Posts
All Comments
From the text as written in Funny New Guys and comparing it to the real world...
You cannot get there from here.
The base is now 18.79 miles to Plei Hodrong Thoung; 18.09 miles to Plei Me's Special Forces camp; and 28.32 miles to the Pleiku air base.
Firebase 23 on Hill 562 "near" the villages of Plei Hodrong Thoung and Plei Ya Bo; 23 miles Southwest of Pleiku air field, 10 miles north of the SF Camp at Plei Me.
You might be able to embiggen...
Plei Me is the southern point of the triangle. Plei Ya Bo is the western point, Plei Hodrong Thoung is the eastern. Pleiku is off the map to the northeast.
Firebase 23 is at the little kink of the east-west leg of the triangle. There is no 562m elevation there.
This is the only likely hill between the "nearby" villages and fitting the distances from the other two landmarks.
Assuming the QL19 highway is the same as Route 6C this is a good spot. It's within the 7 mile, 105mm howitzer range of the road (about 5 miles), but too far from Plei Me (13.6 miles) to support it.
I think, now, that the "nearby" villages mark points on route 6C which is a smuggling path from over the Cambodian border rather than an actual road. In that case, the path goes right past the firebase.
That's also why the commies want it destroyed, bringing us to the beginning of the campaign!
80 years ago today the Trinity event occurred.
Homeline got the most boring version of this event.
An independent, non-communist Rhodesia is something I've included in my version of Technomancer/Merlin 1.
This is a reasonable way for it to have happened.
The use of the Oath spell and significant numbers of Vietnam veterans from the chimera population are catalysts.
Something that's missing from Technomancer and Funny New Guys is what a racist calls a chimera.
It's mentioned that chimera are part of the civil rights movement along with blacks.
What's the equivalent to the N-word for a chimera?
Even if we have to use code like "N-word" to say it, there should be something.
In world, there definitely will be such a term.
Because GURPS: Technomancer limits the spider Chimera to a total of 8 limbs.
Two arms on the human torso, two that are shitty arms and can be used as legs and 4 that are only legs.
This is the only image of a spider person in either of the two sourcebooks.
But that doesn't match my mental image.
This does (in an anime sort of way).
 |
| https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=1890273 |
This gives this for stats: (if the cute little human looking legs are actually crappy short arms)
Chimera, Spider (Homo Sapiens Arachnae) (Pyramid 3/115 p.30 aesthetically modified)
40 Points
Attribute Modifiers:
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM 0.
Advantages: Binding (Webbing) 15 (Accessibility, Target must be grappled, -20%; Engulfing +60%; Melee Attack, reach C, -30%; Sticky, +20%, Takes Recharge, 15 seconds, -20%) [7]*; Binding (Webbing) 10 (Rapid Fire 7, +70%; Retractable, +100%; Reduced Range, 1/10, -30%; Sticky, +20%; Takes Recharge, 15 seconds, -20%) [48]; Claws (Sharp Claws) [5]; Clinging [20]; Extra Arms 2 (Short -50%, Ham Fisted, -5%) [9]; Extra Legs (Eight Legs) [15]; Lifting ST 6 (Accessibility, only applies to lower “spider” body, -20%) [15]; Night Vision 6 [6]; Speak With Animals (Specialized, Spiders, -60%) [10]; Teeth (Fangs) [2]; Toxic Attack 1d (Poison, Cyclic, 1 hour interval, 5 cycles, +40%; Follow-Up, Bite, +0%; Resistible, HT-4, -10%) [6].
Perks: Climbing Line [1]†
Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly to humans and other non-spider chimera) [-8]; Dependency (Mana, Constantly) [-25]; Lunacy [-10]; Social Stigma (Minority Group) [-10]; Vulnerability (Depleted Necronium or silver x3) [-30]; Weakness (Depleted Necronium or silver, 1d/minute) [-20].
Quirks: Bulky Frame [-1]‡
Features:
* Alternative Ability (x1/5 cost) to other binding advantage.
† As long as you have “shots” of the Binding advantage available, you can create a climbing line, allowing you to use the “rope up” or “rope down” options for climbing (p. B349)
‡ While spider people are technically SM 0, their large lower spider half means they find narrow spaces intended for upright humans awkward, imposing -1 to all tasks that involve fitting or squeezing into something.
I think this fits what my mind's eye says a spider chimera should look like better than the official rules.
Spider-people in Technomancer have extra lifting ST with their lower bodies. ST 16 for carrying stuff with the spider part instead of the normal 10.
That's gonna change some SLA Marshal equations and some unit equipment distributions.
A spider-person can lug a few recoilless rifle rounds round without undue effort where a normal human would struggle.
I might just rearrange my grenadier...
For a long time I've aimed at a certain level of realism in my gaming.
It seems strange, considering the massive levels of absolutely unreality in many of them.
In the real world there is no provable magic, no half-animal people no gigantic tornado of eldritch energy in New Mexico or Antarctica and penguins show no affinity to Communism or malice towards mankind.
