Merry Christmas to all my knirschenmeisters!

 Happy holidays every one. Hope you're all chillin' with the loved ones and being all merry and stuff. 

And from the bottom of deep, dark, dank, heart:

Ultra-Tech Firepower: Wolden & Hawks PDW-7P, 8mmAADR (TL 9)

Note: Slight update

 GURPS forum user Kale made the great suggestion of allowing the forward grip be swapped with a tac light which I should of included from the state. Good call man. He also suggested adding the option of adding a small 20 gauge shotgun in lieu of an idea I had off adding in a really small grenade launcher earlier in my concept phase for this gun. I was looking into maybe adding something like the S&W Governor but then it dawned on me that 15mm gyroc was about the same size as a 20 gauge so I went with that idea instead. Also another forum user by the name Say, it isn't that bad! has said that my stat lines are coming in weird for him. Well I looked into ways to fix it and it looks like Blogger has made it easier to add tables (the last time I tried it was so finicky that I gave up and have been hand adjusting stat lines since) so I have updated the PDW-7P's stat line to have a proper table. It's still wonky AF but hopefully it's more stable.

Wolden & Hawks PDW-7P, 8mmAADR (TL 9)

The PDW-7P was the first fully in-house developed firearm designed by Wolden and Hawks, a very successful gun modding studio run by Greager Wolden and Carter Hawks. With furthering social unrest and increased attacks and kidnapping attempts on high value corporate exec, research engineers, and politicians the team saw a chance to fill the growing need for a compact and easy to conceal high rate of fire weapon that can also defeat most forms of soft body armor to sell to the growing private security firm sector.

Deigning the actual firing platform was the easy part. Based on interviews with potential clients, Wolden & Hawks  only took seven design iterations to come up with the PDW-7P. It was to be handy in closed in fighting situations and with a strong emphasis on making it very easy to holster or conceal and extremely reliable (treat as Fine( Reliable)) so that it didn't jam or fail to feed in the middle of fight. This lead to the weapon being no larger then a heavy pistol (hence the 7P, seven for the seventh design iteration and P for pistol form factor) with a somewhat boxy appearance do to it having an integrated P90 style forward grip in front of the trigger guard which incorporated an ambidextrous fire control selector (which could be switched between safe, semi-auto, 3-round limited burst, and full auto) and a built in telescoping collapsible stock (one ready maneuver to collapse or pull out the stock). This let it be stored and used as readily a normal pistol but with a flick of the selector allowed it to instantly transition into a machine pistol or if better stability and accuracy was needed the stock could be extended turning it into a full on submachine gun. While the weapon only used a standard iron sight and smart gun electronics to keep the weapons bulk down, it did have a top mounted modular rail so buyers could add their own sighting options if needed. The forward half of the forward grip can be removed and replaced with either a tactical flashlight (50 yard beam, $100, 1 A/8hrs. See High-Tech pg. 52) or a under barrel Holdout Gyroc, 15mm (see Ultra-Tech pg. 144 and 145)

The hard part was what to chamber it in. Feedback had reviled a desire to have penetration levels near what the 5.7mmCL could do in a full sized SMG but given that the PDW-7P had a normal pistol length barrel there was not many round that could fit the bill and they were going to have to make their own custom cartridge. After several rounds of simulations and testing they found that a high-pressure round based on a heavily modified 9mmCL cartridge would suit their needs. The base round was necked down to 7.92mm with a 6 gram bulk amorphous tungsten cored projectile. To push for a high muzzle velocity a a higher pressure propellant block was used with a light composite coating applied to the block making it semi-caseless. This coating would briefly contain the expanding gas when the round was fired further increasing the chamber pressure bumping the muzzle energy up by roughly 9.3%. The composite coating is then burned up and ejected out the barrel with the rest of the propellant residue. Between the high velocity and dense core, this gives the round nearly 10mm of penetration of RHA equivalent. Given that the round was close enough to 8mm and its primary purpose it was christen the 8mm Advanced Armor Defeating Round. 

