| From: | IronRaven cyberraven@********.net |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Red Dot Sights |
| Date: | Wed, 07 Jul 1999 15:51:18 -0400 |
>Okay, Kevin, can't argue with you there. You certainly know your gun
>stuff better than I.
Experince, that's all. I started my studies shortly before I was born.
>Question then - I don't think I've seen your version of a SR red dot
>sight. Or if so, I can't remember it. How would you deal with it in SR?
Treat like a laser, but it has no range limitations, must be top mounted.
Three versions:
tube body: -2 conceal, same avail/SI/cost as laser
screen: -1 conceal, +10% cost from laser, same avail TN but +6 hours
flip-up screen: no conceal change, simple action ot ready for firing, +25%
cost of laser, +1 avail TN, +12 hours.
>sight in on him if you're using a red dot sight. How long would it take
>to bring it up for a "sloppy" hip shot ( :) ) with a laser sight or (if
>you think you can simulate it) a smartlink?
If I physcially bump into him, my first instict is to use a mix of
armed/unarmed tactics, my favorites being the traditional knee, a kick to
the shins, or a head butt (nice thick Polish forehead to shield the CPU
<g>), possibly a shoulder check if my feet are in the right place. At this
point, you are trying to (a) maintain control of your weapon, (b) distract
him long enough to get some more room, and (c) hopefully daze him
sufficently that I don't HAVE to shoot. I;d just as soon send his testes
towards his lungs and him to the floor, then handcuff and gag (duct tape)
him if I can.
If I see him, it depends. If the guy behind me is right on my tail,
crouch deep and riase the weapon through my shoulders. Takes about a tenth
of a second. If I have a few meters between the guy behind, I'll either
drop into the afore mentioned crouch, or I'll tip over backwards and riase
the weapon as I'm dropping. How fast can you fall over backwards? (I like
this one for
However, I suspect you are asking how long it takes to raise a draw gun
htat is handging strainght down to a hip firing position. I'd say maybe a
thenth or two of a second.
I know these are very long time spans, but the human body is FAST. With
training, a human being is faster for short-distance movements than a
striking cobra.
>in sight. If they were, they'd be soldiers or hitmen, not runners. Then
>again, a lot of runners are played like that anyway. :)
Maybe that is why the groups I work with do so well. The GMs can't figure
out how the hell to deal with someone who actually knows what to do. <g>
Well, I've always argueed the runners ARE NOT PROS!
Now might be the time for some of you call for medical assistance about
those chest pains.
Runners are what I call "paid amatures". Some of them are gifted, but
they lack the polish that practice and a little bit of training can
provide. From what I've seen, most groups are a half dozen of fewer
individuals who are trooping around on a joint goal and in group. There is
no command structure. There is no pre-mission prep other than loading
magazines and maybe checking the security system.
The first hing to change is the indivudalism. I don't mind a variety of
weapons, it even good at times, but ten runners and twenty different guns
is a bad idea. What is geometrically worse is the fact that most of them
are a group of individuals, not a team. They don't know how to work
together. You're number one goal is to make sure everyone goes home. And
if you spend three minutes argueeing over who is going to pick the lock,
only to have a third character just say "screw it", blow the lock with his
shotgun and storm the room, you are all DEAD.
Professionals do things like figure out who is in charge, and what
everyone will being doing once they are on mission. Once that is known,
figure out who will back up all mission critial personnel, preferrably a
dual redundant assignment (two people and the primary operative know each
job, each person is backing up tow people). Figure out contingencies (OK,
Team 1's primary exfiltration route is blocked, how do they get out),
alternate meeting points, that kind of thing. You might watch the target
for a few days, maybe test thier security response a few times. (Hurl a
brick thourgh a window, toss a stray dog over the fence, etc.) You figure
out distractions (maybe pay a street gang 50K¥ to start wooping it up at
another part of the target perimeter, like in Crocidlie Dundee II). Maybe
arrange for emergency backup (another team that is standing by a blcok
away, and thier fee gets tripled if they have to come in). Get the plans
from the city, maybe some satellite imagery, and approch an employee
outside of the office (even if you have break into his apartment and copy
the data from his ID pass).
Does this take time and money? Yep. Do you always have these luxuries?
Nope. But if you are hitting a hard target, take a month to prep and ask
for enough money to be able to hire some special services.
My biggest tip: read the first section of FoF. And read it again. Commit
it to memory. I don't know what Dowd was, or who he talked to, but it is a
pretty good course syllabus.
