Greetings,
Somebody asked about how much damage laser carbines are
gonna do under the Twilight 2000 rules. This got me to
thinking about the basic treatment of laser weapons in Trav.
Lasers are not treated very well. They are treated
essentually as a gun without recoil. Now to quote our
fave cantakerous physicist: "A laser is not a gun without
recoil. It is a flashlight that kills!" Aiming a laser
weapon will be pathetically easy. Point it at em. Keep
the beam on the target. I once played a little game with
some trav friends of mine. We had a Class II Helium Neon
laser 0.095mw. Your basic classroom demonstrator laser
about as powerful as a laser pointer. We taped it up to
a pair of binoculars so you could see the beam at a about
a hundred yards. Next we sent someone (me) down to be the
target. (Class II lasers will not hurt you unless you
stare into the beam).
Now, I can assure you, at a hundred yards, I'm a small
target. Also most of you can figure out from my writing
that I'm pretty hyper and I'll assure you I can move/evade
when I want to. I could not keep that beam off of me.
Even with that clumsy binocular/laser arrangement I just
could not evade that beam without good cover.
Hitting a target with a laser weapon will be VERY easy.
Furthermore, hitting an unarmored target will be a piece of
cake. Speaking as (probably) the only person on the TML who's
actually been wounded by a laser (Argon Ion Class IIIb to the
retinae) Lemme tell you it would be VERY easy to incapacitate
a person with a laser weapon. Aim for the eyes. Now, you don't
need all that much power to blind someone. A laser that can
cut through 7mm of steel as the early laser weapons are supposed
to could easily put a lens on to expand the beam and still have
enough power to blind. Sure you don't get penetrating power,
but now your beam quite large large. It would be exactly like
pointing a flashlight at someone. In a combat situation,
blinding someone is just as effective as killing them.
Scott 2G Kellogg
Laser Jock Extraordinaire