krak Missile
9	2d100	Lascannon
10	3d100	Rail Gun

The theory behind the Table: There are three important things to balance in this table, first is the effectiveness of weapons (stub pistol to rail gun is a big range), second is the use of autofire, turbofire and hyperfire which increase the die numbers. Due to this the die type (rather than the quantity of dice) had to be steadily incremented or else you have funny effects such as say; a burst from a bolter might deal only slightly less damage than a burst from an assault cannon. A stubpistol it was decided early on was a modern pistol (2d4 damage) and a krak missile was a modern LAW (10d6). 10d6 is similar in scale to 3d20. With these two values the elegant incrementation followed. As pointed out in the introduction to the firearms section it is safe to assume that weapons have improved in the future and the d20 Modern weapons do more damage (are not balanced with) d20 40k weapons. Transporting a modern weapon means reducing the damage by a die type normally. This means a krak missile does in fact deal considerably more damage than a LAW.

Special Cases: Though in Warhammer 40,000 pistol weapons deal the same damage as their rifle counterparts (boltpistol and bolter, shuriken pistol and shuriken catapult, laspistol and lasgun) it is necessary for balance reasons that the damage of pistol weapons be smaller than for two-handed weapons (pistols are more flexible). For this reason pistol weapons count as being one strength lower normally. A boltpistol deals 2d8 not 2d10 damage. A laspistol deal 2d6 not 2d8 and so on.

The same rule applies to conveniantly small but high damage weapons such as meltaguns and dark eldar blasters. These weapons have their strength reduced because they are extremely potent weapons for an infantry unit to carry. Even with the reduced strength a meltagun deals 2d20 damage. That’s no joking matter.

Samples: A Necron Gauss Rifle has a Strength of 4. It is not too small a weapon for this kind of damage output so we use the table as-is. 2d10 damage.

A Gauss Blaster is Strength 5. 2d12 damage.

A Heavy Gauss Blaster is Strength 6. 3d12 damage.

Range à Range Increment

Weapon Range	D20 40k Range Increment	Sample Weapon
12”	30ft	Boltpistol
24”	60ft	Boltgun
36”	90ft	Heavy Bolter
48”	120ft	Lascannon

The formula for range increment is (40k Range x 2.5) in feet. Assault weapons, like shuriken catapults, have their range increased by 15 feet.

Samples: A Necron Gauss Rifle has a range of 24” so it has range increment of 60 feet.

A Gauss Blaster has a range of 24” and is an assault weapon so it has a range increment of 75 feet.

A Heavy Gauss Blaster has a range of 36” and is a heavy weapon so it has a range increment of 90 feet.

Weapon Type à Rate of Fire

Type	Rate of Fire	Sample Weapon
Assault 1	Semiautomatic	Stubgun
Heavy 1	Single	Sniper Rifle
Assault/Heavy 2	Automatic (Auto)	Shuriken Catapult
Assault/Heavy 3	Turbomatic (Turbo)	Heavy Bolter
Assault/Heavy 4	Hypermatic (Hyper)	Splinter Cannon
Pistol	Semiautomatic	Boltpistol
Rapid Fire	Rapid Fire	Boltgun

Explanations of the various rates of fire can be found in the in the firearms section.

Samples: A Necron Gauss Rifle is a Rapid Fire weapon. This rate of fire has been created specifically for d20 40k.

A Gauss Blaster is Assault 2. It is treated as a fully automatic weapon.

A Heavy Gauss Blaster is heavy 3. It is treated as a Turbomatic weapon.

AP to DRP (Damage Reduction Piercing)

The table is inverted so AP none = DRP 0

AP 6 = DRP 1

AP 5 = DRP 2

AP 4 = DRP 3

AP 3 = DRP 4

AP 2 or 1 = DRP 5

Samples: A Necron Gauss Rifle is AP 5 which means it is DRP 2.

