Are you sure this is right????

[lightsenshi]

I have been looking at the Vehicle Mounted Weapons chart and I recently noticed that the VRF Gauss Gun has a volume of 2000vl! That seems WAY too much.

Is this a misprint or is this correct?

 

[vegascat]

Not too much room when you look at ammo consumption. Look at the guns on modern Aircraft. the ammo drum is several times larger/heavier than the actual gun.

 

[tjoneslo]

This is correct. Striker describes the VRF as a two ton weapon, including the ammo hopper. It really is a big gun.

 

[lightsenshi]

The reason I was asking was that it's a big jump in both size and price from either the standard light machine gun. Or even the guass rifle.

Is there a ruling on a fully automatic man portable belt fed gauss rifle?

 

[veltyen]

Ahhh. So it is a typo then. The weapon is listed as 2000Vl before ammo. Ammo bin size is not listed, merely a storage rate.

If a standard ammo bin is 100,000 rds then the VRF should only be 1000vl.

I've always overlooked it as a crap weapon (something which it isn't supposed to be) far too heavy for any real use for the damage that it does. The autofire 100 is nice, it gives it the option of hitting and doing no damage, or missing and doing a lot of damage.

Is there a ruling on a fully automatic man portable belt fed gauss rifle?

Sort of like a gauss based LMG/MPMG? You might want to read through the vehicle design section on arrays of weapons (turrets, appendages) and kludge something for yourself.

 

[Michael Taylor]

The VRF gauss gun is not man portable by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[MrMorden]

The Traveller weapons listed can really be thought of as "standard" weapons. There would have to be a lot of variation in stats in reality.

Far example, The original AK-47 and the M-16 are roughly analogous, and would both be "assault rifles" in Traveller. Both have roughly the same muzzle energy from their standard military rounds. However, the (original) M-16 had a 20 round magazine, while the AK has 30 rounds. The M-16 also weighs only about 2/3 as much as an AK. Now the M-16 has a standard 30 round magazine, without changing anything in the functionality of the actual weapon.

I think what you're looking fo is easy to make. Use the stats for the standard Gauss Rifle, but increase the ammo to 100, 200, 250, or whatever. Add the weight of the rounds, plus a little extra for a bigger battery pack, into the magazine. Do away with the fancy electronic thermal combat sight in favor of a more simple low-light, low magnification combat sight to reflect its new role as essentially a high rate-of-fire bullet hose.

A Gauss weapon would probably never be "belt fed", do to the lack of cartridge cases and possible feed issues. Instead, it would likely be a big box magazine (maybe the size of a big dictionary). It could also be a track-style linkless feed like the GE miniguns use.

Anyway, this is how I view Traveller weapons. Not every SMG or ACR you find will be the same in ammo capacity, sights, weight, or any other single technical aspect. The galaxy's a big place!