Doing anything with nothing

[bobcat]

looking through the forums i was wondering. in game or in real life what are your favorite feild modifications and improvisations. granted such a discussion is best served with a quick blurb on how to bring it into the game system.


one of my favorite is the "soap dish claymore"
a simple, light, and cheap IED composed of a small amount of C4 and scrap metal packed in a cheap plastic soap dish. naturally being improvised you can tweak these to fit how you'r running your game
weight: .5 kg
price: $10
type: directional APERS
damage: C3 B15D
penetration: Nil
DPV: 3

a great weapon for defending choke points in urban terrain.

[.45cultist]

I'm trying to make most of the expedient flame devices, burst is in the manuals, I'm working on concussion and weight. I'm not doing fougasses since Paul Mulcahy already has. I'm also not sure of the"Eagle Cocktail" specs, but the ammo can device is on the notes. T2K2 didn't go into depth even in Merc 2000, so there's some work there.

[Olefin]

Love to see how some of the improvised explosives I used to make with my grandfather would work for the game

A tennis ball cannon but this time instead of launching tennis balls or apples its loaded with shrapnel and used as a mine or short range anti-personnel device

The beer can fireworks we made but used as grenades

Or the stuff he and I used to mix together to blow stumps out of the ground but now turned into land mines or anti-vehicle mines.

Or a little home made napalm with gasoline and soap thrown into an APC as it goes by

[mikeo80]

Some ideas I have had.

Punji sticks. Great for anti-personnel. IF you include the coating with s***, a potent biological warfare tool.

This is kinda out there, but at least possible. If you are running a game or campaign in the USA, and you are near a Civil War battlefield, re-use 12 lb. Napoleon Black powder. Really effective as an area denial tool. load the thing with double canister. Bronze is much more age resistant than iron. But not perfect. I would not be NEAR the thing when you set it off.

REALLY out there. Atl-atl. Spear throwers. You want to be quiet but still cause havoc. These things were used by our ancestors to bring down Mammoths.

Along that line, English long bow. Crossbow. IF you have time, material, manpower, Trebuchet. This last is very iffy at best. But hey, if you care enough to send the very best....Some armies used these to hurl dead cattle etc. into towns to spread disease. Or even simpler, if enemy is using a river as a water supply, a dead cow 5 miles upstream is REALLY ugly.

My $0.02

Mike

[.45cultist]

Some guerillas like to lob propane tanks at targets. These aren't very accurate though.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

What about those iron pipe mortars (or was it rocket launchers?) the IRA was so fond of sticking in a van with a cloth top and rigging to fire on a timer?

Also - anyone here who has seen Toy Story remembers the brief glimpse of Sid's "Advanced Interrogation Techniques" Army Field Manual, right? It's actually (if you pause the movie and look up the FM# shown on screen) an improvised weapons FM, including stovepipe mortars (bury them in the ground, then tap them slightly to the left or right to adjust aim), homemade guns and shotguns and so forth.

I'm not going digging and not gonna link 'cause sometimes that sets people in Alphabet Soup City's radars off...

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer

What about those iron pipe mortars (or was it rocket launchers?) the IRA was so fond of sticking in a van with a cloth top and rigging to fire on a timer?

Also - anyone here who has seen Toy Story remembers the brief glimpse of Sid's "Advanced Interrogation Techniques" Army Field Manual, right? It's actually (if you pause the movie and look up the FM# shown on screen) an improvised weapons FM, including stovepipe mortars (bury them in the ground, then tap them slightly to the left or right to adjust aim), homemade guns and shotguns and so forth.

I'm not going digging and not gonna link 'cause sometimes that sets people in Alphabet Soup City's radars off...

Safer that way, but when they do T2K2/T2013 it's planning. I bet thier reports would be a great GM aid!

[rcaf_777]

If look at the 1st eddtion weapons book Wojo factories has a lot of home made weapons and mines

[Olefin]

Actually trebuchets, catapults and air cannons are something you may see in various places, especially in the UK and the US. The US has a very active "pumpkin chucker" competition - and those kind of machines would make very formidable weapons lobbing explosives or projectiles.

