Notes on Using GURPS Ultra-Tech (4e) in TS: Chapter 1

[dscheidt]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Note that an oxy-acetylene torch (in fact, just about any torch) is technically a plasma cutter. Flame is plasma.

It's a pretty big stretch to say an oxy-acetylene torch a plasma cutter. The material removal method is very different. The oxygen-fuel torch oxidizes the steel (and it's really only steel you can cut with an oxygen torch). With big pieces, you can turn the fuel gas off, and cut wit h pure oxygen. The oxidation is exothermic enough to keep going. With a plasma cutter, the material is simply melted and blown out of the kerf. That means that a plasma cutter can cut anything that will support an arc. Newish tech lets the arc be contained in the cutter's torch, and they can cut many more materials.

[Phil Masters]

Chapter Five

Players will doubtless be terribly interested in "Covert Ops and Security" - for exactly which reason, of course, GMs should think a little before allowing any given new toy into a campaign, in case it unbalances things. On the other hand, in a hard SF setting, if something is intrinsically logical, it really has to be permitted. Which said, it may be legally controlled, very hard to find, or plain expensive - and often all three.

I'm sure that a lot of the items in this chapter will turn out to be similar-but-not-identical to things in various TS books, at varying prices. As ever, it's up to GMs which to use; I suspect that the new book will generally be better thought through, but of course consistency is often desirable in itself.

Deception and Intrusion

I'd tend to assume that security systems in the TS world are pretty good against direct frontal assaults - it's a setting in which encryption is ahead of the crackers. In other words, all these tools which give +3 are giving +3 to "Not a Chance" a lot of the time. Or they may be treated as the minimum necessary equipment for some skill attempts.

* Electromagnetic Autograpnel: Given the conservative treatment of battery technology in TS, GMs might choose to reduce the lifting capacity and/or usage duration of this sort of thing.

* Sonic Screen: Is this really hard SF? I could believe in a certain amount of effective sonic jamming, but 100% efficiency over a tightly-bounded zone sounds a bit superscience to me.

* Computer Monitoring Gear: With a lot of fibre-optics, subtle neural interfaces and displays, and a general tendency to TEMPEST-style hardening on general principles, I wouldn't expect this to be a lot of use at all in TS.

Security and Surveillance

I'll be commenting on plausible weapons technology in TS when I get onto chapter six, and some of those remarks will likely also be applicable here, in the general sense that if a weapons technology isn't available, it can't be used as part of a security system.

* Laser Fences: Might well be possible in TS (perhaps at increased weight) - bulky emitters aren't such a problem when they can be static, and high power requirements aren't so bad if one can draw from a fixed power cable. However, I feel rather that static cybershells firing interesting munitions when they notice intruders would be more in keeping with the style of the setting.

Enforcement and Coercion

* Neuronic Restraints: I'll probably comment on "neurolash" technology when I come to discuss chapter 6. I'm not sure about it...

* Neural Pacifier: Might be feasible in TS, though I'd imagine it'd need some fine tuning to make it a really hard SF device.

* Biopresence Software: Canonical for TS, but with bandwidth problems; p.TS150 talks about "downgrading" of sensory signals if using radio rather than a cable connection.

* Robobug: The TL9/10 models could no doubt be converted to TS cybershell templates (see previous notes), should anyone want to treat a specialised robot insect as a character.

[DryaUnda]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

[I]n a hard SF setting, if something is intrinsically logical, it really has to be permitted.

My ultimate guiding principal right there, and now I have an authority to quote from.

*hugs new golden hammer*

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Laser Fences: Might well be possible in TS (perhaps at increased weight) - bulky emitters aren't such a problem when they can be static, and high power requirements aren't so bad if one can draw from a fixed power cable. However, I feel rather that static cybershells firing interesting munitions when they notice intruders would be more in keeping with the style of the setting.

