Netherworld
Well-Known Member
Discussed this a bit with [member="Spencer Jacobs"] on skype, but figured the best option was to run the idea by all of you to see if this could be a useful thing or no.
Co-written with a guy who knows his stuff when it comes to guns (as evident in the spoilered template below).
The purpose of this would be, pretty obviously, standardized slugthrower reference. It gives us all the same pool to sample from, so to speak, and gives our judging process a more unified basis, which can only be a good thing, in my opinion. I realize some parts of the template go fairly into detail, but that's just to give us breadth when we do need it. Most submissions don't delve that deep, but having a well-rounded overview and perhaps a better understanding of the subject at hand can help in judging all kinds of submissions.
This is NOT a ranged template replacement. It's a guide.
Anyway, post your thoughts, alterations, etc. below.
[member="Braith Achlys"] [member="Draco Vereen"] [member="Raziel"] [member="Sanya Val Lerium"]
Co-written with a guy who knows his stuff when it comes to guns (as evident in the spoilered template below).
The purpose of this would be, pretty obviously, standardized slugthrower reference. It gives us all the same pool to sample from, so to speak, and gives our judging process a more unified basis, which can only be a good thing, in my opinion. I realize some parts of the template go fairly into detail, but that's just to give us breadth when we do need it. Most submissions don't delve that deep, but having a well-rounded overview and perhaps a better understanding of the subject at hand can help in judging all kinds of submissions.
This is NOT a ranged template replacement. It's a guide.
Anyway, post your thoughts, alterations, etc. below.
[member="Braith Achlys"] [member="Draco Vereen"] [member="Raziel"] [member="Sanya Val Lerium"]
Image Source: Wherever they get the image, it never hurts to make sure it fits. If someone submits a shotgun and uses a picture of sniper rifle here, it’s a sign they might not know what they’re talking about.
Intent: Usually not that important, but keep an eye out. If someone says their intent is to create an anti-armor weapon but it looks more like a cannon that shoots black holes, they may be trying to deceive you.
Development Thread: Useful in determining if the submitter knows how the weapon works and how they’re supposed to use it. Should be appropriate to the power level of whatever it is that they are submitting.
Manufacturer: Pretty self-explanatory. If it's a Chaos company, check if it has the capability to manufacture firearms.
NOTE: if they leave the name of the IRL manufacturer here, you might be able to save yourself some trouble by seeing if they ripped it from Wikipedia.
Model: Same as Manufacturer.
Affiliation: Should be pretty self explanatory.
Modularity: Most firearms can be modified to an extent. Or, to put it another way, guns are a lot like cars. Some are easy to work on, some are hard, but a skilled mechanic can always find some way to make it better. Most modifications are pretty simple, like putting on a laser sight or a flashlight, but there’s an astounding amount of things you can do to even a relatively simple revolver.
Production: The more powerful the weapon, the more rare it should be.
Material: Though choosing a material for a slugthrower can be surprisingly complicated in real life, it’s a safe bet that metallurgy and gunsmithing are not common hobbies here in Chaos. As such, this category isn’t all that important unless they’re trying to make it out of restricted materials.
Classification: This guide is solely for slugthrowers.
Size: Most will be handheld, though you may occasionally see man portable or mounted.
Length: (Via Metric System)
Weight: (Via Metric System)
This is less of an issue with machine guns, as they’re usually far heavier than assault rifles by default. Most also have a built in bipod or a place to hook up to a tripod.
Ammunition Type: There are many types of ammunition and it's impossible to name them all, so if the caliber is not on the list below, try googling it. That said, here’s a quick breakdown, loosely grouped by size.
NOTE: Mostly grouped by caliber, but if a round is more widely known by its mm measurement, the latter is used. To make life easier, the mm rounds are grouped with their caliber counterparts.
Anything higher than this is probably a cannon, and should be treated as such unless the submitter can present a compelling reason why it shouldn’t be.
SHOTGUNS
Ammunition Capacity:
Rate of Fire: I’ve seen a lot of confusion on this, so here’s a brief rundown.
Special Features: Some weapons do tricks. Take this into consideration when looking at the development thread (if applicable) and how it works with the rest of the weapon. Could be as simple as under-barrel attachments or as crazy as lightsaber bolts.
Description: Basically, what you’re looking for here is to make sure that the weapon matches the stats listed above. Also, keep an eye out to make sure the submitter can reasonably describe how the weapon works and how it should be used.
Intent: Usually not that important, but keep an eye out. If someone says their intent is to create an anti-armor weapon but it looks more like a cannon that shoots black holes, they may be trying to deceive you.
Development Thread: Useful in determining if the submitter knows how the weapon works and how they’re supposed to use it. Should be appropriate to the power level of whatever it is that they are submitting.
