http://rangehot.com/good-time/
Ahh the PLR-16. I've held one in a store, it was nice. A bit hefty, but fairly well balanced considering how much their is out in front. It will no doubt be a good bit more front heavy with a 30 round magazine in it, but still likely more manageable with one hand than an AR-15. Saw some article by someone stating that they always recommended pistols for home defense, in case you had to open doors or grab people or whatever. I'm plenty able to one-hand an AR-15, although doing so with it shouldered may be less doable depending on weight and balance, but an intermediate caliber pistol would probably work even better. My S2K works fine for one-handing (it balances like a pistol, because pistol carbine), but the long barrel's been proven to do weird things to ammo performance.
I might just go for a PLR-16 before my AR-15, so I have intermediate firepower in a package that won't just become obsolete when I get my AR. Usually I've seen the PLR-16 going for around $450 or so, which isn't bad, and would do a far superior job of impersonating a carbine for general purposes than my S2k does, performance wise. If the BATFE could actually be counted on to follow a judge's orders to stop counting putting a VFG on pistols as making an AOW, I'd be all kinds of all over that. Throw a red dot and a VFG on it, and I'd have a real nice little CQB almost-rifle.
I'd almost prefer it with a 12" barrel if I could get it, just to get as much performance as I could. 9" is a bit low for 5.56. Might have to call the company when it's time to order and see if I can get one made with the 12" barrel off of the SU-16D. It's not like I'm planning on concealed carrying the thing (and I wear a duster as my standard coat 8 months out of the year, so it wouldn't even be hard if I wanted to with a 12" barrel).
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Rules to remember
In these days of "instant knife kills" in games, there are many things people don't realize. The first is that knife fighting is terrible, awful, gruesome, and absolutely vicious.
http://randomthoughtsandguns.blogspot.com/2014/03/knife-fighting-avoid-it-if-you-can.html
Often I've seen threads on various sites complaining about how the knife in tabletop game of so-and-so can't manage a one-hit-kill on anyone, particularly not in the hands of a near-untrained caster against a fighter. Some systems, like GURPS, make this slightly more viable (unlike things like D&D where at moderate level the knife will still do the same 1d4 damage it did at level 1 and the fighter will have 100 health), but the fact is that knives are kind of awful.
The other thing people seem to forget is that any critter that weighs half what you do can kill you. Humans, without conditioning and training, are freaking awful in a fight by comparison to the rest of everything. We min-maxed for IQ, and now we have things like guns. In a fight with nothing but fists and no technique to support their use? You wind up like this guy.
http://i.imgur.com/T4DKFt7.gif
If you have good training and are in excellent condition, you can probably raise that number to your own weight, instead of half your weight. I use full-weight for myself, because I've invested significant time for fully 3/4 of my lifespan in my ability to fight, armed or unarmed. That's what it takes to be probably combat capable against things such as bambi, without the aid of tools.
http://randomthoughtsandguns.blogspot.com/2014/03/knife-fighting-avoid-it-if-you-can.html
Often I've seen threads on various sites complaining about how the knife in tabletop game of so-and-so can't manage a one-hit-kill on anyone, particularly not in the hands of a near-untrained caster against a fighter. Some systems, like GURPS, make this slightly more viable (unlike things like D&D where at moderate level the knife will still do the same 1d4 damage it did at level 1 and the fighter will have 100 health), but the fact is that knives are kind of awful.
The other thing people seem to forget is that any critter that weighs half what you do can kill you. Humans, without conditioning and training, are freaking awful in a fight by comparison to the rest of everything. We min-maxed for IQ, and now we have things like guns. In a fight with nothing but fists and no technique to support their use? You wind up like this guy.
http://i.imgur.com/T4DKFt7.gif
If you have good training and are in excellent condition, you can probably raise that number to your own weight, instead of half your weight. I use full-weight for myself, because I've invested significant time for fully 3/4 of my lifespan in my ability to fight, armed or unarmed. That's what it takes to be probably combat capable against things such as bambi, without the aid of tools.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Tech Tuesday.... ish.
Whatever, close enough. I was busy being useful all day, what do you people want from me? To prepare my posts in advance?
Anyway, first off, more progress with the Tricorder X project type things. Iphone case portable autodoc. Not fancy enough to perform emergency surgeries though... yet.
Next up, a paper/cardboard microscope. Because why not. I can dig it.
And now for some tech that DIDN'T happen.
