“Rimworlder” Semiautomatic Rifle
Favored by hardscrabble colonists and revolutionaries alike, the
Rimworlder was a famous model of late-Second Wave semiauto
rifle designed to function in the harshest environments. Any
reasonably skilled blacksmith could fabricate the components
and even an illiterate peasant could be expected to master the
desultory maintenance needed to keep it functioning. Full
automatic and burst fire modes were omitted from the design due
to the common scarcity of ammunition and poor trigger discipline
exhibited by its usual users. Simple conversions even allow the
Rimworlder to be used with black powder and paper cartridges,
for those planets without the luxury of brass cartridge manufacture.
A Rimworlder fabricated with modern machine tools is about as
accurate as any other standard rifle, but the genius of the design
allows it to be fabricated by TL1 societies with access to the necessary
ferrous ores and gunpowder components. Almost every world can
manage to brew up some adequate gunpowder analog, barring those
civilizations totally trapped within hab bubbles or deep space stations.
Such primitive forged guns suffer a -1 penalty on hit rolls but
do the same damage. Those societies without metallic cartridge
manufacture can usually put together a paper cartridge that makes
the Rimworlder a single-shot weapon with a reload time of 2 rounds.
The Rimworlder has a special place in the hearts of far traders,
who often make a point of dropping crates of these cheap, tough
guns into the hands of useful rebels and private goons. On lowtech
worlds, the Rimworlder can make the difference between a
peasant massacre and a successful revolt. The consequences of
these weapon drops often spiral out beyond the control of all
involved, but many far traders consider that an acceptable risk.