RPG Saturday: Traveller: 2300

    Traveller: 2300 is a science-fiction roleplaying game from Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) in 1986. As the title suggests, it is intended to take place in 2300 A.D. As such, most of the technology is based on reasonable assumptions of what might be developed in the next few hundred years with the exception of including a faster-than-light (FTL) drive system (because you need someway to get the characters between different star systems without it taking centuries to travel). 

    The background to this game is based off the setting for the Twilight: 2000 game which I blogged about last week--a WWIII breaking out between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in 1995. In the aftermath of the war and subsequent recovery, the large powers--the U.S., Russia, and China--broke apart with a concomitant reduction in power. France, on the other hand, saw its star rise again. Thus, by 2300 explored space is split into three main "arms"--the French, the Chinese, and the American. 

    The problem this created is that GDW already had a popular science fiction game called Traveller but the background and FTL technology was very different from Traveller:2300. There was also the issue that a lot of people felt cheated because they bought the game thinking it was a prequel to Traveller, not a sequel to Twilight:2000. GDW quickly (1988) came out with a new edition that made some needed updates to the rules, added aliens and a more blatant militarized setting, and renamed the game to just 2300 AD. But probably because of the initial confusion, it didn't do very well. Seems like there is a marketing lesson in there.

    The boxed set came with two rule books--a Player's Manual and a Referee's Manual (48 and 49 pages each, respectively)--a local star map (to about 50 light years from Earth), a near star list, a booklet with various forms used in the game, and a short introductory adventure called "The Tricolor's Shadow," and a set of dice. 

    The Player's Manual contains a historical and political background for the setting, an overview of technology and the interstellar colonies, the nations of Earth and their respective colonies, rules on character generation, rules and information about the equipment, weapons, and vehicles available to the characters, as well as information on using the near star map.

    The Referee's Manual has some background about life on the interstellar frontier, before setting out the basic rules on tasks and task resolution, combat and combat resolution, star travel, space combat, listings of ships, world generation and mapping, non-player characters, and animal encounters.  

     The basic rule mechanic is role 1d10 with a success on a 7 or higher for routine tasks; but easier or harder tasks are multiples of 4 lower or higher, respectively. A natural role of 0 is always a failure. "Assets"--skills, attributes, etc.--can act as positive modifiers. Failure result in consulting the failure table. 

    Basic combat is handled with essentially the same procedure, but with some special rules for combat with firearms, melee combat, or involving vehicles. For instance, the procedure for firearms can depend on whether you are engaged in aimed fire or area fire. There are also special rules when moving and for using cover. Misses with weapons using exploding rounds (including hand grenades) results in a deviation where it strikes. And indirect fire has its own rules as well. 

     There are also different types of damages depending on the weapon: normal, blunt, and stun. The amount of damage depends on the hit location and can be a "kill", a "serious wound," or a "light wound." And yet, depending on the power of the weapon, you must still roll for specific weapon effects. To be honest, though, when playing the game, my friends and I would just assign a number of points of damage for each of the three results and give up the complexity of figuring out the various results. 

    Even though I bought this in my last year or high school, I didn't actually play it until much later after I was married and had kids and had a few friends that would get together every couple of weeks for game. I liked the idea of a near future type setting, although I developed my own background and different political situation. 

    As I mentioned above, other than the FTL drive, the technology envisioned is all something that is similar to what we have now or logical progression from current technologies. Although there are some laser small arms, the majority of small arms are firearms using caseless ammo. There is no antigravity. There is no artificial gravity: spacecraft have to rely on spin gravity. Although a few worlds have space elevators, rockets are still used to get items to orbit. Most spacecraft, if they have weapons, used missiles. 

    When I got around to the creating a background, I tweaked it a bit by adding more biotechnology (which allowed an uplifted species), Gauss weapons, drones and artificial life forms, a different history and political setting, and introduced ruins of an advanced alien civilization for the characters to find. Although the game is really intended to revolve around the characters being involved in quasi-military type adventures, I preferred something leaning more toward mysteries and exploration. 

