Military Weapons TA

[Norinn]

Howdy All,

TA1 states that military grade weapons will be handled in another book. When is that one expected out?

 

[Ben W Bell]

Whenever someone can be found to write it is the official line last I heard.

 

[MJD]

That's right. Some people have expressed an interest but the title is not, as yet, assigned.

 

[Michael Taylor]

I'm happy to volunteer. What kind of military weapons are we talking about? Just small arms? Or missile launchers heavy support stuff? Isn't a lot of that going to be covered in the players handbook?

 

[clementk]

I'd suspect pretty much anything not covered in TA1 that is in the THB + hopefully some new goodies like the Gauss SMG folk have asked for. o.o And T4's Emperor's Arsenal had some good designs that aren't in T20 yet.

<Wei-bingbi Ieshizu casually puts her 25mm Heavy "Snub" SMG down by her side after reloading it with electrostatic rounds>

Casey

 

[Flynn]

A nice place to start might be to look at the Consolidated Equipment List, and see what's not been updated to T20 as yet. It might help identify the items that such a TA might address.

I'd love for it to provide a more detailed look at battle dress and other powered armor options, too.

With regards,
Flynn

 

[Michael Taylor]

Not a problem. MJD has, along with some other urgent stuff, allocated me the job (unless anyone violently objects - I'm not going to take 6 months to do this TA in case anyone is thinking I piss around with these projects.

Flynn, where's the consolidated equipment list? Is it on this site?

 

[clementk]

Traveller Consolidated Equipment List version 0.71 from this page.

Casey

 

[Michael Taylor]

Casey - got anything to add - ie: what else do you want in this TA? Does this list include what was in the T4 emperors arsenal?

 

[eclipse]

Originally posted by Michael Taylor:
Casey - got anything to add - ie: what else do you want in this TA? Does this list include what was in the T4 emperors arsenal?

That's damn good place to start. That was one of the really useful T4 books.

While that book does cover Battle Dress (and battle Pods), I personally would rather see details on Combat Environment Suits and Combat Armor.

Battle dress at various TLs is almost it's own TA, IMHO of course.

 

[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

 

[Michael Taylor]

For instance, the players handbook has stats for 5 different shotguns, (combat, sporting, swan off, military and assault); 4 gauss wpns (gauss pistol, gauss rifle, gauss sniper rifle and gauss shotgun) and 5 light automatic wpns (assault pistol, micro smg, smg, heavy smg and lmg). In the support wpns there is the antitank rifle, GPMG and LAG, while the launchers section has 6 different launchers (light tac launcher, disposable launchger, disposable guided, infantry recoiless , RAM launcher and grenade launcher).

 

[Takei]

For a short time I toyed with the idea of volunteering to do this one. My original idea was to present it more as a squad/platoon overview at different TLs (kind of an expansion of the Emperor's Arsenal/Book 4 ideas), covering not only their weapons but armour and other kit like comms, sensors navigation etc. Kit already detailed elsewhere can be referred to that book, so that things aren't repeated too much.

Mention could also be made of what transport the units use, but not necessarily detailed in the TA.

The thinking behind it was that at the squad/platoon level you're covering kit that characters might just get a chance to use. Meson artillery is nice but not the sort of thing that will see much use in a game.

 

[mike wightman]

Some weapons that are missing from the Players Guidebook but are in Emperor's Arsenal or the RCES equipment guide include:
laser ACRs
laser support weapons (lmg, gpmg, hmg)
gauss support weapons (lmg, gpmg, hmg)
mortars
I would also include the various remote controlled and drone sensor/weapon systems available at the platoon/company level.

And BattleDress, a detailed look at Combat Armour and BattleDress(including Battlepods).

Takei's idea of covering armour, sensors etc. is a good one

 

[Flynn]

Michael,

If you need any assistance with Robot/Vehicle designs, let me know.

-Flynn

 

[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?

 

[Norinn]

Taylor,

Don't skimp on the "fluff". The past TAs have done fluff very well. Makes a dull book of numbers fun. In addition to weapon stats an essay or two expanding on weapon permits would be nice. What are the penalties for haveing a Plasma Gun without a permit? How are weapon permits from near-by powers (pocket empiers of the Hive) treated. Talk about the hazards of useing heavey weapons in boarding actions would be nice too. ("Good job soldier, you killed the pirate. You also melted a hole through the wall and into the fule tank. Get a mop.")

 

[Michael Taylor]

I would never ever miss out of the fluff as that makes the game. Stats are boring.

 

[Takei]

Michael, I think that the 'by organisation' approach would be a good one. As as ref it'd be nice to be able to print out the relevant page on say regular TL10 infantry and have it list typical weapons, armour sensors etc.

 

[Michael Taylor]

I think that's the approach I will take Paul. I always look at what I write from the POV of how useful/easy it would be to access the info from a ref's perspective.