And the UK has a pretty big group of re-enactors who build things like replica catapults, trebuchets and Roman ballistas.

And a trebuchet can throw quite a load - i.e. going to die pretty quick being under where the Volkswagen Bug that gets thrown into the town you are trying to defend lands

[.45cultist]

I remember a TV show where British college students were lobbing VW beetles across a field. I was a little jealous......

[pmulcahy11b]

Pain had one up on his site -- don't know if it's still up or if I downloaded it when he had it up. His was designed to fling cows -- I guess anything of that size and weight can still be flung.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Pain had one up on his site -- don't know if it's still up or if I downloaded it when he had it up. His was designed to fling cows -- I guess anything of that size and weight can still be flung.

EDIT: It was on Antenna's site, which I don't know is active these days. I may have it on my drive; Antenna, if I find it and you no longer have it posted, do you mind if I post it?

[Olefin]

Be an interesting weapon to use for sure -you have all kinds of interesting debris around to throw - especially if they start to throw things like cars or boulders or big chunks of concrete with re-bar in it - not sure if even a tanks overhead turret armor could handle a massive boulder landing on top of it thrown over a large distance by a trebuchet - thats a pretty big amount of mass to handle going at a pretty good clip when it lands

and you dont even have to throw a whole car - I would hate to see what your average engine block would do to what it landed on after geting launched by a catapult

although throwing a cow has the "Run Away!!!" aspect - maybe even have rude French defenders making fun of you

[Rainbow Six]

I saw a film once - I think it might have been Paul Verhoeven's Flesh and Blood - where the protaganists were laying seige to a castle and used a catapult (or it might have been a trebuchet) to fire something - I think it might have been chunks of dead animal - infected with plague into the castle, ths infecting the defenders and leaving the castle open to capture.

Sorry for the vagueness...it was a while ago I watched it.

[simonmark6]

That is correct, one part of the infected cow landed in the well.

[rcaf_777]

Why not launch a live cow? works for the french

[Olefin]

If I remember my history right Alexander the Great used a similar tactic - and bio war would definitely be very effective with how low people's resistance would be from years of reduced food and exposure to the new harder environment of no A/C and central heat

[mikeo80]

Originally Posted by Olefin

If I remember my history right Alexander the Great used a similar tactic - and bio war would definitely be very effective with how low people's resistance would be from years of reduced food and exposure to the new harder environment of no A/C and central heat

British Army and American militia used bio warfare against French and Native Americans. Just trade blankets. That someone with smallpox had used.

The Spanish used measles, syphilis and smallpox against Central and South American Natives.

My $0.02

Mike

[headquarters]

I do believe there should be several old school arty pieces there and homemade ones to.

What about the good old rubber band slingshot?? Build it right and I would rate it

BLK RNG DAM RECOIL SS / BRST MAG IFR
1 10 -1 - 1i 200

Using the right ammo and with the right build these are dangerous weapons that can easily take small game and seriously injure medium sized game. Can also launch flechettes/arrows.

Concerted fire from a group would be lethal in a apocalyptic brawl and a unit could hail down a harrowing barrage imho.

Bicycle tubing, raw rubber bands etc surgical rubber - possibilties are plenty to find and production and training is cheap - rocks are everywhere.

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Pain had one up on his site -- don't know if it's still up or if I downloaded it when he had it up. His was designed to fling cows -- I guess anything of that size and weight can still be flung.

[Olefin]

For that matter a rubber band zip gun - they have been used before to be able to fire a standard bullet - only be a single shot pistol but could be used to get a better gun off someone - or against someone only armed with a club or crude spear

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Olefin

For that matter a rubber band zip gun - they have been used before to be able to fire a standard bullet - only be a single shot pistol but could be used to get a better gun off someone - or against someone only armed with a club or crude spear

That reminds me of a book about the SF I read when I was a kid -- They had one guy with an M-14 and the second guy had a slingshot, to draw fire so you know what you're shooting at...