Less Than Lethal Weapons

[MrZJunior]

What sort of non lethal weapons are available in Traveller?

 

[atpollard]

I like snub revolvers with Tranq rounds.

Snub Pistol: The snub pistol is a low-velocity revolver designed for use on shipboard and in a zero-G environment. It fires 10mm, 7-gram bullets at velocities of 100 to 150 meters per second. No magazine is used: six individual cartridges are inserted into the revolver separately. Reloading takes one combat round, or two combat rounds if the firer is evading. Standard rounds include a tranquilizer round, gas round, high explosive round, and a high explosiveshaped charge round to defeat personal armor. The snub pistol is a standard shipboard security weapon generally loaded with five tranquilizers and one gas round. More expensive pure combat versions of the snub pistol are available, generally in the automatic pistol configuration with extended magazines holding up to 20 rounds.

 

[Whipsnade]

The "usual" is tranq rounds in a snub pistol. There's also an ultrasonic stun carbine DA:6.

I'm sure there are others I've forgotten.

 

[atpollard]

The "usual" is tranq rounds in a snub pistol. There's also an ultrasonic stun carbine DA:6.

I'm sure there are others I've forgotten.

Do you remember where the Snub Pistol appeared in Classic Traveller?
I was having trouble locating its description. (I had to go to MT to find it).

 

[Whipsnade]

Do you remember where the Snub Pistol appeared in Classic Traveller? I was having trouble locating its description. (I had to go to MT to find it).

Hmmm... interesting question, AT.

A quick look shows the body pistol in the LBB 1, 2, 3, or 4 with the snub pistol listed in the MT Player's Manual.

Could it have appeared in an adventure or supplement?

 

[atpollard]

I found Snub Pistol listed in The Traveller Book, but only in the TL Chart.

I figure it was another of those annoying things that you had to search an Adventure or JTAS article to find.

 

[atpollard]

Found it!

LBB 4: Mercenary, pg 37.

 

[Whipsnade]

How'd I miss that?

Thanks AT!

 

[mike wightman]

There are quite a few non-lethal weapons in T4's Emperor's Arsenal.

 

[flykiller]

What sort of non lethal weapons are available in Traveller?

do you mean formal/official/cannon? 'cause given high tech there's a lot of possibilities.

 

[MrZJunior]

do you mean formal/official/cannon? 'cause given high tech there's a lot of possibilities.

Whatever works for you. If you come up with something really interesting I would be appreciative.

 

[McPerth]

See that in MT (PM, page 76) the tranq rounds are available for a wide selection of weapons (Gauss rifle and pistol, shotgun, hunting rifle...).

Also for MT, in Challenge 46, in the adventure called HPPE, there appear the neural rifle and pistol (stats in page 24, description in page 25), TL 16 (usually) incapaciting weapons (though a bad hit may kill, as almost always). They have also their letal use (aking the phasers in StarTreck).

 

[flykiller]

(hard to come up with anything new)

robot bee swarms.

paint guns. (opaques helmet visors, sensor intakes, etc)

nets. (net guns, rapid-growth self-deploying chemical nets, etc)

cyber. lock doors shut, deactivate weapons, shut down transport, silence comms, make your airraft drive you to the police station, etc)

emp. destroys electronics, leaves organics untouched.

 

[The Pakkrat]

There are Sonic Pistols, Sonic Rifles and Sonic Grenades in the Mongoose Alien Module 2: Vargr that are non-lethal and quite effective in an atmosphere against unprotected hearing. Vargr armors have an option for aural dampening as countermeasures against such subdual weaponry.

I imagine that Corsairs that take prisoners for ransom make use of such weaponry when storming space- or starships in hopes of landing a high-credit passenger or the captain with the access codes to the cargo/ship's locker/personal horde.

Prison yards of Vargr worlds might make use of Sonic weaponry to keep inmates in line without harming them beyond unconsciousness and disorientation for a short stint, long enough to tackle and restrain the offender.

A high-Charisma Vargr might carry a Sonic pistol, especially if he's in the public spotlight and wants to be able to take a merciful action instead of injuring or killing an insurgent.

