Project Artillery

[Gelrir]

The introduction to TMP 3rd Edition states, "In 1987, the Project carried out a complete updating of all the previously "stored" equipment, opening the buried and sealed chambers of the sleepers without waking them and leaving behind new equipment, vehicles, and the instruction manuals on how to operate them."

Interesting point: who did all this? Opening potentially several thousand boltholes and caches in a year, bringing in new vehicles, hauling off old ones .. and where did the old vehicles and equipment go to? The depots? Does that mean the depots have a lot of not-quite-state-of-the-art stuff stashed "out in back"?

--
Michael B.

[hyppoleonida]

Originally Posted by Gelrir

The introduction to TMP 3rd Edition states, "In 1987, the Project carried out a complete updating of all the previously "stored" equipment, opening the buried and sealed chambers of the sleepers without waking them and leaving behind new equipment, vehicles, and the instruction manuals on how to operate them."

Interesting point: who did all this? Opening potentially several thousand boltholes and caches in a year, bringing in new vehicles, hauling off old ones .. and where did the old vehicles and equipment go to? The depots? Does that mean the depots have a lot of not-quite-state-of-the-art stuff stashed "out in back"?

--
Michael B.

Very likely, after all is not said anywhere that the Project's leaders - despite their affiliation to the industrial/military apparatus - should be a bunch of wasteful capitalists to throw away vehicles, weapons and equipment practically still in mothballs and fully functional.

Logically, they could always come in handy, once the MP Teams have established the basics of the Project, to swell the ranks and equip the new recruits.

By this same way, it's also possible introduce in our campaign even the more experimental and/or historical pieces of hardware, since it is likely that the same industrial / military apparatus behind the scenes of Bruce Morrow's project, may be the same behind the innumerable projects for the armed forces that eventually never took off nor saw widespread adoption but that - on paper - were the best and most advanced in their times.

I'm particularly fond of, just to name a few, the Colt SCAMP machine-pistol or the Hughes Lockless rifle/light machine gun system or the TRW Low Maintenance Rifle.
These are all valuable "high-tech" addition for any MP Team... can you just imagine what a surprise, when the players were to discover that their exceptional equipment in reality never got beyond a (very) limited production (for them no less!) ergo the prototype stage?

What a show!

[Gelrir]

Keep in mind that even small organizations can make mistakes; especially if (say) one person in Procurement is convinced they've found the Right Thing. Once you've bought a zillion of the latest high-tech thing, and stashed them in boltholes -- what do you do when 3 years later there's a big product recall?

In some ways, it's a good role-playing feature for the Project -- it demonstrates that there were sincere but not omniscient human beings involved. Examples:

* the Cadillac-Gage Ranger is a terrible off-road vehicle. The Air Force had to issue a 25 mph speed restriction for use on gravel roads, 15 mph on rough dirt roads. The top hatch is very small, difficult to get through with gear or body armor. The spotlight cable would get tangled up in the hatch/cupola. The side doors are heavy, and have quick-closing spring systems: quick-closing enough to do some damage if you're not clear of the door frame. The runflat tires were foam-filled; when the tires got hot, the foam would liquefy -- then, when you parked the vehicle, the foam would cool, all down at the bottom of the wheel.
* the High Standard M10B shotgun doesn't work with regular or low-power shotgun shells, and is entirely unsuited for left-handed persons.
* the Stoner LMG doesn't use standard military 5.56mm links (a minor issue, but affects post-Atomic-War-ness), and (due to the short barrel) doesn't always produce enough gas pressure to pull the belt up (especially with a full belt hanging loose)
* the CP-7 laser rangefinder (more often known as the GVS-5 in the US military) fires 20 millijoule IR pulses, which can blind people all over the place if pointed at reflective surfaces. The US military stopped using these in the early 90s. Although: blinding people deliberately can have tactical uses, as well ...
* various items that use tritium to activate flourescent materials will be non-glowing after 150 years -- some reflex sights, compasses, etc.. Some early (Gen I mostly) night-vision gear employed tritium in the imaging system, I seem to recall.
* Morrow Project communication or power generation satellites ... certainly useless or destroyed after 150 years.

Or it might be some holster that has a weak seam; a flavor of "freeze dried food" that nobody can stand ("Ugh, not the chicken with rice again!"); or even just the weight of the standard white phosphorus grenade.

Nobody can pick "correctly" every time, after all. Even Bruce Morrow is only "sorta" psychic.

If your Project is stashing "super high tech" goodies beyond what is listed in TM 1-1, some of them might be unissued for a reason. Gyrojet pistols, rocket belts, clothing in ultra-modern (circa 1983) synthetic fabrics ...

--
Michael B