I'm sure the Mythbusters would agree (scroll down to "Assault Course Myth 2: Laser beam security systems").

[Phil Masters]

(Sorry it's been a while since my last post on this subject. Blame real life, and the amount of stuff to be assessed in this chapter.)

Chapter Six

Ah, the meat of the book ... well, for some gamers. Also the place where changed technological assumptions between Transhuman Space and the new version of Ultra-Tech become most visible, if only because we get all those detailed weapons tables to compare.

In fact, the thing that jumps out here is that the nominally TL10 Transhuman Space setting is, by Ultra-Tech standards, rather retarded in weaponry, being seemingly TL9 in most parts. However, a lot of this is down to the general inferiority of lasers and high-density power storage in the TS world, so one can link this "inferiority" to one or two not-unreasonable assumptions about the future technology. On the aesthetic side, the fact is that widespread use of lasers and other beam weapons can't help but give a game more of a space opera feel, whereas TS projectile sidearms, with their sophisticated warheads and intelligent accessories, perhaps have just the right balance of gloss and grit for the setting.

I should also note here that the weapons tables in Changing Times were based on a combination of early versions of the Ultra-Tech material and rule-of-thumb conversions of old TS material with some intent to preserve backwards compatibility. Hence, the two books may display slight inconsistencies even in places where they might be expected to align. However, the differences shouldn't generally be too severe; GMs can choose which to follow as they think best, or just kludge up a compromise.

David Pulver has commented on this whole weapons question in previous discussions, and with his permission, I'll quote what he has to say; it may give GMs of Transhuman Space games some useful ideas:

Originally Posted by David Pulver

As Phil says, the weaponry in THS is somewhat
conservative. The idea was that military forces are
really conservative about their basic guns, but tend
to upgrade the ammo. So around about 2040 or so,
China or India or the EU or the US finally wore out
all the old weapons (mostly based on 1930s-1950s
calibers) and switched to a new range of standard
caseless or cased telescoped ammo. And then made
the usual billion or so rounds and so everyone's
been stuck with it ever since, with too big a market
to change...

This does not mean they can't make all the cool new
stuff. But the things in UT like gauss weapons and
lasers are sort of in the same state as the G-11
caseless assault rifle and the Metalstorm pistols and
other innovations are today. People have built
prototypes, but no one has really adopted on a big
scale because the switch is just too much of a pain.
Instead, they just keep making better ammo!

Actually, the other thing is that the "real" military
action involves cybershells, swarms, cybertanks,
etc. ... but most Fifth Wave nations aren't building
cool guns for humans because combat isn't usually a
gunfight, while if it *does* come down to a
gunfight, the other guy likely either brought a DR
60+ cybershell or a swarm, and in neither case is a
laser pistol that much use.

I do think that one place you can probably get cool
guns is probably the Duncanite asteroid areas.
Trojan Mafia probably have minifac plans for all
kinds of stuff and libertarian sec companies and
individuals both have a decent personal market that
would pay premium rates for small production runs
of quality guns (and have a reason for low-recoil
gauss guns and lasers).

Another assumption which you can ignore or not as
you please: while THS battery tech is equivalent to
Ultra-Tech at TL10, its *pulsed power* technology
(capacitors in the weapons, etc.) was set at about the
TL9 technologies for UT. As such, you might want
to limit those beam or gun weapons that use power
cells to TL9, with TL10 beam or gun weapons
either unavailable or limited to elite military units
and special agents. Note that this only applies to
power-cell using TL10 *weapons* themselves - all
other gear such as warheads, accessories, etc.
should probably be available at TL10.

Note that I'm not disagreeing with David about his own setting if I comment that a lot of stuff in TS often seems to make sense if one assumes that all power cells (but perhaps especially "pulsed" stuff) are relatively restrained compared to the Ultra-Tech assumptions. But Ultra-Tech mostly (wisely) avoids giving hard numbers for things like power storage, so this is largely a matter of feel rather than anything else.

