Expanded Equipment Availability

[Edsel]

This question is dealing with the rules on page 264 of Dark Champions. It is stated there that many types of explosives are considered to be Street Level equipment and most grenades are Military Level equipment.

 

My assumption is that industrial explosives of the sort used in commercial demolitions and mining (dynamite, TNT, etc.) should probably be rated as Street Level availability. Do you think that this should include some types of plastic explosives too? Just how tightly are these sorts of explosives regulated? How stingent are the license requirements? Do you think a character with Demolitions skill and SS: Chemistry should be allowed to brew-up his own pipe-bombs and such with the Perk: Expanded Equipment Availability Street Level Equipment?

 

How about grenades? Obviously fragmentation grenades and probabily concussion grenades should be regarded as Military Level. What about stun grenades and tear gas should they be Militarly Level or Street Level? Smoke grenades seem to be very easy to get, a quick google search found several sites selling them online. I didn't see any stipulation about who could and could not buy them. What level of equipment should a simple smoke grenade be?

[Nolgroth]

Re: Expanded Equipment Availability

 

This question is dealing with the rules on page 264 of Dark Champions. It is stated there that many types of explosives are considered to be Street Level equipment and most grenades are Military Level equipment.

 

My assumption is that industrial explosives of the sort used in commercial demolitions and mining (dynamite, TNT, etc.) should probably be rated as Street Level availability. Do you think that this should include some types of plastic explosives too? Just how tightly are these sorts of explosives regulated? How stingent are the license requirements? Do you think a character with Demolitions skill and SS: Chemistry should be allowed to brew-up his own pipe-bombs and such with the Perk: Expanded Equipment Availability Street Level Equipment?

Sure. I would have to go back and reread the section about equipment availability, but some of these would be available on the street. Heck some plastic explosives are relatively easy to make, or so I've been told. There are also some commercial grades of explosives beyond TNT. They might fall under Street level.

 

How about grenades?

Depends. Does "Street" level equipment include things that law enforcement agencies would have. At least some correctional facilities use stun grenades and most (if not all police forces) have tear gas grenades. Smoke grenades are readily available at most Army Surplus stores the last time I checked, so I wouldn't worry about them. Something like White Phosphorous would be Military Grade hardware.

 

My question becomes, what does this advance tech Perk represent? Is it having the Contacts with access to this stuff, licensing or something else. Contacts and Licensing are both their own Perks with their own limits. I'm not sure I really see the need to use the Equipment Availability Perk, if the other Perks are used correctly. Now I could see how it would be convenient to rate what equipment any given Contact has access to. Just my thoughts.

[Edsel]

Re: Expanded Equipment Availability

 

The whole Expanded Equipment Availibility Perk is not about technology level. It is meant to be a control on the sorts of equipment the player is allowed to regularly field. The Resource rules from Dark Champions allow players to generally start with 60 real points of equipment free of charge. They can acquire much more total equipment than that, but 60 real points of it is all that they can carry around at a time. However they can increase this carry pool by 5 points for each 1 character point they invest. There is theoretically no limit to how large your equipment pool can become.

 

The Expaned Equipment Availability rules says that they should buy a Perk for the ability to maintain all of that not-readily-accessable equipment all of the time. However, simply having this Perk that allows you to use such equipment does not provide a way for you to obtain them. Money, contacts and/or taking them from fallen foes are the best ways to obtain them. The Expanded Equipment Availability Perk simply allows you to retain such equipment once you have it. Since you are getting the stuff at a bargain rate anyway (1/5th the real point cost).

 

This is a departure from the old version of Heoric-level games which did not require a character to spend points for equipment, they simply used money. The point to this system is that it prevents a character who has 10 or 15 points of Wealth and a Contact or two from equiping the whole team with armored cars. Wealth and Contact are still very useful as justifications.

 

Anything that a normal law-abiding citizen can easily obtain does not require a perk to have and keep. Equipment of this sort is Standard Availability. This includes most firearms, some light body armors and, I guess, smoke grenades.

 

Street Level equipment (poorly named IMO) is classified as "low-level industrial, law enforcement or military equipment not commonly available to a law abiding citizen." It includes things like "submachine guns and assault rifles, many types of explosives, many types of body armor and the like."

 

Military Level equipment is classified as "mid-level industrial, law enforcement and military equipment." It includes things such as "some heavy weapons (such as machine guns and most types of grenades) and some types of body armor."

 

Advanced Military Level equipment is the really destructive stuff. Things like flamethrowers, Apache Attack Helocopters, Tanks, and pretty much any other military vehicle.

 

This whole question, about what belongs in what category, came up in the game last night. I was of the opinion that non-lethal grenades should probably fall iinto the Street Level category. Eosin, who is one of my players, thinks that almost all grenades should fall into the military category.

