Announcing Shooter's Guide II: Alternate Arms

[Tegyrius]

Now available at DriveThruRPG:

The greatest guns that never were...



For every gun that becomes a household name, there's one that falls by the wayside of martial history. We all know the famous successes – but what about the weapons that were too expensive, too eccentric, or just too advanced for their time? And what if history had swung a slightly different way to bring one of those lost guns into production instead? Would this be your rifle?

Shooter's Guide: Alternate Arms is 93 Games Studio's second weapon supplement for the Twilight: 2013 roleplaying game. It provides a look at an esoteric collection of firearms that never made it past the prototype stage, including the Enfield EM-2, the Colt SCAMP, and Heckler & Koch's caseless G11 family. All in all, over a dozen weapons are detailed with Reflex System game information – and this product is fully dual-statted for use with Spycraft 2.0, too!


Yep, I'm back for more after rolling out Pistol-Caliber Carbines last month.  This one's been brewing for a few years - back in the Spycraft 1.0 days, I intended to pitch it to Pat as "Alternate Arms Guide."  I'm glad to finally have found a home in print (or at least electrons) for my old G11 writeup.  Here's the full weapons list:

Service Pistols
• Colt SCAMP
• H&K G11 PDW
• MBA Gyrojet Pistol

Submachine Guns
• AAI Rocket SMG
• ARES FMG
• H&K HK54A1
• H&K SMG I

Semi-Automatic Rifles
• MBA Gyrojet Carbine

Assault Rifles
• AAI ACR
• Colt ACR
• Enfield EM-2
• Enfield XL65
• H&K G11 (original and K2 flavors)
• Steyr ACR

"Semi-Automatic" Shotguns
• AAI CAWS
• H&K CAWS
• Pancor Jackhammer

Machine Guns
• H&K LMG11
• TADEN

Enjoy!

- C.

[Krensky]

This sounds like a silly question, especially considering my habit and statements on winging it, but:

Are these stated up with the Formula^TM?

[Tegyrius]

Indeed they are.  Alex sent me a copy of the most recent draft of it before we released PCCs, and I was pleased to see that only a few values had changed from what I used for the guns in 2.0.  I did add a couple of new qualities, but nothing game-breaking.

- C.

[Krensky]

Thank you.

I picked it (and the rest of the Twilight 2013 stuff) up. Not sure I'll ever use 2013, but I'm a bit of a collector and I like to support people who do good work. I figure anything that keeps you guys fed and encourages more SC2.0 stuff is worth my money.

[Tegyrius]

Thank you for the support!  My intent is to dual-stat as much of our Reflex support material as I can.  Obviously, some of our 2013-specific releases will be Reflex only, but I expect the vast majority of our gear supplements will be usable with SC2.

- C.

[Mister Andersen]

Any plans for a Powered by Spycraft version of 2013?

[Tegyrius]

Not really.  I spent most of the past two and a half years writing 2013's new core system; I'm not inclined to so casually throw it away.  Also, I remain unconvinced that d20 - even in its SC2 evolution - is the best tool for the post-apocalyptic job.

- C.

[Crafty_Pat]

Product page added

[Krensky]

Well, while we sort of have you here...

Any possibility of a 2313 AD?

[Tegyrius]

Product page added

Thanks, Pat!

Well, while we sort of have you here...

Any possibility of a 2313 AD?

I'm not likely to push Keith to pursue it, to be honest.  There's some tough competition - one might even say market saturation - in the Traveler arena these days.  Mongoose is doing a fantastic job with their retro Trav stuff, and QuikLink just rolled out their d20-based 2320 a couple of years ago.  If I were to attempt to work on another GDW property, I'd find Dark Conspiracy much more enticing.  However, with any existing gaming property comes a hefty licensing fee, and I have a couple of my own settings that I need to get out of my head by writing them.

- C.

[Gatac]

Just bought it yesterday. Very nice! Not running a game currently, but the stats for the Rocket SMG were worth the price of admission alone.

[Crafty_Pat]

Also mentioned the product in our latest product announcement (Agent X: Firebrand, which just went on sale tonight). That will spawn out to all our aggregate sites: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc., plus all the other places we post press releases.

[TheAuldGrump]

You know, once upon a distant past, I actually fired a gyrojet pistol, back when the shells (rockets) went for a mere (?!) $5 a shot. (Around 1975 or '76 - not coincidentally about the time I started playing RPGs.)

The gun just plain felt weird, sounded weird (instead of a bang there is sort of a loud hiss, but hiss isn't the word I am blindly groping for, either, more like a dangerous cappachino machine ), and smelled weird. A lot like a model rocket going off, actually. No recoil that I remember. I only fired it twice, and only hit once, at maybe seventy five feet, nowhere near the center of the target. The first time I flinched when firing, expecting a recoil that wasn't there. The second time was just a lousy shot. At the time I had no idea just how rare a gun it was.

One that you missed, perhaps because it is so old, is the Mondragon - the world's first assault rifle. Patented in 1887 and manufactured in 1901. A bit too finicky for the manufacturing of the day it suffered reliability problems, susceptible to damp and dirt. A fun gun to fire, and accurate at range, just finicky. About the most modern gun I have had much experience with, actually.

The Auld Grump, who's tastes run more to black powder....

[Desertpuma]

Look at that ... MugMug will be so happy his Pancor Jackhammer is back. Makes me wonder if the Janitor will stop by to pick up his broom.

Looks really good. I'm liking this stuff already

[Tegyrius]

Just bought it yesterday. Very nice! Not running a game currently, but the stats for the Rocket SMG were worth the price of admission alone.

The rocket SMG is one of those pieces of lost hoplological history that I'd never heard of until we started putting together the list for this supplement.  Definitely a henchman or mastermind signature weapon, IMO.   

You know, once upon a distant past, I actually fired a gyrojet pistol, back when the shells (rockets) went for a mere (?!) $5 a shot. (Around 1975 or '76 - not coincidentally about the time I started playing RPGs.)

Sweeeet.  My envy knows no limit.

One that you missed, perhaps because it is so old, is the Mondragon - the world's first assault rifle. Patented in 1887 and manufactured in 1901. A bit too finicky for the manufacturing of the day it suffered reliability problems, susceptible to damp and dirt. A fun gun to fire, and accurate at range, just finicky. About the most modern gun I have had much experience with, actually.

Well, we couldn't fit everything we wanted into this PDF.  If there's enough demand (and sales), though, I'd be all about writing a sequel.

- C.