How long does reloading take?

[PalladiumBrony]

OK so, I've been away from the futuristic side of the Megaverse for some significant time now and... Sad to say, I've forgotten most of the rules on reloading, and I can't find them anywhere XD Can anyone remind me of how long it takes to reload:

• A magazine-fed gun (either a pistol, rifle or energy weapon, I think it's one action?
• A revolver (I think three, unless you have a speed loader?)
• Bolt action/lever action rifles
• Break-action or pump-action shotguns without removable magazines (Where you have to feed new shells independently into the in-built magazine)
• A machine gun (one of the big ones you have to set up in place before using, fed with a belt or a big box magazine)
• Vehicle mounted weapons
• A minigun a la various video games
• A rocket launcher like a Bazooka
• Big stationary weapons like the L118 Light Howitzer, SAM sites etc.

Any I've forgotten would definitely be helpful as well, as well as references to where the rules are actually written down. IIRC, it always takes someone without the relevant weapon proficiency twice the number of actions it would take someone who knows what they're doing, but I can't for the life of me find that written down anywhere. I have books from all across the Megaverse, but tend to favour the versions of rules/proficiencies from Rifts Ultimate Edition, as it's a mega-conglomeration of many different books written up to that point.

[Killer Cyborg]

OK so, I've been away from the futuristic side of the Megaverse for some significant time now and... Sad to say, I've forgotten most of the rules on reloading, and I can't find them anywhere XD Can anyone remind me of how long it takes to reload:

• A magazine-fed gun (either a pistol, rifle or energy weapon, I think it's one action?
• A revolver (I think three, unless you have a speed loader?)
• Bolt action/lever action rifles
• Break-action or pump-action shotguns without removable magazines (Where you have to feed new shells independently into the in-built magazine)
• A machine gun (one of the big ones you have to set up in place before using, fed with a belt or a big box magazine)
• Vehicle mounted weapons
• A minigun a la various video games
• A rocket launcher like a Bazooka
• Big stationary weapons like the L118 Light Howitzer, SAM sites etc.

Any I've forgotten would definitely be helpful as well, as well as references to where the rules are actually written down. IIRC, it always takes someone without the relevant weapon proficiency twice the number of actions it would take someone who knows what they're doing, but I can't for the life of me find that written down anywhere. I have books from all across the Megaverse, but tend to favour the versions of rules/proficiencies from Rifts Ultimate Edition, as it's a mega-conglomeration of many different books written up to that point.

Did some quick skimming around, and found the following:
Hope it helps some.

RMB 243
Almost all modern weapons come equipped with easy-to-load clips (magazines). There are even quick loaders for revolvers. This means that attackers can fire a full clip every melee. However, older weapons (bolt-action, muzzle-loaders, hand-loaded revolvers) and most shotguns will require a full melee round (or more) to reload. Not that it will take much longer to reload while in the thick of combat.

RMB 244-245
90mm Recoiless Rifle
Rate of fire: (Rapid) 10 rounds pre minute (max of 5 rounds)--sustained rate of 1 round per minute. When firing at the rapid rate, a 15 minute cooling period must be observed after every 5 rounds.
(This would work the same for many bazooka type weapons, I think.)

RUE 328
...the untrained shooter does NOT know how to reload...the weapon or anything about the ammunition.


In our games, we always required 1 action to reload a magazine/clip, or even put in a new belt for belt-fed stuff.
Same deal with a speedloader for revolver, and so forth.
I don't recall how we handled reloading revolvers without a speed loader, though, and I don't recall where any official rules are other than what I've posted so far.

[Axelmania]

the need for the WP skill to reload (is that new for RUE?) is pretty brutal.

I think it's something people ought to eventually be able to figure out without a skill. Maybe it should just take 100x as much time to do so?

[Orin J.]

the need for the WP skill to reload (is that new for RUE?) is pretty brutal.

I think it's something people ought to eventually be able to figure out without a skill. Maybe it should just take 100x as much time to do so?

no, you've needed the WP to reload since the original book (possibly before) and given how i've seen people who claim to have been trained by family fumble with their firearms i think it's pretty reasonable.

[Killer Cyborg]

the need for the WP skill to reload (is that new for RUE?) is pretty brutal.

I think it's something people ought to eventually be able to figure out without a skill. Maybe it should just take 100x as much time to do so?

no, you've needed the WP to reload since the original book (possibly before) and given how i've seen people who claim to have been trained by family fumble with their firearms i think it's pretty reasonable.

I tend to rule that they can't reload IN COMBAT without the skill.
But if they've got 1d6x10 minutes to figure it out, why not?

Although I HAVE seen people load bullets into mags backward... so maybe still roll percentile dice against IQ, with modifiers for circumstances and such.

[Axelmania]

no, you've needed the WP to reload since the original book (possibly before)

RMB 33:

Training also enables the character to easily reload, disassemble, unjam, clean and otherwise maintain the weapon.

RUE328:

the untrained shooter does not know how to reload or clean the weapon or anything about ammunition

I don't see any indication that a WP was needed in the original core book, just that it was supposed to speed up the process somehow.

I can't seem to recall what book/page described the times needed to swap out e-clips (RMB223 has the COSTS...) but now I'm wondering if whatever times we were told were assuming a WP or a lack of WP.

If it were something along these lines:

1) 1 attack to remove clip
2) 1 attack to grab new clip from your pack
3) 1 attack to inserted grabbed clip into empty handle

Then I would assume 3 attacks for someone trained in the WP (the EASY reload) and multiply that by some number for those lacking WP (maybe double it to 6, 2 actions per step, or some other multiplier).

I think I might be guessing too high though, I seem to recall something like it might be just 1 melee action to do ALL THREE steps I've described above? Sounds way too fast... but that does sound familiar like a canon rule I read somewhere, if I could just find it... little help guys? Probably in a CB/GM thing...

Unless maybe it's standard for weapons to have a "quick release" button on he handle to drop an empty e-clip without needing to use the other hand? That could allow you to multi-task and grab the fresh clip with our free hand simultaneously with dropping the depleted one...

That still seems to me like it ought to take more than one action, but I think archers in Palladium take just 1 attack to grab/unquiver/knock/draw/loose an arrow (FIVE steps) so I guess being able to grab and e-clip and insert it being 1 step is reasonable by comparison.