Personal Gear

[helbent4]

Originally Posted by kato13

Some people like the restrictions of canon and some do not.

For example, if a canon team wakes up a year after the war (by accident) and 4 years before the majority of the project assets are activated, they would almost assuredly be dead. That is why I give them access to nearly a full year of food (with pitfalls potentially blocking access of course). You may think this is "pointless" to do this, but the same way that combat veterans will tweak the combat portion of games, my administrative "veterans" appreciate when I do the same to the Project's back end logistics.

Kato,

I'll address this specifically: to clarify, I didn't refer to any of the above as "pointless", and my apologies if it was somehow taken as such.

Speaking personally, I give the teams 6 months supplies total so we're basically on the same page in that regard. I think that gives them sufficient time to either establish themselves locally or have Prime arrange for some kind of extraction or resupply (perhaps by automatic supply base like in Starnaman). It's still a lot of food, either way.

Originally Posted by kato13

Personally I see a ton of flaws in logic in the project as written. The people I game with are very detail oriented individuals (a forensic account, a CTO, a human resources director, a Math professor, a doctor, and a couple of programmers) and flaws in the logic of the project would distract them.

Kato,

With all due respect, you're really speaking to a point I didn't make. There certainly are flaws in Project organisation and logistics (that is, supply) that can be addressed within canon without completely reworking Project gear and (especially) the timeline.

I won't regale you with a laundry list of players who've played my games (gear-heads, professionals of different stripes, combat veterans, etc.). Most of them didn't have serious problems with the Project organisation, once a few fixes that stayed within canon were implemented. To my knowledge none of them gave TMP a pass or felt it fatally suspended their disbelief because they had to make do with an Uzi instead of an M4, they just freakin' got the job done and I think they would do so even if equipped with SMLEs. (That's not to say that typical player expectations for gear by now is insanely high, but I find that players eventually adapt.)

Project members in canon certainly do have adequate tools to accomplish the job, if playtesting (and personal experience as a player and PD) is any indication. We can always give the players more... and more... and more... but in the end the "gear queer" Project is what strikes me as pointless because the process is endless and what's "better" or "sufficient" is all a matter of personal opinion.

I think it's reasonable the Project would equip their teams to a minimum level (which for canon is still quite a lot) on the assumption they can requisition more through their supply chain. This is logical and realistic; teams were not being sent to another planet where resupply was impossible or at least very difficult. After all, teams are intended to be part of a large organisation that made plans to have every single team part of a robust and well-supplied logistical chain supported by a series of field teams, installations of different sizes (manned and unmanned) up to and including permanent depots (per TM 1-1).

Tony