Re: [SG] weapons

Roger Burton West schrieb:
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2003 at 12:20:08PM -0000, Matt Tope
> wrote:
> 
> >Excuse my ignorance, but what are sand casters? I've
> seen the term used on the list once or thrice, is it some kind of
scattergun
> type device?
> 
> The term originates with Traveller, I believe, where they
> were a defensive weapon which deployed large clouds of
> sensor-absorbent material (generically "sand", but it was implied
that
> this fulfilled the function of chaff, IR-blocking smoke, etc.) to
impair
> enemy targeting abilities.

Right. To expand a bit, Traveller was/is the original SF role-playing
game, with a fairly extensive spaceship section. 

IIRC, the sand casters' cloud also were to a degree able to absorb beam
weapons and to harm incoming missiles. 

Scattergun is a rough (but more powerful) equivalent in FT

Greetings
Karl Heinz