I'd also note that PCs are often much given to loading themselves down with the sort of stuff that "elite military units and special agents" carry, and one can only assume so much about price problems and legal constraints. So if you let all the TL10 stuff from this chapter into your TS game, be prepared for hand weapon damage creep.

Oh, and this chapter has lots of illustrations, which many gamers will doubtless appreciate.

Beam Weapons

In particular, spacer-adventurers will love lasers. (Low recoil, no ammunition issues.) The things that Changing Times derived from Deep Beyond are quite wilfully wimpish, though not quite useless; the TL10 gear in Ultra-Tech is seriously formidable by comparison, and I'd expect at least some "line" military units to be packing it if it was available. Though treating all the Changing Times gear as ultraviolet lasers might bring the damage levels more into line, albeit with improved ranges.

(It's also possible that the Changing Times lasers are rather crappy experimental designs put together from misappropriated blueprints by Duncanite mechanics who aren't half as clever as they think they are, and that the much more competent laboratories of proper governments or major corporations laugh at the sight of them, having long since progressed to much better designs, but not bothered marketing them because the only people who'd use them are Duncanite rip-off merchants and pirates.)

* Even if the Ultra-Tech laser pistols and rifles aren't available, the dazzle/blinding lasers might well be possible - they surely require a much less powerful beam, after all - though they might be kept rare by law and custom. (They'll tend to trigger a certain amount of reflex hostility - blinding people is seen as nasty, especially if it's permanent - and may not seem to have many "legitimate" uses.)

* The electrolasers are much closer to the TS pattern; the Ultra-Tech models are maybe slightly better overall, with a superior rate of fire, but one could mix and match the two sources without things getting too weird - though one might want to jigger the prices a little for balance. Lethal electrolasers might well be possible in TS, but rare and socially strongly deprecated; they're flagrantly assassination weapons, heavy on the sneakiness but inferior to the alternatives for overt military or civilian self-defence purposes.

* Likewise, the semiportable MAD projectors in the two books are similar enough to not cause teeth-grinding; the TS version, being much heavier but much cheaper, might be an older model or something. I'd assume that nobody's tried too hard to miniaturise the technology much in the setting, but the portable MAD might be available in places, maybe showing up for crowd control in the hands of less fastidious police forces.

* The blaster cannon is listed as TL10. I'd prefer to keep anything with the name "blaster" out of TS games, and I gather there are possible practical issues with this hypothetical technology - but if someone wants a chunky superweapon to show up on a new-model tank - well, I can't stop you. Or perhaps it only works in vacuum?

* And some sonic weapons are marked as TL9 or 10, and not superscience. Hmm; they're not canon for TS, and all that "acoustic heterodyning" and stuff might turn out to be implausible in practice, so I don't see any absolute requirement to include them. If they are available, sonic nauseators might be limited by convention and public opinion - the effects are quite unpleasant, and electrolasers arguably produce more useful results as less-than-lethal weapons - making them rare in practice and reducing their legality rating. Sonic stunners require even more of a skiffy handwave, and could be assumed to be restricted by the problems with the setting's power cell technology, even if they're theoretically possible. (They could also, say, get markedly fewer shots.)

Fluid Projectors

Obviously, ordinary sprays are perfectly feasible - as in, really just extant TL6 technology. What they spray is doubtless what's interesting. Vortex ring projectors aren't canon for TS, but they're limited enough in application that one can slot them in without too many credibility issues, and in my opinion, far too much fun to ignore. Finding a specific use for them is an exercise for GMs and PCs, but the ability to fire pulses of emetic gas could be handy.

[Phil Masters]

Guns and Launchers

The 100% canon cannons... The general weapons technology that TS treats as standard. Of course, as I said, details differ, and TS incorporates stuff like gun-pods and armguns which Ultra-Tech evidently doesn't buy, but one can probably explain a lot in terms of different development paths, tactical doctrines, and local preferences, and merge the two equipment lists with just a little work. I get the impression that Ultra-Tech doesn't believe in 4mm rounds, which are quite common in TS; keep them or not as you choose.

