Articles by Rusty

In the real world, the any military weapons design has to carefully balance three factors: stopping power, hit probability, and viability. All three of these factors are extremely complicated, and they play off each other in a variety of equally complicated ways that are the bane of just about...

Okay, this one has nothing to do with writing. It's sort of a given that everyone on Chaos is a superpowered badass with plot armor, so it's not really likely that you'll find yourself in a story like this. Unfortunately, in real life, exactly none of us are superpowered badasses, and while we...

Right, so I debated whether or not to follow through with starting a book review blog for a while, but this particular novel messed me up. Not in a "rip your heart out through your rib cage" sort of way, but more like a "sucker punch to the cerebrum" deal. "Too Like the Lightning" is the debut...

So you've made a Fuel Air Explosive, also known as a Fuel Air Bomb, commonly referred to as an FAE. Congratulations! You're a monster. FAEs are nasty. As the provider of the biggest booms this side of a nuke, the FAE can level the playing field and the grid square with massive explosions that...

It's arguable that the Harry Potter series is the single most influential pop culture franchise since Star Wars. What started off as an unlikely hit from an unknown author turned into a media juggernaut that continues to defy expectations to this day. Recently, I noticed that the original 7...

Imagine, if you will, James Bond sneaking silently down a hallway in an enemy base, hungover and sore from the previous night's drinking and unprotected sex. In his hand is his trusty Walther PPK, with a long black silencer protruding from the front. He sneaks up on a helpless guard, takes aim...

Today's entry comes by request. Say no more, friend, say no more. By now, the three of you that read these things on a regular basis know I'm a stickler for nomenclature and realism. I've been playing with guns for literally decades (I received my first BB gun as a birthday present in...

I set out yesterday to carve a jack o'lantern with my trusty Colt. As you can see, the results were, well, okay I guess. The purpose, aside from wanton destruction and mayhem, was to illustrate a concept poorly understood on Chaos: what exactly bullets do when they hit something. To assist me in...

In the world of handguns, there are a lot of choices to make. What caliber do you choose? Do you want a revolver or semiautomatic? Metal frame of polymer? Single or double action? Full sized or compact? There are literally thousands of weapons out there, and choosing one for your character can...

Ever since I ran across my high school library's actually kind of impressive collection of Golden Age science fiction anthologies, I've made a habit of snapping up anything that caught my fancy. Anthologies are a great way to discover new stories and authors, even if the stories are decades old...

Every genre has its litmus test for separating the self appointed true fans from the unwashed masses. The test is usually quite simple: if you like X, you're not a true fan. You're a poser, a pretender, just another wannabe who doesn't understand what [insert genre here] is really about. These...

Next to unstoppable space wizard and smuggler, the soldier is one of the more popular characters on Star Wars RP sites. Given that war is a pretty big thing in Star Wars (for kark's sake, it's half the name), this probably shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, the percentage of Force users to...

I purchased Battlefield 1 the other day. In my defense, it seemed like a good idea at the time. My usual contacts in the world of console gaming had assured me that it was a fine addition to the series, and did an excellent job of capturing the horrors of one of history's most monstrous and...

Maxim #4: Close air support covereth a multitude of sins. By and large, grunts are all about enjoying the little things in life. They don't need much to be happy. Tobacco, good porn, a place to sleep with no one shooting at them, and the knowledge that they can take a dump without having to burn...

There are a number of reasons not to read the Fifty Shades books. Between the offensively bad prose, the terrible depiction of BDSM, the questionable handling of the issue of consent, and the uncomfortable knowledge that millions of lonely housewives used them to fill the aching void of...

Right. So. Monster Hunter International is a series of books written by Larry Correia about a crew of monster hunters who work for a company known as Monster Hunter International. It basically codifies the "Gun Porn" trope, having been written by a former gun store owner and firearm aficionado...

So, this is a topic that's near and dear to my heart. Having spent a lot of time as a Factory Judge, I've long lamented the fact that there's not some sort of official guide on how to properly balancing a submission. Unfortunately, there's still not an official guide, but I am taking the time to...

For almost as long as the human race has existed, they've been perfecting the art of poking holes in other humans to kill them. Coincidentally, a large amount of time and effort has gone into thwarting the hole pokers. The race between arms and armor has been a never ending, constantly evolving...

No Man's Sky is a huge game. It is impossible not to be impressed by the sheer size of it. I'm not sure that the planets and moons are all to scale, and I'm positive that the star systems aren't, but damn it's big. Only big doesn't quite capture it. Vast, maybe? Trillions of star systems, each...

Howdy folks. Been a little while since I've done one of these, but I'm bored as hell and have nothing better to do. Today's topic is firearm safety. One of the biggest pet peeves of anyone that's been around weaponry for any real length of time is safety. That might seem odd, since guns are...