On 7/11/15, Kurt Feltenberger <kurt@thepaw.org> wrote:
>> Kurt was originally seeking a way to model the main guns of the
>> reimagined Battlestar Galactica in Traveller terms, yet still remain
>> true to both the rules published by Margaret Weiss Productions (and
>> presumably based upon the technological specifications of the show's
>> science consultants) and as shown in images of the guns as these
>> appear in the actual episodes. My insertion of tapered bores into the
>> discussion was made in an effort to do so.
>
> No...I wanted to remain true to the show while using some version of the
> Traveller rules.  The MWP rules were not just unusable, but they also
> were wrong on a number of technical issues (the game was published prior
> to the Grazier's book being published).  IMO, the only thing the MWP BSG
> book is good for are the screen caps. Everything else is questionable.

I own it and I agree with you, more or less. I would only use it for
as one of the sources for a Savage Worlds conversion. [The Cortex
rules are - at least to my mind - an unnecessarily complex version of
the Savage Worlds system.]

>> David Drake uses both tapered bore rifles and cannon in his one-off
>> novel Forlorn Hope. From page 16 of that work:
>>
>> "The cannon had a single barrel which was a trifle over three meters
>> long. The bore at the muzzle was seven millimeters. Through it blasted
>> a five hundred milligram osmium pencil which had with it's sabot a
>> diameter of twenty millimeters when it was slammed into the breech."
>>
>> A Vietnam War veteran, Drake would have been familiar with the
>> limitations of the XM-81 gun/launcher mounted by the Sheridan light .
>> . . so he went "back in time" to the tapered bore concept on purpose.
>
> "Forlorn Hope" also took place in the same universe as Hammer's Slammers
> (the original edition of the book had a very good essay on the weapons
> of the era) and included some rather tecnhomagic level tech of its own.
> Paraphrasing from "Forlorn Hope", they had a starship drop out of
> hyperspace over the camp, drop ordnance, and then retreat back into
> hyperspace.  This wasn't the same as what Galactica did over New
> Caprica, but instead was a controlled flight path that only dropped them
> out long enough to drop the weapons and then go back.

But Drake makes a nod to game realism in that he has one of his
protagonists think something along the lines of [paraphrased from
memory]:

"Bombing from a starship was a difficult technique to master, but [the
character] had seen it done before. In the long run, it probably meant
that he had signed on with the wrong side. Again."

--
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
"A word to the wise ain't necessary -- it's the stupid ones that need the
advice." - Bill Cosby
"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous."
Dean Winchester