Hunter: the Vigil Launch Day

[fiat_knox]

Well, today I got one of the greatest kicks of my life, looking at copies of Hunter: the Vigil on the shelves, knowing that I'd had a part in it and that I'd had a hell of a time doing so.

And then I got a shock. Witch Finders, the first sourcebook for Hunter, was sat right there beside it. Not just one or two copies, but an entire shipment.

So I've overspent, again, buying Witch Finders along with Traveller: Mercenary and The Equinox Road for Changeling: the Lost. Gods, what a rush! :D

Anyhow, I'm now here in the shed to tell you about it. The day was brilliant outside, and I got into Robert Greene's The Art of Seduction on the trip up. There was a lovely Spanish girl with olive skin on the journey up: I didn't say a word, but charmed her with my eyes. Didn't have to do anything else. Didn't need to do anything else.

Ive hardly ever done anything like that before. I never really had the courage, apart from one or two times in my life. Like today.

On the way down it was all about hunters, Traveller mercenaries (and the fun I can have porting some of the ideas from Mercenary to the PMC section of World of Darkness: Dogs of War) and changelings visiting Faerie (along with the perils of The Hedge and Arcadia, and how they affect the other supernatural creatures of the WoD).

But mostly hunters. And hunters targeting witches.

And seduction.

Probably of witches. And witch finding hunters.

My dreams tonight are going to be very interesting. :)

Comments

[epocalypse.livejournal.com]

I'm slightly disappointed with the equipment section of Mercenary. I've got threads on the Mongoose and CotI boards about this.

The rest of the book is excellent though.

Choice of words ...

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

The terminology section also needs a slight correction.

"ETC" and "FUBAR" are not anagrams of anything. They are acronyms.

Re: Choice of words ...

[epocalypse.livejournal.com]

You'll find lots of that sort of thing, wait until you hit the field artillery section.

Disappointment

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

What, in particular, disappointed you about the equipment section ofMercenary?

Re: Disappointment

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

I think you just answered my question.

Re: Disappointment

[epocalypse.livejournal.com]

Minor irks first. They seem to have a pet gun, the mag-railgun. It comes in carbine, rifle and heavy flavours and trumps everything in those classes for damage. Fair enough but it seems to be some kind of video game weapon firing sharp spinning disks. So the disks would be inaccurate as they generate lift through there spin, the lift varying with the pressure and temperature of the atmosphere; coriolis would pull them off angle; and finally there is a reason a bullet, arrowhead and swordpoint are that shape, for penetration. A spinning disk-like projectile would just bounce off light armour.

The general description of equipment go beyond vague to the bloody mysterious. Tent barracks, an 8 man shelter that takes up to six man hours to erect?? I could dig and revet a two man firetrench with overhead cover in a couple of hours even in chalky ground.

Battledress is a well known Traveller trope, powered personal armour. The images are well known, close fitting heavy armour, much like an SF knight. Fine. Give them integrated weapons, no problem, happened before. Give them an integrated field artillery piece with an onboard 100 round magazine. WTF?? Maybe on Mecha. Perhaps on a Starship Troopers Marauder Suit. On a 2m suit of Traveller Battledress, I don't think so. Call it something else than Artillery Battledress.

The artillery itself is very vague and just plain wrong. There are two variants on the field gun given. The AT Gun is described as a large caliber gun once known as a "howitzer." Then you have the frag gun that launches airbursting large caliber shells. It's all a bit confused as well as obviously showing a complete lack of knowledge about large caliber weaponry.

There is more but I'll just sound like some lunatic grognard.

Re: Disappointment

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

Perhaps, with high technology, such weapons can have the benefit of grav assistance to neutralise the weight and recoil.

Can't speak for the issue of the tents. Any mercs worth their salt would, if they were bivouacing, have those tent barracks up and running in less than the space of a First Sergeant's barked order; they'd be in their jammies and tucked up in their bedrolls by the time the echo dies.

As for that mini-railgun jobby, there's already an experimental real world prototype being developed for the US military. 120,000 rounds per minute ROF, firing steel balls of customisable type in bursts where the balls are 1/3 of an inch apart in each burst.

This weapon is capable of firing at multiple targets simultaneously. It has no discernible recoil; no muzzle flash or giveaway sound; the weapon has no gas emissions, because it is electrically fired. The weapon is currently configured for a vehicular mount such as a Technical, but the company is considering investing in developing the gun as small arms.

They're calling it the DREAD.

Re: Disappointment

[epocalypse.livejournal.com]

I was more worried about the actual bulk of the weapon. My friend Klaus suggested that the weapon systems would become smaller to be mounted on the battledress but trends are towards artillery becoming larger but lighter. Ballistics are an exact science and longer barrels promote range and accuracy. So even the smallest 105mm gun I've used, an OTO Melara L5 Pak Howitzer had a barrel that was a meter and a half long but a L118 Light Gun has a 3.5m barrel. Now imagine an imperial marine in battledress but remove his right arm and replace it with say a 2m barrel and breech. Then what about the ammo? Bulky even if you are looking at small calibre rounds like 76mm or 90mm. Apparently this same man sized suit will carry these either in a 50 round belt on its back or from an internal 100 round magazine.

Railguns I know about. I saw a test firing of the British one into the Solway (my friend was part of a side project developing new ship armours). Although the QinetiQ one has shorter range than the current US version it seems to have more advanced features (but then it is just a testing rig). Couple of points though. There is massive flash in the railgun due to the energy produced, huge recoil (Lorentz forces which propel the round still need an equal and opposite reaction), massive sound signature (a MACH 7 projectile makes a big boom). The nearest thing to a small caliber railgun at the moment would be MetalStorm and it's many applications- evil kit. DREAD on the other hand is meant to work by centripetal forces. It has been slated on physics and military sites as a sham due its impossible claims of being silent and recoilless from its mysterious inventor. I've seen the patent and it doesn't really do anything for the claims. Very much a case of I'll believe it when I see it.

Still just because I dislike the equipment section doesn't mean to say I don't like the rest of the game.

Re: Disappointment

[epocalypse.livejournal.com]

Oh by the way, have a look at the website of Trinamic Technologies LLC, the designers/manufacturers of DREAD. Hilarious.