Real Life Ultra-Tech: Gauss Guns Get Real

Praise be to Gun Jesus! 

The absolute mad lad Ian McCollum, curator of Forgotten Weapons (for the 3 of you who follow my channel and somehow don't know who this man is heh), not only landed an interview with ArcFlash Labs who have a prototype commercial friggin' gauss rifle but managed to get one of the prototypes to go over it features but also get some live firing of it at the gun range. He also took it to a BUG match (not sure how a 20lbs brick is a back up gun but I mean he has a gauss rifle. Your objections are irreverent). 

So yeah, I'm geeking out a bit so just a fun little post today. Here's the two videos he has up right now covering the interview and the firing. Tech Level 9 is getting closer and closer lads. 

Ultra-Tech Firepower: SAA GU 384 Boomslang, 50mmCRH (TL 9)

SAA GU 384 Boomslang, 50mmCRH (TL 9)

The trend since just before the turn of the century is for light armored vehicles to get, well, not so light with each generation getting heavier  and with beefier armor. This has in turn driven the need for bigger and bigger gun armaments that they need to mount in order to keep them competitive with their pears; going from 20-25mm in the beginning to 30mm today and even some designs going for 40mm+! Of course the ultra-tech armors of the future will only compound this factor further. Though as guns get more powerful, their recoil gets worse and you start to run into issues where your near tank level firepower is starting to become to much for the platform to handle and accuracy starts to suffer and the added stress causes the frames life space starts to drop.
 

Suid-Afrika Bewapeningskorporasie, the South Africa Armaments Corporation, developed the SAA GU 384 Boomslang to help counter this limitation. Named after the boomslag, a large venomous snake endemic to the area, as a way to single that this was to be weapon system with a deadly bite! 

William Wilson Passed Away on January 26th. He will be missed.

I have some horrible news guys and I feel so bad I only found out about this over a week after the fact. William Wilson, better known to us as Mook, passed away on January 26th. I'm still trying to process this. While I wasn't on a personal level with him, I did know and interact with him on what I guess I can call a professional level so this does hit a bit hard. There are few that have done as much to spread GURPS out there and try and make it accessible to the masses. From his excellent book, How to be GURPS GM, to his blog (and it's many very usual game aids), he added so much quality and character to our little gaming community. He will be missed. If you have faith, please say a prayer for his family and if you have the means there is a gofundme to help with medical and funeral costs.