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Virdea

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  1. Virdea
    The one thing I do not understand is why no one is designing a good, portable, heavy grenade launcher. The problem with every rifle is paradigmatic. Modern western military forces needs a weapon to create an exclusion zone to 500 meters around an infantry unit. At 500 meters delivered ordnance takes over and as it gets smarter it has dominated the battlefield. Under 500 meters danger close fire missions are life and death only for good reason, the failure rate of even the smartest munitions is simply too high. So what we need is an explosive device with simple smarts launched from the shoulder to a range of 250 - 500 meters. The French make this work by having a recoiless gun and a huge number of rifle grenades in each unit, but tests of the 20mm grenade from the OICW and even the 40mm grenade show that the blast radius for each weapon is too low - the M203 has a larger miss circle at 200 meters than the blast radius x2 of the weapon. However we know from lots of AARs that weapons like the old British 50mm mortar carried a big percentage of an infantry unit's firepower. So how about finding a way to take the AC58 and boost its effectiveness then hand three to everyone in a squad but the GP and DM gunners. All of the effort to reach a perfect rifle seems like all the efforts people made to reach the perfect bayonet in WW1. Dump the 20mm OICW - they cost too much and are too heavy and not effective enough, and throw the 40mm grenades down after them. Having a rifle squad with 30 weapons that have 4-7 times the explosive power of a 40mm would represent the initial fire power of the unit, allowing the close in battle to be accomplished during the time that on call artillery is getting its act together. The soldiers would still have their rifles after that.
  2. Virdea
    Here is an example founding document, just enough to get play going to allow the system to get developed. This is mine from A Crack in Time, but I would be happy to share or help you make your own. Note that the actual CIT book is much more complex and already moving forward as it has an ironmongery catalog, an adversaries book, and a more complex chargen. http://www.virdea.net/gamesys.pdf One of the biggest and most important theory of game publishing that all of my friends agree on is that a game that is written is better than one that is being debated, and that you can never please the pundits - your game will always be hated by everyone - hate is what the Internet is about. 70% of the Internet states they hate iPhones and McDonalds. Note that both of these groups sell a crap load of products.
  3. Virdea
    Children's Crusade.
  4. Virdea
    Game Rules Characters Characteristics are defined as X The list of characteristics is X1, X2, X3, X4. Skills are defined as Y The list of skills is Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4... Abilities are defined as Z The list of skills is Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4... Chargen Characters are created using a system based on this paradigm. Here is a sample character. Game Play Skills complete tasks. The math behind this is X1+Y1+d10 = task success. Target number is based on paradigm A. Ironmongery Sample gun stats B1. Fill in the blanks like you are writing a wiki.
  5. Virdea
    Nothing wrong with any of it, but I would go about it differently. First you need a version tracking model in place. So call your first rule set A1 and add 1 to that number each time a rule is added. Then you have someone finish an A1 version of the rules. That is bare bones character creation, skills, and task rules. Finished is better than perfect - everything will get defined and fixed in POC, and play-testing. So I think that someone needs to put out a PDF of the basic rules as the starting point and call it A1.
  6. Virdea
    I am currently preparing the shorthand version for an online campaign to playtest proof of concept - If everyone wants to wait that out I will have proof of concept gaming done in 6-8 months. I do it online and with a stripped down system and a rule set that is at best incomplete. Or people here could be the POC team and then take on supplemental roles in design and writing. I have talked this one over with my agent and I may go an alternate route this time around. Chime in if there is interest. Or if you want to do your own system I could make suggestions and get you started.
  7. Virdea
    I have been directed to this page because of my own expertise in this area. My name is Steve Jackson, and I am a game designer. I have written about twenty different game supplements, and published my own game. The request placed at my feet was to aid in your endeavor. I am about six months into design concept for a new game called "A Crack in Time." The game includes sub-titles called "Crack in Time: 1960," "Crack in Time: 1860", and so forth.