The PDW-7P originally only came with a conventional sized doubled stacked pistol magazine capable of holding 20 rounds to help with concealment  but W & H eventually developed a 33 round extended mag (0.5 lbs, $20) after customer receiving enough customer feed back asking for the option. A third party developed 100 round  C-mag (2 lbs, $160. An integrated A cells powers drum for up to 1,000 rounds. Worsens bulk by -1) also became available but W & H strongly recommend against its use as they viewed it as unreliable (drop Malf. to normal while loaded with this magazine) and the amount of extra bulk it added to the platform was over all incompatible with the weapons concept.

The excellent performance of the weapon however came with a high cost per round which was further impacted by the 8mmADD's production being limited to just its flagship platform. But despite this sales have been have been at lest steady with many of the major private protection firms buying at lest a limited  test of the weapon. This has also lead to other firearm manufacturers to start to take note of the round which may lead to further adoption driving costs down further.

 

GUNS (SMG) (DX-4, or most other Guns at -2)

TL	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	ROF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl	Cost	LC	Notes

9	PDW-7P,	4d-1 (2) pi-	3	220/2,400	2.5/0.3	12	20 +1 (3)	5†	-3	2	$890/$18	2	[1, 2, 3]

		8mmAADR

[1] With the stock collapsed Acc drops to 2, ST changes to 7, and bulk goes down to -2 and can be used with the GUNS (PISTOL) skill instead. 

[2] With drum mag ST becomes 6† with stock, 8 with the stock collapsed.

[3] Accessory rail.

8mmAADR

TL   WPS   CPS

9     0.015   $0.52

Ultra-Tech Firepower: The LGIP LAA-88, 88mmRL

Note: When I first uploaded this post I used the wrong formula when figuring the ammunitions price making them cost a lot more then they should of. The listed prices are now correct. 

LGIP  LAA-88, 88mmRL (TL 9)         

Even with ultra-tech advances in missile technology many militaries still have the need for a simple, accurate, and relatively cheap man portable heavy direct fire support platform. The Belgium developed Limburg Geavanceerde Industriële Productie (Limburg Advanced Industrial Manufacturing) Light Anti-Material 88 millimeter recoilless rifle was developed to fill that niche.

The LAA-88 follows a fairly conventional shoulder launch design that took advantage of  advancements in material manufacturing to build the main body out of  composite fiber wrapped around a rifled barrel made of titanium alloy. This kept the weapons weight down while maintaining a long barrel life (rated for 1,500 shots before needing to be discarded) without major increase in manufacturing cost. Also while not a true Rarefaction Wave Gun, it does use a similar but simpler gas pressure trapping system to reduce the amount of wasted motive energy normally present in recoilless designs and increase the weapons muzzle without needing more propellant. At its rear is a proprietary advanced variable aperture venturi which helps break up the weapons backblast cutting its force by almost a third. To handle the weapon it features an ergonomic integrated forward grip, trigger assembly and adjustable shoulder rest made of high impact polymer. It also has a detachable 0.9lbs  4× IR scope with integrated targeting computer and standard smart gun electronics (+2 Acc from scope, +3 Acc from laser rangefinder, range 5,000 yards, +2 to Guns (LAW)*, 1B/10hrs). While it can be used by a single operator (doubles how long it takes to reload) it more optimally used with a two man crew with one carrying and firing the weapon and the other loading it and carrying the ammunition.

Like all reoilless rifle ammunition the 88mmRL rounds are actually rifled cannon rounds and not rockets. This means a reoilless round leaves the barrel its peak velocity as allowing it to reach a higher muzzle velocity over all and making them more accurate then a rocket. The round further increases muzzle velocity to over twice that of earlier models not only through its launch platforms pressure trapping system but through the use of higher energy explosives based propellant. They weigh 4.4lbs which include a counter mass made of  high surface area to mass plastic flakes designed to decelerate quickly further helping to contain its backblast. The ammunition is rear loaded into the LAA-88 opening the sealing lock just before venturi and then twisting it open, sliding in the round, twisting it back down, and then closing the sealing lock.

