Laser Pistols, do they exist?

[ddamant]

Do laser pistols exist in Classic Traveller? I see they are referenced in the Robots supplement as a weaponry choice but I cannot seem to find a reference fort their statistics anywhere in any book.

 

[mike wightman]

They first appeared in a JTAS editorial - issue 2 - where LKW demonstrated how to extrapolate weapons from the combat matrices.
They are definitely officially part of the OTU since they are on the Striker weapon tables.

Take, for example, the laser pistol. Although it does not specifically mention them, Traveller provides all the information needed to enable a referee to create them, with a little mental effort. Since, as referee, we are running the world, we declare that a laser pistol should be to a laser carbine as a conventional pistol is to a conventional carbine. A conventional pistol usually has no shoulder stock, and has a shorter barrel than a conventional carbine. Pistols often have lower powered cartridges, even if the caliber is the same, but this is not always true. As the pistol's barrel is shorter, the sight radius is also shorter, and the pistol is less accurate at a given range than the carbine. The general principles of operation are the same for both weapons. Referring to book 1 (pp. 35-37) ,we find that a laser carbine is 800 mm long, weighs 5000 grams, has a power pack which enables it to fire 50 shots before recharging, and costs Cr 2500. We decide that our laser pistol should be the same weight as an automatic pistol, but that the barrel should be only 100 mm shorter than the laser carbine. Subtracting 100 mm plus the length of a shoulder stock from the length of the laser carbine, we get a length of 350 mm, which is a little clumsy to handle, but we want it that way. For the purposes of firing, we will treat our laser pistol as if it were a laser carbine but with a DM of -1 at medium and - 2 at long range to reflect the fact that the lack of a shoulder stock makes it harder to aim. Note: If we wanted to make the laser pistol less clumsy, we could decrease the length of the barrel further, but we would then have to make the accuracy worse. We choose to make no change to the power pack (but, we could, if desired, make it weigh less, and radically reduce the number of charges it held, or make available more compact PP's at higher tech levels). Since most of the cost of the weapon is the "lasing" part of it's innards, we set the cost at Cr 2000.
Characteristics - Length: 350 mm.
Weight: 750 grams. Base Price: Cr 2000.

 

[RandyB]

They first appeared in a JTAS editorial - issue 2 - where LKW demonstrated how to extrapolate weapons from the combat matrices.
They are definitely officially part of the OTU since they are on the Striker weapon tables.

They also appear in Double Adventure 2: Mission on Mithril. I don't recall which was published first, though, the DA or JTAS #2.

 

[aramis]

They also appear in Double Adventure 2: Mission on Mithril. I don't recall which was published first, though, the DA or JTAS #2.

And they're included in later editions. Like MegaTraveller, PM p 77.

 

[robject]

They first appeared in a JTAS editorial - issue 2 - where LKW demonstrated how to extrapolate weapons from the combat matrices.

Thus, they're even part of Proto-Traveller.

I suppose there's an even lower stratum of Traveller where there are no Laser Pistols. Burgess Shale Traveller? Precambrian Traveller?

 

[aramis]

Thus, they're even part of Proto-Traveller.

I suppose there's an even lower stratum of Traveller where there are no Laser Pistols. Burgess Shale Traveller? Precambrian Traveller?

Since they are TL13, they're pretty much absent from TNE in the classic sense, and likewise from T4 due to M0...

Note that TNE, they can be made lower tech due to chemical cartridge lasers. Just be careful not to burn yourself...

I dislike the "digs" at a name, too.

 

[LeperColony]

Lasers are curious weapons in TNE. They do a lot of damage and have a high volume of fire, but unless we're talking about a SSW, it's pretty easy to entirely negate their damage. Metal breastplates will do it. So will metal inserts in kevlar, iirc.

I do like the CLCs though.

 

[maksimsmelchak]

Yes. In many Bryan Gibson books and illustrations.

Power packs are Traveller canon if I recall correctly, as in a portable battery hooked into the laser weapon by a cord.

I seem to recall the LBB mercenary ironmongery having an illustration of this.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

 

[GypsyComet]

Because the Human Era of Traveller is defined by the Vilani in many respects, my opinion is that yes, they exist during the Third Imperium in the powerpack-and-cable form, as Vilani lasers always have.

CLC lasers are a Solomani thing, IMO, were barely underway when the Rule of Man went dark, and fell out of favor where they were found because of Vilani prejudices and the whole toxic chemicals thing. That attitude persisted, with local exceptions, into and through the Long Night and Third Imperium.

Then Virus happened. When your laser's power management system comes back from a recharge on ship's power with an evil laugh and an explosion while on your hip, your surviving buddies quickly learn to distrust ten thousand year old Vilani patents for computer equipment, and come up with other solutions. Still a curiosity used for special projects, CLC lasers quickly became popular in the "everything wants to kill me now, but my own gun prefers cancer" era of recovery. The era of the Fourth Imperium will probably see a period of mixture before the safety of non-carcinogenic lasers leads the pack and cable model to return to dominance...

 

[mike wightman]

The earliest laser pistol TL is TL9 in Striker, there is a more powerful TL13 version too.

Emperor's Arsenal for T4 has laser pistols in the M:0 setting as early as TL12.

 

[maksimsmelchak]

CLC lasers are a Solomani thing, IMO, were barely underway when the Rule of Man went dark, and fell out of favor where they were found because of Vilani prejudices and the whole toxic chemicals thing. That attitude persisted, with local exceptions, into and through the Long Night and Third Imperium.

CLC = chemical what?

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

 

[mike wightman]

CLC = chemical what?

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Chemical laser cartridge

 

[Condottiere]

I usually throw them on a camp fire to recharge.

 

[Jame]

The earliest laser pistol TL is TL9 in Striker, there is a more powerful TL13 version too.

Emperor's Arsenal for T4 has laser pistols in the M:0 setting as early as TL12.

I never noticed them being TL 12 in T4.
Now that I think about it I prefer them being TL 9.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

My question since T4 is brought up: Are the associated power packs operating using Fusion Plus?

Yes this is CT, but consider the implication of the T5 "paradigm shift" of history combat, etc.

Basically, no portable energy weapons prior to Fusion Plus. Or if not what is going on inside the power packs?

 

[atpollard]

The power packs are rechargeable ... that means batteries of some kind.
TNE's FF&S goes into detail.