Gunsmithing: Eyeballing Damage

 The great and sadly late Mr. Loren Wiseman said it in Journal of the Traveller' Aide Society (Vol. 1 Issue 2 page 3) "We don't have room to describe everything. With a little imagination, a little research, and a lot of thought, almost anything can be made compatible with Traveller." Mr Wiseman gave a delightful example of working out a laser pistol from laser carbine stats. I say 'huzzah' to this. Go read it. I'll wait.

Here's what I have. I took the range modifiers for the various examples of ironmongery and their range modifiers. You may want to check out my previous post (Link). 

Range Matrix

Weapon Frame	C ≤1m	S 1-5m	M 5-50m	L 50-150m	V.L. 150 -1000m	Notes
Snub Nose Pistol	+2	+1	-6	No	No	-1D &  Pen -2 Body pistol
Light Pistol	+1	+2	-5	No	No	Pen -1 or 2D
Medium Pistol	+1	+2	-4	-6	No	Auto Pistol
Large Pistol	+1	+2	-3	-5	No	Revolver
Sweeper*	-4	+2	+1	-4	-6	SMG
Light Longarm*	-4	+1	-2	-4	-5	Carbine
Medium Longarm	-4	+1	-1	-3	-4	Pen+1 Rifle
Heavy Longarm	-4	+1	0	-1	-3	Pen+1

The range modifiers are partly due to the sight length of the fame and partly how stable a firing platform it is. The snub pistol is short and light causing control issues. It's range table sucks. The heavy long arm has a long sighting length, is hefty, though it fires large rounds -reducing recoil, and it has a nice shoulder rest. 

In addition to range DMs, the frame will affect penetration and damage. Smaller frames can only handle rounds of so much power. In other words, snub noes pistols suck. Use them to get to a real handgun. The n use the handgun to get to a longarm. The length and weight of the frame s given by the weapon they identify with.

Also note I added a few new frames so you can build more toys (and you will want to). The medium frame is 1000 grams, while light frame is 800 grams. The large pistol is increased in weight to 1200 grams. The medium longer is 3500 grams. 

Auto Fire 

The sweeper frame is built for auto fire. Other frames can be made capable of auto fire by increasing their mass by. Auto fire gives the following modifiers as well as allowing two hit rolls and the group hit rules. Three round auto fire increases a frame's weight by 15%, Four round auto fire increases it by 20%. Both types allow the Group Hit rules. Four round burst also allow a second to hit roll. The auto fire option increases the weight of a frame by 20% for either version. The sweeper frame has a weight of 2500 grams. 

	C	S	M	L	V.L.
Automatic Burst  3 rds.	0	0	+2	+1	0
Automatic Burst  4 rds.	0	+1	+2	+2	+1

Armor

I simplified armor mods (a lot). Armor generally has one or two modfiers.

Nothing- normal clothing or skin. No modifiers.

Jack- thick leather jacket or coat. -1 vs. melee.

Mesh- flexible metal or plastic mail. -2 vs. melee. -1 vs. slugs

Cloth- ballistic armor. -3 vs. melee and slugs.

Combat Environment-4.

Reflec- anti laser materials, May be combined with other armor. -6 vs. lasers.

Ablative- armor that vaporizes when hit by laser attacks. -6 vs lasers. -1 vs. bullets or melee.

Combat- heavy armor. -5 vs. all. 

Weapons may have a penetration modifier making armor more or less effective against them. A body pistol (snub nose pistol) is -2 to hit Cloth arms for a total of -5 before you take range modifiers into account. 

A Body Pistol would be written up like this

-Name: Frame or Range/Damage/Type/ Penetration if anything.

Body Pistol Snub Nose/2D/Slug/Low Penetration-2 or more completely:

Body Pistol (+2/+1/-4/No/No)/2D/Slug/Low Penetration-2 including the range mods.

A Rifle looks like this:

Rifle: (-4/+1/0/-1/-3)/3D/Slug/Pen+1

It's way easier to write up and run a fight. You can fit several weapons on the same index or business card!

Wait there's more. Next up: Special Ammunition!