So, why, does it matter if PV2 Astaire from weapons squad hangs out with 2nd squad all the time?
Because when I make a change from the real world to a myth-parallel, I want the change to be because I made a decision.
Willard did convey that the squad composition shortly after Vietnam was officially what I had in this post; but it didn't always work like that.
The 1/17th and 2/75 had the same TOE except for the M113 tracks, and the fact that the Ragnars actually had warm bodies to fill all the slots. Rifle platoon has four squads: three rifle squads, one weapons squad. Weapons squad has three GPMG teams. Mortars and Recoilless Rifles live in the Company Weapons Platoon and get assigned by the CO, or in some units the XO.Deployed in the field: In defense the guns are sited first, as determined by the terrain, then the rifle squads are deployed to protect the guns. During movement the gun teams will usually be assigned to a rifle squad and come under the command of the rifle squad leader. That frees up the weapons squad leader to either ride herd on any attached weapon system or become a defacto [3rd in command] for the platoon. It's a good system, nice and flexible.The flaw is that it's too easy to just assign a gun to each squad, and then leave them there. People will tell you that makes the unit "balanced" but that's just an excuse. Over time I personally came around to prefer an unbalanced platoon, but that's another, different rant.In my entire time in the US Army I never saw anyone designated as an automatic rifleman except on old organizational charts. Fact of the matter, the US Army usually used the M 60 as if it were a product improved BAR, with a single guy carrying the thing and its basic load of ammunition. The Ranger Battalions were the only unit I know of that had the people and resources to form machinegun teams and train them.The received wisdom (from Vietnam) regarding the 90 mm was that they were pure hell with the "canister round" which, in the '70s even the Rangers couldn't scare up from the supply system.
The airborne unit in my original post shows 2x M60 MG's and 2x M67 recoilless rifles in the weapons squad. The diagram also dates from before we actually tried using helicopters in combat. Moving the recoilless rifles to the company level, adding an MG and a dedicated mage might just be what the 101st does.
The 101st Spellborne isn't a prestige unit like the 75th Ranger Battalion, but it's very much in the spotlight. It's using lots of new ideas and I'll have to decide if the higher powers want them to succeed or not.
If they want them to fail, then people and resources to form proper MG teams will be withheld. If they want them to succeed, then those things will be available in abundance.
I did figure out what they meant by "Automatic Rifleman" in that diagram. It dates from when the US service rifle was the M14 and its automatic rifle variant the M15. When everyone has an M16, everyone can play automatic rifleman so the job is, effectively, eliminated.
Something I need to decide is where the guy who flies the magic carpet sits in this. Is he assigned to the aircraft, platoon or an independent entity? I'm leaning to making them a company level asset, like the mortars.
I now have GURPS stats for the M67 Recoilless Rifle.
There are three rounds in 1967.
M371A1 HEAT - 6dx3(10) cr ex with linked 6dx3 cr ex.
M590 Canister - 2d cut; but there's 2,400 of them.
M591 HE - 4dx5 cr ex.
The down side is the tube is 37.5 lb. and the rounds weigh about 7 to 10 lb. each.
Technomancer says that invisibility is a classified spell.
Checking the spell charts says that ANY five light-dark college spells and blur are the prerequisites for invisibility.
That tells me that the keystone spell for figuring it out is blur, which isn't classified.
Which makes me think that lots of people have figured it out and it makes me wonder what lengths The Government™ will go to keep it secret.
Especially when there's one-college only mages in the light-dark college who have nothing else to do but tinker with the only college they can work with.
I wondered about it when FuzzyGeff noticed the TVTropes page mentioned invisibility was classified and we confirmed it by looking it up in the main book.
It's just an incredibly useful spell for combat and, seemingly, easy to discover that I speculated that some dude figures it out and gets support from his chain of command to cast it operationally.
Some dude would need a fairly big powerstone to do his squad and their carpet to come in and flank the NVA while the rest of the platoon distracts them.
Nothing makes me really look into a published setting like finding there's a TVTropes page for it.
There's a LOT about Merlin that the GM will have to fill in for themselves and the players.
The further I get into it, the more convinced that my vignette about Rhodesia for this world fits in without making an alt.
I'd forgotten the Argentinean Nazis completely as a change from Homeline...
I do like talking about the implications of the existence of magic since 1945, but much of the speculation is covered in the source material.
Steve Jackson Games will sell you a pdf of both GURPS: Technomancer and Technomancer: Funny New Guys which you can get up to speed on what's changed and what hasn't since the hellstorm started spinning in Trinity, New Mexico.
For the most part, nothing changed between Merlin and our timeline.
The US winning in Vietnam is a, noted, exception.
The implications of how we did that weren't fully explored or considered by the authors.
Further implications of what magic means to politics were also not explored.
I made the outline of some of those implications with regards to Rhodesia.
Funny New Guys stresses, despite not understanding post-MacNamara designations, the combat use of magic carpets.
A Huey can lug 12 troops over 150 miles at around 100 miles an hour.
A UZ-23 can haul 13 troops an unlimited distance, but the speed tops out at 34 miles an hour.
