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Old 06-10-2016, 04:49 PM   #1
Tallor
 
Join Date: May 2016
Default Unusual-Sized People and the Firearms They Use?

Firstly I'd like to say it would be very cool to have a write-up for "Gulliver"-type settings. I would propose that the PCs are ordinary parachronic scientists who are superhuman due to being huge compared to the "tiny folk".

But I digress.

For creatures way outside human sizes--for instance, the 12-inch (SM-4) Lilluputians or the 70' (SM+7) Brobdingnagians, how would firearms be altered? I'm talking about the effect the square-cube law would have...
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Old 06-10-2016, 05:06 PM   #2
starslayer
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Default Re: Unusual-Sized People and the Firearms They Use?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallor View Post
Firstly I'd like to say it would be very cool to have a write-up for "Gulliver"-type settings. I would propose that the PCs are ordinary parachronic scientists who are superhuman due to being huge compared to the "tiny folk".

But I digress.

For creatures way outside human sizes--for instance, the 12-inch (SM-4) Lilluputians or the 70' (SM+7) Brobdingnagians, how would firearms be altered? I'm talking about the effect the square-cube law would have...
Ultimately: Any way you like. SM-4 people shoulden't be able to be intelligent with human brains, and SM+7 humans should die quite quickly from heart problems. So a Gulliver type setting is not realistic and dealing with altered physics.

This is not in and of itself a problem- but now the issue is:
1. if physics is normal besides whatever is allowing the big guys and the little guys then they are just not going to go down the same paths- the little guys are not going to bother developing weapons that barely hurt people (as tiny firearms would- their concept of ranged warfare might be completely retarded. Big guys would basically never have developed direct fire weapons, or else they would develop absolutely insane peperbox style direct fire weapons, and move on to gatling guns and heavy machine guns quickly (50 cal will happily go through 4' of giant thigh about as easily as it goes through a human torso).

2. If physics is different across the board- and the tiny people can have tiny wars with tiny rifles and everything on their scale is 'normal'- you can ad-hoc basically any response as it 'scales up' likewise for the big people (Though you may have to question why the big people would develop a SM+7 .50, instead of just using the perfectly fine for killing giants SM 0 .50 as a gatling pistol).


Also:

http://www.gamesdiner.com/gurps/GULL...ndexframe.html
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Old 06-10-2016, 07:31 PM   #3
Tallor
 
Join Date: May 2016
Default Re: Unusual-Sized People and the Firearms They Use?

I'm going with option 1!

I'm thinking that small folks would have entirely different weapons, whereas giants would use a lot more "specialty" rounds that only work when they're large enough to have a big explosion.
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Old 06-10-2016, 08:40 PM   #4
starslayer
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Default Re: Unusual-Sized People and the Firearms They Use?

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Originally Posted by Tallor View Post
I'm going with option 1!

I'm thinking that small folks would have entirely different weapons, whereas giants would use a lot more "specialty" rounds that only work when they're large enough to have a big explosion.
Sounds good.

I think that the giants don't neeed to develop specialty rounds, early TL 4 cannons would work great as pistols for them, and once they can develop machine guns something that is roughly the eqivalent of a vulcan cannon would behave like some kind of horrific flesh carving laser (and still be pistol sized).

Once you already have a flesh carving laser that only takes the tiniest lightest belts of ammunition allowing you to literally carry millions of rounds the only reason you'd need to go heavier is if they are wearing armour (and vulcan cannons penetrate armour pretty effectively, and a tanks main gun would still just be a large pistol to them); so they don't need specialty rounds- just conventional mounted equipment converted into pistols and rifles.
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Old 06-11-2016, 06:26 AM   #5
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: Unusual-Sized People and the Firearms They Use?

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Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
1. if physics is normal besides whatever is allowing the big guys and the little guys then they are just not going to go down the same paths
This. If you are a foot tall, the minimum size of a furnace big enough to smelt metals starts to look like a fairly major project, which rather cuts into weapon development, but it still looks possible if you really insist. Firearms will be virtually useless against full sized opponents - given half a percent of the energy for the same relative size explosive charge, and relatively less effective (about sqrt(size fraction) = 0.4 relative damage) even on the same scale.

If you are an inch tall, the minimum sustainable size of flames makes it doubtful your species could tame fire, never mind manufacture a firearm, and the much greater dominance of air resistance in your environment probably makes projectile weapons pointless anyway.
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Old 06-11-2016, 06:58 AM   #6
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: Unusual-Sized People and the Firearms They Use?

For game mechanics, note that you will desperately need an extended Pi damage scale and target SM based modification of injury factors, or you'll get abject nonsense toward either end.

Scaling up, we already know that big guns work out pretty well. Big creatures are probably fairly happy with using larger calibers. They need them for stopping power against similarly huge targets, and they probably expect to engage at longer ranges than humans do so better velocity-retention is a plus. They might find automatic weapons tricky. Bigger, more powerful rounds usually cycle more slowly. It might not be feasible to build an assault rifle in 50-60mm.

Scaling down, if you could keep pressure equal you might be able to achieve equal velocities, but thinner construction means you can't keep pressure equal. Even with much shorter ranges you'll be seeing less proportional penetration than a bigger gun. (Of course, scaling down also makes melee combat almost unrecognizable, as most striking attacks are rendered ineffectual by the low mass of potential strikers. At ant size, throwing a punch would be useless. Wrestling-style continuous force tends to rule instead.)
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