My second biggest tip is to spend ten bucks, make the people at the local
bookstore a little antsy, and order the Ranger handbook. Read the parts
about ambushes, counter ambushes and assaults. It won't all be immediately
applicable, but it will help you to look at things. Use your nefound
wisdom and spend an hour drawing up a list of questions you want to ask the
Johnsons and things you would want to get for a general mission, then come
up with a few more specialized missions and the items for that. And take
it with you to the game. Make it your PCs "Survival Checklist".
If you are shor on time, go to the video store. About ten years ago,
there was movie called "Navy SEALS" with Charlie Sheen in it. The fact
that they capitalized the second S is made up for by the CQB scenes. It is
that fast. As for planning, watch "The Dirty Dozen", "Kelly's Heros"
(that
is a BIG shadow run), and especially "Ronin" (watch the arctypes spring to
life).
As a GM, I like professionals, even if only the PCs aren't. GMing Star
Wars, I ran the same mission for two different groups. One spent thirty
minutes in real time doing mission prep, three hours TR in combat (about
thrity minutes in game time), took 100% casualties, 80% fatal or captured,
and only fullfilled about half of the mission. The other group took about
three hours in RT to prepare and get things like maps, and fired twenty
shots, most of those being from a sound suppressed handgun to negate
sensors and sentry animals, with zero friendly losses and full mission
complesion. I admit to being guilty of allowing people to get access to
resources if (a) they can tell me how they did it, and (b) why they needed
it. If this is pampering professionalism, then the extra six guards and
the trained hellhound or a recent upgrade from Dobies to Steel Lynxs that
the runners don't know about aren't.
>Of course, once they're IN combat, it wouldn't apply...hmmmm...
Here, it is evne more critical to work as a team.
>You're probably right. It all comes back to the basic problem of SR -
>GREAT game, but not particularly realistic. Doing things in a balanced
The vast amjority of the stuff I talk about is technically roleplaying.
However, the players start to think if thier characters are doing this kind
of thing, I've found. And they think together, and before too long, you
find that their characters atart working as a single entity in the combat
phase.
I also like to be the consumate professional if I'm not GMing. It set an
example. I don't curse in front of Johnsons. I ask for things like
personnel files and a contact method if there are future questions. And I
am always the first to ask for more money.
>represents what you've said, rather than the last minute "going limp to
>absorb the shot" junk which normal combat pool damage resistance
Well, yo do go limp. It is called shock, but usually takes a few seconds
and you screwed by thta point anyways.
Sounds like I should get SR3 and type up some notes for my groups.
>I'll take your word. I'd be interested to try it out myself, but I live
>in Australia, not America. Guns aren't common around here except in the
Sorry. I forgot that you are an Aussy (or is Aussie?).
>country (where we're talking rifles, which I SUCK with :) ) or for
It is easier to use a rifle than anything else, including a shotgun.
(People don't seem to think that they have to aim with a scattergun, and
the recoil is heavier with a shotty.) When I teach, I start everyone on a
rifle. .22 long rifle, fifty round a day for a month, twice on Sunday. At
the end of that month, if you can't hit the target reliably and quickly,
you have to be either paralysed, suffering a palsey, or blind.
> Then you are including iron sights, no? YG, YW; MG, MW
>
>Errr...WHAT?? :)
"Your game, your way; My game, my way."
>Awww...I'm blushing now...
Don't. I'm planning on being the SR GM at college this fall, and I will
want backgrounds from folks. The more detail the better. And if you
background doesn't mention that you were properly trained, "gifted amatuer".
>Sounds sissy if'n y'ask me. :)
Hm-hm, then why is the High Power the second longest serving frontline
sidearm in the world, and the longest serving semi? (The only thing that
has seen front line serive longer is the Smitha nd Wesson K-frames.)
>vewwy quiet...we'ah hunting wavens..."*
In mythology, raven served as the messangers of Odin, played the roles of
the trickster, Prometheus and wizards (both for good and ill) to the Native
Americans, and were just generally scene as people you shouldn't screw
with, lest your eyes get plucked and/or annoy a big guy with a large ulcer
and a quiver full of lighting bolts.
<pluck> I <pluck> I
<g>
(And yes, I do I have a problem with how SR deals with the Raven totem,
and shamantic theory and procedure in general. Being a "shaman" by thier
rules around me is a fate worse than death.)
CyberRaven Kevin Dole
http://members.xoom.com/iron_raven/
"Once again, we have spat int he face of Death and his second cousin,
Dismemberment."
"Briar Rabbit to Briar Fox; I was BORN in that briar patch!"