Something occurred to me about the situation.
What keeps you from rolling up a carpet and tossing it into the Huey?
Get near the target, but far enough away that the distinctive sound of the rotors don't give the operation away and unroll the carpet next to the bird and have everyone step aboard.
It's similar to doing a parachute drop, really.
The carpets, while slower than helicopters, are silent in operation.
It could redefine vertical envelopment.
I'm a tanker. I don't know how the grunts organize themselves.
A late 80's tank company has 14 tanks in three platoons. 4 per platoon plus 2 for the CO and XO.
Plus a five-ton for supply and a couple of humvees.
Vietnam, if I am not mistaken, had 17 tank companies with 5 tanks per platoon.
I have no damn clue about how infantry companies or platoons are arranged, but I found this:
Things that I don't know (I'll bet Willard knows):
With everyone equipped with an M16, what makes the automatic rifleman different from a rifleman?
The movies (no shock) lie to us.
The M60 gunners and their assistant gunners appear to be in different squads from the rest of the platoon.
Are they assigned to a squad ad hoc or what?
I also wonder if the 90mm reckless rifles did much time in the bush in Vietnam.
The Chimera in Technomancer can all speak with animals to one degree or another.
The rules in The Basic Set don't say exactly how it works and there's no color notes in Technomancer or Funny New Guys.
The question is: Do I speak normally to the animal and they, magically, understand me and then when they reply I, magically, understand them?
OR
Am I actually speaking their language?
If I am actually speaking some canine language then fox and coyote people can chat without other humans being able understand.
That's the special effect I like, so I think that's how my version of Merlin will be run.
The spider people from Technomancer are chimera of humans and Mexican red leg tarantulas.
Don't they look soft and cuddly like a stuffed animal?
Well, they're not. They're bristly and the exoskeleton doesn't have much give.
A chimera is a mammal, not an arachnid. They just LOOK like spiders.
They have bones. They have skin. They have fur.
They're actually cuddly!
If you can get past the whole ugly and general aversion to spiders most people run.
Also note: The front legs are the arms on the human torso so the spider part only has six legs. The human torso rises from the black area on the thorax of the spider part, the human genitalia being where the pedipalps are. Clothing for these people must be interesting.
My little rule of thumb about spider and snake chimera's weight introduced a problem.
Spellborne troops are still paratroopers.
The max load for a T-10 parachute is 360 lb.
My spider is a svelte 320 lb. buck nekkid.
So he can jump in a 2.3 lb. uniform with a 12 lb. reserve chute and have 25.7 lb left over for gear.
If he were a normal human he'd have 185.7 lb. left over.
Traditionally the Army would declare these chimera unfit for airborne operations due to weight, but there's strong pressure from higher to fully integrate the services.
Chimera WILL be no different from other ethnic groups OR ELSE!
And with a Secretary of Defense like MacNamara issuing such diktats, the Army figures out a way to make it work. And they hate every moment because they're accommodating a very small percentage of the troops.
Happily, there's already a canopy in service they can use!
The G-14 has a max load of 500 lb. They're going to have to make a spider and snake specific harness anyways, so a cargo chute might be easier to adapt.
That'd allow for 140.7 lb of gear with the larger 37 lb. reserve chute. That's probably acceptable to the Army to get the politicians off their backs.
Two of the chimera from Technomancer aren't bipedal.
The spider person is kinda a spider centaur like the D&D drider; with the waist of the human part attaching about where the eyes are on the red-leg tarantula they're based on. It's a *BIG* tarantula.
The snake person is more like a naga.
The artwork shows some pretty substantial back ends on both of them.
That makes me think they're heavier than they would be if they were baseline H. Sapiens.
I've been rule-of-thumbing doubling the weights for both races over normal humans.
I might have to try dusting off my pencil and paper drawing skills.
PS: Despite appearances, the spider person is a mammal. That means the spider part has a skeleton inside and the "exoskeleton" is just skin.
PPS: Snake people are mammals too. Warm blooded and everything.
I've got my mission plan set for Interstellar Wars.
The party has ticked off a local Vilani noble family during the lead-up to the 4th Interstellar War.
Lots of interesting things can be done to the players when there's increase scrutiny about an obviously Terran ship that anomalously has impeccable documentation and licensing as a domestic Imperial free-trader.
Marv has assumed the role of the ships loadmaster, and he's a point of contact for Imperial officials who've been given tips about illegal activity on board.
This could lead to armed conflict and possible ship to ship combat.
Blowing up the ship ends the campaign pretty effectively.
If that happens, I'll fall back on Technomancer: Funny New Guys. Got to get JT to make a character for that. FuzzyGeff and Marv have theirs.
I have two votes for making some progress with the Traveller Interstellar Wars campaign we started, harrumph years ago.
JT is in.
FuzzyGeff is in.
Gotta get Marv roped in. He's not a serious gamer, but he's been entertained so far with other adventures.
If I run out of material, I want them to make characters for Funny New Guys, which is set in Merlin/Technomancer's Vietnam war.
A military campaign with magic!