     According to Wikipedia, the setting was revived under the name 2320 AD as a setting for the Traveller20 game. Most recently, Mongoose Publishing, which has been publishing an updated set of rules for the Traveller roleplaying game came out with an 2300 AD supplement. I thought it disappointing. Others must have as well, because Mongoose came out with a greatly expanded supplement, but for $99 plus shipping, I decided I wasn't that interested. 

     I couldn't find a good video review of the original Traveller: 2300 game from 1986. The short video about it is really just a look at what comes in the boxed set. But I found a more detailed overview of the 2300 AD version that came out in 1988. 

 VIDEO: "Role Playing Games - Traveller 2300"
The Dusted Game Shelf (7 min.)

 

 VIDEO: "Traveller 2300ad (GDW 1988) | Retro RPG"
RPGGamer (23 min.) 

The UFO Videos Released By The War Department

Most of the video is of small ball shaped objects or things, showing up white (i.e., hot) in thermal. The more interesting shapes are saved for the last 7 or 8 minutes of the video. Interestingly, quite a few of the objects show a faint tail behind them like smoke or mirage, although whether it is heated air (my theory) or an artifact of the video (e.g., the object was so hot that the sensor showing a bit of afterglow, sort of like dragging a magnet across a CRT) is beyond my knowledge. 

But the Pentagon released more than just these videos, but also a bunch of documents. A couple articles that go over some highlights:

• "US military aircraft encountered ‘super-hot’ orb during nighttime search mission near government site, Pentagon’s UFO files reveal"--New York Post. 
• "'Super-hot' orbs chased US fighter jets in terrifying close encounter reported in UFO files"--Daily Mail. An excerpt:

    One heavily redacted FBI report described a senior US intelligence officer recounting a nighttime mission in a remote mountain range near a classified government site.

    According to the report, intelligence personnel, federal agents and helicopter crews were dispatched after local staff repeatedly reported seeing strange glowing 'orbs' and hearing loud 'thuds' near the mountains.

    But when the team arrived, they allegedly encountered swarms of highly maneuverable objects that appeared extremely hot on thermal cameras despite flying through the darkness.

    The report stated that the unidentified orbs easily outran military helicopters before later pursuing fighter aircraft called in to intercept them.

    At one point during the encounter, a co-pilot aboard the lead helicopter reportedly watched one orb split into two separate objects before another object suddenly 'emerged' from the formation and shot away at high speed.

    Another section of the FBI records detailed alleged encounters with mysterious crewmen said to be between three and a half and four feet tall, 'wearing what appear to be space suits and helmets,' who reportedly exited unidentified flying objects.

    Using night-vision goggles and FLIR thermal cameras, the 2025 intelligence team spotted the first 'super-hot' glowing orb hovering near the ground around 10pm local time.

    The intelligence officer revealed that the UFO moved extremely fast before splitting into two objects. Pilots reported that it was too quick for the helicopters to chase.

    Roughly 16 minutes later, a large swarm of lights which was described as containing 'too many to count' appeared and flew around in all directions, mostly heading south.

    Within ten minutes of this gathering, multiple groups of the bright orbs began to emit light in all directions. The report described the objects as oval-shaped and orange with a white or yellow center.

    The orb swarm then 'flared up' or brightened one at a time in a horizontal line, stayed stationary for ten to 15 seconds, then 'flared down' or dimmed in reverse order and disappeared.

    The agent told the FBI that this happened several times; sometimes with two orbs and other times with four or six, and sometimes with the UFOs forming up in a triangle formation.

    Some orbs appeared very close to the helicopter, getting within ten feet, while others hovered directly over the squadron of military training aircraft sent to assist the intelligence team.

    When the five fighter jets arrived, the orbs seemed to break away from the helicopters and pursued the jets at high speed.

  

 VIDEO: "WATCH ALL of the UFO Videos Released by the Pentagon"
New York Post (35 min.)

VIDEO: Why Chamber Loading Hurts Your Pistol

 Chamber loading is where you drop or push a cartridge into the chamber and then release the slide. Most people probably do this to avoid having to chamber a round from a full magazine, then remove the magazine and load a new round into the magazine to top it off--in other words, due to laziness.

