Fictional Firepower: M240 Incinerator Unit (Aliens)

Aliens is an awesome movie, I don't think I'll get to many counters to that statement (and if you do; hey! It's a free country, you can be wrong if you want to :P). And, it had some amazing looking guns and tech. From the pulse rifle, to the power loader, to the Sulaco (a design that launched a thousand HALO ships), it pretty much set THE standard for that gritty 80's sci-fi look we all know and love. And this is before diving into the Colonial Marines Technical Manuel which expanded on that considerably! 

Well, it's just dawned on me that I have zero posts on any of the tech from it! How the heck don't I even have stats for the PIG when it's me, THE GURPS plasma gun guy?! So, what sparked me to realized that I had a lack of Aliens content? 

Two things. 

First was getting asked for some help with TL 8+ flamethrowers on Discord. Then I saw this video on Youtube that ran through an Aliens themed game of Space Hulk (which also had liberal usage of a flamethrower). What do these two things have to with each other? Welcome to how my brain works! You see, helping with those flamethrowers had me thinking about stating a flamethrower for my blog already, then that video made me realize that I had 0 Aliens content. My first go too, of course, was the pulse rifle, buuuut, Douglass and Hans have already beat me to it... dang... Then I was like, "Oh right,flamethrowers were a pretty big thing in the movies (except for III buuut... we don't talk about III) AND the game I just saw.". That and I already had someone tickling my tism' about stating up flamethrowers. Which brings me to now... the thing you actually care about and not my questionable state of mental heath: Liquid propelled war crimes!

Ultra-Tech Gun Noodlings: How to Figure Bulk and Magazine Length

Sup fam. Got some quick but tasty nuggets for you today.

First off I've come up with a way of figuring a weapons bulk that gets good results. This is NOT official by any means but it seems to work. It is a bit fiddly though. 

First you're gonna have to fi
gure to values:

Bul and Buw.

Bul is based on the weapons length in millimeters and can be figured as:

6 × LOG₁₀(Wl/305) + 2

Wl is the weapons length is millimeters. 

Buw is based on the weapons weight (unloaded if mounted) in pounds and can be figured as:

2 × LOG₁₀(Ww) + 2

Ww is based on the weapons weight (unloaded if mounted) in pounds. 

The weapons actual Bulk then can be figured by taking the average of Bul and Buw and then slapping a negative signto it. 

For example: A FAMAS G2 is 757mm long and weighs 8.4lbs. This gives us a Bul of 6 × LOG₁₀(757/305) + 2 or 4.4 and a Buw of 2 × LOG₁₀(8.4) + 2or 3.8. This gives a Bulk of (4.4 + 3.8)/2 or -4. While there are no stats for a FAMAS in any official book, HANS was kind enough to provide the forum with a write up and sure enough it's bulk is -4. 

 And while we're here, might as well throw in a quick way to estimate a magazine length, just so you can get an idea if your magazine modification is practical (and should let you know you're not going to see a huge increase in the number of caseless rounds a standard magazine can hold).

Magazine height can be estimated as number of rounds × rounds actual diameter (this might differ from the listed one, a 5.56 NATO round is actually ~5.7mm) × the polymer/plastic magazine type weight modifier for a given magazine type found on High-Tech p.155 under Extended Magazines. Multiply this value 0.7 for curved magazines like most military rifles use.Adjust the height by +/-10% as needed.

Why am I getting some casting couch energy form this pic?

For Example: a 20 round magazine for a FN Five SeveN is about 126mm (~5 in.) tall. The actual diameter for the round is 5.7mm and used a high-density magazine which has a polymer/plastic weight modifier of 1.1. This gives us a height of 20 × 5.7 × 1.1 or 125.4mm (4.9 in.). Close enough for government work.

So why am I thinking of gun stats all of a sudden? Well, I know, bad question. When am I NOT thinking of gun stats after all. Well I may or may not be working on expanding the kinetic side of Ultra-Tech firepower in my next few posts. I do hope to get some stuff out soon but I am also working on some non blog related projects so  maybe that might be more on the soonish side of things but they'll get there.