Besides Shaped-Charge rounds (in table), it could also fired HE (7d×4(0.5) cr  with a 5d×5 [4d+1] cr ex follow up), MF-DC (Multiple Fletch-Dense Cored, 1d(2) pi-, ROF 1 × 1,100 ), SAP-E2 which is  designed to  penetrate into a target like a bunker before setting off a powerful Thermobaric explosive (Semi-Armor Piercing-Enhanced Effect,  7d×4 cr with a 5d×10 cr ex follow up. Divide crushing explosive damage by [2 × distance in yards from center of blast]), Electromagnetic Smoke (9 yard radii, lasts for 1 to 4 minutes. Takes 9 seconds to fully deploy.), and flare (900 yards radii, lasts for 5 minutes) rounds. 

 LGIP also offers more advanced version of its range of 88mmRL rounds which use an nano-optic array  and added control surfaces similar to the the type used in their range of 15 and 30mm Gyrocs which allows the rounds to make course corrections to greatly increase the weapons accuracy. These increase the rounds Acc to 7 but triple the cost.

Backblast: 1d+1 cr 

 

GUNS (LAW) (DX-4 or most other Guns at -4)

TL  Weapon                    Damage                Acc    Range      Weight     ROF    Shots   ST    Bulk  Rcl   Cost     LC   Notes 

9     LAA-88, 88mmRL  5d×11(10) cr inc     5 +2   10/2,700    13.9/4.4     1          1(4)     8†     -7      1     $2,700    1      [1, 2]

                          Linked  6d×2 [4d+1] cr ex

[1] Hazardous backblast (see description).

[2] First Range figure is minimum range, not 1/2D.

TL  Ammo                                                       WPS     CPS    LC

9   88mmRL Shaped Charge                             4.4        $280     1

9   88mmRL HE                                                4.4       $250      1

9   88mmRL MF-DC                                         4.4       $440   1

9   88mmRL SAP-E2                                        4.4       $500   1

9   88mmRL Electromagnetic Smoke               4.4       $310      1

9   88mmRL Flare                                             4.4       $280      1

*Uses the Specialized Targeting Programs optional rule from Future Soldier,  Pyramid 3-55 Military Sci-Fi. This program is specialized to work only with this weapon dropping the Complexity for a +2 to Guns down from Complexity 4 to a Complexity 2 program. $250.

Ultra-Tech Firepower: Salvo Explosively Impelled Munitions

Future War Stories is one of the many blogs that I frequent. If you already are a reader of this blog then you probably aren't to terribly surprised by this fact. If this is the first time hearing about it, it's a real good resource on speculative military science fiction and a gold mind for ideas. So go check it out.

Well, a few days ago I was looking something up and one of the sites that came up during the google search was one of the posts on this blog. I read  it over and then I come across this glorious lil' GIF below.

Ahhhhh, Elysium. Not the greatest movie but oh boi! The visuals and designs work in this movie, largely down but the undeniably talented Aaron Beck (for another example of his work see my last post). But man! Look at that shot! That is one brilliantly render blast wave. Of course... sadly, there is no way in hell you can get a blast that big with a bullet that small (in universe it's just a modified AK-47 firing airbursting 7.62×39mm rounds). Not even with Ultra-Tech explosives like TL 11 Advanced Nuclear Isomer warheads (Ultra-Tech Too, Pyramid 3-51 Tech & Toys III) can you get a blast like that! But... the idea did get my noggin' joggin'. What if instead of using the explosives as the primary means of damaging the target, the blast was instead used to enhanced and boost the effects of the projectiles kinetic effect? Well you get maybe an little over the top but cool (and probably possible with mature TL 9 tech) new toy to play with!



Salvo Explosively Impelled Munition (SXIM) (TL 9) 
SXIM projectiles are composed of eight somewhat sword shaped dense cored flechettes fused together around an shape charge explosive and a ladar based proximity fuse. Before firing the shooter must take a ready action to lase a target and feed ranging data to the proximity fuse. After that the weapon can be fired on the shooters next turn. The fired rounds then streaks towards the target and at a precise range (based on the amount of explosives used) the shape charge will go off  using the explosive force to both break apart the flechettes as well give them an extra "kick" boosting their kinetic energy. Do to their design this does cutting damage with a (2) armor divisor. Also against a lased target, the firing weapons has it effective ROF changed to  n×8 (with n being the number of shots fired) and it's rcl  changed to 1. If no target is designated  the round will instead point detonate when it strikes a target that gives it enough resistance (DR or HP 2+ for hard objects or more then 4HP or more resistance for most living things). When a round point detonates it does the weapons original piercing damage ×1.5 with an (2) armor divisor plus explosive damage if the round is powerful enough to cause significant effect. Also if firing undesignated, use the weapons original ROF and rcl.

