Transhuman Space Firearms more in line with High-Tech

[(E)]

Shock liquids may be an answer.
Higher the velocity the lower the viscosity.
Almost a gaseous consistency at close range and a rubbery one at distance. Improbable with current tech but THS?.

Add a chemical effect and you have an irritant at close range and a rubber bullet at long range.
Probably needs a membrane of some sort though.

Edit
Non-newtonian liquids and solids
The materials may be tuned/designed for the impact of launching or stopping.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Suggestions for weapons

• An entry-length shotgun (12"-15" barrel) with good TL8+ folding stock for Batenga (he can't shoot, but it looks scary, also load with LTL munitions to minimise risks of lethal escalation).
• Machine pistol for Copley, a cheap TL10 minifacced version of a Tec-9 (which we dub a Fac-9).
• Something no more than Bulk -3, but scary, for Baraka Muumba, our resident server tech chromebanger.

Forumites, please comment and suggest at will.

Essaying some attempts, noting that I'm guessing at how much one or two TLs of advances in manufacturing, cheaper metals and cheaper composites should bring down the base Cost.*

Mbogo ('Buffalo')
Entry Shotgun, 18.5x70mmPC
Dmg: 1d+1 pi;
Acc: 3;
Range: 40/800;
Weight: 8/0.55;
RoF: 2x12;
Shots: 5+1(2i);
ST: 11†;
Bulk: -4*;
Rcl: 1/6;
LC: 3;
Cost: $100/$2.5;

Mbogo or 'Buffalo' in Swahili is the local name for a common minifac-made model of pump-action shotgun in Dar es Salaam. The specific configuration that is currently most popular with discerning thugs has a 14" entry barrel, pistol grip and a substantial polymer folding stock. Compared to other firearms in the world of Transhuman Space, it is overweight, underpowered and simplistic. Unlike other TL10 firearms, it has Malf. Crit and not Very Reliable. It comes without any smartgun electronics, HUD link or diagnostics computer, although such accessories may be added to it for $250.

The casing on the 18.5mmPC shell is slightly lighter than on typical TL7-8 12g shotgun shells, but the ballistic performance is much the same as late TL8 shells (CPS $0.5; WPS 0.1), whether using old-fashioned smokeless powder or refined bioexplosives designed to emulate its performance.

FAC-9
Machine Pistol, 9x19mm
Dmg: 2d+2 pi;
Acc: 2;
Range: 160/1,800;
Weight: 5.5/1.5;
RoF: 15;
Shots: 36(3);
ST: 10;
Bulk: -3;
Rcl: 2;
LC: 2;
Cost: $80/$8.6;

This boxy, simple, all-metal machine pistol can be minifacced by even the least capable metallic 3D printers and the metal-cased 9mm ammunition (WPS 0.026; CPS $0.1) can be filled with refined bioexplosives instead of TL6-8 smokeless powder for functionally identical performance. As a consequence, it is extremely popular with early Third Wave criminals in high CR areas.

The weapon comes without any smartgun electronics and is merely Malf. Crit, instead of the more common Very Reliable for TL10 firearms.

Pretoria Defence Ubhejane Mk II
Magnum Pistol, 15mmCLP
Dmg: 4d+1 pi++;
Acc: 2;
Range: 235/2,600;
Weight: 5/1;
RoF: 3;
Shots: 9+1(3);
ST: 12;
Bulk: -3;
Rcl: 3;
LC: 3;
Cost: $1,500/$20.8;

Pretoria Defence, a South Africa smallarms company, made several varieties of these large magnum pistols from 2058-2076. The company went out of business in 2076 and the rights were acquired by the transnational Bhavishy Inc. in 2077. The design was licensed to several manufacturers to satisfy local demand and in 2080, it appeared on several of the TSA webs. Since then, functionally identical pistols have been manufactured, legally or otherwise, in Russia, Malawi, Botswana, Mozambique, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, Mexico and the United States, under various trade names. --- Do forumites have ideas for the names of companies that might have made them or some of the trade names they'd have been sold under in various parts of the world? Issues with the nationality of the licensed companies, anything to add or subtract? ---

The Ubhejane ('Rhino' in Xhosa) Mk II model outsold the other two popular ones in 15mmCLP by a considerable margin. It incorporates typical smartgun electronics, a HUD link and an effective recoil-managment system. The Mk I models are lighter and without the recoil-managment system, they are Rcl 4; Cost $1,000; Weight 4 lbs. The Mk III comes with a Smartgrip (UT p. 152) installed (ST 11; Cost $2,000).