 

I think that I will rule smoke grenades as Standard Level. Any common industrial explosive and other non-lethal grenades as Street Level. Any lethal grenades (frags, White Phosporus, etc.) will be Military Level. I have ruled that silencers for weapons should be Street Level, but some of the players argue that you can home build such devices, to which I reply you can but not legally.

 

My biggest regret about this situation is that the Dark Champions book did not rate most of the equipment or weapons in the book as to what Level they belonged in. I would have saved myself a headache if I had gone through and made a list prior to the first game. Oh well, at least I am doing it comprehensively now.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Expanded Equipment Availability

 

Don't want to bog up the message with a lot of reply. So here goes.

 

I understand the concept behind the Availability Perk. What I question is why do you need it. As I look at it, the ratings themselves are very valid and any Contacts should be rated at what equipment they can provide. Further, just because a Contact can acquire a certain level of equipment, doesn't mean that he has it on hand.

 

Having a Perk just so you can use a specific category of equipment seems to be a little artificial. The only possible use I can see it is at character creation, to prevent any character from arbitrarily stating that he has a couple of M-1A Abrams tanks in his garage. At that usage, the costs are a little too expensive for my taste. It could almost be campaign setting for that purpose as well.

 

The ability to maintain equipment seems more like it should fall under Skills (to funcionally maintain it) and other Perks (such as having a base to store it). I can see the meta-game reason for having the Perk, but I just can't wrap my head around how the Perk works, other than as an artificial constraint.

 

Going back to the Contacts avenue, I would probably increase some of the Adders for contacts (like Loyalty for instance) to correct for their ability to obtain a given class of equipment.

 

Now on to what equipment falls into which category. Specifically, I do agree with you that Stun Grenades, Flashbombs and other non-lethal type grenades would fall under the "Street" level rating. More lethal grenades would of course fall under "Military" rating. Silencers would be "Street" level. Those are my "off the cuff" opinions.

 

You are right about one thing, I hate the names of the categories.

[Toadmaster]

Re: Expanded Equipment Availability

 

I think I would break it down like this

 

Normal, law abiding (in the US, some variation for really strict places like NYC or SF)

Most fighting knives

firearms >.50 cal, and non automatic / non short barrel long guns

soft concealable body armor

minor incediary devices (road flares)

 

Grey area, probably legal but may raise eyebrows

.50 cal rifles

smoke grenades

special ammo except hollowpoints

ammunition reloading supplies, black powder & smokeless powders

black powder heavy weapons (civil war cannons etc)

fireworks (in some areas)

Potato guns (some shoot more than potatos), technically may be illegal but I don't know how well enforced

Minor explosive devices (M-80's, cherrybombs etc) technically illegal in most places but likely just a warning or citation and confiscation from Law Enforcement)

Switchblades, butterfly knives, martial arts weapons etc, again may or may not be illegal but even if illegal probably a minor punishment and confiscation.

Lawn darts (illegal in many areas but really who cares)

 

Street level

Commercial explosives, dynamite, TNT, ANFO (sort of homemade plastic explosive)

Incendiary devices (commercial incendiary grenades are used in forestry and firefighting)

Light automatic weapons (assault rifles, smgs)

Silencers

Short barreled long guns (sawed off shotguns, short barrel carbines (under 16")

 

Firearms < .50 cal

 

All of the above can be owned in many states with a permit regardless of affiliation to a law enforcement agency, mining company etc

 

Grey area probably street level but could attract unwanted attention

Heavy weapons (machineguns, recoiless rifles, mortars)

Non-lethal grenades

 

again these can be owned by private citizens with a permit, but if you are wandering around with them that might not go over well, if you are part of a SWAT team, no problem.

 

 

anything else military

 

as far as making stuff, this is illegal so falls outside the classification but

 

full auto weapons, there are plans that can be bought to make weapons full auto or even to build your own (WW2 STEN Gun copies could be built in an average high school metal shop)

 

Pipe bombs, pvc or metal pipe, smokeless or black powder, and some cannon cord (its for my cannon ), add some BBs or scrap metal for more fragmentation all legal components, but illegal to put together.

 

Plastic explosives (well sort of), ANFO can be made from commonly available petrolium and gardening products, it is a thick paste or putty like consistancy. It requires a blasting cap to set it off though, you can make your own but that is considerably more difficult and dangerous.

 

Other explosive / incediary devices, many can be made from household items, far to many and too dangerous to even start listing, lets just say you could easily get all you need from a trip to the groocery store. Most of these are seriously unstable to mess with.

 

Silencers, these can be easily made for a one shot (2 liter full of foam peanuts), more effective (quieter, longer lasting), can be made from common products and some skill with metal work.

 

 

Most of these items you can find instructions for online or in books on the subjects. I'm not going to look for any or recommend any but I knew people in high school who did make a few of these things (1 or 2 even got arrested for it). Others I've learned about from work (Hazmat classes can be fun)