Detonation Range is how far from the target the round goes off. This is unimportant for most rounds but for larger rounds the blast effect could be large enough to effect a relevant effect. A Range of C means it goes off in the same hex as the target.


__________________________________________________________________________________
SXIM Warhead Table
Warhead                Damage                                                    Detonation Range
7mmCL                   3d+1 (2) cut                                                C
10mmCL                 4d-1 (2) cut                                                 C
10mmCLR               5d-1 (2) cut                                                 C
15mmCL                 8d (2) cut                                                    C
18.5mmPC              2d+2 cut                                                    C
20mmPC                1d-4 cr ex + linked 3d+2 (2) cut                    C
20mmCL                1d-4 cr ex +  linked 9d+2 (2) cut                   C
20mmCLH              1d-4cr ex + linked 8d×2 (2) cut                     C
25mmCL                1d-3 cr ex + linked  5d+1 (2) cut                    1
100mmCL               4d cr ex +    linked 5d×16 (2) cut                  2

Add +1 per die to both crushing explosive damage and cutting damage at TL 10-12. SXIM rounds are five times normal cost. 


And here's how to stat up SXIM rounds for any gun. 

Blast Damage 

First figure the Warhead's Weight 

Weight = Caliber in mm³ × 0.000002

Blast Damage = √ (warhead wight) × 9.9. Divide the product by 3.5 to get the dice of damage. For most small arms blast damage can be safely ignored

Flechette damage = Base bullet damage × 0.53. Does cutting damage with an (2) armor divisor.

Detonation range = √(blast damage)


If target is lased the firing weapons stats are adjusted  as follow:
ROF becomes n × 8

Rcl becomes 1.  
   
Enjoy!

Ultra-Tech Firepower: Epoch Systems BE^2-HV/380 20mm Autocannon

Epoch Systems BE^2-HV/380 20mm Autocannnon, 20mmCLH (TL 9) 

Designed by Epoch Systems, the Ballistic Enhanced Effect-High Velocity Model 380 (BE²-HV/380, generally called Bee Hive) is a high powered 20mm autocannon designed for increased after armor effects against light to medium armored targets. It fires  the heavy, high velocity 20mmCLH round with an APIS (Armor Piercing Individual Salvo) warhead which is a specially designed APDS round that deploys three bulk amorphous tungsten cored penetrators in a triplex arrangement uniquely designed for this weapon platform.

The BE²-HV/380 counts as having a heavy barrel for the purposes of sustained fire and and can fire up to 2,000 shots in a sustained burst, 1,000 shots in a rapid burst, and 500 in a assault burst. See GURPS High-Tech pg. 85-86 for further information on sustained fire. 

Originally designed for light tanks and IFVs, the BE^2-HV/380 has also seen use as main arm for light mecha and cyber assault platforms. If used by a mecha or a limbed cyber platform, the weapon is set up in a "rifle form" configuration with Acc 5, loaded weight 211 lbs., and ST 19† if used with two or more arms or ST 27 if used one armed.

The BE²-HV/380 is fed from a 60 round helical drum magazine loaded at the bottom of the weapon. While designed  from the ground up to fire the 20mmCLH APIS round, it can also fire a APEP round (DMG 5d×10 (2) pi++, Range 3,230/15,000, ROF 10, Rcl 2) as well a newly developed version of the APIS round that replaces the tungsten penetrators with triplex APHEX rounds, the APIS-EX round (DMG 7d×3 (2) pi++ with 1d-2 [1d] cr ex follow up, Range 540/2,400). While never fielded in normal use, a standard 20mmCLH would do Dam 6d×5 pi++, Range 1,600/7,200, ROF 10, and Rcl 2.

