How common are vehicle mounted weapons? Toying with the notion of a motorcycle as my vehicle.

Done with the skills on my sheet I think. And I think Jack would drive a tow truck. Nothing all that fast, just something practical. And if anyone wants to tie Jack into their backstory as an explanation for an upgraded vehicle, just let me know.

Edit: I think his car would be something this. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi..._style_tow_truck.jpg

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This message was last edited by the player at 16:39, Sat 23 May 2015.

Include the link in your character description!

@ Bod Man:  vehicle mounted weapons are common, but they are ring mounted and pintle mounted.

For visual reference,
Ring mount in a Humvee roof:  https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...9e/M2_-_24th_MEU.jpg

Pintle mount on a boat:  http://cranetechnologiesinc.co...4H60SmallPintle1.jpg


A pintle mount is just a post a with swivel that lets you turn, raise and lower the attached gun, and it could be easily fabricated by a character like Jack.  In Fury Road, the warboy behind the .50 cal machinegun standing on the back of the dune buggy escorting Furiosa who said "Why??" when they changed direction was using a pintle mount.  Yes, I saw Fury Road again last night >:D

A ring mount is a short pintle mount attached to a rotating ring assembly in the roof of the vehicle that the gunner turns with by leaning with his body weight.  It's pretty easy.  In a post nuclear setting, you can put a ring mount anywhere the gunner would have enough room underneath the mount to stand or crouch so he could shift his body around.  The roof is the obvious choice, but a custom built rig with a deep trunk might allow him to crouch in a ring mount.  The big advantage of a ring mount is that the gunner can keep most of his body under cover in the vehicle and he can his gun to bear in a wider arc using much less space to move his body around.  In a vehicle battle, the pintle mount gunner will be far less protected and the ring mount gunner will have a huge advantage.

EDIT:  What is not common are remotely operated weapons either electronic or mechanical, like most of the vehicle weapons in the Car Wars game or airplane mounted weapons in real life.  Example: on the M1A1 tank, the .50 cal machinegun could be fired from the inside by a mechanical solenoid connection when the vehicle was totally sealed.  These still exist on prewar military vehicles, but to have a custom built rig with this kind of gear would require an engineer and crew who knew exactly what they were doing.  That is a story in itself.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:23, Sat 23 May 2015.

Brings up a question for me.

How real is the world? Are bullets scare or are people blasting away all the time. In Road Warrior, bullets are quite rare. Bows, crossbows and such were all you really saw much of in the second film.

Kind of important to understand the bullet economy of a world before making some choices for my character.

In reply to Hassan (msg # 86):

Possibly some ammo is still being made?
My guy will be doing that if he can get the ingredients.
(Save the brass, measure in some powder, cast a lead bullet, tap it in, pray it doesnt misfire!)

Of course pre-war ammo would be better quality, and arrows are easier to make.

The biggest hurdle with post apocalyptic bullet manufacture is the primers. Another is time and other material versus rate of fire and complexity of the firearm and its tolerance for lower quality ammo.

I can see a world, especially in the former US of A where guns are common but bullets hardly exist. Or where those who have recreated the means of production and monopolize it have great power.

I am not suggesting we are that strict or realistic, I am asking to get a sense of the world and scarcity.

Another possibility is black powder weaponry.

It's a good question though about bullets.

Conventional wisdom holds that there is no new production and that all ammo comes from scavenged military stocks left over from the War.  The year long battle against the Chinese invasion force in 2022-2023 saw a large movement of troops and supplies to the Central Valley and Orange County.  Now older people know that there was a great surge of police and civilian arming during the tensions leading up to the War and everybody was worried about crime, war, and civil disorder.  Then again, this is just 'conventional wisdom'.  Handloading is a thriving cottage industry as is trade in various forms supplies for it.  Ammunition quality is a big deal, and Old World ammo commands premium prices.

Scarcity isn't as bad as Mad Max 2, but everyone knows that when he shoots off a round, he just expended an irreplaceable relic of the Old World.  Imagine the Humongous having only 20 rounds for his revolver, but he knows he can probably trade for more though it will be expensive.  Forward thinking people realize that there will come a day when there are no more bullets, but the low population of the Central Valley and the immediate demands of survival push these concerns to backs of their minds.

Seems like in a world like that fully automatic weapons, especially belt fed firing larger caliber ones, would be used as single shot weapons. Marksmanship being prized over the ability to throw rounds down range.

Ok everybody, I want to aim to start by tomorrow evening.  Post your character sheets in your character sheet under Character Details, and I'll check them there.  Some players have questions I haven't gotten to yet, but I have read them.  We can continue to tweak and shift points even after we start.


Attack of the House Rules:

You can have Knowledge skills about places, which represent your character's familiarity with the land, people, and situation in an area.  Examples include Knowledge (Bakersfield), Knowledge (Northern Death Zone), Knowledge (Santa Cruz).  Please make sure you have a sensible in character reason for having esoteric knowledge, because these all create adventure hooks like ripples in a pond.

I will most likely be a driver,
Do we have any PCs that would be gunners?
Can we have NPC gunners?

Wondering how to design my truck... a pintel or ring mount might fit...

NPC gunners and crew are allowable, but I will run them for better or worse.  They will be people with good points and bad points.  Tell me what you would like and I'll work with you on it.

Jari might well be a gunner somewhere.

I agree with this completely.

If replacement bullets are being manufactured then firearms will still be relatively commonplace but firing bursts will be rare.

If there are vehicles with machine guns mounted on them then someone has got to be producing a lot of ammo to keep them supplied and it would be a major industry.

Has anyone played Twilight 2000?  A well set up campaign of T2k will lead to players starting to conserve ammo and not fire bursts as the terror of running out of bullets dawns on them.

This setting should be something similar along those lines I'd suggest.

Well with all the shooting you all got planned I am thinking someone needs to play a doctor.

I'm thinking I might go with something like this:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pini...9338b5a0a41cd158.jpg

In reply to Jari Helminen (msg # 95):

Cool Jari. My guy is an older experienced scavenger mechanic road warrior.
He does not look for fights when hes out hunting salvage. but bad guys
will probably cause problems while i'm removing tires and parts.

Having a Second gun handy will mean a lot.

I'll have a garage junkyard somewhere, maybe Bakersfield?
Maybe that town Yolie is from?
Does Jari have a home yet?

Higgins that's a cool bike. Looks off-road.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:35, Sun 24 May 2015.

Does Intelligence add   (Int x 10)  to skill points   in this game as it does in Call of Cthulhu ?

That would allow us to add to skills other than our 10 profession skills.

Yes it does, INT x 10.  Skills max out at a total of 70%.

Re-updated PC sheet. I think Yollie is 100% good to go.

All of these character ideas sound fantastic, by the way. I cannot wait to meet everyone IC.

I think I'm ready to go as well - suppose I need a final check on my character sheet.

My sheet's done too I think.

I'm all set as well.

Outstanding.  I'm pushing out info pushes, and they're taking longer than I expected.