Live via satellite, this is the Pakkrat.

 

[McPerth]

cyber. lock doors shut, deactivate weapons, shut down transport, silence comms, make your airraft drive you to the police station, etc)

ITTR having read somwhere (unfortunately I don't remember exactly where) that the anti-hijack programs used gas (tear or anesthesic) and also altering gravity polarity as a way to incapacite hijackers without killing them...

There are Sonic Pistols, Sonic Rifles and Sonic Grenades in the Mongoose Alien Module 2: Vargr that are non-lethal and quite effective in an atmosphere against unprotected hearing. Vargr armors have an option for aural dampening as countermeasures against such subdual weaponry.

I imagine that Corsairs that take prisoners for ransom make use of such weaponry when storming space- or starships in hopes of landing a high-credit passenger or the captain with the access codes to the cargo/ship's locker/personal horde.

Prison yards of Vargr worlds might make use of Sonic weaponry to keep inmates in line without harming them beyond unconsciousness and disorientation for a short stint, long enough to tackle and restrain the offender.

A high-Charisma Vargr might carry a Sonic pistol, especially if he's in the public spotlight and wants to be able to take a merciful action instead of injuring or killing an insurgent.

Live via satellite, this is the Pakkrat.

Maybe those sonic weapons are more effective against Vargr than against Humans, as they have better hearing. ANd that makes me think that maybe some of those wepons are more (or less) effective against specific races (odor weapons against K'Kree, diferent lightwaves for stunners against different races, etc.)

 

[BlackBat242]

In Murray Leinster's Med series, the protagonist, a member of the Med Service found himself needing to fight a bunch of bad guys.

Being a doc he didn't want to kill them, so he mixed up a batch of quick-acting "knockout gas" and loaded it into a battery-powered spray paint gun (the gun sprayed in a very fine mist, and with the nozzle set at narrow it had a range of ~10' and a coverage of ~2' diameter area at that distance).

 

[mike wightman]

T4:
TL7 - pepper spray, tranq pistol, tranq rifle, hand stunner (taser)
TL8 - hand stunner, net gun, shock baton, thud gun
TL9 - hazer (sonic stunner), flasher
TL10 - tranq pistol, sticky gun
TL11 - stay-put(advanced sticky gun), thud gun

 

[kilemall]

T4:
TL7 - pepper spray, tranq pistol, tranq rifle, hand stunner (taser)
TL8 - hand stunner, net gun, shock baton, thud gun
TL9 - hazer (sonic stunner), flasher
TL10 - tranq pistol, sticky gun
TL11 - stay-put(advanced sticky gun), thud gun

I would think a maser-type weapon for effectively EMPing target nervous systems would be in there, or perhaps lightning guns with electrical charges driven down a laser path that hits DEX first.

 

[Enoki]

TL 14 + Neural weapons.

 

[agorski]

What sort of non lethal weapons are available in Traveller?

Going through my spreadsheet, here's a few more, not necessarily canonical:

White Dwarf 11, Fire-Arms: 3000 A.D.: Concussion Rifle, Low Power Laser Stun Gun, Anagun

Paranoia Press' Merchants and Merchandise: Hypo Gun, Taser Gun

The Argon Gambit: Death Station: Tangle Net, Tranq Spray

Paranoia Press' SORAG: Hypo Gun Darts

Expedition to Zhodane: Tranq Spray

Variant 1-1, Quartermaster: Sonic Grenade

Divine Intervention: Stun Carbine

The FCI Consumer Guide: Shock Cane, Hypodermic Cane

White Dwarf 33, Weapons for Traveller: Stun Pistol, Stun Rifle, Shock Disabler

The Undersea Environment: Electric Prod

JTAS 23, The Irklan: Blowgun

JTAS 23, The Ship's Locker: Tranq Shotgun Shell, 40mm Tranq Grenade, Tranq ACR/Gauss Needle

Third Imperium 3, New Weapons: Blackjack, Bullwhip, Caltrop, Cattleprod, Dart Gun, Stunner, Taser

Third Imperium 4, Traveller's Hardware: Riot Foam