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Old 02-14-2017, 03:05 AM   #11
Icelander
 
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Default Re: Coast Guard response to distress call on Jewell Island, ME

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Originally Posted by dcarson View Post
I'd expect that if the Coast Guard personnel are locals or have been there a while that there will be at least a few hunters among them. So the second trip might bring along hunting rifles that have more range then the issue M-16s.
If they take fire from emplaced crew-served weapons, I'm betting that a second trip will be made only when they can show up with a cutter fielding 20+ mm, two M2HB and a tactical team. Also armed helicopters and plenty of federal tactical support coming.
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Old 02-14-2017, 07:49 AM   #12
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Default Re: Coast Guard response to distress call on Jewell Island, ME

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Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Do they carry an on-board sharpshooter? I should think there are more occasions for that then all that heavy stuff.
"That heavy stuff" is meant as anti-vehicular, and when they need it, they do really need it.



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Sure, she might have used social engineering and manipulation as a defence mechanism, especially as she had been placed in a desperate situation where she had no other means of protection, but blaming her for everyone going post-apocalyptic raider gang nuts is just alarmist. And victim blaming.
Says the person who has obviously already fallen under mental domination. /tinfoilhat


Alternately it sounds like the GM watched the last season of the BBC's Sherlock Holmes in prep for this adventure...
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Old 02-14-2017, 08:39 AM   #13
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Default Re: Coast Guard response to distress call on Jewell Island, ME

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Says the person who has obviously already fallen under mental domination. /tinfoilhat
I'll have you know that my PC, Taylor, made all his resistence rolls against her superpowered mental influence skills.

He even successfully resisted her non-magical Sex Appeal. Too bad that he's Charitable, with a Gallant quirk and her plight ticks several boxes of his other mental disadvantages. And that his backstory establishes her as someone he once had strong feelings for and now feels responsible for not trying harder to get her treated right...

So Taylor, despite being fully aware that she could influence his mind somehow and that her most powerful mental attack was touch based, decided to ignore all the warnings not to approach the bars and refused to treat her like an animal in a cage. In the process of an emotional, intimate dialogue with locked eye-contact, he pretty much voluntarily failed his Will against her Sex Appeal while giving her several attempts to use her powers on him as he caressed her hands and promised her not to leave her behind and never to allow anyone to cage her again, not without caging him with her.

And ignored a potential combat situation, which she was clearly trying to distract him from, not because the distraction strictly speaking worked, but because he convinced himself that no matter what she might have done to the guards, she was clearly the victim here. As far as he's concerned, illegal detention is no better than kidnapping and it's a victim's right to resist any way they can, especially if all legal ways to end it proved ineffectual. Add what appears to him to be pretty convincing evidence of crimes of sexual nature against her by the guard force and there is pretty much no way that Taylor could blame her for whatever she did to them.

He's aware that she is manipulative, deceitful and cunning. He's noticed that she has been trying to affect him since he arrived, both with 'regular' flirtatious behaviour and attempts to make him jealous, and with some form of touch-based superpower that he guesses will mess with his mind if he doesn't resist it. It's just that he doesn't blame her for this. He still feels she's worth saving.

He interprets her behaviour as coping mechanisms by someone hurt, perhaps even broken, someone who has been mistreated for most of her life and been without any positive human contact, company or friends for longer than he cares to think. Someone who had no choice other than rely on social skills and, yes, manipulation, sexual or otherwise, to survive in a hellish place, without help from anyone who isn't just using her to get what they want from her. And he blames himself for not having tried hard enought to prevent this from happening to her.

It's almost as if someone deliberately designed the PC so that his nature will inevitably lead him to try to save the mentally ill, crazy dangerous, budding super-villainess, despite it being the irrational choice and exposing him and his fellow PCs to weeks of dangerous adventure, instead of them going back to their pre-adventure lives and leaving professionals to handle everything.

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Alternately it sounds like the GM watched the last season of the BBC's Sherlock Holmes in prep for this adventure...
Could be. I didn't watch it myself, so that wasn't a spoiler for the adventure. :-)
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Old 02-14-2017, 09:41 AM   #14
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Default Re: Coast Guard response to distress call on Jewell Island, ME

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
"That heavy stuff" is meant as anti-vehicular, and when they need it, they do really need it.



The implication was not that it was not needed. It was that a sharpshooter was.
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Old 02-14-2017, 10:32 AM   #15
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Default Re: Coast Guard response to distress call on Jewell Island, ME

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The implication was not that it was not needed. It was that a sharpshooter was.
Granted. This is a case where a sharpshooter is called for.
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Old 02-14-2017, 12:37 PM   #16
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Default Re: Coast Guard response to distress call on Jewell Island, ME

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Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Do they carry an on-board sharpshooter? I should think there are more occasions for that then all that heavy stuff.
The Coast Guard does have personnel with (US Army) sniper training. They operate with the "HITRON" (Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron) unit based out of Jacksonville, FL, mostly in drug interdiction. There are also "Precision Marksman/Observer Teams" (PMOT), which are part of their Maritime Security Response Teams. Those would be available out of Boston, if needed.