  8. Virdea
    In the basement of H and K, dozens of military scientists are yelling. Finally the VP for operations broke it all up. "Shut up, just let us know what our options are. There won't be anymore Belgium guns arming German soldiers." "Well, we have some ideas, how about this?" The scientist held a rifle up. It has bunny ears on it. "That is just a G3" "But it has advanced modification." No, I do not think we can pass that one. What else do we have." Another rifle came out. It was pink. "That is an AK?" "Us, we call it a KA." "Its pink!" "Urban camo." "No lets see what else." Out came a little rifle from a box that said, Boondoogle, 1991. "How about this." "Needs some modifications." "We can paste some stuff on it." "Good - I think the G11 is ready to come back."
  9. Virdea
    I know the flag of Mozambique was made in 1982 and adopted the next year. It is a great reference you have posted - but my main theory is that movies and Internet pundits of the past decade or two have over emphasized the effect the AK-47 had on history since it was not widely deployed outside of the USSR until 1970. NATO did worry about the AK-47 when it showed up in Soviet troops hands in 1956 but this was not a issue that caught press. I think that it was the use of the weapons for terror attacks in the 70s that made it recognizable. However, I remember discussing with a game designer about a mistake in their game when they assigned Vietnamese VC irregulars 75% AK-47 in 1965. Now game designers are renowned for getting some aspects of history wrong but this mistake was creating ahistorical results from platoon level fights nearly 95% of the time with casualties more than an order out from expected.
  10. Virdea
    New version up.
  11. Virdea
    I appreciate it. The grammar is very helpful as no matter how many times I make a pass at a book there will be one last grammar error. Also some of the grammar you identified was the layout program crushing sentences - which I am glad to find out.
  12. Virdea
    Yes. My own interest in French rifles started after interviewing French soldiers from the interventions in Africa 1975. The French had a semi-automatic rifle dismissed by everyone as a toy, but their AARs showed they totally routed larger forces of African soldiers carrying AK rifles. So if the AK is that great, how did the lowly French rifle defeat superior enemy forces? Of course I think it was the rifle grenade that did it from AARs. The AK myth places this rifle in the hands of every communist soldier from 1949 on, an unstoppable red sea of cunning warriors faced by idiots whose military were not smart enough to pour sand from their own boots when in reality the Garand would have been an equal to most of the weapons carried by from communist soldiers until the end of the 1960s - assuming it was backed up by the M60.
  13. Virdea
    I have been reading a lot of articles about the AK-47 in Vietnam, and how poor American soldiers armed with M14 and later unreliable M16s faced hordes of AK-47 armed soldiers. Most of the AARs from units prior to 1970 show that Americans were not for the most part fighting AKs. The Russians had only successfully finished equipping its own armies with AKs in 1965, flooding its allies with SKS and Mosin rifles that the AKs replaced. Many Eastern European allies adopted other weapons that AKs in the 1960s because the limited supply of these weapons. May of 1970 was when the PAVN decreed that they would only issue AK type rifles - made possible by weapons manufactured in China reaching them in big numbers. The Americans were mostly fighting SKS rifles and submachine guns through 1969. It just struck me as interesting because so many historians describe the ill-armed US soldiers when the AK did not really dominate until the 1970s, and even then French soldiers facing AK-47s in African were able to, using a semi-automatic rifle, completely destroy opposite of soldiers that really did have an AK heavy infrastructure.
  14. Virdea
    This is the rough galley of my French Bayonets E-book. Some art needs to be replaced and it needs to have its last five article entries added, then it needs its index and definitions filled out. Afterword grammar and spelling will get run down. The target for this book is general readers (as opposed to collectors) so I avoid going into gross detail about serial numbers and minor manufacture changes, and instead try to connect the bayonet to the historical issues and trends of the time. Legal Junk: Note that all comments are in the nature of peer review and do not represent editorial work for hire - in other words comments are voluntary and do not represent co-authorship. The document may not be redistributed and may only be downloaded from the Virdea site. Peer reviewers may retain their books as long as they wish. Much of this material appeared in a scholarly article by me several years ago. Substantive writing adopted by me will be given full credit to author and used with permission (this is for the rare person who wants to write 1000 words on some subject for inclusion, not just for someone who wants to point out that bayonets are often sharp.) http://www.virdea.net/french/bayot.pdf The code to open the PDF is sturgeon. It is optimized for viewing on iPads but should work well on any computer. Download is 8mb. The document will be changed from time to time as it moves to final candidate status.