First, courtesy of Michael Z. Williamson on Facebook, comes the flying crowbar. This thing has the amount of ridiculous stupidawesome that means it has to show up at some point in something I run. http://jalopnik.com/the-flying-crowbar-the-insane-doomsday-weapon-america-1435286216
And then, more images of the future that wasn't (but coincidentally is a heck of a lot of fun to play in games) http://gizmodo.com/22-incredible-images-show-what-the-future-looked-like-1-1538688261
And one last thing, the march of technology. In another 10 years all of those things might fit in your head.
Anyway, first off, more progress with the Tricorder X project type things. Iphone case portable autodoc. Not fancy enough to perform emergency surgeries though... yet.
Next up, a paper/cardboard microscope. Because why not. I can dig it.
And now for some tech that DIDN'T happen.
First, courtesy of Michael Z. Williamson on Facebook, comes the flying crowbar. This thing has the amount of ridiculous stupidawesome that means it has to show up at some point in something I run. http://jalopnik.com/the-flying-crowbar-the-insane-doomsday-weapon-america-1435286216
And then, more images of the future that wasn't (but coincidentally is a heck of a lot of fun to play in games) http://gizmodo.com/22-incredible-images-show-what-the-future-looked-like-1-1538688261
And one last thing, the march of technology. In another 10 years all of those things might fit in your head.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Your home is your fortress
So you might as well make it defensible as such.
First, some tips on location selection from The Backwoods Engineer
http://www.backwoodsengineer.com/2014/02/strategic-relocation-how-would-your-ao.html
Having selected a nice location, it's good to put some thought into the actual specifics of protecting said location if you need to. As usual, someone linked this and I don't remember who.
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/defensive-strategies-for-home-and-retreat-defense-after-the-shtf/
When I'm at the stage of my life to be buying a home of my own, I'll try to keep both of these in mind. That said, my plan for the apocalypse is more along the lines of actually trying to hold some semblance of civilization together, rather than 'go inna woods' and leave everyone else to die. There's a reason humanity has always tended towards society; it works (more or less). It's hard to do things like keep watch and sleep by yourself at the same time. Similarly for hunting and gardening (usually). Some things just work better with a reasonable number of people working together.
First, some tips on location selection from The Backwoods Engineer
http://www.backwoodsengineer.com/2014/02/strategic-relocation-how-would-your-ao.html
Having selected a nice location, it's good to put some thought into the actual specifics of protecting said location if you need to. As usual, someone linked this and I don't remember who.
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/defensive-strategies-for-home-and-retreat-defense-after-the-shtf/
When I'm at the stage of my life to be buying a home of my own, I'll try to keep both of these in mind. That said, my plan for the apocalypse is more along the lines of actually trying to hold some semblance of civilization together, rather than 'go inna woods' and leave everyone else to die. There's a reason humanity has always tended towards society; it works (more or less). It's hard to do things like keep watch and sleep by yourself at the same time. Similarly for hunting and gardening (usually). Some things just work better with a reasonable number of people working together.
Friday, March 7, 2014
EDC going (vaguely) mainstream
Thinkgeek has a dedicated Interest category for EDC now. A lot of useful things, like spare knives (there's always room for more knives, right? I need a cardsharp to compliment the little $1 punched steel credit card multitool I have).
There are also a number of things that may be more for people with more money than sense, but hey, it's still cool even if it isn't particularly useful, right?
There are also a number of things that may be more for people with more money than sense, but hey, it's still cool even if it isn't particularly useful, right?
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Further GURPS projects
In addition to my own project for the Wastelands (which really needs a less overused name), and the slowly developing GURPS Index (all the rules that you'd want in the base book to play something other than a human or very close to human, but aren't there), I have a few other projects planned.
The first is building a somewhat complex GURPS setting based off of an acquaintance's world from his stories. Doing so will involve a bit of research to figure out the effective TLs for a few different areas, and building a template for the "improved" humans in the story (long story short, there was a mass plague requiring genetic engineering to save the species, and the scientist doing said engineering decided he knew best. It causes some problems, but at least everybody has regeneration and regrowth and resistance to metabolic hazards and other such handy things).
