Re: silent sniping

Orcinus orca [email removed] writes:
>
> If you're playing Traveller and you're that worried about being
> both silent and effective, why don't you just use a UV or x-ray
> laser rifle?  X-ray will probably go through walls as well. :-)
>
> How did all this start anyway?

It started when I expressed derision at DGP's statement that gauss weapons
are silent.  The consensus here seems to be, they're not.  There have been
a lot of messages from professional, informed and semi-informed sources (I
include myself among the third, so no offence intended).  To summarise:

1.  DGP are wrong.  Gauss weapons aren't silent.
2.  The only noise they do make is due to the needle going through the
    sound barrier.  They have no muzzle blast (or flash), and little or
    no mechanical sound.

So, detecting one is less difficult than detecting a CPR (Chemically
Propelled Round) weapon, but more difficult than detecting a CPR weapon
with a good silencer and flash eliminator.  Without any rules handy, here's
how I'd define the task:

Detect fired weapon: Routine, uncertain.  DM's: INT, Tactics

For a gauss weapon, or CPR weapon with flash eliminator, change that "Routine"
to "Difficult".  For a fully suppressed CPR weapon, make it "Formidable".  The
flash eliminator in the "Difficult" case should really have limited sound
suppression as well, while "fully suppressed" means the round is subsonic too.
Ah, for good old Traveller, where I would impose specific DM's against the
detector for sound suppression, subsonic round, flash eliminator, and probably
the TL of the suppressor.

As for x-ray lasers; how much damage would they do, if they didn't get lucky
and hit bone?

- --
 "Keyboard?  How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  [email removed]
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   [email removed]