  15. Virdea
    That is a wonderful history. And a 405 was historical because it was mentioned by Roosevelt in his writing. The only issue with an 1895 is that they do not handle modern cartridges well, older ones should be shot with care, but the weapon is indeed a piece of history. Like I said, I only had two in my hands ever, in 30-40 and one in 3-line 7.62, but they are magnificent guns, you should be proud.
  16. Virdea
    4- digita serial number (3xxx) 80% blue, bore is 90%. I keep this one in honor of my uncle and have named it Walter.
  17. Virdea
    I have two model 8s now, and I might trade when my current ban from exchanging weapons is up. My cousin has one - from my uncle, and it is more valuable because it uses a removable magazine. Certainly the 1895 Win is the same price range as my second Model 8. However, I would instead start hunting through pawn shops. The pawn shop I went to in Yakima sold almost exclusively to gang members, K13 or N12, so all they stocked was AK47s. I found a Vietnam bring-back MAS36/LG48 and one of my Model 8s there for under $100. Once my wife imposed ban is up though maybe. The 1895 was one of the only lever actions that had a strong enough breach lock to handle front-line military use. The Model 99 may have been the second but it never had a chance for front-line use. My Russian scholar friend has an 1895 3-line and the think just reeks of history. I fixed up one for a museum in St Petersburg and they ended up trading it for a Krag because the curator did not understand that the 1895 was carried by some soldiers in Cuba. I kick myself over that bit of idiocy to this day.
  18. Virdea
    But here your point proves my point. Pan-Arab socialism replaced one rigid doctrine with another and faced with one of the most pragmatic (and narrow missioned) militaries in the world it crumpled. I can point to some issues on the opposite side of the fence. Gulf War II saw a pragmatic and mission tasked US military move rapidly with a small, sophisticated force to defeat a larger, inept Muslim-majority force. Then they threw out mission and adopted orthodoxy in some crazy attempt to foist buzz words like democracy and capitalism on a people who were generations away from those concepts. The Muslim forces in the "post victory" Gulf War II phase arguably outperformed expectations, and allied forces flailed away until some very smart and pragmatic people helped kick start the awakening movement. Even then the goal of a strong democratic Iraq never happened.
  19. Virdea
    Mostly it was people who thought that some combination of wildcat cartridge, wildcat gun, and so forth would teach the idiots of the 1920s a lesson. So you got a wide ranging discussion of re-chambering the Colt Monitor for a better round that the 30-06 (35 Whelan is an example), giving it a extended magazine, and so forth. What idiot would not do that? My uncle was one idiot who would not. Taking the issue realistically I am not sure my uncle ever had more than 100 bucks in one place his entire life. The money he got from WW2 when his brother died in North Africa serving in the 34th Infantry Division was - I think, the exception, and I think Uncle Henry and Uncle Jack Mckeeby shared that when they got out of the prison camp in 1945. So my theory later in the discussion was not what buck rogers gun my uncle could have packed, but what he realistically could have had. My discovery of his model 8 - I had bought one for 25 bucks in Yakima about eight years ago (a story in itself - remind me to tell about the K13 who bought a rack of Aks ) and a relative clued me into the pictures and diaries of Walter and his model 8. I have one now, but Walters went to a cousin.
  20. Virdea
    Samurai sensibility. The action moves along better when the bad guys fall off screen. Same thing happens in westerns. The audience will start to sympathize with the red shirt who is hacked to pieces and dies screaming.
