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Old 03-23-2016, 05:57 PM   #81
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

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Full House (which was also popular at the time) was the first "atypical" Status 0 sitcom
"Laverne & Shirley". "One Day At A Time". Pretty much the whole gimmick of "Three's Company". And, of course, "The Odd Couple".

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Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
Roseanne was the first big Status -1 sitcom that wasn't played for non-stop laughs every episode
I suppose Archie Bunker might have been Status 0 rather than -1, but perhaps not. The Evans family in "Good Times" certainly wasn't status 0. "Sanford and Son". "Alice". "What's Happening".
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Old 03-23-2016, 06:25 PM   #82
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Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

If not L.L. Bean then work clothes will likely be Carhart.

Jordache jeans for the fashion-conscious spoiled rich kids.

High-end electronics is a CD player. The Sony Discman came out in 1984. I bought my first CD player (a boom box) in 1989 just after I joined the Army.

Agree- there really is no equivalent to a luxury SUV. Rich people drove Caddies or imports. Maybe a Lincoln. A full-sized pickup like an F-150 is the default offroad vehicle, and you have to get out and lock the hubs to switch to 4WD (if you have it at all). Or a Jeep Wrangler- they were damned popular as a "fun" offroad vehicle, and still are. Not very utilitarian, though. But they are always 4WD. In 1988 they were making the YJ- the abomination with the square headlights instead of the traditional round.

The US military was still wearing woodland-pattern BDUs.

I think you already got the story on gun ownership investigations, but to make it clear: Unless you're in a municipality that requires registration the process is convoluted. The police contact the manufacturer and ask them to whom they sold that gun with the serial number in question, which is almost always a dealer or gun shop. Then they ask that dealer who they sold the gun to (they are required to keep records, and to file the records somewhere if they go out of business, but this is definitely a weak link in the chain). And so on. Depending upon how long the ownership chain is it can take a while. And back in 1988 there were definite holes in the laws- like the "gun show loophole" that gets so much press. Sales between private individuals did NOT require record keeping. And still don't in most places, actually, which is an item of debate in modern American politics. So to get an untraceable gun, just buy it from some guy who was selling one and give him a false name. The trail then ends with him, though a diligent cop will of course show the seller your mugshot to see if he recognizes you (if you're a suspect).

This is all, ostensibly, to make it impossible for the cops to look up what guns an individual owns to confiscate them a la Nazis, Commies, or whatever your boogeyman of choice might be. Under the convoluted system you can look up who owns a gun that is identified as being used in a crime, but it's impossible to look up what guns an individual owns unless, as I mentioned, you're in a municipality that requires registration. And 1988 was before the recent SCOTUS decisions that weakened all of the anti-gun laws, so there were still a lot of places with registration or bans. Philadelphia HP, for instance, was notorious for stopping every pickup truck that passed through the city during hunting season to confiscate the hunting rifles that were merely passing through the city on the highways, and issuing fines of course. What a great income scheme for the city, eh?

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Old 03-24-2016, 03:04 PM   #83
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Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

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I don't know if any of this will be helpful, but here are some random facts that I recall from growing up in New Hampshire in the 80's:
Random impressions are good gaming fare.

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Dunkin' Donuts started in the northeast and was extremely dominant in the area during the time period (it still pretty much is). TV commercials featuring Fred the Baker saying, "Time to make the donuts," were common.

Walmart didn't expand into New England until the 90's and Target came even later. Back then we had K-Mart, Sears, Lechmere, Ames, Bradlee's, Zayre, Caldor and probably some others I can't remember.

While not a New England specific thing, McDonald's food came in styrofoam containers back then.
Allagash, St. Francis and Saint John Plantation are all too small for chain stores or fast food restaurants (all under 500 people), but Fort Kent (ca 4,000 people) probably features at least one above chain stores and maybe a McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts.

Do you have any impressions of how big a town needed to be in the 80s to have more than one national chain store and/or more than one national chain fast food restaurant?

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I recall a pack of Marlboros cost somewhere between $1.15-$1.25 in New Hampshire and I had no problem buying them at nine years old.
Lovely.

Now, if only I could find a site somewhere that tells me what a pack of cigarettes cost in Quebec or New Brunswick in the era.

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In 1994 I went on a 28 day canoe trip on the Allagash with Outward Bound. Near the end of the trip I snuck away from the group and went into Allagash (the town) to buy candy bars. One detail I distinctly remember was that the little general store I went to sold some serious looking chainsaws behind the counter. Of course that was 1994, like I said, but I don't imagine it was that much different in 1988.
Cool!

