Musings on Mercenary

[M J Dougherty]

I'm fast approaching 'that' stage of the project. Living as a wild man in the forest is looking more appealing every day.

So, now that Mercenary is offically A Thing In Being, I might let slip the odd comment.

Today's theme is 'what happens if I shoot your flamethrower?'

This is an example of the cyclical process involved in developing a product like this. I wanted to put a flame weapon in the equipment section. That meant design rules for them. That meant going back to the concepts section and inserting a section on damage to weapons. Energy and high-energy weapons are next.

 

[steelbrok]

I've always* thought that Plasma or Fusion weapons would be tweaked (whether by official upgrade or in the field tweaking) to produce a flame thrower like effect

*Actually not really always, I'm sure I got through junior school without thinking about it)

 

[M J Dougherty]

I have considered this, as it happens.

My conclusion is that fusion and plasma will have an incendiary but not a burn effect. That is, they will quite likely start the target burning but do not themselves burn as all their energy is expended in the initial attack.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Slap on a new trait, give it a suitable name and a modifier.

Upon taking damage while wielding a weapon with the ‘self-burn’ trait, roll a d6 and compare with the modifier. If above, boom! Incendiary grenade attack* centered on the flamer trooper.

Example: improvised flamer, self-burn** (3+)***
Arm NCP A with it, and shoot him with a pistol. Upon hit, roll d6. 4. Boom! He (and his friends) take flame damage.

Something like that?

*or they suffer an auto-hit attack with the burn-weapon.
** yes, it needs a better name.
*** a flamer meant for military use might have burn (6+) instead, to show that it’s armoured to protect from accidental explosions.

 

[Condottiere]

1. Burst radius; is the napalm under pressure?

2. Damage; how close was the rest of the squad?

3. Duration; suspect that uncontained plasma likely to cool down faster than napalm, also likely less quantity.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

I've always* thought that Plasma or Fusion weapons would be tweaked (whether by official upgrade or in the field tweaking) to produce a flame thrower like effect

*Actually not really always, I'm sure I got through junior school without thinking about it)

That would be awesome! And very practical too, if one can bring one weapon that can be adjusted to deal with any target.

Something like reduced damage and range (both halved?) gain blast and fire?

 

[M J Dougherty]

I wasn't fishing for suggestions. For various reasons I need to be sure my work is known to be mine rather than cribbed from discussions among fans.

This thread was more about me posting comments on what I'm doing as light relief from the process of doing it.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Sorry ‘bout that. Was bored at work and got carried away. Anyways, fair enough, and quite understandable. Please keep posting, it’s always fun to read a behind the scenes or designer’s commentary

 

[M J Dougherty]

No problem. I just don't want anyone going to trouble to make helpful suggestions when I'm not able to use them.

 

[Baldo]

I still remember the "Personalities" from chapter 7 of your GURPS Traveller: Star Mercs (I have a soft spot for Private-Recruit James Laughan :lol: ), are you including something similar here?

 

[M J Dougherty]

Not in this book, but there is a projected expansion that will have them.

 

[steelbrok]

I wasn't fishing for suggestions. For various reasons I need to be sure my work is known to be mine rather than cribbed from discussions among fans.

This thread was more about me posting comments on what I'm doing as light relief from the process of doing it.

I don't think we thought you were. But we like to join in with our thoughts and speculations.

 

[M J Dougherty]

That's fine by me. I just don't want anyone spending a lot of time and effort they don't need to.

 

[M J Dougherty]

Today's theme has been oddments. Like 'can I convert this .357mm derringer to a short-barelled emergency grab-gun capable of firing a range of ammunition types? For that situation where you want to deter the local wildlife with a flashbang round and it doesn't work so you move on to the high-explosive ammunition in the other three barrels. Oh well, soup for dinner again.

Also, 'wouldn't it be nice if all our unit's vehicles had an emergency weapon that took up virtually no space but can use our standrd rifle magazines?' No problem, but don't expect much in the way of accuracy.

And 'a fully-automatic body pistol?' don't mind if I do.

 

[Geir]

Smaller guns hurt my wrist when I fire them, but that's more a .38 special issue, not likely a body pistol issue (which is what, like a .25 caliber?), so I think fully automatic tiny guns would be impractical a a number of levels.

But back to flame throwers fusion and plamsa weapons and such... besides the flame effect, are you going to clarify if radiation weapons actually affect the firing party? I recall that being bounced around the forum a while back with no satisfactory consensus.

 

[Condottiere]

In theory, low velocity snub pistols are the perfect carry for seniors.

Which brings another thought: are the bullets slow enough that the target can get out of their way?

 

[M J Dougherty]

So today I fired a 12" railway gun at a landed Free Trader. Just by way of an experiment.

 

[AndrewW]

So today I fired a 12" railway gun at a landed Free Trader. Just by way of an experiment.

What where the results of the experiment?

 

[M J Dougherty]

The results were satisfactory.

But that's not what you asked. The result was that ground based point-defences were inadequate to stop the shell, which landed very close to the target but did not strike directly. All the same, a lucky shot. The free trader suffered significant blast damage but was not disabled.

 

[Condottiere]

I think it's inertia and gravity, plus if it's armour piercing, reinforced casing.

And sitting duck.