The other, is GURPS: Tables. Dungeon Fantasy has some rules for rolling up loot and encounters and other such things, but otherwise GURPS has almost no offerings for just generating things. I plan to change that, using the DF tables as a jumping off point. Loot, vehicles, village/town/city layouts, enemies, etc. Enemies will be organized with a difficulty rating, based on the combined point cost of the party, and for most purposes will also handle the loot generation (outside of dungeon delves, tomb raiding, and temple digs, any loot acquired will be whatever its former owners had). I'll probably break it up by Tech period (low, high, ultra) for the most part. Ultra tech will be the hardest, because the ultra-tech books assume that most current calibers that we have, many of which have survived since TL5, will go the way of the buffalo during the changeover to TL9.
One last minor project is figuring out how to handle a few melee weapons GURPS doesn't have, or I feel don't get portrayed accurately. With the rules as they are, there's no particular benefit to hitting with impaling attacks, because most slashing weapons can dish it out more on a swing than a thrust, and with a good swing you can just shear through armor. Other than that, I'm trying to build spiked brass knuckles, best I've come up with is to change damage to pi+ and retain the possibility of knockback (there were a bunch of other thoughts, but they make things more complicated)
The first is building a somewhat complex GURPS setting based off of an acquaintance's world from his stories. Doing so will involve a bit of research to figure out the effective TLs for a few different areas, and building a template for the "improved" humans in the story (long story short, there was a mass plague requiring genetic engineering to save the species, and the scientist doing said engineering decided he knew best. It causes some problems, but at least everybody has regeneration and regrowth and resistance to metabolic hazards and other such handy things).
The other, is GURPS: Tables. Dungeon Fantasy has some rules for rolling up loot and encounters and other such things, but otherwise GURPS has almost no offerings for just generating things. I plan to change that, using the DF tables as a jumping off point. Loot, vehicles, village/town/city layouts, enemies, etc. Enemies will be organized with a difficulty rating, based on the combined point cost of the party, and for most purposes will also handle the loot generation (outside of dungeon delves, tomb raiding, and temple digs, any loot acquired will be whatever its former owners had). I'll probably break it up by Tech period (low, high, ultra) for the most part. Ultra tech will be the hardest, because the ultra-tech books assume that most current calibers that we have, many of which have survived since TL5, will go the way of the buffalo during the changeover to TL9.
One last minor project is figuring out how to handle a few melee weapons GURPS doesn't have, or I feel don't get portrayed accurately. With the rules as they are, there's no particular benefit to hitting with impaling attacks, because most slashing weapons can dish it out more on a swing than a thrust, and with a good swing you can just shear through armor. Other than that, I'm trying to build spiked brass knuckles, best I've come up with is to change damage to pi+ and retain the possibility of knockback (there were a bunch of other thoughts, but they make things more complicated)
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Grappling, the bane of all tabletop RPGs
But sometimes, grappling is used for wonderful, amazing, hilarious things. That said, very rarely do grappling rules seem at all intuitive or useable. Usually the players and/or GM will groan when a grapple begins, as they try to dig out the rules for it.
GURPS grapple rules seem a bit more versatile and friendly than those of many systems, such as D&D. D&D treats grappling as automatically dishing out minor amounts of damage throughout the duration, with a few other options like trying to move the grappled thing around. Shadowrun barely even mentions it, calls it "Subduing" and pretty much treats it as "successful hit=opponent is immobilized until the break out", with the options of doing minor amounts of stun damage, trying to get a better grip, or trying to knock down the opponent. Simple, but leaves a lot to be desired by players wanting to do ridiculous things.
GURPS, particularly once you look at techniques such as those found in Martial Arts, allows for all manner of things to be done. Occasionally there are rules that don't seem quite accurate (sacrifice throw is only available through Judo, despite the Suplex being the most well-known example of a sacrifice throw, used in wrestling. Well, "wrestling", at least.
GURPS grapple rules seem a bit more versatile and friendly than those of many systems, such as D&D. D&D treats grappling as automatically dishing out minor amounts of damage throughout the duration, with a few other options like trying to move the grappled thing around. Shadowrun barely even mentions it, calls it "Subduing" and pretty much treats it as "successful hit=opponent is immobilized until the break out", with the options of doing minor amounts of stun damage, trying to get a better grip, or trying to knock down the opponent. Simple, but leaves a lot to be desired by players wanting to do ridiculous things.
GURPS, particularly once you look at techniques such as those found in Martial Arts, allows for all manner of things to be done. Occasionally there are rules that don't seem quite accurate (sacrifice throw is only available through Judo, despite the Suplex being the most well-known example of a sacrifice throw, used in wrestling. Well, "wrestling", at least.
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