Would that have been Joe's Country Store?
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Old 03-24-2016, 04:07 PM   #84
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Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

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Now, if only I could find a site somewhere that tells me what a pack of cigarettes cost in Quebec or New Brunswick in the era.
https://www.nsra-adnf.ca/cms/file/fi...onsumption.pdf

http://www.smoke-free.ca/pdf_1/submission.pdf (The title may say "1990s", but there's some data for several decades, border prices, export numbers...)
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Old 03-24-2016, 05:34 PM   #85
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Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Random impressions are good gaming fare.


Allagash, St. Francis and Saint John Plantation are all too small for chain stores or fast food restaurants (all under 500 people), but Fort Kent (ca 4,000 people) probably features at least one above chain stores and maybe a McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts.
That info was mostly in case your players traveled to "civilization". I'd be surprised if even Fort Kent had a chain department store. For reference, I lived in northern NH six years ago. The closest McDonalds was a 50 minute drive away and Walmart was about 2 hours even. I'd expect that part of Maine in the 1980s to be much worse.

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Do you have any impressions of how big a town needed to be in the 80s to have more than one national chain store and/or more than one national chain fast food restaurant?
Not off hand, I'd suspect a population of 10,000+, though.


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Cool!

Would that have been Joe's Country Store?
Most likely. I didn't catch the name and it was over twenty years ago, but looking at Google maps it appears to be in the right spot.
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Old 03-24-2016, 06:58 PM   #86
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Default Re: Background on SA Maria Lucia Estevez (FBI computer supergeek from privileged fami

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If she was an outstanding student in math and computing at Stanford in the 1980s, consider taking Donald Knuth as a Contact. He wasn't as famous then as he is today, but he's already widely respected and has a lot of contacts.
I'm planning on it.
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"We really need to sort out this weird wave of ritual murders. Wait a minute…"
Just so. That's the kind of thing that I was hoping the character might be able to do. Using a computer to do statistical analysis of missing persons reports, plot them on a map, comparing to crime reports, etc.
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Old 03-24-2016, 08:16 PM   #87
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Default Night scopes for predator hunting

Does anyone know of brands or specific models of good scopes for predator hunting at night commercially available in 1988?

In thick Maine woods, so shots are most often taken at ranges under 100 yards and shooting at 200+ yards is most likely out of the question, even in daylight. The intended use is for coyote, fox and bobcat, so some Acc bonus for magnification would be nice, but given the need for quick target acquisition and rapd follow-up shots, the scope either needs a fairly modest fixed magnification or variable scope that includes a low power setting.

I'm considering actual NV scopes as well as just high-quality magnifying scopes with illuminated reticules (removes up to -2 of darkness penalties). There are canonical examples in GURPS products of scopes of traditional design made before that get the -2 reduction in darkness penalties. Those have an illuminated reticule, but not a tritium one until the 1985.

The Trijicon Spectrum comes out in 1985. Presumably, it rates a -2 reduction in darkness penalties. I wonder if anything available by 1988 removes -3 of darkness penalties other than a collimating or a reflex sight. In GURPS Tactical Shooting, there are TL8 scopes that have magnification and reduce darkness penalties by -3, but I don't know what year the first of those appeared.

If the Trijicon ACOG 4x telescopic sight (Tactical Shooting p. 64) is commercially available by 1988 (the TA01 4x32 Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) was introduced in 1987, but I don't know if it was commercially available to civilians immediately), it would be fairly close to ideal for predator night hunting, at least for those who prefer not to use actual night vision optics.

Another thing, is there anything commercially available in 1988 that allows combining 2nd+ Gen NV with a scope of up to 4x (or a variable power granting between +0 to +2 or +1 to +3)?

According to High-Tech, Collimating and Reflex sights remove up to -3 of darkness penalties, as well. Game mechanically, therefore, those are awesome for close-range hunting with light sources at night, whether headlights, casters or weapon-mounted lights. What brands of collimating and reflex sights would have been available for hunting rifles in the 80s?

