G'day Everyone,
I'm a newbie here (although not a newbie to Traveller) and figured I may as well dive in to the pool with a subject that is fairly meaty and obviously concerns quite a few people.
First, if I may be indulged; my background realworld is 12 years in the Aussie Army both inflicting injuries and treating them. Consider my skills as something akin to Combat Rifleman-3/Rifle-4, Medical-2. (Yes, I can back up the claims of such high numbers
)
Let's look at "Hydrostatic Shock" and why it kills some and not others. As someone has already stated here, it affects the surrounding tissue and can cause huge amounts of damage, more-so with supersonic rounds.
The question was asked how someone shot in an extremity could die and the answer is ......Hydrostatic shock not only propagates through the tissue, but finds and even better conductive media within the blood stream itself. Imagine the round striking the radial (wrist) artery and setting a hydrostatic shockwave up within the artery. It travels very well, it's contained somewhat within the artery walls and hammers the heart/lungs without mercy. Someone need only have an inconsequential cardiac complaint and hey presto, instant cardiac arrest. I'll let your ample imaginations work through other likely scenarios.
For the record, real world, we are taught even in sniper/recon training to aim for "the centre of the seen mass". This is because the majority of major organs are located in the biggest seen part of a human. If you can see the sucker's chest, hit it!
Someone mentioned "double taps". For the uninitiated (and yes, I know there are some out there who have vague ideas about what it is), this is where we fire 2 rounds very fast at the target. The theory is that the second round should leave the muzzle before significant recoil from the first round has spoilt the aim. The practice is that you can get 2 rounds within 1-4 cm at 100 metres. This utelises the inherint instability of the dove tail ball ammunition so that you have 2 rounds tumbling through the target in close proximity to each other with the hydrostatic shockwaves colliding and chewing up the organs. People have survived double taps to the abdo! Just as people have survived head shots. Hell, I know a man personally who survived sharing a gun pit with an 81mm mortar round and he still has all his own body parts.
Bottom line is that real world ideals of 1 round = 1 kill is best left to hollywood. The majority of gunshot wounds in combat die post injury and usually well after shock has set in. Indeed, it is often the systemic shock that kills them rather than the wounding itself. This is considered in medical circles (the ones I circulate in) as a secondary cause rather than primary.
For me, a pistol is always and will always be a last line of defence. I am as good with a pistol as a rifle and I would never hope to kill a target with 1 shot.
With all that in mind, I never really had an issue with the rules as they stand in CT. It isn't real world accurate, but as has been pointed out, real world is awfully hard to model. I use the interpretation that if you have a roll of 14 and the character's strength is 7, then the other 7 goes to another stat!
Any questions on what we have just covered?
Ohh and who mentioned the SAS using full auto delivery of rounds to confirm kills? Not an SAS policy in any of the regiments. Double Taps from all weapons are the policy and no trooper I know would enter a killing house with a weapon on "rock and roll". It's bad for moral when you paint your mates brains all over the wall in training whilst he plays the hostage and even worse news when they are real hostages, all because you couldn't control the muzzle on full auto.(It happens to the best of us)
Thanks for reading, and apologies in advance if anyone thought I was "talking down" to them. I just like to make sure I've kept everyone in the loop and as former member of the TML (before wandering off to travel the world) I can't remember how many times some of you fellas left me floundering in explanations that without a degree in physics, I could never hope to understand.
Beannacht (Blessings)
I'm a newbie here (although not a newbie to Traveller) and figured I may as well dive in to the pool with a subject that is fairly meaty and obviously concerns quite a few people.
First, if I may be indulged; my background realworld is 12 years in the Aussie Army both inflicting injuries and treating them. Consider my skills as something akin to Combat Rifleman-3/Rifle-4, Medical-2. (Yes, I can back up the claims of such high numbers
Let's look at "Hydrostatic Shock" and why it kills some and not others. As someone has already stated here, it affects the surrounding tissue and can cause huge amounts of damage, more-so with supersonic rounds.
The question was asked how someone shot in an extremity could die and the answer is ......Hydrostatic shock not only propagates through the tissue, but finds and even better conductive media within the blood stream itself. Imagine the round striking the radial (wrist) artery and setting a hydrostatic shockwave up within the artery. It travels very well, it's contained somewhat within the artery walls and hammers the heart/lungs without mercy. Someone need only have an inconsequential cardiac complaint and hey presto, instant cardiac arrest. I'll let your ample imaginations work through other likely scenarios.
For the record, real world, we are taught even in sniper/recon training to aim for "the centre of the seen mass". This is because the majority of major organs are located in the biggest seen part of a human. If you can see the sucker's chest, hit it!
Someone mentioned "double taps". For the uninitiated (and yes, I know there are some out there who have vague ideas about what it is), this is where we fire 2 rounds very fast at the target. The theory is that the second round should leave the muzzle before significant recoil from the first round has spoilt the aim. The practice is that you can get 2 rounds within 1-4 cm at 100 metres. This utelises the inherint instability of the dove tail ball ammunition so that you have 2 rounds tumbling through the target in close proximity to each other with the hydrostatic shockwaves colliding and chewing up the organs. People have survived double taps to the abdo! Just as people have survived head shots. Hell, I know a man personally who survived sharing a gun pit with an 81mm mortar round and he still has all his own body parts.
Bottom line is that real world ideals of 1 round = 1 kill is best left to hollywood. The majority of gunshot wounds in combat die post injury and usually well after shock has set in. Indeed, it is often the systemic shock that kills them rather than the wounding itself. This is considered in medical circles (the ones I circulate in) as a secondary cause rather than primary.
For me, a pistol is always and will always be a last line of defence. I am as good with a pistol as a rifle and I would never hope to kill a target with 1 shot.
With all that in mind, I never really had an issue with the rules as they stand in CT. It isn't real world accurate, but as has been pointed out, real world is awfully hard to model. I use the interpretation that if you have a roll of 14 and the character's strength is 7, then the other 7 goes to another stat!
Any questions on what we have just covered?
Ohh and who mentioned the SAS using full auto delivery of rounds to confirm kills? Not an SAS policy in any of the regiments. Double Taps from all weapons are the policy and no trooper I know would enter a killing house with a weapon on "rock and roll". It's bad for moral when you paint your mates brains all over the wall in training whilst he plays the hostage and even worse news when they are real hostages, all because you couldn't control the muzzle on full auto.(It happens to the best of us)
Thanks for reading, and apologies in advance if anyone thought I was "talking down" to them. I just like to make sure I've kept everyone in the loop and as former member of the TML (before wandering off to travel the world) I can't remember how many times some of you fellas left me floundering in explanations that without a degree in physics, I could never hope to understand.
Beannacht (Blessings)