Manufacturer: Pretty self-explanatory. If it's a Chaos company, check if it has the capability to manufacture firearms.
NOTE: if they leave the name of the IRL manufacturer here, you might be able to save yourself some trouble by seeing if they ripped it from Wikipedia.
Model: Same as Manufacturer.
Affiliation: Should be pretty self explanatory.
Modularity: Most firearms can be modified to an extent. Or, to put it another way, guns are a lot like cars. Some are easy to work on, some are hard, but a skilled mechanic can always find some way to make it better. Most modifications are pretty simple, like putting on a laser sight or a flashlight, but there’s an astounding amount of things you can do to even a relatively simple revolver.
Production: The more powerful the weapon, the more rare it should be.
Material: Though choosing a material for a slugthrower can be surprisingly complicated in real life, it’s a safe bet that metallurgy and gunsmithing are not common hobbies here in Chaos. As such, this category isn’t all that important unless they’re trying to make it out of restricted materials.
Classification: This guide is solely for slugthrowers.
Size: Most will be handheld, though you may occasionally see man portable or mounted.
Length: (Via Metric System)
- Pistols will be shorter than 30 cm,
- Carbines and submachine guns between 50-70 cm,
- Assault rifles and machine guns between 90-120 cm,
- Sniper rifles over 120 cm.
Weight: (Via Metric System)
- Pistols will usually be less than 2 kg,
- Carbines and submachine guns between 2-4 kg,
- Assault rifles between 2-6 kg,
- Machine guns and sniper rifles anywhere from 4 kg on up.
This is less of an issue with machine guns, as they’re usually far heavier than assault rifles by default. Most also have a built in bipod or a place to hook up to a tripod.
Ammunition Type: There are many types of ammunition and it's impossible to name them all, so if the caliber is not on the list below, try googling it. That said, here’s a quick breakdown, loosely grouped by size.
NOTE: Mostly grouped by caliber, but if a round is more widely known by its mm measurement, the latter is used. To make life easier, the mm rounds are grouped with their caliber counterparts.
- .17- BB gun; There are a couple of rifle rounds in this general range, though they’re not common. The rifle rounds are extremely fast, noted for their penetration power, but not necessarily for their ability to kill first time every time.
- .20-.25; An extremely diverse set of calibers. Home of the .22LR, the most commonly available round in the world. Small, relatively weak, but dirt cheap to buy and produce, the .22LR is ideal for hunting small game, but has limited military applications. There are weapons that use the round’s nearly negligible recoil to produce incredibly stable weapons with otherworldly rates of fire. Rifle rounds in this size (excepting the .22LR) tend to be high velocity rounds of middling to high power. The venerable .223 (also known as the 5.56) can be found in this bracket, and is very popular for assault weapons. It’s low mass gives it low recoil, but its high velocity means it tumbles and shatters when it hits something soft, like human flesh. Also of note is the .25 ACP, a woefully under-powered pistol round that is nonetheless popular because guns that fire it are tiny and can be concealed just about anywhere. ANYWHERE.
- .26-.30; Where we first start to get into rounds meant purely for hunting game larger than coyotes. The .270 is a popular deer hunting round. Also in this bracket are some newer assault weapon calibers, such as the 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 Hornaday. Both rounds are a compromise to between the massive velocity of the 5.56 and the sheer stopping power of the 7.62.
- .30-.35; The sweet spot for rifles. Home to the legendary .30-06 (one of the oldest and most respected rounds in hunting rifles), as well as the 7.62x39 (most common assault rifle round in the world thanks to the AK-47). There are literally dozens of rounds in this group, more than I care to name, but most can be found with a quick google search.
- .35-.40; Mostly handgun rounds. Rifle rounds get kinda sparse from here on out. The most famous in this range is the .357 magnum, a monster of a handgun bullet that can easily ventilate most anything smaller than a wookiee. Also popular here is the .38 special, which was, for a long time, very popular among law enforcement, and the 9mm, which is still popular among law enforcement and militaries, though it’s slowly being phased out in favor of more powerful rounds. The other notable round from this group is the .380, which is the big brother of the .25 ACP. Though it has more stopping power than the .25 ACP, the .380 is still commonly used in tiny pistols that can be concealed anywhere. ANYWHERE.
- .40- .45; Again, mostly handgun rounds. Also where things start to get a little ridiculous. The .44 magnum, made famous by Dirty Harry, was for a long time the most powerful handgun round in the world. It’s insanely powerful, but that power makes it doubleplusunfun to shoot. The .45 ACP, on the other hand, is the round made famous by the legendary Colt 1911, and is a widely considered one of the best things ever invented, next to fast cars and loose women. The .45 LC is a bit of a dinosaur, which is okay, because it could kill one and isn’t all that unpleasant to shoot. Handguns in this range will usually be revolvers (with the exception of the .40 and .45 ACP), and should probably weigh at least a kilogram.