If you'd like the option of both collimating sights and a night vision scope, can you somehow mount both?
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Old 03-24-2016, 08:18 PM   #88
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Default Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae

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Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
https://www.nsra-adnf.ca/cms/file/fi...onsumption.pdf

http://www.smoke-free.ca/pdf_1/submission.pdf (The title may say "1990s", but there's some data for several decades, border prices, export numbers...)
Thanks - that's half of what I had promised to look up. (I still need to look at alcohol prices of the era.)
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Old 03-24-2016, 08:41 PM   #89
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Default Re: Night scopes for predator hunting

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those are awesome for close-range hunting with light sources at night, whether headlights, casters or weapon-mounted lights.
Go into the woods at night with bright lights around here and you better hope not to run into a game warden. _Very_ illegal.

From memory, Night vision gear was a thing seen only on TV. Ordinary FBI might not have any never mind private hunters. I don't know any private hunters who use it now.

Cellphones and computers weren't the only electronic gadgets that were both rare and primitive in 88.

I'm also not certain if coyotes had made it to Maine by 88. They're everywhere now but it's a pretty recent phenomenon.
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Old 03-24-2016, 08:57 PM   #90
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Default Re: Night scopes for predator hunting

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Go into the woods at night with bright lights around here and you better hope not to run into a game warden. _Very_ illegal.
In modern day Maine, there is a season during which night hunts of coyotes are legal. In the absence of better data, I (perhaps foolishly) assumed that this had been so a generation ago as well.

Edit: I can find magazine evidence that night hunting of coyotes was legal in Maine in the 90s, where it is neither portrayed as new legislation, nor a new practice. Postulating it as existing three years before the mention I could find seems very plausible. Artificial lights were (and are) legal for such night hunts in Maine, unlike many other states.

I have dropped hints in play that the rich and powerful men who annually go to an inaccessible cabin to hunt might not always obey all the hunting laws, but there has to be at least a veneer of legality surrounding the hunting party. They might stretch a point and shoot a fox or bobcat encountered after dark or maybe even take a buck a day or two after the season officially ends, but they are not poachers.

They wouldn't kill four Game Wardens three years ago to cover up the breaking of the odd hunting regulation. Those Game Wardens were nowhere near the cabin the annual predator hunt is held when they disappeared, anyway. They were up by Eagle Lake, hours away. And their car was found in Canada, which fits that theory that they were involved with Hells Angels smuggling drugs over the border and ran away before being arrested. They were seen with Robert 'Tiny' Richard, Treasurer of the Montréal chapter, the day before they told their superiors, friends and family they were going camping and then disappeared.

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
From memory, Night vision gear was a thing seen only on TV. Ordinary FBI might not have any never mind private hunters. I don't know any private hunters who use it now.

Cellphones and computers weren't the only electronic gadgets that were both rare and primitive in 88.
Good point. On the other hand, I've been able to find comments on NV gear enthusiast forums (yes, of course they exist) about 1st, 2nd and 3rd Gen NV scopes available in the 80s, before the flood of former Soviet hardware, at approximate prices of $500/$2500+/$5000+.

Note that the hunters in question are decidedly not ordinary. I was thinking that Clayborn and a few of his richer friends might have actual NV gear for their predator hunts. The rest of the night hunting party make do with either standard scopes with good light intensification, illuminated reticules in otherwise normal scopes or collimating/reflex sights (if those are not too expensive in the 80s). And/or use bright lights, if that's legal.

I'm not saying that anyone in the annual predator hunt is a card-carrying villain, concealing decades of serial-killery dark secrets, only to find the PCs stumbling on them while stuck in a small down during a blizzard. But I'd like the players to be aware of the possibility that as soon as the weather clears slightly, they might find themselves hunted through the dark, freezing woods, racing blndly away from a hunter killer who owns the night.

You know, like that cellar scene in Silence of the Lambs, but with more of a wild nature big bad wolf vibe and a side of the 'most dangerous game'. "Why, Mr. X, what a big and odd-looking scope you have on your fancy gun!" "Yes, my dear. The better to see you with in the cold, dark night, because you can run, but you can't hide."

The fact that any such sighted rifle might be in a caliber and loaded with ammunition designed to be easy on the fur of bobcats and foxes, so as not to spoil a trophy, would add an interesting element. Killing a PC with one shot from an invisible shooter is not nearly as much fun as wounding one, again and again.

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I'm also not certain if coyotes had made it to Maine by 88. They're everywhere now but it's a pretty recent phenomenon.
Well, that is a concern. I didn't realise that they were recent arrivals, I just assumed it was due to my ignorance that I hadn't heard about Eastern coyotes before.

Edit: It's all good, they got there in the 1930s and were numerous already in the 60s and 70s.
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