SLAP rounds are special high-caliber bullets made mostly of a plastic shell around a small metal dart. When fired, the plastic shell guides the dart out of the barrel and is discarded, leaving the dart to fly to the target. The high-speed dart has a much smaller profile than a bullet, so it can easily bypass most light armor. At the same time, such a small profile means a very small hole, so it's much less effective against a soft target.
A SLAP round requires a large bullet in order to have enough of a plastic sleeve to work. Professional SLAP rounds are only available in military 7.62mm and .50 BMG calibers. Amateur rounds can be created for any caliber .30 or 7.62mm bullet, or larger.
SLAP rounds are not technically illegal to possess in the United States, but they are illegal to sell. Professionally manufactured SLAP rounds can only be bought on the black market, and a box of 20 is expensive: expect to pay ••••. Some citizen militia groups and other paramilitary organizations make their own instead, which they sometimes sell to good friends outside of the group. A box of 20 home-made SLAP rounds costs •••, as long as you have the connections to get it.
Of course, a character skilled in metalwork and gunsmithing can make their own for much less. First, they must acquire a suitably hard material for the penetrator core. The military uses tungsten-carbide, but simple iron works well enough for most hobbyists. Making the bullet requires metalworking tools for the dart and some sturdy plastic or other material for the shell. Once everything is in place, the character makes an Intelligence + Craft roll to machine the dart and its plastic sabot, yielding one usable bullet payload in an hour of work. Loading bullets into their shells requires more time, a reloading bench, and a different roll described in Armory page 163.
SLAP rounds modify the damage of the weapon that fires them. They act as AP rounds of the appropriate caliber (see Armory p82 for AP by damage rating), with their damage code reduced by half (round down) and their AP rating increased by one.
The major benefit of SLAP rounds is that they are designed to defeat the target's armor. As such, they ignore the protections of bulletproof armor and deal lethal damage against these hardened targets, unless the armor's rating is higher than the AP rating of the bullet.
Drawback: SLAP rounds are significantly less effective than normal bullets against unarmored targets. When fired at a target without an armor or durability rating, SLAP rounds lose any 8-again or 9-again benefit.
| Caliber | Damage | AP |
|---|---|---|
| 7.62 NATO | 2 (9-again) | 4 |
| .50 BMG | 2 (8-again) | 7 |