The Black Campbell

What could possibly go wrong?

They don’t really say what they’re building, but the gist seems to be some kind of biological weapon.  Great idea…

I got my 10mm conversion kit ($245 straight from EAAcorp.com) for my Witness .45 in on Wednesday and finally had a chance to take it out to shoot.  There was some concern, originally, since the slide to frame fit was tight! and the action would not run through smoothly.  Mostly I think this was due to the black permacoat of the slide being rough and sticky from the packing lubricant.  After cleaning the slide several times with MPro7 cleaner, and leaving it well oiled along the slide rails for the night (MPro7 gun oil), I took the barrel and spring assembly out and ran the thing by hand for about an hour until it loosened up.

The factory spring for the Witness is 14lbs.  Way too light for the 10mm or .45 rounds.  I use a 16 lb. in the .45 configuration and went with the 20 lb. from Wolff for the 10mm.  It was more than adequate to suck up a bunch of the recoil.  I should be getting a conefit guide rod from Henning Walgren in Colorado in the next few days.  The design increases the amount of surface contact between the frame and guide rod, to lessen the battering the frame takes.

Here’s a quick clip of me changing the .45 slide/barrel for the 10mm…

I shot a box of the Blazer 200gr. 10mm, which moves at about 1050fps.  Essentially, it’s a .40 S&W cartridge.  After that, I traded up to the 180gr. Double Tap hollow-points, which move at 1400fps.  Not much more kick, and delivers 717ft-lbs. at the muzzle.  Lastly, the Double Tap 200gr. with a velocity of 1250-1300fps, depending on where you’re reading the specs; 680ish ft-lbs. at the muzzle.  The last two cartridges are easily in .357 magnum to .41 magnum ranges.  A bit more jump at the muzzle on the 200gr., but nothing serious.  I can’t believe the FBI complained about the recoil on this cartridge in the 1980s.

Here’s what it looked like…

Here’s a pic of the Witness in his 10mm configuration:

Accuracy was on par with the .45acp at ranges up to 15 yards (I was more interested in function for this outing) — groups at 7 and 10 yards were in the 2-2.5″ range.  At 15 yards, a 10-round group was about 4″ without taking my time between shots.

I’m a fan of the Tanfoglios in .45, and now I’m delighted to finally have a new 10mm that works well.  The conversion kit system of the Witness is a nice idea for people looking to have multiple calibers on the same, ergonomical platform.

Just a reminder…there are more game resources in the links to the right of the posting column.  Or click on the Role Playing Games link at the top.

There seems to be some interest in more stuff for the defunct James Bond:007 RPG.  My Q2 Manual is here for download: cars, guns, motorcycles, gadgets, and basic hacking guidelines.

For the Battlestar Galactica RPG fans, there’s new Colonial ships, revised Cylon ships (including the Resurrection Ship), and a host of other stuff.

For the out of print Star Trek RPG by Decipher, there’s new aliens and android character netbooks I did a few yeas back.

I will be consolidating some campaign-specific stuff for Hollow Earth Expedition in the future and putting it up, as well as house rules and campaign aids for Space:1889 using the Castle Falkenstein rules.  Eventually, I hope to have some system-neutral Victorian stuff, as well.  (You can find my guides to London online — either The Smoke for the Victoriana game, or a more historically accurate version from Adamant Games for their Imperial Age line.)

There will be more as time permits.

The MRAP-All Terrain Vehicle is an armored fighting vehicle designed to replace the agiing HMMWV of the US armed forces.  The heavier of two alternatives, it was a cheaper one at $475,000 a unit and over 5000 have already been ordered.

The V-shaped hull deflects blasts from improvised explosive devices, and the suspension has 16 inches of travel to facilitate operations in the worst of terrain.  The vehicle is Palsan composite armored, protecting the crew of five inside (four plus a gunner.)  The motor can take a direct hit from a 7.62mm round to the oil, coolant, or hydraulics systems and still travel a kilometer.  The tires are run flats that can travel 30 miles at 30 mph.  Traction control and ABS make it incredibly safe.

Taking a page from the operations of the past decade, the M-ATV has air conditioning, and electrical outlets for personal electronic devices.  The turret is wrapped with an armored plexiglass that allows the gunner some protection, but the weapon can also be controlled from inside the vehicle.  The weapons supported are the M240, the Mk 19 grenade launcher, or the BGM-71 TOW missile system.

The M-ATV has a 7.2 liter Caterpillar C7 turbodeisel motor that produces 370hp and 925 ft-lbs of toque.  It is electronically limited to a top speed of 65mph, but is capable of 80mph.  Weighing in at almost 25,000 lbs., the vehicle is brutally powerful.  It has a payload of 4000 lbs.

PM: -1   RED: 5   CRUS: 40   MAX: 65 (80)   RNG: 320   FCE: 5   STR: 25   COST: $476,000

GAME INFORMATION:
The M-ATV ignores off-road modifications, and gains a +1EF to safety rolls.  The hull is armored and reduces weapon DC by four, and absorbs 2WL.

Q Evaluation:
The first of the M-ATVs were delivered to USMC units in Afghanistan in 2009.  The vehicle is proving to be incredibly well designed for the rough terrain.  Cpt. Roberts.

(You can find the stats for the M240 machinegun and Mk 19 grenade launcher in the weapons section of the Q2 Manual in the Role-Playing Games Resources page of this site.)

