getting personal weapons through high law level customs

[GamingGlen]

I'm in a Traveller campaign (I actually get to play!), and we just went through customs of a world with law level 9.

I have an imagine of my character with a two-loop chain belt. That gave me the idea that it could be a weapon of a sort. But what would it be made of to look decoratively flimsy but is actually strong and still get through security? So I looked in CSC and saw very few weapons (the body pistol is about it?) that could get past various security checks. I could probably make stuff up and get it past the referee (first time running Traveller, not in the OTU) but figured I would ask for ideas here.

What other "clothing" could be disguised as weapons? A belt made of several loops, one on top the other so it looks like one thick belt, that could be used as a whip? Since my character is female, are hairpins too suspicious from being used in too many holo-vids? ;D What charms on a charm bracelet might be weaponized?

Since my character has no Deception skill, any items pretty much have to get through on their own.

 

[SSWarlock]

Carry that handy dandy iridium credit card with a razor edge. Just the thing to slice through to the bone of an argument.

 

[dragoner]

A hair comb, that can cut like a razor, this was an actual weapon; there were also "peaky blinders" is popularly said to be derived from the practice of stitching razor blades into the peak of their flat caps which could then be used as weapons.

 

[baithammer]

Depends on both the corruption level of the facility doing the checks as well as the how strong the security force is. A few other options are to make arrangements with black market for weapons locally, hire a smuggler to deliver planet side or arrange for a close pass of the planet and a long grav belt decent , making sure to bribe the crew to look the other way and hope security isn't at a paranoid level.

 

[Condottiere]

You could probably try snuggling in non metallic materials hardened and sharpened.

Though I'm certain that if you stay there long enough, you could buy or manufacture your own highly sophisticated shivs without risking security.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

It isn't just about Law Level but Tech Level.

At TL7, all you have to do is get past a metal detector and personal interview (think pre-9/11 border customs). At TL8, millimeter wavelength scanners are going to pick up anything denser than normal clothing (wire mesh, razor blades etc. are all going to be detected most of the time).

I would make it a Check using the difference in Law Level between the weapon and the world, but also a DM for the TL difference between the weapon and the world. Thus it is easier to sneak in a hi-tech weapon or a weapon closer to the law level of the world.

Special DMs and additional cost should be possible for specially made weapons - guns that can be disassembled to look like other things, etc.

 

[steve98052]

One possible tech trick would be to disguise an electric stun laser* of sufficiently advanced TL as a laser pointer by moving all the high-power parts out of the laser parts (which just have a tiny button battery to power it for as a laser pointer) to an external power supply that looks like something innocent, like a soldering kit. But plug them together and you have the most inconvenient stun gun this side of the extra-territorial line.

Of course if the security people have ever heard of such a thing, you get a taste of the local prison cuisine, and if they ban laser pointers or portable soldering kits (which they might do just to protect local industry, not because they suspect weapon use), you still don't get the stuff across the line.

* By this I mean a gadget that generates a channel of ionized air with a laser, and delivers a Taser-like electric zap through the momentarily conductive air.

 

[GamingGlen]

How about a small entry-capsule disguised as a meteor? Drop it in a remote location, and go retrieve it (so this would not be for a quick operation).

Turns out, the ref didn't want us blasting our way to our goal, or shooting the VIP (he's used the NPC science guy in a previous superhero campaign, IMO a marty-sue version of himself).

 

[steve98052]

Another thought on this topic is that on world's where weapons are very strictly controlled, martial arts are one type of weaponry that can always get through a border. That might tempt arrogant player characters to seek martial arts training -- maybe hire a master to train some or all of the player characters intensively during jumps -- or to hire some martial arts muscle for the mission.

Of course, if arrogant player characters don't think through that idea, they might not realize that on a world where weapons are strictly controlled, every cop, every decent security guard, and every criminal tough will have martial arts training, and attempts to do mischief might end up with the player characters feeling like extras in a Hong Kong action movie.

 

[Condottiere]

Unless chi has been identified as a manifestation of psionic energy.

 

[Linwood]

Any number of tools would readily serve as weapons or could be easily modified. A tool laser might make a handy improvised knife with some armor penetration capability.