GUNNER (MACHINE GUN) (DX-4 or other Gunner at -4)
TL Weapon                       Damage          Acc      Range           EWt.     ROF    Shots      ST       Bulk   Rcl     Cost                LC

9 BE²HV, 20mmCLH 6d×5 (2) pi+ 6 1,600/7,200 133/78 10×3 60+1(5) 24M -10 1 $102,000/$300 1 

TL Ammo WPS CPS LC

9  20mmCLH APIS 0.5 $90 1

9 20mmCLH 0.5 $10 2
9  20mmCLH APED 0.5 $70 1

9 20mmCLH APIS-EX 0.5 $240 1  

Ultra-Tech Ultra-Gear: Energy Converging Armor

Force fields are a stable of Sci-Fi. They let you throw around bigga-joules worth of firepower across the screen and give a hand wavy way of letting ships survive the impacts.

Of course some setting realize that if  force fields are a thing, there are other things you can do with them. For example some works like Star Trek use force fields as "structural integrity fields" to reinforce a ships hull against high G maneuvers. Others use them to show off significantly advanced aliens by having elevators and walk ways made out of force fields, some will have entire structures  made out of "hard light".

Though one fairly obvious clever use of force field tech seems to go unnoticed is using them to reinforce actual armor. In fact the only settings that pop to my mind or the energy conversion armor from Macross and Bonded Superdesne armor from Traveller.

Oh.... and there is one other setting... what was it again? Oh yeah, Luke Campbell's work in progress RPG setting VergeWorld. Go check it out. Oh and to convert numbers into something more familiar to GURPS players a Row Shift follows the 1.5, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 progression, a weapons penetration stat is just GURPS average damage and so on.

But with that plug out of the way, I mean if you can reinforce a crafts frame with an integrity field why not also boost it's armor? Well ask why not no more since below you will find my take on how to SWAG your armor!
 



Energy Converging Armor (TL10^)
Energy Converging Armor (ECA) is a tech level 10^ development that uses an advanced soliton wave amplifier generator (SWAG) that sends out rapid pulse of  powerful electromagnetic waves to to reinforce specially modified laminate armor. Against kinetic attacks this effect increases the effective hardness the armor helping it shatter incoming ballistic rounds or resit deformation against collisions or explosions. Against energy weapons, the electromagnetic field helps shunt the beams energy over a wider area decreasing its penetrating power.

While expensive and needs a power source to work, this system can triple or more the protection a given layer of armor provided once powered.

This system must be integrated into the armor that uses it and can not be added on later.

There are three types of ECA.

Standard (also called light) ECA: Triples the DR a given laminate armor provides, drains 0.35kw per pound of armor per second of activation (Uses 1pp per 2 armor system if using with Spaceships). 5 times the cost of the base armor.

Heavy (or reinforced) ECA: Provides up to six times the DR, drains 0.7kw per pound or armor (Uses 1pp per armor system if using with Spaceships). 50 times the cost of the base armor.

Advanced (or layered) ECA: Provides up to 12 times the DR, drains 1.4kw per pound of armor (uses 2pp per armor system if using with Spaceships). 100 times the cost of the base armor.

In all cases the base armor must be either be advanced nano-laminate, diamondoid laminate, or Hyperdense laminate.


See this post on how to power the armor.

See this post on how to add advanced nano-laminate, diamondoid laminate, or Hyperdense laminate to Spaceships.

If less power is available or the operator needs to conserve power, the amount the ECA increases armor can be reduced to a minimum of of 1.5× the armor base DR.This lowers the power drain by a proportional amount.

Example: A unit equipped with 3,000lbs of  Heavy ECA is starting to drain their power cells a little to much so they drop the increased protection it grants from six times as much to just two times as much. This reduces the power drain from 2.1MW to 2/6th as much or 700kw.

It takes a ready action to turn off or on ECA or to adjust it's protection level.

Ultra-Tech Ultra Quickie: Frag Out!

Quick update to get my creative ball rolling again.

In GURPS 4th edition an explosives fragmentation damage has been tied to the diameter of the warhead that carries it, that is the warheads diameter (in millimeters)/20. Now this works good enough in most cases but some warheads are designed to create an enhanced or heavier fragmentation effect. Below I cover two warhead options to get more fragmentation bang for your buck. See this post for even more Ultra-Tech warhead options.

