Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 10-31-2014, 10:12 PM   #191
Agemegos
 
Agemegos's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
Default Re: Imperial Marines

Quote:
Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Will we see more writeups for the colonies similar to New Fujian in length and depth?
Eventually. My plan is gradually to build up a collection of such descriptions including every colony in Central Sector and every colony in Pisces Austrinus Sector.

There will be a preliminary stage in which the descriptions look something like this: Simanta.

That will take some time, however.
__________________

Decay is inherent in all composite things.
Nod head. Get treat.

Last edited by Agemegos; 10-31-2014 at 10:19 PM.
Agemegos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-31-2014, 11:41 PM   #192
warellis
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Default Re: Imperial Marines

Considering the weight issues Imperial Marines have to deal with, and how the setting has some superscience tech, are there man-portable high-powered laser rifles they typically use? I'd assume such a weapon would be less weighty compared to a railgun or gauss weapon.

Last edited by warellis; 11-01-2014 at 12:19 AM.
warellis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-01-2014, 12:52 AM   #193
Icelander
 
Icelander's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Re: Imperial Marines

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeff_wilson View Post
What's wrong with with just marines? They're still primarily infantry that goes by ship, right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
I like "Imperial Marine Commandos".
I agree with sir_pudding. Imperial Marine Commandos is descriptive and more Commonwealth than Yank, which is a good thing in sci-fi, given how much of it sounds American.

Not that it's not plausible enough for a majority of sci-fi, but variety is good and Brett is going to sound more British than the Brits whether he wants to or not and it's best to capitalise on it rather than try to fight it.
__________________
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Icelander is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-01-2014, 01:24 AM   #194
Agemegos
 
Agemegos's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
Default Re: Imperial Marines

Quote:
Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Considering the weight issues Imperial Marines have to deal with, and how the setting has some superscience tech, are there man-portable high-powered laser rifles they typically use? I'd assume such a weapon would be less weighty compared to a railgun or gauss weapon.
Their high-powered weapons walk around on robotic gun-carriages. Marines carry small-arms only for close-quarters work.
__________________

Decay is inherent in all composite things.
Nod head. Get treat.
Agemegos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-01-2014, 02:08 AM   #195
warellis
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Default Re: Imperial Marines

Quote:
Originally Posted by Agemegos View Post
Their high-powered weapons walk around on robotic gun-carriages. Marines carry small-arms only for close-quarters work.
Do they have any energy weapon small arms?
warellis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-01-2014, 02:25 AM   #196
Agemegos
 
Agemegos's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
Default Re: Imperial Marines

Quote:
Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Do they have any energy weapon small arms?
I usually assume not: when I am running FLAT BLACK laser smallarms have been "coming real soon now" for forty years. They work okay in ideal conditions and some colonies in the Suite have issued them to their troops, but in the field, when the air is full of smoke and dust, and enemy troops are behind foliage or light cover, the autofocus just doesn't work well enough. Either the shot is just that fatal fraction of a second too late, or the autofocus can't focus when the target is wreathed in mist, or it focusses on a damned leaf eight metres short of the target, or it won't burn through plasterboard and kill a hostile in the room beyond. Meanwhile, an EM carbine will put a warhead through smoke, dust, fog, rain, foliage, light cover, or a single-brick wall.

Corcoran Militech (a firm on Tau Ceti that makes cutting-edge laser batteries for Imperial warships) say they have made a breakthrough and will have specimens for field trials next year. Makes a change from their being "just five years off".

But weapons tech is not one of the things that matters about FLAT BLACK, not to me.
__________________

Decay is inherent in all composite things.
Nod head. Get treat.

Last edited by Agemegos; 11-01-2014 at 02:56 AM.
Agemegos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-01-2014, 02:55 AM   #197
Agemegos
 
Agemegos's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
Default Re: Imperial Marines

I think Icelander gets appalled when I write things like that.
__________________

Decay is inherent in all composite things.
Nod head. Get treat.
Agemegos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2014, 01:39 PM   #198
Agemegos
 
Agemegos's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
Default Re: Imperial Marines

Someone asked a question by PM, my answer to which I would like to have in the thread on a "no names, no pack drill" basis.

Quote:
Considering the operations and small size of the Imperial Marines, when they're on a mission that's more military than police work in nature, do they bring unmanned vehicles with them? Do they have any use for such things on their missions?
Yes, certainly. Ground and aerial.

Strong Imperial prejudices against indiscriminate weapons and killer robots, and laws based on them, prevent the Marines or anyone else from fielding an army of AI killing machines and autonomous weapons. To put that another way, it is a war crime to field machines that kill on their own accord. But remotely operated vehicles may be armed, and AI drones that kill on a specific human order are okay.

An Imperial marines fireteam of four takes the field on war-like operations with
  • a heavy weapon on a hexapod gun carriage, about like a quarter-ton scorpion back-to-front with an HMG on the tail;
  • about five tetrapod infantry drones each like a rottweiler with built-in auto battle rifle and grenade launcher;
  • two bipedal scout drones a bit like a chimpanzees with assault rifles;
  • an anti-tank rocket launcher;
  • two flying and two crawling reconnaisance drones;
  • and a swarm of hexapod supply/ammunition/stretcher carriers rather like giant beetles, each with room for an injured man on a battlesuit under the armoured "wing covers".

The four actual marines are there to lead and supervise the robots. The team leader supervises one infantry drone and the reconnaisance drones and calls in orbital laser fire support etc. The scout supervises the scout and antitank drones. The gunner supervises the gun and selects targets for it. The young marine supervises four infantry drones.

Two of those teams make up an Imperial Marines commando section: eight humans, twenty-six armed AI unmanned vehicles, about a dozen AI ammo carriers with three tons of ammo, orbital laser backup, and a partridge in a pear tree. That's the smallest unit of operation the Marines would send on, say, a combat patrol. They would go smaller and lighter on a hostage rescue, say, or most strategic sabotage raids.
__________________

Decay is inherent in all composite things.
Nod head. Get treat.
Agemegos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2014, 09:56 PM   #199
warellis
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Default Re: Imperial Marines

Interesting.

How does the FTL drive in Flat Black work?
warellis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2014, 10:42 PM   #200
Agemegos
 
Agemegos's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
Default Re: Imperial Marines

Quote:
Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Interesting.

How does the FTL drive in Flat Black work?
Activated a safe distance from the atmosphere of a planet, it encapsulates the ship in a warp bubble that carries it in approximately a straight line (depending on gravitational gradients) at approximately 1000 c (depending on gravitational potentials, and relative to a frame of reference based on local masses in a complicated way) until it is shut off.

Upon activation and deactivation it creates a condition within a few thousand kilometres in which fusion reaction cross-sections are drastically increased, but which fades over a few tens of seconds. Hydrogen-oxygen fusion in seawater and nitrogen-nitrogen, nitrogen-oxygen, and oxygen-oxygen fusions in air denser than about 50 millibars proceed spontaneously. Use with care.
__________________

Decay is inherent in all composite things.
Nod head. Get treat.
Agemegos is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
custom setting, flat black, military sf, occupational templates, space marines, templates

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:29 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.