MGT Only: Shooting a gun with laser sights? MgT2e+

[Badenov]

One thing that popped out to me when reviewing the Traveller personal weapon tree is how the increase in weapon power requires mitigation to keep them within the human operating form factor.

Gyrostabilization, recoil dampening, for ACR/Gauss and then later on powered armor suits and grav assist systems helps with wrangling the FG/PGMP class of weapons all keeps them within the ability of the human to fire like a regular TL5 firearm.

I should also mention that putting a super bullet in an Enfield is a recipe for destroying the weapon. Any chemical propelled round as Striker calls them is predicated on a barrel that can handle the pressures. If you fire a TL10 bullet, the Enfield barrel better be TL10 make.

Well, if the super bullet was higher powered, yes. If the bullet has the same old power and just uses Space Magic to increase to 2x Armor Piercing, not so much. The text does not say either way, but the implication in the description of DSAP rounds leans toward the Space Magic explanation. But it does say that rifles can use DSAP rounds (which aren't noted as having a TL).

I don’t know the specific weapon cited, but I believe given the classic progessions that this would be an accelerator weapon- an updated version of a gyroc round, a rocket propelled bullet.

The point was that the TL10 weapon mentioned had a stat block that I would have expected from the omitted RL weapon, and would the RL weapon be available at TL8.

'Smokeless' vs gunpowder (now called 'black powder' to distinguish it from smokeless) was a huge advance in many ways. It make far less smoke. It fouled far less, and the fouling was easier to remove and less corrosive (though the primers were still corrosive until after WWII, and sometimes not even then). It had a higher energy density and, once some kinks in manufacture were worked out, was more stable and safer. It had a much more useful pressure curve.


But that's all evolutionary - the big jump was that initial step to smokeless. The other big jump was the one prior to that - to metallic cartridges, and that required the mass production of weapons that were all nearly identical, and of cartridge cases and bullets that were effectively identical.

Concur completely with the statements, but I'm not clear on how it influences the discussion?

And the problem with earlier versions (CT through to T4) is that they are old now, and the past 30 years has seen a huge improvement in optics and in the ability to match powder loads to (short) barrel lengths (that started back in the 60s, but mainly for civilian use in magnums, and thus it was about slow powders to get maximum use from heavy bullets in long barrels). Gun design rules, such as those in FF&S, should have a TL modifier to the ideal barrel length for a given bore and energy to reflect the latter.

Yes, and I would be interested to see what changes we might see if those games were rewritten to be set in 2026 rather than 1979. I'd like to see spacers on their phones, logging onto some app to sell their cargoes barely minutes after Jumping insystem.

 

[mike wightman]

Space magic you say?

full version

 

[aramis]

Traveller, as a game, seems not to be written by infantry weapons experts (a conclusion I reach based on the omission from the Central Supply Catalog of items I would expect to see), so there's a lot of issues with bringing in RL items and expectations, but I would be wildly happy to see some sort of guide that is curated by subject matter experts as the knowledgable folks here have chimed in about modern optics. I would like to see how things play out in the game at that point.

It varies by edition; Marc was an Army Officer during the 'Nam war, and was at least proficient with the M16... and probably also the 1911.

 

[Enoki]

The military rifle I found the easiest to make snap shots with was the M16A1 with no bells and whistles. Light and handy, and it fitted me just right, so no time wasted getting the sights lined up.

What's interesting is I really hate using an M16 of any sort, particularly those with that tubular stock. I find it uncomfortable to shoot, and the positioning of the various buttons and such not intuitive to use left-handed. That makes, between us, a good argument that one person's choice is another's rejection.

Thinking about the thread's subject, a laser sight (and to some extent a red dot sight) largely gets around that issue of having the rifle fit well or having to practice a lot to make up for a poor fit. However, this is something that's well below the resolution of most games, and most players probably aren't interested in tracking which exact model (and what stock length, if variable, and so on) of rifle their characters have spent sufficient time on to avoid a snap-shot penalty.

I think what sight(s) you use depends far more on what you're familiar and comfortable with. For example, I use one of these with black powder rifles--something I enjoy shooting.

There are ones that are vertical elevation only and others that can be cross leveled for windage. It takes a knowledge of the rifle to know where to set the sight for a particular range and load.