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Toadmaster

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  1. Re: Cool Guns for your Games Something like this?
  2. Re: Cool Guns for your Games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_rifle
  3. Re: Cool Guns for your Games On the double barrel weapon, I believe convergance is the term used. At a certain distance the bullets will cross. On a double barrel shotgun that distance might be only 20 yards, on a traditional double rifle 50 maybe 100 yards, on a P-47 (8x 50 caliber machineguns) I believe it was 500-1000 yards. One of the first submachineguns was a double barrel weapon, although it was really more of a short range low powered light machinegun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villar-Perosa_aircraft_submachine_gun I doubt the double M-16 thing is anything more than a coolness factor weapon, it seems very impractical for any serious use. Don't need a double barrel on a magazine fed auto (or semi auto) rifle to speed practical rof like you do a double single shot rifle, it is already possible to get a 5.56mm rifle upwards of 1000 rpm cyclic without the double barrel, and there are 100 rd drums available, so that doesn't seem like a need either. Last 2x 5.56mm isn't going to penetrate as well as a 7.62mm so short of video game physics you aren't going to improve performance against armor either. That being said I always though the double barrel Remington 1100 semi auto 12 gauge was pretty cool (although I wouldn't want to carry around a 16lb shotgun). Never went anywhere but was one of those cool experimental super weapons built for the SEALS during the Vietnam war. As I recall they built some full auto 1100s with standard tube mags and 10 round box mags too. I used to have a book with all these really cool shotguns in it, can't remember now if they ever tried a full auto version of the double 1100 as well.
  4. Re: Cool Guns for your Games I've read the ASP was the inspiration for the S&W 6906, which is a cut down S&W 5906 with a bobbed hammer. Other than the gutter sight and a few more rounds in the magazine (12) it is basically the ASP. Despite the short barrel it is a very accurate pistol. I've always been kind of curious why they didn't offer a similar 3906 for those with smaller hands or wanting a slightly slimmer gun (single column vs double column mag), particularly after the '94 assault rifle ban limited magazines to 10 rounds.
  5. Re: Cool Guns for your Games You are correct, I wasn't thinking about the style of cylinder on those guns. I suppose someone could make little C clips snapped onto each round to give the 9x18mm a rim, but that just makes it a further question of why bother.
  6. Re: Cool Guns for your Games Actually the Colt SAA has been available in a dizzying number of calibers. The .45 Colt is the most common, but the gun has been offered in many others, even as small as .22 LR. I'm not sure why someone would want to put a rather weak round like the 9x18mm in a large gun like the SAA, but it is theoretically possible either through a custom gun or an approriately chambered gun using half moon clips. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Single_Action_Army
  7. Re: What Have You Watched Recently? The Hebrew Hammer, a jewish hero in the mold of 70s Blaxploitation movies tries to stop Santa's plot to end chanukah. Basically Undercover Brother with jewish stereotypes. Mindless fun if you like this sort of thing. Yeah, saw it. The monster was cool looking, but not enough to save it. Made Plan 9 from outer space a master piece by comparison.
  8. Re: What Have You Watched Recently? The American Experience - The Civilian Conservation Corps. An hour long history of the CCCs 1933-42. A combination of narrated history and interviews with still living CCC enrollees. I found it enjoyable but also kind of sad that we stopped such a successful program to provide work and experience to young adults.
  9. Re: What Have You Watched Recently? You mean like this
  10. Re: Automobiles of the Pulp Era The Model T seems pretty archaic even by the 1930s (Model T production ended in 1927), but there is a reason they were around long after "better" cars were available, they were bullet proof reliability wise, could go almost anywhere, ran on gasoline, alcohol or kerosene and had a bazillian options available. A Model T pickup is pretty much my standard Call of Cthulhu investigators mobile, unless they have the cash for a Packard or similar speedster. I love this clip, the Model T just plunges on in, but the Jeep stops to size it up first if you were in snow country this was an after market accessory The standard Model T engine made 20 horsepower, but with speed equipment like the Frontenac conversion (new 4 valve per cylinder head, and a few other substitutions) it could put out 140 horses, making the Model T speedster a competitive dirt track racer until WW2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhNU8UX_YPs&feature=related and if I ever had the crazy money needed, I would have one of the 1930s Boattail speedsters from Packard, Duesenberg or Auburn. Very elegant cars that are very fast even by modern standards.
