Military Weapons TA

[Pagan priest]

Originally posted by Takei:
Meson artillery is nice but not the sort of thing that will see much use in a game.

Depends on your game. I am in the process of creating an adventure that just might see the party facing off against meson artillery, if they goof up.

As far as the TA goes, while hvaing the info for weapons available at the squad/platoon level is good, I would think the book would do more good by including the support weapons available all the way up to battalion/division level.

Consider. At the squad level, most of the weapons are already in the books. Support weapons will only be equivalent to a GPMG and light anti-armor weapopns. Platoons only add light artillery (maybe a mortar), if that much. Once you get up to battalions, you have anti-aircraft assets, heavy anti-armor weapons, artillery... all sorts of nifty toys to toss into the mix.

 

[Michael Taylor]

Pagan Priest - I'm happy to be mind-numbingly detailed up to divisional level. It would invovle a lot of vehicles though, and "against gravity" already has a lot of those vehiciles. So I would have to concentrate on, as you say, "nti-aircraft assets, heavy anti-armor weapons, artillery... all sorts
of nifty toys to toss into the mix."

 

[Michael Taylor]

For this TA, we need to be clear about what is already in existence that does not need to be covered in the TA:

In the vehicle design sequence of the THB: LMG, VRF Gauss Gun, Autocanon, 4 kinds of mortars, 4 vehicle mounted lasers, 4 types of artillery, 3 mass drivers, 3 MRL’s, Meson accelerator, 3 vehicle plasma canon, 3 fusion canon (A,B,C, X,Y, Z guns basically).
In the THB personal weapons: all the usual stuff, ACR, Gauss Rifle, Laser rifles, pistols, carbines, PGMP 12-14, FGMP 14-15, LAG, GL’s, RAM Launcher, disposable launcher, SMG.
In TA 1: well, you all know what’s in that.
In Against Gravity TA: vehicle mounted canon from 40mm to 210mm; autocannon from 30mm to 180mm; Mass driver canon from 35mm to 180mm; Beam lasers from 6Mw to 135Mw; Pulse Lasers from 1.5Mw to 360Mw; vehicle Plasma and Fusion guns of all types.
In the Players Handbook (To be released soon hopefully): almost everything in TA 1 and THB: plus: heavy ACR, Assault pistol, Micro SMG, SMG, Heavy SMG, GPMG (ie: MMG), Anti-armor rifle, Recoilless rifle, Light Tac launcher, flamethrowers, flame rifles, disposable guided missile launcher, hand flame-thrower, Gauss flame thrower. Oh, and 8 different kinds of warheads for tac missiles, and 11 different kinds of grenades for GLs.

So what doesn’t need to be covered in this TA is what is listed above. I have to ask: what is left? Variants of the above? Almost every conceivable kind of weapon, both personal and support is listed in TA 1, TA 6, TPH and THB. So what I suggest this TA cover is below. I welcome comments/abuse/suggestions

Personal Weapons not covered elsewhere:
5mm Minigun
7mm Minigun
Gauss Carbine
Gauss SMG
Gauss Machine Gun
Heavy Gauss Rifle
VRF Gauss Rifle
Heavy Laser Rifle
12mm Heavy Machine Gun
PCMP-13 (Plasma Carbine Man Portable-13)
PCMP-14 (Plasma Carbine Man Portable-14)
FCMP-14 (Fusion Carbine Man Portable-14)
FCMP-15 (Fusion Carbine Man Portable-15)
Neural Rifle and pistol? (although it’s TL-16)

Other Equipment:
Battle Computers
Portable Radar, and ladar, maser, meson comm./sensor equipment
Portable/vehicle mounted Battlefield jammers (radio, radar, ladar, maser, meson)
Armor covered in some detail
Battlepods
anti-armor guns – like actual anti-tank guns (although these are covered in TA 6 – I would just add a towing vehicle, and a gun shield and targeting unit).
Mortars are covered already in THB.
Tac Missile launchers are covered in TPH.

Vehicles (or specialist vehicles not covered in TA –6)
TL 8-14 recon Drones and RPVs for various uses (recon, tactical strike etc)
Drop ships? (Now that would be super-cool)
Battlefield Nuclear Damper Unit
Battlefield Meson Screen Unit

Other than the above, what else is there? What do you want to see?

