Our space cops need guns.  While the Empire has a single supplier, the Alliance has many varied suppliers and needs, which means that what sorts of arms and armor our constables might have vary depending on their intent and on where they get their weapons from.

A huge variety of guns resulted from my working on this post, not all of which are listed below, but I want to thank GURB once again for providing much needed variety for my weapons.

This design process went through quite a few steps, so you'll see me revisit again tomorrow when I look at Personnel, but that's because Materiel articles are design journals, while personnel documents actually make it into the final work.

Alliance Constabulary: Materiel

The Alliance Constabularies, naturally, vary from world to world, but they tend to remain consistent in that their mission statement focuses first and foremost on the gathering of evidence to convince others of the legality of their case. Enforcing the law itself comes second to this, and so they lack the military-style hardware that defines Imperial Security. Instead, the constables of the Alliance arm themselves for self defense or for light combat against civilian criminals. If they face an entrenched, militarized threat, they call in the local militia or they call upon the aristocracy, who have the means of dealing with such foes.

As usual, we expect each sort of world to have their own arms and armor, but we can still create a few examples from which GMs can draw inspiration. In general, the weapons of the alliance constabulary must be either weapons they always carry for their own defense, such as pistols, weapons that give them a distinct edge over similarly armed criminals, such as shotguns or rifles vs pistols, and finally, some non-lethal way of taking down their opponent.

Beyond the approaches that constables might take, as noted in the Alliance Constabulary organization, we can further divide our constabulary into two broad categories: rural and urban. Rural constables resemble the lawmen of the wild west, while urban constables resemble modern police, both for immediate player understanding; this implies two sets of weapons “for flavor,” that largely perform the same role, but function slightly differently. This results in two “suppliers,” Rook & Law, which represents an older, more powerful and relatively reliable weapons with a “Cowboy” vibe: few shots and slow rates of fire, but favor one-shot kills. Stellar Dynamics, on the other hand, represents much more modern equipment, the blaster equivalent of what one might expect to find in a modern SWAT team, appropriate for “urban” law enforcement.

For equipment, we’ll need:

A variety of pistols for every need

A variety of shotguns, for dealing with things like doors or groups of criminals

Sniper rifles

Battleweave vests.

For Vehicles, we likely need the same sort of vehicles that the Empire had, but with less military hardware attached. This makes me want to revisit imperial security’s vehicles, but we’ll do that at a later time, and thus skip it here. But, as notes:

A prison transport van

A patrol grav-car

A patrol grav-bike

Armor

Constabular Tactical Vest

We can simply use the same tactical vest that militia use, just without inserts. That gives us 40 DR of battleweave on the chest. The resulting vest is 4.5 lbs and costs $2000. It comes with no accessories. If we give constables a responsive uniform (“one size fits all!”), this is status 0 clothing, so 2 lbs and $500. Complete constable kit, then, weighs about 7 lbs and costs about $2500.

Weapons

Neurolash Weapons, revisited

So far, I’ve left Neurolash weapons as agony only, but that seems to fit the Empire better than the gentler Alliance (plus, imagine the scandal if your cops tasered a noble heir with agony batons). Thus, I propose one new type of Neurolash weapon, with some additional rules:

Neurolash weapons are HT-10 (5) (increase the HT penalty by all neurolash weapons by 5). Failure inflicts an irritation, while failure by 5 or more inflicts the noted incapacitating condition for a number of minutes equal to (the margin of failure-5).

Agony: HT-10(5). If the target fails, they lose 1 fatigue and suffer Severe Pain (-4) for the next (HT-20) seconds. If the target fails by 5 or more, or if the loss of fatigue from the above effect would case them to go beneath 0 fatigue, they suffer Agony for a number of minutes equal to their margin of failure-5. On a critical failure, the target suffers a heart attack condition.

Seizure: HT-10(5). If the target fails, they take 2 points of fatigue damage (and -2 from shock); If the target fails by 5 or more, or if the loss of two fatigue from the above effect would cause them to go beneath 0 fatigue, they suffer Seizure for a number of minutes equal to their margin of failure-5.

Characters may target the face, vitals (in this case, nerve clusters on the torso) or the groin for an additional -5 to this roll (That is, apply the stun modifiers to the neurolash field rules). Attacks to limbs cause searing pain in the limbs: If the character suffers Severe pain in a limb as a result of an attack, he must roll Will (at a penalty equal to the pain he’s feeling) not to drop what he was holding in that limb, or to sink to kneeling if his leg was struck. Characters suffering Agony automatically fall to the ground and drop what they’re holding.

Pistols

Most constables will carry a standard issue blaster pistol, something not particularly special or remarkable, similar to the ubiquitous Glock 22. For that, I choose GURB’s Stellar Dynamics PB-9. Some police officers would prefer something a little heavier and a little more traditional. For that, I have the Rook & Law “Walker” 049 heavy blaster pistol.

Stellar Dynamics PB-9 Blaster Pistol: Dmg 3d+1(5) burn, Acc 4, Range 370/1100, Wt 2.2/C, RoF 3, Shots 135(3), ST 7, Bulk -2, Rcl 2, Cost $3400.

Rook & Law Walker 049 Blaster Pistol: Dmg 5d(5) burn, Acc 4, Range 250/750, Wt 3.7/C, RoF 1, Shots 50(3), ST 6, Bulk -2, Rcl 2, Cost $3200. May not fire hotshots.

Scattershot Blasters

A Scattershot blaster offers superior firepower in a cheap, light package that’s comparable to that of a pistol. In the real world, police use shotguns because they have multiple modes of fire that prove useful, and for a modest boost to firepower. The constabulary will use them for the same (though they only have two forms of fire, of course).

A typical urban policeman might use a “standard” police shotgun. Once again, we go to Stellar Dynamics:

Stellar Dynamics SB-87 “Suppressor” Scattershot Blaster: Dmg 5d(3) burn, Acc 8, Range 75/230, Wt 6.3/C, RoF 3, Shots 86(3), ST 7, Bulk -4, Rcl 2, Cost $10,700.

or 2d+1(2) burn, Acc 6, RoF 3x12, Rcl 1.

For more traditional, rural lawmen, we have Rook & Law again:

Rook & Law “Outlander” 683 Scattershot Blaster: Dmg 7d (3) burn, Acc 8, Range 400/1200, Wt 8/C, RoF 1, Shots 21(3), ST 6, Bulk -4, Rcl 2, Cost $7500. May not fire hotshots;

or Dmg 3d(2) burn, Acc 6, Range 400/1200, RoF 1x12, Rcl -1.

Rifles

The point of a police sniper rifle is to cover a suspect, or provide superior fire support for another constable on the ground. This is, effectively, as powerful a weapon the Alliance is comfortable with arming their constabulary with. Their weapons need to be highly accurate, to hit precisely what they mean to, and nothing else. Once again, we have two options:

Stellar Dynamics RSB-1 Blaster Rifle: Dmg 6d(5) burn, Acc 8+3, Range 1100/3300, Wt 11/C, RoF 3, Shots 25(3), ST 7, Bulk -5, Rcl 2, Cost $21,000.

Rook & Law Huntsman 844 Blaster Rifle: Dmg 6d+1(5) burn, Acc 8, Range 750/2100, Wt 8.5/C, ROF 1, Shots 25(3), ST 7, Bulk -5, Rcl 2, Cost $8,000. May not fire hotshots.