RE: [SG] Needle Weapons

>Stupid Web Mail!
I wrote a nice response, but when I went to send it the web-mail timed
out
and disposed of the message!

-->I hate that...

-->Have you read Owen Glover's TOE for the "Japanese Corporate Response
Group"?

-->OOPS.  I just surfed over to the stargrunt.com site 'cause I think
the
TOE was hosted there, and the site is gone!!!  I didn't know that had
happened!  That sucks.	Good site.

-->IIRC, Owen wrote up the Japanese mercs as having a needle-type Gauss
weapon.  He had a bit of PSB, which explained that the "shot" fired was
a
single heavy needle, surrounded by a "sabot" of lighter needles.  So,
the
single heavy one had good range and penetration, and the lighter ones
made
the weapons devestating at close range (like a shotgun).  I think he
suggested that they would be FP3 Impact d10 (or so) at CLOSE range, and
then drop to FP2 Impact d8 at anything beyond close range.  I'm not
sure,
but they might have also given the bonus in close-assults for carrying
an
"assault weapon" (effectively a shotgun).  This was, I thought, quite an
effective way of representing a needle weapon.	Great at close range, ok
(not as good as an AAR/GL combo) at any other range.

>penalty. Also, the GL is not seperated for range either. I would have
trouble believing that it is not less accurate at long range than the
AAR
that it is attacked to (let alone that an  elite can fire it 6000m away
[12"x5 range bands]). If we give it a penalty, it should be 1 down-shift
in
range band size (veterans use the range of regulars, and regulars use
green
ranges, etc. = 2" less rb).

--> Um, that's a bit far...  I'm sure that's just a typo, but that
should
be 600m not 6000m...  :)

>As for why this weapon would be suited for police and security is the
lower
leathality and penetration of the weapons. They would have a less chance
of
damaging sensitive equipment and structures (such as the sides of an
aircraft) and less chance of causing collateral deaths.

--> You could achieve the same result (PSB-wise) by hypothesizing
"regular"
guns using binary propellant...  they just meter down the propellant
charge
substantially for "low-impact" (ie low penetration) situations, and use
standard ammo.

--> Be that as it may, we've played using Japanese Mercs with Owen's
TOE,
and they worked well.  Good game balance.  You don't want to meet them
close up unless you're in Power Armour, but otherwise, they aren't too
bad
to deal with.

Adrian

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Adrian Johnson