It is not an issue on some semi-auto pistols, but most semi-auto pistols--including all those using a Browning type action--use a controlled feed design: it is designed so the as the cartridge is pushed off the top of the magazine by the slide and into the chamber, the rear of the cartridge moves from a slanted angle to a horizontal position, and the rim slides in behind the extractor claw. Letting the slide slam onto a cartridge already in the chamber means that the extractor is forced over the rim which can cause wear and tear or even break the extractor.   

VIDEO: "How Chamber Loading Hurts Your Handgun"
Paul W. (4 min.)

Weekend Reading #55

Some longer and more involved reading for the weekend:

•  First up is the most recent newsletter from Defensive Pistolcraft. Jon Low includes a thoughtful quote from Joe Shahoud:

     Here's something nobody tells you about defensive shooting . . .  The range is lying to you.  Not on purpose.  But every time you show up, plant your feet, take your stance, and run your drills in perfect sequence, your brain is quietly building a false sense of security.  It's cataloging all that repetition and whispering "you've got this" when the reality is that real defensive scenarios don't care about your routine, your comfort zone, or how clean your draw looked on a Tuesday afternoon. 

      Real threats are chaotic.  They're fast.  They close distance before your brain has even finished processing what's happening.  And the shooter who freezes isn't always the one who doesn't know how to shoot.  Sometimes it's the one who only knows how to shoot when everything feels controlled.  

     That gap between "I can shoot" and "I can defend myself under pressure" is a big one.  Most people don't find out how big until it's too late to do anything about it.  

    Jon recounted a class he assisted with training where they used a variety of balloons--some were targets and some represented innocents (bystanders, family members, etc.). There were real consequences to shoot an innocent--they had to sit out the rest of the shooting drills. Just ctrl-F and search for "balloon" and you should find it. 

    I liked this excerpt from an Tim Larkin:

... A man full of adrenaline can ignore pain.  He can push through burning muscles, absorb strikes that would stop someone else cold, override discomfort entirely.  But he cannot override a mechanically broken structure.  A shattered knee does not hold weight.  It doesn't matter how many fights he's survived.  A crushed throat does not breathe.  It doesn't matter how angry he is.  An overloaded carotid shuts the brain off like a light switch.  It doesn't care what he bench presses.  That distinction.  Pain versus Injury.  That is what changes everything.   

 And another from Larkin:

      I don't use a shot timer in the classes that I teach.  Because I don't teach that type of class.  I tell my students that we are going to do everything slowly and correctly.  It is then up to them to practice on their own to develop the ability to do the task quickly.  Speed will come automatically with practice.  Just as starting your car and driving out of the parking space can be done quickly, because you've done it so many times.  

I sometimes wonder when I see videos of various classes and read of the high round counts, whether the class is less about instruction and more about practice. Class is for teaching, and your range sessions, dry fire, etc., is for practice.  In the same vein, Jon writes:

     In classical (normal) chess, the chess clock is not to force you to play fast.  It is to prevent you from winning by forcing your opponent to die of old age. 

      Similarly, the shot timer should not be used to force you to shoot faster, faster than you can see, faster than you can think.  Rather, the par time beep is to prevent you from dithering.  To encourage you to be decisive.  

     Subtle, but important.  Most training and practice is done in the mind, not the body.  Getting your attitude right.  Getting your mindset right.  

     Taking classes to learn the correct fundamentals is essential.  But once you know what you're supposed to do, dry practice and visualization are by far the best methods to perfect and engrain skills.  The report and recoil of live fire are gross distractions, that cause all kinds of autonomic nervous system responses.  Best to avoid the distraction, and dry practice or visualize in your bedroom after waking up and before going to sleep.  That's what world class Olympic athletes do.  It will work for you.   

Jon has some more tips on using the shot timer, as well as tons more links and commentary, so read the whole thing. 