Anyone who knows me, knows I am fascinated by airships, and the whole industry and culture of these majestic craft.  There have been several attempts to revive the dirigible — from Luftschiffbau Zeppelin’s new N-07 (curently flying in Germany and California with Venture Airships) to this new design by Seymourpowell out of London…

Absolutely beautiful concept!

Ever since the trailer for the live-action Space Battleship Yamato hit the interwebs, I’ve been on a Star Blazers/SBY kick.  I finally found a reasonably priced set of the cartoons and movies (in Japanese with bad English dubbing…but worth it) and have been watching the episodes for the last few weeks when i have time.

It’s an interesting setting, and as I’m watching it, I’m beginning to realize how much American sci-fi in the last two decades was influenced by this 1975 anime.  Yamato (or Argo, for the American audiences) would get her ass handed to her every couple of episodes, and would be damaged at the end of a fight.  This sensibility worked it’s way into shows like Babylon 5, Deep Space Nine, and especially Battlestar Galactica, where the CGI-fueled effects could show the vessels taking a pounding, and the damaged models could be saved for use later.  (Enterprise‘s third season took this to a completely new level!)

Hell, the entire premise of the show was cribbed for Crusude, B5’s sequel series.  The similarities — searching for a cure to stop a plague on Earth that would destroy all life mirrors the race to Iscandar to get the “decontaminator” that would reverse the effects of radioactive bombing of the earth.  The American Star Blazers‘ captain was named Gideon; as was the captian of Excalibur.  Both vessels had a super-cannon, built from alien technology, that would kick the crap out of anything up to asteroid size, and both were left to repower for a time after firing it.

Yes, the uniforms are cheesy.  Yes, the idea of a flying battleship build out of the wreckage of Yamato is cheesy…it’s still bloody cool!

So…some suggestions for a Star Blazers setting.  There’s the usual alternate universe idea — you get to play the characters, or analogues, saving the Earth.  You could play after the initial series, where the Earth Defense Force is up and running, on another ship.  Personally, while I like using “canon” when it aids in world-building and establishing background material, I don’t let it constrain the game.

Here’s a setting close to the show premise: It’s 2199 and Earth is reasonably peaceful.  There is a global government with a federal system in which the former countries are states.  (This allows for the national pride of Yamato in the series.)  We’ve settled Mars, maybe a few of the outer planets.  We have a small space fleet primarily for search and rescue, and some defensive capability.

Along come the Gamerasu/Gamilons, looking for habitable real estate as their own world is dying.  Apparently, the pickings are sparse, as they’ve come all the way from the nearby Magellanic Cloud (148,000 light years away.)  They start bombing out world with asteroids — this will destroy habitation, but without radioactive damage to the world; they also carry a pathogen that is changing the Earth’s atmosphere to something more suitable for the Gamilons.

Earth builds a bunch of warships.  Gamilons keep destroying them. We realize the damage to Earth’s ecosphere means we won’t survive.  The Gamilons will, if once the change goes far enough.  The changes will be unstoppable in one year.

We get aid from a mysterious alien leader, Starsha of Iscandar.  She’s got a way to reverse the effects, and plans for how to get there — a new drive system.   To avoid getting a rock dropped on the assembly area, Earth is building a battleship underground — right under the wreck of an old battleship.  To disguise her radar signature, she is build to look similar to the wreck…

Most of the missions would involve troubles with the alien tech we don’t fully understand, avoiding or engaging in battles with the Gamilons, and trying to get to Iscandar and back in time.  i would drop a lot of the bad sci-fi elements of the cartoon (it was 1975, ferchristsake!) but hang onto the elements that made the show good.

What system to use?  There was a board game/wargame in the universe a few years back that looks absolutely atrocious.  I’ve seen suggestions for using Traveler, Star Hero, or Big Eyes, Small Mouth.  The anime style of the latter is appealing, but depending on if you wanted tactical crunch or role-playing as the primary element of play should be the main factor.

For me, Star Blazers was effective more for the realistic characters and their interactions.  The stress of genocide, the youth of the crew, made for heavy angst and interesting strains.  Even friend Shima and Kodai (don’t remember the American character names…one was Wildstar), were competitive and at odds with each other.  (Shades of Galactica…)  I would probably use the Cortex system for the ease of character creation, and for the hazy ship rules allowing for a more free-form combat, but Traveler would be my suggestion for the more tactically oriented guys.

I’m hoping to maybe put together some basic ship concepts in a few days, as well as twist this setting to my own particular brand of sci-fi madness.  We’ll see how it goes…

Wired has a blog post on some ideas for sprucing up board games with technology.

While the idea is very cool, and I’m sure it would appeal to those looking for a crossover between tabletop and video gaming, I can’t help but feel this won’t take off.  There’s a certain visceral feel to have hand-painted miniatures (or the wee plastic ones that Wizards is big on right now), drawing out a map (or building one from 3-D tiles and what have you), that this won’t capture.

Yes, having moving stuff on the board is neat.  Hell, little robotic minis that did what they were instructed would be pisser! but it loses some of the fun of the board game.  My favorite remains Supremacy! — the original version with the highly abstract map with it’s square and ovoid pieces, and of course the mushroom-shaped “clouds” for the nukes.

Normally, I’m a technophile.  I really want a Surface table with multi touch where the players can all manipulate dice programs, their pdf character sheets, and I can have map overlays for pieces, etc.  (Not too different from this idea, really…) so I don’t know why this particular bit of application doesn’t thrill me.