  11. Re: What Have You Watched Recently? My wife and I have been watching a lot of Netflix together lately. Just finished Life, a short lived TV series (1 1/2 seasons) kind of a comedy police drama. The main character is an LAPD officer wrongly accused of murder. After 12 years in prison part of his settlement against the LAPD was being re-instated as a police detective. A little police drama, a little X files (tracking down the ones who framed him) and a little comedy largely revolving around his new found zest for freedom and adjusting to modern technology. It was a fun series, unfortunately cut short due to US TV exectutives not knowing a good show when it bites them on the bum. Currently watching Black Books, an english series about a crabby book store owner, his cheerful ex accountant employee (who drive the book shop owner bonkers) and the quirky neighboring shop owner. Typical silly British humor so fun for us. The Call of Cthulhu, a modern movie (2005) based on the HP Lovecraft story. The movie is done in the style of a 1920s silent film. It was actually a pretty effective way to tell the story and in my opinion is one of the better HP Lovecraft inspired movies. I've also watched a ton of documentaries. Reel Injun, A History of Native Americans in cinema. Interesting and amusing, the film maker and many of the Native film makers have a good sense of humor which keeps it light hearted, even when it goes into somewhat dark places. The People vs George Lucas, a mostly light hearted look at Star Wars, George Lucas, the fans and the nerd rage felt by some against his re-imaging of the SW universe. I have become particularly interested in food production and "green power" in the US so have watched several related documentaries. Food Inc, focusses on big agro business and how for the last 40 years the USDA and Congress have written policies that have favored big business, cheap fast food and hurt the small family farmers. Very well done if you have an interest in the subject. Food Fight, the efforts of a Berkeley restraunt owner to buy local, which inadvertendly led to a resurgeance of local farmers markets nation wide. Informative and amusing as many of those involved have a great sense of humor. Carbon Nation, a realistic look at power generation and successful programs to move to renewable energy. Very much focuses on practical programs that have been successful for economic reasons (saving people money) rather than pie in the sky save the earth attempts. We saw the first episode of that. It looks promising, but after Life we were more in a zany humor mood so have been watching Black Books instead. We will probably return to Kingdom once we finish up the other series.
  12. Re: "Realistic" gun damage Through 4th Ed HERO clearly followed an each doubling of muzzle energy = +1DC, that changed in 5th ed onward. Steve clearly abandoned many of the math formulas assumed by the earlier editions. This is seen throughout the system, not just firearms. What I came up with several years ago, was a chart that matched up very closely (85-90%) with then existing (4th ed) gun stats. DC1 (1 pip) = less than 100 joules, each doubling adds 1DC. To better match HERO d6-1 was considered the normal, at the 50% mark 1/2d6 is used instead. So >100j = 1 pip (DC1), 100-150j = 1/2d6 (DC2), 151-200j = 1d6-1 (DC2), 201-400j = 1d6 (DC3), 401-800j = 1d6+1 (DC4) etc. But many of these things are linked, a fast light bullet like a 9mm Parabellum (1150 fps, 115 grain bullet, 463J) and a slow heavy bullet like a .45 ACP (880 fps, 230 grain bullet, 539J) both do similar damage because they have similar energy, but they have very different ballistics. The 9mm gets its energy from its high velocity (2x velocity = 4x energy), the .45 gets its damage from weight (2x weight = 2x energy). The higher velocity of the 9mm means the bullet travels further in a second, since both bullets drop an equal distance to do gravity, the 9mm has less "drop" than the .45 giving it better accuracy at range (less need to compensate). The .45 on the other hand has a big slow bullet that is supposed to transfer its energy more quickly (more surface in contact) which is where HERO throws in that +1 Stn to represent that superior "knock down" the .45 is famous for. This provides for much more color as you get to choose between two similar guns, both doing 1d6+1, but one (the 9mm) holding more bullets, and being a tad more accurate (+1 Rmod), and the other (.45) has a better chance of incapaciting a living target. This carries over to the comparison between a large handgun like the .44 Magnum and a rifle cartridge like the 5.56mm NATO. Again both will do similar damage, but the details are different, the .44 will have a bit better "stopping power" (+1 Stn) but the 5.56mm has a significant edge at longer range even in a short barrel (TC Contender etc) due to its much higher velocity. As you move into larger and larger weapons (cannon and such) if you want to have any variability you really need to explore options beyond raw damage, otherwise you end up with weird occurances like the M-4 Sherman (1.8 Mj = DC15, 5d6) doing almost the same damage as the Panther (3.3 Mj = DC16, 5d6+1). In the real world these two guns were in completely different classes, so you have to rely on the other rules such as AP, piercing, RMod etc to model the effect. Unfortunately while HERO gave us a nice method to determine damage, it has never been so clear how they applied these other aspects. I came up with a system that I like, but it does not always match up with the HERO specs partculary as you get into the larger weapons.
  13. Re: Champions 1st edition 1-3 all kind of blur together to me, but there were skills, just a handful of very broad ones. When Espionage / Danger International, Justice Inc and Fantasy Hero came along they were notable for greatly expanding the skills list. Something that I do think was lost from 4E onward was the idea of genres being quite seperate. Pre-4e powers, skill lists, disadvantages, equipment writeups etc varied as appropriate for the genre. JI had a much deeper skills list than Champions 3, and the name / function of skills also adjusted to reflect the genre. An anti-tank missile was much more powerful in DI than Champions 3e because it was supposed to be more of a threat in DI, there was some expectation that really tough Champions characters would shrug off the effect of a direct hit, while a DI character only hoped to not need dental records for corpse ID. In the quest for a "universal" RPG one of HERO's strengths was lost, and that has only grown more obvious in each subsequent edition as there seems to be more suggestion that the genres are all intertwined. Of course most of this is still quite easily done in later editions, it just wasn't officially sanctioned anymore.
