Rubber bullets
Nonlethal firearms.

Your name is Slab HardBeef, melee master. You want to test your punchfisting skill against someone with a firearm, so you call up your pal, Aim ShootBang. He's all too willing to spar with you, gun-to-fistpunch, but wait! Guns are really quite deadly. Even if Aim doesn't intend to murder you, something could go wrong, and you could catch a bullet to the neck!

The solution?

Rubber bullets! Nonlethal ammunition available for firearms that, while not totally safe, are a lot safer than real bullets. They still really, really hurt, but you're much less likely to permanently injure someone with one than with an actual shot.

Also in this vein; beanbag rounds for shotguns. There could do with more, nonlethal options for firearms. Or maybe even alternative, even-more-deadly ammunitions available! But that's a different idea entirely.

What do you guys think, nonlethal ammo; good idea or no?

I know, I know what someone's going to say. "What about the wooden bokken. Why do longbladers get a nerfy option." The point of the bokken is neither sub-lethality nor nerf.

My understanding is that the point of bokkens (and correct me if I'm wrong) is to provide longbladers weapons that are fairly common and relatively cheap which utilizes their skills but does not begin to compete with the mid and high end blades. In exactly the same way small arms are fairly common and relatively cheap, but do not compete with the mid and high end firearms. I would never assume bokkens are non-lethal; Being a bokken owner myself, I know they are entirely capable of drawing blood, and even breaking bones.

For this same reason, we don't need shinai, the non-lethal versions of bokken.

I would love if bullet-types got a bumped up on the list. I think the variety needed is pretty straight forward...

1. A Bullet-Type for Each Damage Type

i.e. Rubber for Blunt, Armor Piercing for Piercing, Dragon's Breath for Fire, etc.

2. Specialized Technical Bullets

i.e. Tracer Bullets that function as SHI Tracking Beacons (Snipe your target and follow them home), Flechette Bullets (Designed to rip apart disguises), High Velocity (More Damage, increased chance of jamming, and need to clean gun sooner)

I think the opportunity this would open up to munitions users as making them possibly the only suppliers would be awesome...especially if we made non-hollow point or rubber bullets illegal.

Changing the damages to the actual bullet type by caliber would be outstanding!

Some suggestions on top of rubber bullets....

Hollow Points- Poor penetration on armor, massive pain on baka's with no armor!

AP (Armor Piercing)- trade off to Hollow points, less damage on armorless baka's, rips through your bullet proof jackets and underoo's.

Buckshot- for shotguns, kinda the same principle as hollow points in a nutshell.

Slugs- the AP of shotgun rounds.

Web Shell -Exclusive to shotguns...entangles the victim in some sticky icky!

also this kinda sounds like it could totally mess up game balance but I'll also throw out an idea for rare and expensive...

Shocker Ammo- does minimal surface damage but able to send a small shock to the victims cyberware processor, temporarily disabling them or their chrome (or something)