So, I've rounded up enough interested parties for a Metro2033/Fallout styled game. The world (or at least substantial vicinity) has been bombed or otherwise into an uninhabitable wasteland. What's left of civilization has retreated into caves and metro tunnels, fortifying them into city-stations and station-states. Pre-calamity gear is a rare luxury, carried only by the best soldiers and the luckiest survivors who went out to find it.
What's left for everyone? Stuff cobbled together from scraps. Over the next few days/weeks I'll be starting the process of figuring out all of the gear, from guns, to armor, to miscellaneous gadgets and gizmos, that will be available to my players and the rest of the world. How it works, what it costs, and maybe some doodles of how it looks.
Metro 2033 assumes that the "default" combat weapon is chambered in reloaded 5.45x39 brass, even the shitty, made-from-junk Bastard Gun. This however, doesn't make sense to me, because even the simplest possible operating system for an intermediate carbine is still far more complex than that of an SMG.
Gun progressions will be roughly as such, in terms of stats/performance;
Combat SMG: STEN, UZI, TMP
Pistol: Derringer, Revolver, makarov, glock
Intermediate Rifle: Single shot, bolt, pump/lever, AK
Shotgun: Slam tube, Improved slam tube (functionally single load only pump shotgun), double barrel, pump, semi-auto, box fed
Rifle: Single shot, bolt, FAL/Dragunov
Melee/muscle powered weapons will be around and fairly commonly used, because ammo is scarce and loud. Gear will probably go good TL6, Cheap TL7, good TL7, fine TL7, to account for it having been a higher TL than it presently is, and the knowledge to make good steel being available if resources allow.
Gadgets will be things like watches (simple through fancy combination watch including air quality meters or Geiger counters), radios, flashlights and lamps, and will mostly just be treated as "what can be made by hand? K, use the cheap gadgets rules."
I'll be going into greater depth on each of these topics, with actual stats for each, but links to books or mention of other work done to this end is appreciated.
Never mind that most x39 is berdan primed and not easily reloadable whereas almost any western round is boxer primed and quite easy to re-prime.
ReplyDeleteThe chemistry of black powder is not difficult nor are the chemicals for fulminate primers difficult to make. There's no reason that large caliber black powder cartridges to re-emerge.
I had wondered about that when I was playing, actually. The casings in game don't appear to be berdan primed, though, which is both accurate and oversight at the same time. In Metro 2033, the currency is actually unfired 5.45x39, which can obviously also be used in your guns for a substantial boost in your gun's power over the improvised powder the reloaded rounds have.
DeleteBlack powder will definitely be around, but black powder guns in tunnel fighting seems like a bad idea (even with the widespread commonality of gas masks). More used for things like explosives and as a last resort. It isn't that much further of a step to smokeless powders and primers for 'em, once you know what you need to get for it. I haven't figured out the exact TL and setting yet, but based on information remaining I'm leaning towards a minimum of 5+1/6 with stuff from the upper TLs that were reached relatively available.
Berdan and Boxer are both centerfire rounds. They look about the same externally. The main difference is the flash-hole. Boxer primers use a single hole dead center into the case, which makes them easily reloaded because a rod down the case mouth can knock them out.
ReplyDelete