High Explosive Enhanced Fragmentation Warhead (HEEF) (TL 9) 
This warhead uses either a thicker or denser case to create an enhanced fragmentation effect with greater penetration and wounding potential. Due to the stronger case, the warheads blast effect is reduced.

 Blast effect damage is figured as the square root (warhead weight)×19.8. Divide the product by 3.5 to get dice of damage. Damage is crushing explosive.

 Fragmentation damage is figured  as Warhead Diameter (in millimeters)/12 in dice of damage. Damage is cutting fragmentation damage.

Add +1 per die to the crushing explosive damage at TL10-12. This warhead is only available for 15mm or larger. Double normal cost.

HEEF projectiles, with the exception of hand grenades, that are built at TL 9 or higher can incorporate a programmable fuse that can be set for either impact or, if the target is at least 40 yards away or farther, for proximity detonation  see Ultra-Tech pg. 154. Grenades and satchel charges with HEEF warheads inflict the damage shown below. When set for impact detonation,guns and launchers with HEEF warheads inflict their normal piercing damage with a (0.5) armor divisor, plus a follow-up attack causing the damage shown below.

HEEF Table
Warhead           Damage
15mm              1d-2 cr ex [1d+1]
18.5mm           1d-1 cr ex [1d+2]
25mm              1d cr ex    [2d]
30mm              1d+1 cr ex [2d+2]
40mm              2d cr ex     [3d+1]
64mm              4d cr ex     [5d+1]
100mm            8d cr ex     [8d+1]      
130mm            12d cr ex  [11d-1]
160mm            8d×2 cr ex [6d×2]
400mm            4d×16 cr ex [5d×7]



Continuous Rod Warhead (TL 9) 
This is a special type of High Explosive Enhanced Fragmentation Warhead. A Continuous Rod Warhead surrounds the explosives with a bundle of metal rectangular  rods welded to one another at the top and bottom in an alternating pattern.

When the warhead goes off, the bundle of rods are propelled outward in an expanding ring, unfolding like a circular accordion gate.This effect not only greatly increases the warheads lethality against thin skinned targets, though it is less effective against thicker skinned or armored targets. Up until the ring finally breaks apart it is far more likely to hit targets within its effective range  then standard fragments (with hit probability dropping at a rate of 1/R rather than 1/R² as for conventional fragments).

Even after the ring breaks the rods are still dangerous and have the hit probability of a normal fragmentation warhead.

While effective, Continuous Rod Warheads are more complicated and expensive to build then normal fragmentation warheads. They are also more effective with larger warheads (the first production warhead was the early TL 7 710mm RIM-8 Talos with a 30 yard effective range!).

A Continuous Rod Warhead has similar effects to a High Explosive Enhanced Fragmentation Warhead only the fragments have an armor divisor of (0.5) and fragmentation has both  a primary and a secondary threat range. In the primary threat range the chance of scoring a hit is increased.

The fragments still hit with a skill of 15 but penalties do to range to the target are ignored. Primary threat range is fragment dice of damage × 0.5 yards.

 In the secondary threat range use the normal fragmentation rules with the exception that you trace the range from the end of the primary threat range when figuring range penalties- not the center of the blast.

Blast effect damage is figured as the square root (warhead weight)×19.8. Divide the product by 3.5 to get dice of damage. Damage is crushing explosive.

Fragmentation damage is figured  as Warhead Diameter (in millimeters)/12 in dice of damage. Damage is cutting fragmentation damage with a (0.5) armor divisor.

Add +1 per die to the crushing explosive damage at TL10-12. This warhead is only available for mm 64mm or larger. Five times normal cost.


Continuous Rod projectiles are always set for proximity detonation- see Ultra-Tech pg. 154.


Continuous Rod Warhead Table
Warhead         Damage                      Effective/Secondary
64mm              4d cr ex     [5d+1]        3 yrd./26 yrd.
100mm            8d cr ex     [8d+1]        4 yrd./41 yrd.            
130mm            12d cr ex  [11d-1]        5 yrd./54 yrd.
160mm            8d×2 cr ex [6d×2]        6 yrd./60 yrd.
400mm            4d×16 cr ex [5d×7]      18 yrd./175 yrd.