* Conventional Small Arms: Comparing the stat blocs, one finds general compatibility among the pistols, SMGs, and rifles. Even the prices aren't too diverse; I think one can just mash the lists together.

* Electrothermal-Chemical Weapons: Here, the Ultra-Tech TL10 technology gives a serious edge - 50% better damage and range, for which I suspect PCs will happily pay double cost. If they're available, they're likely to show up a lot, and the concept isn't so exotic that one can easily limit it to special forces and well-resourced secret agents. They might simply be precluded; one can always blame the rapid-release power cell problem previously discussed, or suggest that there are problems with the propellant chemistry, or say that enough forces resent the cost, logistics, and complexity issues that not many designs exist, pushing the price up even further (though that's hard to sustain in a world with minifacturing systems and the like).

* Liquid Propellants: Another specialised technology on which PCs will doubtless jump enthusiastically, though regular military forces and the civilian self-defense or hunting markets might well consider it over-complicated and fairly limited in use for the cost, restricting the supply - so a few such weapons might be available, but not widely encountered. (Of course, AI aides and digital weapon interfaces make selecting from a range of options less hassle in the field.)

* Gas-Powered Air Guns: Another specialist technology that might add colour to TS games without unbalancing things too much.

* Electromagnetic Guns: Another TL10 technology ahead of what seems to be the TS standard. I'd exclude all the sidearms and blame the power cell problem; TS does canonically have the Emag Cannon, but that's generally not as good as the lighter, cheaper things in Ultra-Tech, so I'd follow that pattern if I wanted to include any more such
heavy/vehicular weapons in a TS game.

* Gyrocs: These are broadly analogous to the missile pods in TS, but TS tends to assume that such weapons will always be firing smart micromissile-type projectiles, which it makes quite cheap. On the other hand, Ultra-Tech gyrocs have better range, if the same damage... Oh heck, just treat these two things as parallel, distinct technology paths, and see which the players favour. Or pick one.

* Rockets and Missiles: Bigger than anything on the standard TS tables, and can be included in games as (very) military squad support weapons.

* Homing Projectiles: Changing Times has TS homing and laser homing ammo working slightly differently to the types covered in Ultra-Tech, but they're not wildly incompatible; on the other hand, it allows any round to have this option, even the little 4mm things. I'd probably say pick one or the other to avoid confusion, but it wouldn't kill a game to use both sets of rules.

* Hand Grenades: Not much covered in TS, and probably worth borrowing. Saucer grenades will doubtless be popular.

Firearm Accessories

Generally useful, of course, but then, a lot of this stuff is already in TS, more or less... Actually, Ultra-Tech updates and expands on some items in small but useful ways, so I'd tend to favour the versions in the new book. Things like the targeting scopes make plausible additions.

* Multispectral Laser Sight: This would be the Laser Sight that TS treats as standard on all ranged weapons.

* Power Holster: Could be done with TS technology, but I imagine it would be seen as crazy poseur gear - anyone who wants one shouldn't be trusted with one.

* Shoulder Servomount: Another toy for people with excess gun-bunny tendencies. Okay, some sensible professionals might have uses for the thing, but really, in game terms - what are you going to call anyone who wants to be able to fire four guns at once?

[Phil Masters]

Warheads and Ammunition

This section adds somewhat to the options which might be available in TS games, and changes some things a bit. In some cases, GMs are going to have to decide whether to use TS or Ultra-Tech damage ratings and prices, and possibly then interpolate for different calibers of weapons. If using the latter, it's probably easiest and reasonable to treat 30mm TS rounds as using the numbers for 25mm rounds in Ultra-Tech, and 60mm as 64mm - though more detail-obsessed GMs can interpolate to get slightly different numbers if they wish.