*I list Cost for a hypothetical version of the weapon made where it's legal and sold commercially. Note that this will rarely be the case and the Cost is adjusted for LC when buying the weapon on the black market. In our case, it will be at least doubled.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by (E)

Shock liquids may be an answer.
Higher the velocity the lower the viscosity.
Almost a gaseous consistency at close range and a rubbery one at distance. Improbable with current tech but THS?.

Add a chemical effect and you have an irritant at close range and a rubber bullet at long range.
Probably needs a membrane of some sort though.

Edit
Non-newtonian liquids and solids
The materials may be tuned/designed for the impact of launching or stopping.

That sounds pretty awesome. Can you give me an idea of what you imagine the stats in GURPS terms should be at TL10?

[The_Ryujin]

Originally Posted by Icelander

That sounds pretty awesome. Can you give me an idea of what you imagine the stats in GURPS terms should be at TL10?

About all I can see is TL 10 technology making it possible to fit baton or bean bag type rounds into smaller sized rounds, possibly making them more accurate and increasing their range. Anything that would make these round better at incapacitating someone would also make them better at killing them.

[(E)]

Non-newtonian "safety" rounds aka batter bullets, jelly doughnuts.
Assumptions
- first designed for use in riot type situations that may have super valuable personnel in harms way.

When fired from a smart weapon or a weapon equiped with a rangefinder programmed to communicate with the ammunition.
- functions as a biochemical aerosol at ranges of less than 2 yards, very short duration seconds instead of minutes.
- up to 5 yards as a biochemical liquid round.
- from then as a half damage baton round.(1/5 half damage range 1/10 max range)
- Standard effects would include dye and (irritant or sleep)
- sticky mess. Hit location specific biochemical liquid.
At close ranges the sabot containing the round would separate taking the container membrane with it so there is no cohesive projectile.

From a non smart weapon
- changes the damage type to crush, halves damage, range reduced as above. Has follow up effect as above.


Does this sound plausible?
My thinking is it is a less dense round so the range suffers. A penalty to accuracy may also fit.
Design would be riot chemicals and dyes in solution within a Non-newtonian medium. Then a thin flexible membrane contained in a disintegrating sabot. No metallic components to the projectile.
Low viscosity when fired, viscosity increases as it travels if it hits anything hard (say 2 DR or higher and inflexible ) it splashes. I'm unsure of the damage in that situation though.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Icelander

[I]Pretoria Defence Ubhejane Mk II

Yeah, the 15mm Magnum was what I was going to suggest for an intimidating pistol. Or even scale up to 25mm if shooters have reinforced wrists.

A handy loophole I've used in Reign of Steel is the 25mm Tangler Pistol. Nice and safe, and legal in many places. But load it with a round that doesn't need a high speed impact to do damage, like HE or SEFOP…

And when the cops come round the corner, drop the SEFOP clip down a drain (wincing at the cost) and it's just a nice safe tangler pistol again.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Yeah, the 15mm Magnum was what I was going to suggest for an intimidating pistol. Or even scale up to 25mm if shooters have reinforced wrists.

The PC in question has obvious cybernetic arms.

On the other hand, 25mmCL is a rifle chambering and pistols designed for it are probably far rarer than those for 15mmCLP. As for 25mmPC, that's a grenade launcher round, which would be a possibility, but is probably not the daily carry weapon of the character.*

*Player joining us a session late, hadn't done the equipment for his PC (Baraka Muumba) when Batenga called him IC to ask for his help. There will be no time to minifac up anything specifically for the job. In the interest of fairness and plausibility, the PC won't own anything too obviously tailored for the upcoming job. He'll just come over with his regular gear and some stuff lifted from work, which will consist of some of the best selling black market guns and ammo in Dar es Salaam at the moment.

Originally Posted by RogerBW

A handy loophole I've used in Reign of Steel is the 25mm Tangler Pistol. Nice and safe, and legal in many places. But load it with a round that doesn't need a high speed impact to do damage, like HE or SEFOP…

And when the cops come round the corner, drop the SEFOP clip down a drain (wincing at the cost) and it's just a nice safe tangler pistol again.

Even less-than-lethal weapons like electrolasers are banned in our Dar es Salaam. I'd expect tanglers to fall in the same category.

[apoc527]

Do you have a consolidated listing of these weapons? Maybe on a campaign blog of some kind?

When I played THS, I adapted the Edgerunner weapon list from Langy's online campaign. That worked pretty well.

Then again, I insist on using all kinds of stuff from UT4e, particularly ETC firearms (which I tone done to +33% range and damage).

Hope you are having fun!