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2019 Detective Special

jaz0nj4ckal

jaz0nj4ckal

SOC-12
I would have to go for the 2019 Detective Special to keep it old-school, but with street cred; however, I am at a lost as to how to build this weapon for Classic Traveller.

I just picked up the books recently from a yard sale and I am still learning the mechanics.

I am thinking something along the lines of a 15mm Anti-material round (AMR) to take those "skin jobs" out.
 
I guess it would be like a 15mm accellerator pistol, firing various snub-pistol like rounds: Tranq, Heap, etc.; basically a heavy snub pistol. Revolver range, snub target and damage.
 
Somewhere, an early JTAS article iirc by Loren Wiseman I think, there is an explanation of how to create anything you want for your Traveller game simply and easily. The example is creating a Laser Pistol. It basically boils down to deciding what you want and inferring through comparison to get what you need.

I'll tackle that 2019 Detective Special for you to show what I mean...

...after supper :)
 
OK, here goes, though I'm thinking it might not be the best example as it seems pretty much just a magnum revolver as I recall. Maybe I'll tech and butch it up a bit to make a better example ;)

This is for Classic Traveller Book 1 - Characters and Combat (aka LBB1 for Little Black Books 1):

Looking at the available weapons we have a (Magnum) Revolver to build from. Our goal is a marginally more powerful handgun with a revolver action and reduced load (5 shots) and some presumed higher tech level modifications (those blinky lights and double trigger must do something right?).

LBB1 Revolver: TL4; 0.9kg unloaded, Cr150 (6 rounds 0.1kg, Cr5); 3D damage; Dex 9+ = DM +1 or Dex 6- = DM -2

Armor: Nothing +1; Jack +1; Mesh -1; Cloth -3; Reflec +1; Ablat -1; Combat -5

Range: Close +1; Short +2; Medium -3; Long -5

We can't add to that too much and stay realistic and true to the movie. What can we tweak?

Let's start with damage. Increasing the lethality at the expense of fewer rounds in the gun. Bigger bullets, basically. A full dice of extra damage is too much though, and in "fairness" 1 bullet less averages about 11 points of damage, divided by 5 bullets, gives about 2 points per bullet. So our new damage rating is going to be 3D+2. Sounds good to me.

Let's tech up the materials and make it a little lighter. Say about 20% lighter in round numbers... 0.7kg for the weapon and keep the 0.1kg for the 5 bullets.

Cost is going to go up for the advancements (we'll get to those) and materials. How about half again as much... Cr225 for the weapon. I like the Cr5 for 5 rounds but these bullets turned out (see below) to be something special, so I'm going to double that to Cr2 per bullet.

Those two triggers bug me. I don't recall them doing anything in the book or movie but it's been a while since I've looked at either. How about 1st trigger is standard, 1 pull 1 shot. While the 2nd trigger is a burst fire mode, powered by a limited use battery, 1 pull fires all 5 bullets to give the standard autofire benefits?

How about some tech? It's kind of neat that (as I recall anyway) Deckard isn't reluctant to fire on a crowded street. He must be pretty confident those power loads won't overpenetrate and take out innocents or damage property. Or he just doesn't care ;) Yeah, let's go with some tech that does that and flatten out the range modifiers for a twist. How about:

Range: Close +2; Short +2; Medium +2; Long NO

So we have a gun that is smart about not shooting at range beyond what is relatively sure of hitting and tailored to deliver the same lethality at all ranges.

I think that looks pretty good. In summary and format:

Model 2019 Detective Special: TL9; 0.7kg unloaded, Cr225 (5 rounds 0.1kg, Cr10); 3D+2 damage; Dex 9+ = DM +1 or Dex 6- = DM -2

Armor: Nothing +1; Jack +1; Mesh -1; Cloth -3; Reflec +1; Ablat -1; Combat -5

Range: Close +2; Short +2; Medium +2; Long NO

Autofire Bonus: Pulling the second trigger when fully loaded (5 bullets) engages a powered action (drains the battery) that fires all the bullets very rapidly. Use the full automatic fire rules. A Model 2019 with a dead battery is limited to single shots and defaults to:

Range: Close -2; Short +0; Medium +2; Long NO

Care must be taken as the weapon is prone to over-penetrate at closer range without the benefit of smart ranging.

...of course there are as many ways to do this as there are refs and players :)

Caution must be exercised to not go too far though (I hope I haven't). In a 2D6 system every point counts and a full die counts for a lot.
 
Easterner9504 said:
Out of curiosity...what are you talking about?
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not familiar with the term either, but reading the posts, along with FT's mention of Deckard, leads me to surmise it's a pistol used in Blade Runner (or the Electric Sheep novel).

Being unfamiliar with the weapon in question I don't know its capabilities, but one option for a second trigger would be to turn the cylinder backwards, thereby allowing a choice of two different ammo loads - 3 tranqs and 2 HEAP, perhaps.
Just don't forget how many you've fired and back up one space too far...
 
Just some useful party trivia....

Well, in the book Deckard uses a "laser tube" that looks like a cylinder. So does everyone else.

In the film the original gun design by Syd Mead looked like a telephone when it was sitting on a desk so Scott decided he needed something that looked like a regular gun but wanted it punched up a bit. The original Mead gun can be seen in the scenes in Deckard's apartment. Here is the gun (it's the one on top...to me it looks like a hair dryer):

http://sprigmude.blogspot.com/2010/11/syd-mead-us-steel-interface-portfolio.html


The 2019 was mocked up from a Mannlicher rifle action on top of a Charter Arms Bulldog.
The second trigger on the 2019 is supposed to be for the larger barrel...which was originally supposed to shoot a less-lethal round that stunned a target, or an explosive grenade type round. It obviously went by the boards along with the originally desired laser to fire out of the smaller (the Bulldog) barrel. Neither worked well in practice so it was decided to just have the thing be a big honking blaster type gun.

Incidentally, the "laser" used in the opening scene is a COP 357 4bbl derringer. Which might make a nifty weapon for Traveller as some sort of 4-shot chemical laser or something, though in the film it acts more like some explosive bullet.

* All of the above is courtesy of my obscenely fanboy collection of Blade Runner stuff from the opening release of the film and all the various iterations ever since. And my copy of " Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep".
 
Last edited:
@Far-trader

Thanks so much for hammering this out, and showing me how you did it. I was doing something similar; however, due to my limited expierience I was nowhere as detailed as your version.

Thanks so much.
 
@sabredog
Thanks for the insight, and helping on this matter as well. Yes, the movie did not hold true to the book; however, the 2019 Detective Spl. is one heck of a weapon.
 
I tried, but you type faster.

Besides, I presented my Norge NLP as a starting point but it lacks the autofire you included feature that all the kids want these days.
 
@ Far Trader - Bravo! That was a great read!
@ sabredog - thanks for the factoids, I'm something of a Blade Runner geek (but not in your league) and didn't know about that Syd Mead 'hair dryer' gun design.
 
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