Taking the word "sharpshooter" literally, they do have a markmanship course where high scores earn you a Sharpshooter or (better) Expert marksman ribbon. Graduates of this course are probably more common than the specialized anti-terrorism units. It's a skill in addition to your regular job, rather than a full-time task like the units in the first paragraph, so I'd think a GM could get away with assigning a decent rifle skill to a Coastie as needed.

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Old 02-14-2017, 01:13 PM   #17
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Default Re: Coast Guard response to distress call on Jewell Island, ME

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
So Coast Guard helicopters are always armed, even if primarily intended for search and rescue?
Slight miscommunication here (& it's my fault). Weather they are armed or not would depend on the mission they are doing. However, it only takes a few minutes to attach an MG to the door mounts.

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Even if there is no helicopter in South Portland, Portsmouth base is only some 65 miles away, a short hop for a helicopter.

I'd think having a cutter sail a few miles is probably cheaper than spinning up a chopper,
The US government is not known for it's frugality. The military (& the USCG is a part of the US military) will do whatever is most expediant.
Especially if it's just burning some gas.

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as I'd think that the distress call caused them alarm, but wasn't in itself enough to justify planning and executing a full-scale assault on Jewell Island. After all, there is a guard force there working on contract for the federal government, some of whose members are even Coast Guard Reserve or Auxiliary.

And while none of the guards can be reached by radio, no more than the federal agent, O'Toole, who radioed in saying that the guards had attacked him and kidnapped his boss, the Warden will be assuring them by phone that things are fine. I don't know how he'll explain O'Toole's distress call or the fact that neither O'Toole nor his boss, Banks, are available to speak with (the OIG of the DHS will confirm that the agents are on the island), nor how he'll explain that there's a jammer preventing radios from working (in case that the Coast Guard can detect the white-noise jamming).
In situations like the one you just described & possibly including USCG personel (that the people on shore might know). Time is usually critical.
They will send what ever is fastest backed up by a cutter.
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Old 02-14-2017, 01:21 PM   #18
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Default Re: Coast Guard response to distress call on Jewell Island, ME

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Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Do they carry an on-board sharpshooter? I should think there are more occasions for that then all that heavy stuff.
As far as I understand it: They will have the bast shooter designated as a "sharpshooter". However, if you mean a well practiced sniper I would say no.
If you all recall there was a hostage situation off Somalia a few years ago. The US Navy units on scene had to call for US Navy SEALs to act as snipers. The Navy & Coast Guard don't really use snipers. They are for anti-ship combat.

The US Marines are technically a part of the Navy. The provide security on Navy ships & facilities. Snipers would only be part of the SEALs or Marine units. I don't know if the USCG has a SWAT team (I doubt they do) but if they did they would have snipers too.
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Old 02-14-2017, 03:12 PM   #19
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Default Re: Coast Guard response to distress call on Jewell Island, ME

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
I don't know how he'll explain ... that there's a jammer preventing radios from working (in case that the Coast Guard can detect the white-noise jamming).
They'll be able to detect it, see High-Tech, p212. There isn't very much they can do to improve their ability to pick up a transmitter that's being jammed with white noise unless they can use a highly directional antenna from a position that lets it "see" the transmitter but not the jammer. The person operating the transmitter can try some things, see that page in High-Tech.
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Old 02-14-2017, 03:20 PM   #20
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Default Some comments on Coast Guard --

Remember that to the Coast Guard the "Great War on Drugs" was NOT just an attention-getting title.

Years ago I talked to a retired Coast Guard petty officer (I forget the grade.) He said that operations in the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean against drug runners were hazardous, demanded lots of good judgment & courage, and often involved shooting.

The USCG apparently rotated many of their sea-going personnel through the "drug war zone" and so many of the personnel on your helo & cutter will be effectively veterans.

That said I expect that a search & rescue helo in Maine would not have a machine gun & ammo mounted on a regular basis. Choppers are pretty weight sensitive and even c. 40-50 lbs of gun & ammo might be better used to carry an extra 8 gallons or so of fuel. Also, there is the public image issue -- citizens upset by a "militarized" rescue force might be less likely to encourage their representatives to vote for the next budget increase.

Again, I'm sure that the crews of rescue helos would have sidearms & (I'd guess) one M-4 or shotgun just in case they found a rescue mission was some sort of trap. . .

Also -- take a look at the modern large cutters -- there's a overview at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...sses_and_types

'
The Hamilton's have a 3" OTO/Melara rapid-fire gun & other weapons.

Also, there is a Sector Command in South Portland, Maine. According to the usual suspect (Wikipedia) this command includes an intelligence staff and an enforcement division.
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