  21. Virdea
    I would love to. Not tomorrow, I am fighting two deadlines right now, but soon. It is interesting that your own theories on bullet effectiveness track closely those of the effectiveness of medieval weapons.
  22. Virdea
    I wish. I spent three years reading primary source archeology and modern wounding accounts and fiddling with formulas to predict how deadly hand weapons were and how effective armor was. At the end I found some rules, but enlightenment was never reached. For example - the highest chance in pre-firearm fighting to achieve a single blow kill came from a penetrating blow by a very narrow weapon to the chest cavity, as long as that blow was able to penetrate no less than 10 cm. Then you read about the duel culture of Europe 18C and the development of sport fencing and that rule is born out. People who fenced to prepare for real blood duels treated a tip of the blade attack to the chest as a kill. In affairs of honor no tip thrusts were permitted, they instead slashed. You take all this evidence that the narrow point of a small sword was far more deadly than the huge chopping surface of a longsword and you will get laughed out of forums all over the Internet. However the evidence is there. Soldiers killed in the Balangiga massacre for example were described as chopped apart unmercifully, but what the observers were actually seeing was typical in medieval battlefields where chopping weapons were in use.
  23. Virdea
    Firearm carry choices is like choosing what side of your cards to show to the other player.
  24. Virdea
    Straight Copper 29 does not melt until 1000C but it becomes brittle at 750. My bet is that any bullet traveling 24 inches down a barrel at 4000fps has enough friction thrown at it to reach 750. Without testing it I bet a copper jacket failure is the result with allows available in the 1920. When studying the effectiveness of medieval weapons I kept needing non-linear formulas to explain how deadly weapons were. Modern autopsies show that all four of the major mechanical wound groups can cause a human to die, but some are better than others in different situations. Chopping weapons are ineffective unless they are swung with a significant amount of force. Bludgeoning weapons are ineffective unless they hit a few places in the body. Slashing weapons require precise movement along exposed flesh to cut deep enough to be effective. Piercing weapons are the best in terms of weight, but have to be long enough and strong enough to penetrate the chest cavity. Looking at the bodies of 400 medieval soldiers from Turkey shows they were mostly hacked apart and took one or two dozen wounds to cause death. Very few were cleanly killed in melee. However I am reminded of the parable of South Carolina trooper Mark Coates.
  25. Virdea
    I wish it still existed because it was a classic case of circular arguments. One group advocated the lawman of the 1920s arming themselves with Tommy guns as you say, but my uncle purchased his own model 8 for 25 bucks - a Tommy gun costs something like 300 with magazines back then (which spawned a new argument about it being idiotic to count pennies when it is your life.) There was a large group that advocated a cut-down, short barreled Colt Monitor because 30-06 is the "baseline cartridge" a term I have never heard of before or since. There was a lot of talk of bolt action versus semi-auto, and I think most of the fan base wanted larger rounds. I thought back to my own days in blue and I had a carbine in my car, and once in a while I would throw a personal rifle in when I was doing a stint in the back country. I was never scared that the carbine was a bad choice since I did not have one (a choice), and the main reason it was issued was for active shooter in schools (later most people got M16A1s). My service weapon was a Glock 23 - the department only issued 15 round mags so I carried two 15 round mags plus a 13 in the gun. I also carried a titanium 38 revolver made by Taurus. On forums when I revealed what I carried it would always cause a lot of posting - lots of digital ink on my choice of a Glock 23 exists because apparently those last two rounds are life or death. Two mags backup? That discussion lit off a lot of discussions on how many pistol rounds do you need and the pundits wanted hundreds. Heck, even when I grabbed my vest and my carbine at most I would have 114 rounds on my body by people who never leave the house without a hundred rounds in their pocket. I figure I am just lazy. The point is I do not think the Remington 8 generated that much antipathy, it was the fact I posted a memory that allowed the arm chair quarterbacks to jump into the game. A couple were long, drawn out, and interesting posts that I read with interest.
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