Mike

 

[Morte]

As a general principle: do not just reprint cannon in T20 form. Actually create/fix stuff.

E.g. effects of TL on weapon stats. We always see TL9 laser rifles which weigh half a ton even without the power pack on a cable. What about TL 11/13/15 laser rifles? How does the weight drop? When can we have power packs that clip on under the "barrel" to form the forestock?

E.g. snub pistols, accelerator rifles etc. We all know the stats for these are ridiculous, so give us some more sensible "official variants".

 

[Psion]

As a general principle: do not just reprint cannon in T20 form. Actually create/fix stuff.

What'd be nice if FFS TA/d20.

 

[tjoneslo]

Alan,
Here's a question for you. If I (or the accumulated brain power of this board) actually wrote up a FF&S style TA for building weapons for a T20/D20 game, how well would it be recieved? I maan outside the seven or eight of us on this board?

I've gotten the impression (perhaps mistaken) that the general D20 audiance isn't interested in math heavy design books, even less so than other games.

 

[mike wightman]

I'd buy it

 

[Flynn]

Many don't, but I'd be interested in it, even if it were just an article for the COTI website.

That may be the way to go,
Flynn

 

[Psion]

Originally posted by tjoneslo:
Alan,
Here's a question for you. If I (or the accumulated brain power of this board) actually wrote up a FF&S style TA for building weapons for a T20/D20 game, how well would it be recieved? I maan outside the seven or eight of us on this board?

I've gotten the impression (perhaps mistaken) that the general D20 audiance isn't interested in math heavy design books, even less so than other games.

I lap that stuff up. I never even played TNE or T4, but I made sure to pick up FFS for both of them. So I'm not certain if I am an outlier on this score.

These days, I don't do as much gearhead tinkering as I used to. My main interest in such a project is a consistent baseline or something I can make something up with fairly quickly instead of just referring to the existing equipment lists.

 

[jwdh71]

I would buy it, and tinker around with it. I designed vehicles with the old Striker rules, and if I am masochistic enough for that, a little weapons design system should be a piece of cake...

 

[Linwood]

Speaking as an ex-combat engineer, a section discussing military explosives and such would be very useful. The demolitions rules in the PHB are a bit muddled (to put it mildly) and don't provide many options. And what's a boarding action without some quick-and-easy pre-packaged breaching charges?

 

[Psion]

That reminds me:

If you do this, don't forget TDX. One of my favorite little tidbits from the early JTAS; was glad to see it make it's way into MT.

 

[etherflyer]

Originally posted by Michael Taylor:
There seems little point repeating weapons that already appear in the THB and the players handbook. My understanding is that the weapopns in both these books (and I've seen both) covers just about every military grade weapon you could possibly imagine.

What else do you want me to cover in the TA?

regards

MT

No repeats, please.

I'd like to see typical loadouts and tactics, both for attack and defense. (Eg. if plasma weapons leave a trail of ionized gas, then it seems likely that someone will invent a missile that can track that back to the source, thus making shoot-n-scoot tactics necessary for ground troopers...)

At one level this stuff doesn't belong in a book of just weapons, except that weapons aren't desighned or used in isolation.

 

[etherflyer]

Originally posted by Michael Taylor:
Sounds like it needs a "by organisation" approach ie: military grade wpns/equipment/transport/drones/armor fitouts for:
TL 8-14 mercenary squads.platoon fitouts
TL 10-14 Imperial marine squad/platoon fitouts
TL 10-14 Imperial Army squad/platoon fitouts
TL 8-14 local planetary army squad/platoon fitouts

Could that be a better approach? I could do TOE's for "average" fitouts for the above?

This would be good.

But if you don't have a military background, please get someone who does to double-check your assumptions for field use. My friends in the Forces tell me civilians usually make quite a few "howlers" when they invent military organizations. (I know GT: Sword Worlds benefited greatly from comments by serving Forces members.)

 

[Michael Taylor]

I have had to give away doing the military wpns TA because I am not really qualified to give the level of detail required to satisfy people in the traveller universe, having not been a combat engineer/explosives expert/weapons scientist/mercenary. Also, I am commited to finishing the Stoner sourceobok ASAP and doing more urgent EPICs for our wonderful prison warden in the QLI fortress of evil, MJD. Sorry about that.

 

[Michael Taylor]

MJD does have a good outline available, if anyone wants to volunteer.