A Gauss Blaster is AP 4 which means it is DRP 3.

A Heavy Gauss Blaster is AP 4 which means it is DRP 3.

Converting Special Rules

Special rules need to be done on a per-weapon basis. Generally a special rule applied to several weapons should apply without modifications.

Example 1:

Necron weapons ‘flay’ metal. They have a special rule that allows them to always get a glancing penetration (even on super-heavy tanks) on a d6 roll of 6. They tear vehicles apart. The weapon description say basically that some kind of potent electromagnetism is flaying or disintegrating the metal. To increase the effectiveness of gauss weapons against vehicles and object the following special rule seems fitting:

Flay Metal: The first 5 points of hardness are ignored by gauss weapons.

Example 2:

C’Tan Phaseblades ignore all invulnerable saving throws. This effectively negates forcefields. Forcefields are an equipment bonus on defense. The following special rule has a similar effect in d20-40k.

Phase Blade: Phase blade temporarily jump into warpspace before attack ignore all equipment and psychic bonuses to defense unless they are specifically described as being a ‘force’ effect which extends into the warp. Since phaseblades ignore all equipment bonuses to defense they effectively always make touch attacks.

Selecting Damage Type and Ammo Capacity

The following are the main damage types:

Piercing, Bludgeoning, Slashing, Explosive, Concussion, Disruption, Energy, Atomic, Fire, Cold, Acid, Electricity or Sonic.

The first three types are the most physically obvious – bullets, hammers, knives. The next two deal with weapons that explode or deal nonlethal concussive force. Disruption is specifically for power weapons or advanced melee weapons. The next two are futuristic or hyper-futuristic kinds of ranged weapon damage and the remaining types are elemental in nature. You should select the damage type that best reflects the weapon background and description. This is not always easy.

Example: Gauss weapons are clearly a futuristic ‘ray’ ranged weapon. They are either energy or atomic in type. Energy suggests a basic energy weapon that fires laser beams or other basic ray attack.

Atomic suggests a super-futuristic weapon. Given that Gauss weapons flay metal and that Necrons are ancient technological experts we can safely assume that Gauss technology involves some kind of nano-technology or manipulation of particles that exceeds the tech-level of a simple energy weapon. The type of damage of a gauss weapon is said to be atomic.

The Ammo Capacity of Atomic Weapon is typically a small atomic powerpack which holds 20 charges. Necrons however have a tube connecting to the weapon and some kind of extended pack. We can assume that Necrons use a large powerpack that holds maybe 40 or 60. To represent the technological power of the Necron race we’ll say the capacity is 60.

Proficiencies, Cost and Weight

Weight should be guess-timated based on the size of the weapon on the model and the kind of ammunition it fires. Projectile weapons tend to weigh more than non-projectile weapons.

Proficiencies are personal firearms proficiency for firearms plus Special Weapons (launchers) if the weapon launches something, Special Weapons (heavy weapons) if the weapon is typically mounted on a vehicle, Special Weapons (high energy) if the weapon has the atomic energy type of damage.

Cost should be X if the weapon is a Xenogen or should be made the same as the DC of a similar damage weapon. Increase the cost for rare technology even if damage is low. Xenogen weapons also require Alien Weapons Proficiency.

Firearm	Cost	Dmg	Crit	Range	RoF	Wt.	Type	DRP
Gauss Rifle	X	2d10	x2	60 ft.	R.F.	16 lb.	Atomic	2
Gauss Blaster	X	2d12	x2	75 ft.	Auto	27 lb.	Atomic	3
Heavy Gauss Blaster	X	3d12	x2	90 ft.	Turbo	80 lb.	Atomic	3

Advanced Weapon	DC	Dmg (M)	Critical	Weight	Dmg Type	Type	DRP
C’Tan Phaseblade	X	+1 dmg die	same	same	Slashing only	same	5

Flay Metal: The first 5 points of hardness are ignored by gauss weapons.