  14. Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore Well we had our own little foray into this thread. My wife, son and I decided to try the Deep Fried Twinkie offered by a local 1950s themed diner. They have great food for the most part, but it is the last Deep Fried Twinkee I will partake of. Not only was it less tasty than a regular Twinkee (never as good as I expect), we felt like we were going to die after eating it, just a hard crunchy grease soaked Twinkee, yum, grease, sugar and a semi congealed creamy center. The ice cream it was served with was the only part I really liked. BTW can anyone explain to me the connection between deep fried Twinkees, deep fried Oreos and the 1950s? They do a nice job with the theme, much better than say Mel's. I was not aware deep fried stuff was a big deal in the 50s.
  15. Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I think Gurps Riverworld was based on the same books as the TV show. It was one of the very early supplements so not easy to find these days.
  16. Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I've seen The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and the African Queen. The last is my favorite, and was loosely inspired by actual events in the African theater during WW1 (yes there was fighting in Africa between Germany, Great Britain and France in the 1st World War). One of these days I really need to see Casablanca. When you watch The Maltese Falcon you might want to also find The Black Bird, a 1970s comedy sequel with George Segal as Sam Spade's (Bogart's character) son. Not a great movie (or even a really good one) but I found it amusing. My wife and I watched that a few months back. Typical of most of Cage's recent action flicks, it is fun as long as you don't think about it too deeply.
  17. Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Sherlock, the new (2010) BBC Sherlock Holmes series, set in the present. We are 2 episodes in and finding it very well done. BBC television obviously work different than US TV. Each season is three 90 minute episodes, Season 1 in 2010, Season 2 is set to air in 2012.
  18. Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished? I read that in 2006, good book overall. I don't recall finding the organization confusing, but agree it could have been livelier. I guess that is a problem when writing an accurate history of a subject that has often been portrayed in an over the top way.
  19. Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ... I've just finished The Boy who harnessed the wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. It is the story of a young man in Malawi (SE Africa) who has to drop out of school when his family can no longer afford his tuition, so he uses his time to build a windmill to provide his family with electricity using a library book about electrical production, a local scrapyard and a bicycle generator. I found it an amusing read, and it is nice to see a positive story like this coming from a poor 3rd world nation. I also finished The Big Burn by Timothy Egan. In 1910 fires broke out in the forests of Montana, Idaho and Washington, on August 20th these fire combined into a fire storm burning more than 3 million acres in 2 days. It remains the largest singe fire in the US and largely shaped wildland fire policy in the US for the next 60 years. It is theoretically the story of the 1910 forest fires in Montana/Idaho/Washington, but more than half of the book is committed to Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, the formation of the US Forest Service and the early conservation movement in the US. Having been in the forestry business for the past 15 years and fairly familiar with the information presented I found that towards the end the author began to show some bias towards a particular style of forestry and he simplifies some current issues, but for most of the book he sticks to the established facts / history and presents the events in an entertaining and enjoyable way. The fires of 1910 are almost a mythology for forestry firefighters, but the reality makes a great tale and the book provides a solid history of the conservation movement in the early 20th century.
  20. Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ... Is Hugh the son of Steven Ambrose? Ive read most of his WW2 books and found them quite good. All the personal stories help the books read like a novel, but they also cover their piece of history quite well. The more I read about MacArthur the more I believe he was just a great media handler rather than a great general. He does seem to have done a good job post war with Japan, but his actions in WW2 and Korea seem more about him, than his troops or winning the war.
  21. Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ... The First World War by John Keegan, is a nice overall history of the war. The Great War in Africa by Byron Farwell deals with a largely unknown part of the war and is a very interesting read (as well as a good source for game ideas).
  22. Re: Cool Guns for your Games The gunny compares the Springfield (Mauser action) to the Lee Enfield, and Garand. I thought it was apropropriate and amusing. I thought this was cool too, a demonstration of "the mad minute". Also on the right end is an Enfield Jungle Carbine, not very common to see. I may have miscounted but I believe some of these guys are exceeding the 15 rounds, it looked like a few were into their 3rd clip when time was called.
  23. Re: Presti's Weapon Rebuilds Don't take my lumping it as a "balanced, limited" as being clumsy, its simply you get a hunk of steel like that moving, you are kind of committed to the attack so its a bit easier for an opponent to guess where the attack is coming, and harder to adjust for that minor shift in direction needed to make contact compared to a lighter weapon. Of course most of this is subjective and I'll admit to a certain amount of wanting to add some diversity to weapons and avoiding the perfect weapon syndrome (D&D longsword for example).
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