• Greg Ellifritz has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump at his Active Response Training blog.  A few links that stood out:
• An article from Empty Cases on the speed loads and why you are probably better off moving to cover if you run out of ammo over attempting an immediate reload. Greg also comments that you are better spending your practice time becoming more proficient on hitting your targets than practicing speed reloads.
• A couple articles explaining the recent rule changes coming from the ATF.
• An interview with Steve “Yeti” Fisher on AR magazines. Because he wants magazines that work with a wide range of bullet weights, he recommends the Gen 3 Magpuls or  D&H/”Hartford” (NHMTG) metal magazines. He also relates that he likes using the shorter 20 round magazines when shooting prone or off a bipod or bag. He also uses 20 round magazines as a means to separate his heavier bullets weights (in the 20 rounders) from the lighter bullet weights (in the 30 rounders), or when he is operating the AR out of a bag (because it easier to get in or out without it catching on stuff).
•  A guide on lubing Glock pistols.

And a lot more, so be sure to check it out.

• While you are at Active Response Training, also check out Greg's article on "'Mass Shootings' versus Active Killer Attacks." Mass shootings, Greg explains, generally happen when gang bangers start killing each other. Because they will not be specifically targeting you, your biggest risk is taking a bullet by accident or mistake. You primary goal is to get out of the way of the shooters and get away from the scene. Active shooters, however, generally operate alone and their goal is a high body count. 
• From Outdoor Life: "'Why You Shoot Your Uncle for an Elk?' There Was a Time When Hunting Was Much More Dangerous" by Jack O'Connor. The article is a reprint of a 1973 article, but the editors comment: "Hunting accidents were much more common in the mid-century — before the advent of mandatory hunter safety courses. Hunting is now a relatively safe sport." From what I've read, hunting is actually one of the safest sports--far safer than most school sports. In any event, the article is why someone on a hunt might mistake another hunter as a legitimate game target. An excerpt:

    I have been shot at only once. That was many years ago in the high plateau country of central Arizona. Deer and turkey seasons both were open. I was pussyfooting along through the yellow pines and Gambel oaks on one side of a canyon, hoping to see a bunch of turkeys before they saw me. It was about 8 a.m. on a bright sunny day, but the air had been cold during the night and the frost on the grass was just beginning to melt. I saw a good deal of fresh turkey sign, and I thought the birds would probably be feeding in the sun to get last night’s cold out of their bones.

    Across the canyon at a distance of 300 yards or so I had from time to time seen another hunter. I had looked at him once with a funny little French binocular I had at the time. He was wearing a pair of blue bib overalls, a green sweater, and a blue stocking cap.

    Suddenly I heard the crack-boom of a bullet fired in my direction — the crack of the bullet breaking the sound barrier followed by the boom that is the report of the rifle. That bullet passed within prob-ably 15 or 20 feet of me. I shouted. Across the canyon I could see the other hunter kneeling and aiming at me. I let out another yell and threw myself behind a log on the ground. Again I heard the crack-boom as the bullet came my way.

    I crawled around to one end of the log and peeked. The hunter was still on one knee with his rifle trained toward my log. My life was in jeopardy, and yelling had done no good. I had to take radical action. I switched off the safety of my .30/06 and fired a shot close enough to the hunter to make him aware of my presence. He leaped to his feet and ran.

    Later in the day I ran into him. 

    “Ah,” I said. “You’re the guy who took a pot-shot at me this morning. What in the hell did you think I was?”

    At first he denied shooting at me, but then he admitted that he had shot at a turkey across a canyon and was very much astonished when the turkey shot back. How a tall guy in a 10-gallon hat and a red-plaid shirt resembled a turkey was something he was a bit vague about. 

A fellow student I knew in my university days related a similar story from an elk hunt. He had crested a hill when some hunters started shooting at him from a road down below. He put an end to that by putting a round from his rifle into the side of their pickup truck. They quickly jumped into their truck and took off. 

VIDEO: Is Carrying A 5-Shot Snub Nose "Stupid"?

The author lays out a strong case for why the 5-shot snub nosed revolver is a good concealed carry choice for him. 

 VIDEO: "Why I Still Carry a 5-Shot Revolver in 2026"
Ratmothy (20 min.)