* APHC, APDS, HP: Okay, we now have official 4e rules for these.

* APEP: Can fit into TS; quite expensive, but will that worry PCs? Oh well, they'll probably be using HEMP rounds.

* APHEX: Similar comments apply. I'd rule it's definitely unavailable for calibers below 10mm.

* Biochemical Aerosol: This is basically equivalent to the TS MBC round, obviously, but Ultra-Tech has rounds of a given size requiring more doses and affecting smaller areas. GMs can choose which progression they prefer.

* Biochemical Liquid, Flare: Likely to show up in some TS games!

* HE, HEC, Shaped Charge: Cheap alternatives to HEMP or SEFOP, I guess.

* Memory Baton, Shotshell: Not canonical for TS, but quite plausible (though memory baton would presumably supersede the standard listed "plastic" round). In fact, given the whole TS "microtech is cool" angle, I might well allow the memory baton option even for 10mm sidearms.

* SEFOP: Changing Times deliberately imported the draft Ultra-Tech rules for this to replace the 3rd edition treatment, partly because the new treatment looked far better. (Note that the damage levels are in line if you assume that TS warheads are TL10 quality.)

* Tangler: Changing Times doesn't cover these, assuming that the 3e corebook rules will do. Ultra-Tech updates and modifies them slightly, toning down the entangle's ST. GMs may prefer to follow this (while keeping anti-tangler spray available); if so, and if you still want to have 15mm tangler rounds, give those (say) ST 9 (+1 per additional layer).

* Thermobaric: There's probably no reason not to include this in TS, but do keep the Legality Class 1 - viciously incendiary explosives tend to be a bit unpopular.

* Burrow Darts: Again, plausible under TS technology - but I'd expect them to be fairly rare. They have a twist of malicious gruesomeness, don't immediately incapacitate terribly well, and won't be much good against military (i.e. armoured) targets, so who's going to be buying and selling them?

* HEMP: This Ultra-Tech text too was basically borrowed for Changing Times, and the numbers should again coincide. In fact, Ultra-Tech gives values for 10mm rounds, which the original TS treatment didn't permit; adopt this or not as you choose.

* Stingray: Might be adopted by TS GMs, and isn't obviously unbalancing - but we've already said that the setting might be short on high-charge capacitors.

* Swarm: This is, of course, another variant of the MBC warhead in 3e TS terms. The Ultra-Tech version is more expensive but carries a somewhat bigger swarm for the warhead size; take your pick which to use.

* Mininuke: Might be possible with TS technology. But let's keep 64mm nuclear hand grenades away from PCs.

* Micro-Antimatter: As above. Antimatter is of course produced in TS, but generally seems to be quite scarce and well-controlled in the setting, so I can't see many major nations bothering to use it to make hand-held dirty bombs.

* EMP: Not canon in TS; possibly feasible, and of course very handy for use against cybershells (although most military types will have some level of shielding) - but the setting's relatively poor rapid-release energy storage technology once again provides an excuse to keep these out or reduce the effects.

* Expendable Jammer: Hmm; curiously, Ultra-Tech doesn't give a duration for this effect that I can see, other than "several seconds" by implication. Anyway, this should be quite feasible in TS and a good way of inconveniencing people at times, but relatively limited - the TL10 battlefield is a big place which sees a lot of mobility, and frequency-agile radios might provide a way round the problem. So I'd expect these to be rare at best.

* Strobe, Warbler: Again, should be feasible in TS - but are surely only likely to see use as rather baroque and sadistic crowd control weapons (though criminals might find uses for them, if they can lay hands on them).

Biochemical and Nanotech Weapons

A handy general treatment of the subject; TS games could use a lot of this stuff. Of course, some of these things correspond to chemicals that are available at TL8 - but one can assume that the TL9+ versions are faster acting and less likely to induce dangerous unexpected side-effects. GMs who want gritty realism and scary moments can bring such problems right back in.

