TNE question on Penatrator type weapons

A thread of 2 messages, 1 July 1993 to 2 July 1993, in the order they were sent.

#5717 TNE question on Penatrator type weapons

Mark Urbin · 1 July 1993

I've been reading over the penatration rules for plama/fusion weapons (pg 297)
and am a wee bit confused.  It goes over how the penatration values are to
be used against vehicles.  It also says to use the constant damage values
against personnel.
  So what I'm seeing is that a TL 9 fusion rifle will cut through a suit
of TL F battle dress like a blowtorch through butter and deliver 9d6 to
the wearer.  If I'm wrong about this, please correct me.  An explanation
and a page number of the correct rules would be nice.
  I don't know if this made DW's errata list, but last night I noticed some
errors describing the plasma/fusion weapons.  It's the TL F fusion gun that
has the grav module to counteract the recoil (i.e. no Battle Dress required),
not the TL E fusion gun.  I'll post the other one when I get home and have
my book in front of me.

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Mark Urbin  Racal-Interlan   Boxborough, MA  These opinions are mine.
"Count Erskyll said nothing for a moment. He was opposed to the use of force.
Force, he believed, was the last resort of incompetence; he had said so
often enough since this operation had begun. Of course, he was absolutely
right, though not in the way he meant. Only the incompetent wait until the
last extremity to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use
anything, even prayer." -- _A Slave Is A Slave_ by H. Beam Piper
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#5718 Penetrator Weapons

Derek Wildstar · 2 July 1993 · reply to #5717

Mark Urbin [email removed] writes:
>   So what I'm seeing is that a TL 9 fusion rifle will cut through a suit
> of TL F battle dress like a blowtorch through butter and deliver 9d6 to
> the wearer.

THat's the way I read the rules, too.  Any other interpretations make
even less sense.

Speaking of things in T:TNE that just don't make sense, here are a
couple:  A TL-9 Laser Rifle does 10d6 of damage to an unarmored target,
but bounces totally (no damage whatsoever) off of ballistic cloth, or
any other type of armor.  A TL-13 laser rifle will actually get good
damage through Cloth or TL-10 combat armor, but is completely stymied by
TL-10 battle dress (or better).

If you want to poke holes in battle dress, you best (non high
energy weapon) choices are: a TL-7 9mm rifle (1d6 through TL-10 battle
dress) or a LAG (2d6).

A TL-13 Gauss Pistol is ineffective against TL-8 Ballistic Weave (or
Cloth, or a TL-5 Flak Jacket for that matter); however, a TL-5 9mm
magnum revolver isn't (gets 1d6 through any of those).

Grumble.  I *still* prefer the Striker/Azhanti High Lightning/Snapshot.

>   I don't know if this made DW's errata list, but last night I noticed some
> errors describing the plasma/fusion weapons.  It's the TL F fusion gun that
> has the grav module to counteract the recoil (i.e. no Battle Dress required),

That section is *very* unclear as to what rules apply to which weapons.
I presume (based on Classic Traveller and MegaTraveller definitions)
that the TL-12 and TL-13 "Plasma Rifles" correspond to PGMP-12 and
PGMP-13, respectively (require Battle Dress).  THe TL-14 Plasma Rifle
presumable corresponds to PGMP-14 and requires no battle dress.  The
"Light Fusion Rifle" probably is an FGMP-14, and requires battle dress,
while the TL-15 "Fusion Rifle" does not.

In any case, you're right: that section is very confusing, and should
probably be in the errata.

[email removed]
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                                                 Science-Fiction Adventure
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