Some Firearms Are "Just Because"

A recently came across a video from Paul Harrell from about seven years ago comparing the Walther PPK/S against the Bersa Thunder .380. About 3/4 of the way through the video, as he was doing his wrap up, Paul related an incident where he had gone with a friend to a gun show to help him select a pistol. His friend was looking for a PPK (not the /S model) and specifically one in .32 ACP. Paul convinced him to purchase one in .380 because it was going to be a better choice for self defense. As he relates, this was a mistake on his part:

Now Joe did want to get a good gun that could be called upon if he needed it; but what I didn't understand, and this was a big mistake on my part, is that what he really wanted was to be able to say that he has James Bond's gun. (This would have been back just after the Roger Moore days when he still had a PPK in caliber 32 ACP). Because it was important to Joe to be able to say something like Walther PPK caliber 7.65 millimeter or however the line goes; and although that kind of thing is totally irrelevant to some of us it is very important to some people to say they have Dirty Harry's gun or as I heard somebody say once this is just like the gun they use on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea or in some cases being able to say they've James Bond's gun.  

Shortly after that, following some recommended links at Massad Ayoob's blog at the Backwoods Home Magazine site, I happened across an article he had written in 2013 entitled "Just Because." In it, Ayoob started out:

    I generally recommend that people buy guns the way they’d buy power tools, or automobiles, or homes. Assess your needs, analyze your budget, correlate it all with your ability to utilize the thing you’re buying, and you’ll probably be happy with your purchase and get a lot of productive use out of it.

    It’s the logical thing. Unfortunately, we humans are not always creatures of logic. Sometimes, we are creatures of emotion, and anyone who has dealt with emotion-driven arguments that are without logic — oh, most of the “gun control” arguments, for example — know the downside of that. But emotion isn’t always a bad thing.

From there, he went on to describe certain firearms he has, and sometimes wears on his belt, because of nostalgia, sentiment, or because it was a "grail gun"--something he'd always wanted and finally had the means to get. Or, as the title put it, firearms selected and used "just because" rather than pure logic.

    I too have a few firearms that I purchased just because. I've written before that the reason I purchased a Beretta 84 was not because I researched it and decided it would make a great concealed carry gun--I had never even picked one up before I purchased one--but because one was prominently displayed on the cover of one of my favorite roleplaying games when I was a teenager: TSR's Top Secret. Because of that, it was, to me, the quintessential "spy" gun--even more so than the Walther PPK. So when surplus models started coming into the country for low prices, I snatched one up. That it turned out to be a very nice carry gun was just an added bonus. 

VIDEO: Review of the Taurus Deputy Single Action Revolver

This video looks at the features of the Taurus Deputy single action revolver (there is a separate shooting review video). As you can tell from the thumb nail photo, this revolver is modeled after the Colt SAA revolver, even offering the "4 click" hammer cock. The main feature that sets this revolver apart from others is that if comes with two cylinders: a .38 Special/.357 Magnum cylinder and a 9mm cylinder. Given that 9mm is easier to find and often less expensive, it is a nice option. The other nice feature of this revolver, in my mind, is that it uses a transfer bar safety system so it is safe to carry a fully loaded cylinder with the hammer down. 

 VIDEO: "This Revolver Shoots 3 Different Calibers | Taurus Deputy Review"
Hook & Barrel Magazine (5 min.)

VIDEO: .380 - Does An Extra Inch Of Barrel Matter?

Short answer: Yes. Yes it does.

Longer answer: Well, you will have to watch the video for that. The author compares three pistols with varying barrel lengths: the 2.75" Kimber Micro .380, the 3.25" Glock G42, and the 3.81" Beretta 84, shooting Federal 95 grain FMJ and Hornady 90 grain Critical Defense. The half inch difference between the Kimber and the Glock was negligible but the longer barrel of the Beretta made a significant difference versus the Kimber and Glock: 60 fps faster with the Winchester ammo and 80 and 60 fps faster than the Kimber and Glock, respectively, using the Hornady. 