* Sleep Gas, Paralysis Gas: Handy tools for some kinds of PCs who want to keep their problems with the law under some kind of control. Unkind GMs can declare that there are still occasional problems with life-threatening allergic reactions and dosage control, especially in the case of cheap black-market versions.

* Smoke, Radiant Prism: Probably quite plausible, though I'd guess that the advanced versions aren't likely to be available in civilian shops, by and large.

* Mask: Likely to be very popular with PCs of a criminal inclination. Of course, simple possession is likely to be regarded as de facto proof of criminal intent in many jurisdictions.

* Pheromone Spray: Just to repeat my boring old line - I haven't seen or heard of any evidence that unmodified humans have enough response to pheromones to make developing this sort of thing worthwhile. But I'm open to correction.

* Metal Embrittlement Agent: My chemistry really isn't up to guessing how plausible such a specific agent would be. A nice toy for PCs, perhaps, but note that you'd need to know exactly what metal you're targeting - and a good anti-corrosion coating would surely negate a lot of the effects.

* Sleep Poison: In principle, this (or a similar paralysing agent, curiously absent from this book) would be the dream of many a cop in a hostage situation, or a special forces op looking to take prisoners for questioning, or an animal capture specialist. However, the effects as described are at the realistic end, and hence are a bit too unreliable for many such uses. TS GMs might allow something better to appear at TL10; high-end bio/nanotech probably ought to be able to come up with something to go in injector darts or microbots that's very fast-acting, reliable, and guaranteed safe against a wide range of body masses and metabolisms. Conversely, less kind GMs can assume that allergies and dosage problems will bedevil this technology for a good couple of TLs yet.

* Nanoburn: A slightly modified version of the TS weapon.

* Nanotracers: Plausible for TS (though they could do with some slightly more detailed duration rules and radio signal ranges). Would probably be rare (who has a legal use for them, really?), but aren't any less likely than a lot of canonical nanomods.

Melee and Thrown Weapons

Ultra-tech melee weapons are generally more about style than hard SF plausibility, of course, but there are one or two things in here that might fit into TS games.

* Karatands: Well, why not? Apart from being widely seen as proof of very dubious intent, of course.

* Limpet Mine Dispenser: Maybe a one-per-squad specialist weapon for battlesuit troops (or a 1-point perk for a few military cybershells); more for demolitions work than real combat, though - if you want to hit someone with a small warhead in close-quarters fighting, a hand-held gyroc weapon is usually the smarter bet.

* Rocket Striker: Umm, really, isn't this a bit, well, silly? Not impossible, just unlikely?

* Superfine Blade: Okay, I'll believe this in TS - for civilian tools at least as much as for military issue, though.

* Vibroblade: Past online discussions have left me unconvinced that this favourite old skiffy idea would actually work - vibration on that scale probably wouldn't actually achieve much of a cutting effect. But if your players really insist, letting them have their toys might not be disastrous.

* Electric Stun Wands: Logical enough as a (more powerful, because larger) precursor to/relative of the shock glove. The zap glove is the shock glove - except that it's somewhat more powerful that the Changing Times treatment, giving -6 to the HT roll rather than -2, and having a "kill" setting. GMs can take their pick, or compromise; given the power storage problem, I'd err on the side of conservatism in this, personally.

* Neurolash: Interestingly, while the book treats neural disruptors as TL11^, it allows something which achieves the same result by physical contact to be plain TL10 (in the header) or TL10^ (on the weapons table). Being austere about my hard SF, I'd treat this stuff all as TL10^, and leave it out of TS games.

[Phil Masters]

Combat Robots

A concept that's pretty central to the TS milieu - though there may be divergences in technological assumptions, of course.