- .45-.50; This is where we run into a whole lot of nope. The .454 Casull is extremely powerful, and extremely unpleasant to shoot. There are a number of specialty pistol cartridges in this range, but most are pretty obscure. The notable exceptions, at the top end, are the .50 AE, and the S&W .500. Despite having the same diameter, the rounds are worlds apart. The .50 AE was first popularized by the ever present Desert Eagle, the go to gun for wannabe toughs who don’t realize that it’s a crappy weapon that jams at the drop of a hat if you don’t buy good ammunition. The S&W .500, on the other hand, is fired solely out of revolvers the size of Belgium. There are snub nose variants in that caliber, but they’re solely used for extreme emergencies, like surviving a plane crash in Alaska, only to get attacked by bears. The round can punch through bulletproof vests, which caused a lot of controversy until someone pointed out that the pistols that shoot it are slightly more concealable than an 18th century musket, but not by much.
- .50 BMG; I’m placing the .50 BMG in this category because it’s in a league all its own. The .50 BMG (Browning Machine Gun) is essentially an upscaled version of the .30-06, designed for the M2 Browning. It is, without a doubt, the most powerful commercially available rifle bullet in the civilized world. The round is so powerful, it’s spawned numerous legends. Some say it can miss the target by up to six inches and kill it from the air pressure alone. Others say a body hit will make the target’s chest explode. What we know for sure is that it can kill at over two kilometers, and can punch through light armor like a hot knife through butter. Weapons in this caliber, be they sniper rifles or machine guns, should be extremely heavy. Anything under 30 kilograms should be either bolt action or semi-automatic. The M2, for example, weighs 38 kilograms, not including tripod.
Anything higher than this is probably a cannon, and should be treated as such unless the submitter can present a compelling reason why it shouldn’t be.
SHOTGUNS
- .410; The smallest commonly available shotgun round. Mainly useful for bird hunting.
- 28 gauge; Uncommon, but not unheard of. Bigger than a .410, but not by much.
- 20 gauge: The smallest practical shell for shooting anything larger than a gopher. Small, with lower recoil than the larger shells. Perfect for smaller individuals looking to kill things.
- 16 gauge; Not a very common shell, but it’s out there. Intermediate between 12 gauge and 20 gauge, with some of the strengths and weaknesses of both.
- 12 gauge; Most common shotgun shell. Kicks like a mule, bites like a crocodile. A load of 00 buckshot would make Jesus think twice about coming down for the rapture. Though it’s not much good against armor without specialized rounds, the 12 gauge shell is the ultimate in close quarters carnage.
- 10 gauge; This is where things get silly. The 10 gauge is very powerful, but not much good for combat, as the insane recoil makes it a literal pain to use. Relegated to a curiosity or wannabe tough guys in modern times.
Ammunition Capacity:
- Magazines (often wrongly called clips) should contain no more than 30 rounds.
- Drum magazines may hold upwards of 200, but come with their own sets of problems.
- Internal magazines for bolt action rifles and shotguns will hold between 5-10 rounds, usually.
- Revolvers will hold 5-6 bullets typically, though there are exceptions.
- Belted ammunition is limited only by the willingness of the submitter to chain the stuff together, but will usually top out around 200 rounds.
Rate of Fire: I’ve seen a lot of confusion on this, so here’s a brief rundown.
- Single-shot; Has to be manually reloaded after every shot.
- Pump Action; Typically used for shotguns, uses a slide to manually cycle the bolt, thus ejecting the spent shell and replacing it with a fresh one.
- Single Action; Means the hammer has to be cocked before the trigger can be pulled. More commonly found on revolvers, though there are occasional semiautomatic pistols with a single action. More accurate than double, but with a slower rate of fire.
- Double Action; Pulling the trigger both cocks the hammer and fires the weapon. Puts increased pressure on the trigger, making the weapon less accurate, but makes up for this through rate of fire.
- Semiautomatic; One trigger pull equals one bullet fired.
- Burst; Pulling the trigger results in multiple bullets being fired, but only a limited number before the trigger has to be pulled again. Usually 3-5 rounds.
- Automatic; Hold the trigger and bullets will keep pouring out until the weapon runs out of ammo, jams, or melts the barrel.
Special Features: Some weapons do tricks. Take this into consideration when looking at the development thread (if applicable) and how it works with the rest of the weapon. Could be as simple as under-barrel attachments or as crazy as lightsaber bolts.
Description: Basically, what you’re looking for here is to make sure that the weapon matches the stats listed above. Also, keep an eye out to make sure the submitter can reasonably describe how the weapon works and how it should be used.