VIDEO: "380acp - Does an Extra Inch of Barrel Length Matter?"
The Bacon Nation (13 min.)

Snapping Cylinders Shut And Slamming Slides--Just Don't Do It

Massad Ayoob discusses the wear and tear that can result from snapping a cylinder shut on a revolver or letting a slide slam shut on an empty chamber of a semi-auto pistol. With the semi-auto pistols, the problem generally arises in regard to pistols with metal frames using cross pins:

     A cross-pin pistol is something like a 1911, CZ-75, Browning Hi-Power, or Beretta 92. All of these use a transverse pin or slide stop that passes through the frame and often supports the barrel. Sometimes by way of a swinging link, like in the 1911. In these systems, the pin is under some direct stress when the slide slams forward.

     Snapping the slide once probably won’t hurt anything. But snapping it every day over time can start to peen that pin or oval out the holes it rides in.

    On a 1911, especially, you might start to see premature wear in areas that weren’t meant to be load-bearing in that way. Eventually, that damage spreads. I’ve seen peened frames, cracked locking lugs, and loose lockups; all from repeated “dry slamming” of a 1911.

 Thus, "[a]s a rule, when running a cross-pin gun, drop the slide only when you’re feeding a round off a magazine. Otherwise, ease it forward and respect the mechanical design."

    As for revolvers, he writes, "[w]hen you snap a cylinder shut, what you’re doing is forcing a rotating, precision-fit piece of metal into a detent by inertia. Every time that cylinder slams home, something has to absorb the shock. And depending on your revolver’s action, different parts are taking the hit." The parts that take that shock or start to wear depend on the type of revolver: Colt, S&W, and Ruger are all a bit different in how they lock up and so the impact of snapping the cylinder shut depends on which design we're talking about. He explains it all, so read the whole thing. 

Wilder: The Poor Get Hit First

In his latest piece, "The Poor Get Hit First," John Wilder points out signs that money is tightening and prices are starting surge all across the globe. This will be a problem in the third world and those living on the margins:

    Let’s talk basics.  Even if the price of rice tripled, I wouldn’t notice much.  Rice is still cheap for me.  If I have to give up steak, I can just eat some rice, right?  But that’s not a universal truth.  If all a person in some third-world hellhole can afford is rice, and the price doubles, welcome back, world hunger.

    What a lot of people missed is that world hunger was a solved problem.  People just didn’t starve anymore, except in Hollywood®, and that wasn’t real starvation, it was just skinny starlets mainlining Ozempic® and calling it a diet.

    Global food production had climbed so high that famine was basically extinct outside of war zones and socialist experiments.  Now the dominoes have started falling.

    I expect revolutions popping up like mushrooms in Africa.  Hungry people turn into angry people, and angry people with AK-47s equals a revolution. ...

But, he predicts, it won't stop there, but will hit India and poorer parts of Asia.  It will strike Europe as well: limiting grandma to just one small meatball a week isn't enough to save the system. The refugees that have flooded into Europe will get restive. And here in the U.S.? I've been seeing local news stories featuring farmers complaining of not having enough illegals to work the farms and the high price of diesel fuel--and, if you don't know, almost all the equipment on a farm relies on diesel. But Wilder continues:

    Inflation didn’t hit the hedge-fund guy first.  It hammered the guy stretching a paycheck from one tank of gas to the next.  Fast-food prices doubled, rent climbed, and the folks at the bottom discovered that “essential workers” are only essential until the margins get squeezed then they can be easily be replaced by illegals or H-1B Indians.

    The poor lose first because they have no cushion, no skills that the market values, and no margin for error.  When times get tight, luxury items like $272,000 non-profit jobs disappear, and even the mid-level grift starts to evaporate.

    This culling isn’t random.  Societies have always had layers.  The top layer produces, saves, and innovates.  The bottom layer consumes more than it creates.  When the pie stops growing, the bottom layer gets the smallest slice first.

    The credentialed political-grifter class is about to get the same lesson.

And, according to Peter Turchin, these are exactly the type of people that will resort to revolution or civil war.