* Combat Android: TS has its share of humanoid robots, of course, though this one is substantially stronger and more heavily armoured than the "MCS" combat units in Broken Dreams; its DR at TL 9 or 10 is lower than that for the standard TS RATS template, though... The combination of heavy armour, humanoid form, and above all raw strength gives it a bit of a skiffy feel, in my opinion, though I guess one could convert the TL9 or 10 versions to cybershell templates if one wanted that sort of combat machine in a game.

* Warbot: This might be a decent basis for a heavy combat robot template for TS games, though I'd want to make the armour laminated or electrical, for a start.

* Hunter Missile, Striker Missile: These are of course similar to the Seeker Missile which gets a template in In the Well; the details may have come out a bit different, but if one uses these things purely as one-shot weapons and not as cybershells, either set of numbers would probably do. By the way, I think there's a typo on the Striker Missile, and its air speed should be 960.

* Swarms: Mostly much like the 3e TS versions, but with some tweaks and updates. The Devourer Swarm has changed noticeably; I'm not sure that either version feels quite right as a representation of the effect described... Note also that the Stinger swarm has been split into the Stinger and Terminator types; I'm not sure why, given that it shouldn't be too hard to give the same microbots different drug/poison loads - but perhaps this is assumed to be too fiddly in practice.

((Sorry about the multiply-divided post; the forum software insisted...))

[DryaUnda]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

(Sorry it's been a while since my last post on this subject. Blame real life, and the amount of stuff to be assessed in this chapter.)

Don't worry about it. This chapter alone is reason enough to take awhile.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Ah, the meat of the book ... well, for some gamers.

Why is that? Why are players so fond of weapons in general, and guns in particular?

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

* Liquid Propellants: Another specialised technology on which PCs will doubtless jump enthusiastically, though regular military forces and the civilian self-defense or hunting markets might well consider it over-complicated and fairly limited in use for the cost

The first thing that I think of when seeing these is how useful subsonic rounds would be with a silencer (p.B412), I wouldn't mind my enemies having to roll against IQ-4 to hear me.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

* Power Holster: Could be done with TS technology, but I imagine it would be seen as crazy poseur gear - anyone who wants one shouldn't be trusted with one.

They would be quite useful for the police and military though.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

* Shoulder Servomount: Another toy for people with excess gun-bunny tendencies. Okay, some sensible professionals might have uses for the thing, but really, in game terms - what are you going to call anyone who wants to be able to fire four guns at once?

Seriously outnumbered, and probably a cybershell.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

* EMP: Not canon in TS; possibly feasible, and of course very handy for use against cybershells (although most military types will have some level of shielding) - but the setting's relatively poor rapid-release energy storage technology once again provides an excuse to keep these out or reduce the effects.

Oh, if any weapon technology is ripe for development it's EMP. How would you fight a technologically advanced opponent? Or destroy the infrastructure of "short-sighted and decadent Western society"? (See also p.102-103 of GURPS Y2K. Say, David, will we be seeing 4e stats for emergent EMP weapons in the future?)

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

* Nanotracers: Plausible for TS (though they could do with some slightly more detailed duration rules and radio signal ranges). Would probably be rare (who has a legal use for them, really?)

Anyone who wants to track an escaped convict.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by DryaUnda

Oh, if any weapon technology is ripe for development it's EMP.

While true, it's also basically a 3rd wave (TL 8) technology; microwave bombs are pretty much buildable today. Fifth wave military hardware will be protected against it, one way or another.

Actually, HPM weapons could be a good handwave to justify bioroid soldiers being used in 4th wave conflicts (current trends point towards jumping directly from human soldiers to robot soldiers).

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by DryaUnda

Why are players so fond of weapons in general, and guns in particular?

Very briefly; fight scenes are exciting, and also, combat puts your PC's survival on the line, so people insist on playing it out in detail rather than lose their beloved characters to a single die roll. Gamers also tend to be tech geeks. Weapons tech is where exciting/crucial combat meets geekery.

Either that, or page Dr. Freud.