War....War Never Changes

One of the articles I'm working on for the first issue of The Jewel Throne is "War...War Never Changes," being a selection of Wasteland and Fallout inspired equipment, with a focus on firearms; a project I'm working on in preparation for running some Gamma World games.

My goals are twofold: as most of the players in our group are familiar with the Fallout series, this provides a certain "resonance" for the gameplay; secondly to provide a wider selection of firearms than that provided in Mutant Future including more lethal varieties. With Gamma World and Mutant Future PCs having significantly more hit points than beginning PCs, as well as the creatures in both games having, on average, more hit points than D&D monsters, I'm interested in gun having more "oomph" to them. With your average beginning Mutant Future Human PC having 47-48 hit points, it's going to take a fair amount of d12 damage assault fire rounds to take him down.

Anyways, here's some early drafts of some of the fictional firearms I'm working on for this article:

22-3 STRIKER
Effective Range: 400'
Maximum Range: 800'
Damage Inflicted: 3d6
Shots per Round: 1
Ammunition Type: .223
Capacity: 5 round integral magazine
Experience Point Value: 850
Based on a modified rifle design, the 22-3 Striker is a bolt-action pistol designed for hunting large game. Due to the weight and recoil a Physical Strength of 12 or higher is required to effectively use this weapon.

AK-57
Effective Range: 450'
Maximum Range: 900'
Damage Inflicted: 2d8
Shots per Round: 2
Ammunition Type: 7.62 mm
Capacity: 30 round magazine
Experience Point Value: 1300
The last descendant of the AK-47, featuring an integral folding stock, the AK-57 was manufactured by China but saw distribution throughout the globe. Thousands were smuggled into North America, many by fifth columnists.

M2049A1
Effective Range: 150'
Maximum Range: 300'
Damage Inflicted: 1d12
Shots per Round: 1
Ammunition Type: 10 mm
Capacity: 12 round magazine
Experience Point Value: 250
A durable, heavy frame autoloader resistant to harsh conditions, the M2049 was the standard US military sidearm as well as being used extensively by federal agents. A more reliable revolver variant, the M2050, holds 7 rounds in a side-loading cylinder.

M2039-ACR
Effective Range: 600'
Maximum Range: 1200'
Damage Inflicted: 2d8
Shots per Round: 2
Ammunition Type: 5.56 mm
Capacity: 40 round magazine
Experience Point Value: 1500
A descendant of the M16 featuring a gas-vent system and a integral optical sights, the M2039-ACR was the chief weapon of US marines.

VP41
Effective Range: 150'
Maximum Range: 300'
Damage Inflicted: 1d10
Shots per Round: 1
Ammunition Type: 9mm
Capacity: 18 round magazine
Experience Point Value: 150
A reliable West German pistol that was popular with survivalists due to it's high ammunition capacity.

 Also, here's a first draft of the first Jewel Throne cover:

Thursday Technologies - Marcab Enclaves

The Marcabs were a powerful galactic civilization of human-like beings that existed at the same time as the Ancients of Algol. An oppressive, totalitarian people, they established several outposts in the Beta Persai system before their Confederacy collapsed due to war.

Although the appearance of their dress, architecture and technology is eerily similar to that of 1950s Earth American, albeit much more severe, stark, cold and also monochromatic, they possessed a much higher level of scientific sophistication and mastered the manipulation of psychic energies.

Several of their outposts on Algol survived as extradimensional enclaves. Accessed via armored, bunker like vault doors, these enclaves are notable for the complete absence of any color within the extradimensional space, with everything appearing to be be composed of grays, black and white. Usually these Marcab Enclaves consist of a towering, almost inhuman skyscraper like structure, usually with several shorter wings, surrounded by an endless flat plain of thick, closely cropped turf. It is constantly mid-day in these enclaves, the sky cloudless.

The few remaining Marcabs are usually immensely powerful Mind Wizards with access to powerful technologies. Their servitors are usually robotic or synthetic, although some have been known to abduct outsiders and force them to take part of their "society." It is said that all Marcabs are insane, and that some of them have been warped by psychic energies, mutating into inhuman monstrosities over the aeons. Some insist that certain especially loathsome psychic abominations that lurk in the darkest pits of Algol are descended from such Marcabs.

I'm Going to Say Something Nice About Recent Editions of D&D

For the precision ballet of violence in computer games like X-COM, Fallout 1 & 2, and skilled Counterstrike play, as well as many action movies, 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons is an excellent rule set.

If you needed an RPG to simulate the long drawn out, up and down, back and forth showy battles of Professional Wrestling 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons would be a perfect fit.

D&D Deathclaws and Fallout-style Traveller

In this thread on Dragonsfoot, poster Distorted Humor lays out some of his ideas for using the Traveller ruleset for Fallout-style post apocalyptic play, "Wasteland." (This reminds me of the picture I saw of a LBB/Traveller style Hyborian Age game called "Wanderer," did this game actually exist or was it just a photshop?)

What really grabbed my eye were the Deathclaw Stats! Easily convertable to old school D&D, this critter is going to be one nasty random encounter for the players in the Planet Algol campaign.[SPOILER] (HD 8+4, AC 6?, MV 20", 2 2-12 claw attacks that ignore non-magical armor for purposes of hit determination, with dexterity bonuses and the like still in effect)[/SPOILER]

It's only appropriate, as both the CRPG Wasteland (Gabor Lux's Kard & Magica has D&D stats for that nasty scorpion robot!) and it's "sequels," the Fallout games, are an influence on the Planet Algol game, especially the "Raygun Gothic" esthetic for the Earth Man spacers exploring Planet Algol, although their shooting irons are generally of the six-shooter or bolt-action carbine variety (partially due to some "nonmilitarization of space" principle in the utopian pulp science fiction future Earth in the Planet Algol universe, and partially due to the general lack of military firearms in the 30s-50s science fiction that influences this campaign).

Speaking of Deathclaws, here's their original concept art, a homage to the Shadowclaws from the Wasteland CRPG.