Saturday, May 21, 2016

Mules

I've been a little muse-less on the next session of Ancient Dread so filler is some resources I've been using.

The party was going on an expedition through the jungle and needed supplies since it was unknown how much they would be able scrounge/hunt along the way.  W/ much research and some GM hand waving, a general rule of thumb was created.  For three people, three mules would be needed to carry two weeks or so of food and water w/ about 50lbs of room for additional supplies.  For every additional mule added, one more would be needed for water.  For an arid environment, twice as much water (hence double the water mules) would be needed.  A healthy mule can carry about 250lbs of gear so the breakdown would be such:



3 mules 3000gp

Mule #1: Water 1
8    4 gal casks    32 Gal    256 lbs  96 gp
1 month oats/grain 1lb/day 25lbs  15 gp

Mule #2: Water 2
8 4 gal casks 32 Gal 256 lbs  96 gp
1 month oats/grain 1lb/day 25lbs  15 gp

Mule #3: Food/Gear
1 #1 Rak Pac 40 lbs 100gp
5 Rac Pack 1a food refill 110 lbs 200 gp
200’ 800lb rope  28lbs 50gp
1 month oats/grain 1lb/day 25lbs  15 gp 


Again these are based on averages and 'rules of thumb'. Adjust as necessary.

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Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Illinois Gun Dealer Licensing Bill HB1016

This is their big push for the year folks.  This is the one they are putting all their eggs and money into.  They've been sending out mailers, making robocalls, and flying in lobbyists to effectively end firearm sales in the state. 

Police inspections.
Expensive security systems
'Best practices' (iow we pull your license if you don't do what we say, how we say it, which will change randomly)
Full staff background checks (which are already done w/ FOID cards)
Fees, fees, and more fees to pay for it all. 

More on the bill here

Call your reps and state senators.

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Tuesday, May 17, 2016

The Terrible Trio

Had a caricature done of my long running fantasy RPG character 'Strongbow', his partner 'Alta', and Orc fletcher/servant 'Mug' standing in front of a Dragonright temple  by artist 'MadManMike', the guy that does the paper minis for Palladium books. 





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Monday, May 16, 2016

When Even Chucky Shumer Blows You Off: A Tale of Brady Woe


Last fall, Senator Charles Schumer made an important promise to a room packed with Brady advocates and gun violence victims:
“We are going to bring the universal background check bill to the floor of the Senate early next year, and with your help we’re going to win!”
But Sen. Schumer hasn’t kept his promise.
Remember though, they're 'winning'. 


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*Jealousy Emoticon*


Got several emails from my friend w/the .510 Whisper:
After nearly a year wait, I finally brought home this spectacular Springfield M1.  It started as a CMP rifle and the owner invested heavily into upgrades.  Glass bedding, trigger work, match SS barrel, sights worked on, stock, on and on.  Sadly he passed on before ever enjoying the fruits of his investment.  His passion was precision shooting of the M1.  This and one other were his centerpieces.



And precision shoot it does!  It will take a lot more work on my end but it is a tack driver.  The biggest issue are my aging eyes and that tiny aperture peep sight.  Oh how we get spoiled by a good rifle scope.



This AR build started about a year ago when Larue placed their barrels on sale at 50% off.  I had wanted to build a precision AR and this was the first piece.  The upper and lower are billet machined, Magpul FDE furniture, Handguard is YHM SLR KM style, Geissele SSAE trigger and a match BCG.   I had to wait for a while for the optics the I wanted and the funds available to converge.  Finally, Eurooptic had some Steiner Military scopes on sale last December and I made the purchase.  It rests on a Larue mount.



The performance is outstanding.  So much so that I started in on building a spare identical piece.  You know, two is one and one is none….

*drool*

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"Under the Gun": Lies, Statistics, and Omissions.


An excellent film for convincing those that have no idea about firearms and who have only paid attention to headlines to support gun control.  Basically an hour and 45 min.attack against the NRA.  Very few pro-rights people were interviewed and, as anyone who remembers Moore's hit piece against Charton Heston, that was the smart thing to do. They do everything they can to discredit and make firearm owners look like fools.   Don't ever talk to the media.
They start out w/ the Sandy hook families and the Giffords.  These become the foundation pieces for the rest of the film and their primary anchors for why one should support gun control.  As is typical, it's what they leave out that's telling. We'll go through it scene by scene.
The California isla vista shooting is a highlight.  How horrible this mass shooting was while mixed in w/ various scense for pushing universal background checks and how gun owners don't have answers.  They leave out that California HAS UBC's and that the shooter jumped through all the hoops .  While not mentioning that, they go onto the failure of Manchin toomey. No mention how it created a full registration system nor that there was an alternative bill supported by many pro-rights advocates that was shot down.
Then we move onto Chicago, a complete farce of a section as not once is the FOID card mentioned throughout the film. They claim that guns are coming from 'legal' gun owners strawpurchasing.  All those unsolved cases are because the ATF is not allowed to digitize their records.  No mention of the critically undermanned CPD or a culture of 'No Snitchin'. 
We see lots of weasel wording throughout the film. 'gun related tragedies' while intermixing homicide and suicide stats.  Suicide is only mentioned once, later on in the film when they're pushing it as a 'health issue'.  Traditional method to inflate numbers. 
They claim 74% nra members want background checks and then show some people outside of the NRA convention saying they want UBC's.  How many negatives did they get? 
The next claim is that the majority join for benefits, not politics.  They don't offer any actual evidence for this and this line "If you believe they have 4-5 m members...." was classic.  All part of demonizing the NRA while trying to make gun owners complacent to more controls. 
 Sugarmann is brought on w/ his normal lies about .50 cals shooting down airplanes.  He almost looks like he has a stiffy as someone is paying attention to him again.
 Introduce Shannon Watts  and her lie about being a 'stay at home mom'.  Kroger allowing open carry is their bit here. Why are they attacking 'open carry'? what does it have to do w/ 'gun violence prevention'?
They go back to how evil firearm advocates are, playing a video of some ass who attacks her via internet.  Knowing a guy uses bad language, she plays the video at high volume w/ her kid in the room?
This bit is one we all should pay attention to.  It shows the true mentality of firearm owners.  I missed who the guy saying it was but he claimed that everyone has the potential for bad conduct so everyone should be treated as criminals. Yes, that's right, since we all 'might' commit a crime, laws should be put in place that treat us like criminals already convicted.
Kelly  claims that 'what very often happens...." is gun owners going around shooting themselves in accidents.  Can we say 'Only One' boys and girls?  No actual numbers are presented but a video of a guy shooting himself is.  
The Phillips' are presented as victims of the Colorado shooting  and as 'gun owners'.  No mention in the numerous times this is presented that the shooter specifically chose a gun free zone to target or that he passed a background check.  The mental illness meme is attacked since, well, it's true.  They 'debunk' it by showing that violence and alcohol are more often connected to shootings.  No mention that the majority are already criminals that have illegally obtained guns. See Chicago again.  This, again is their attempt to try and defend the failures of background checks.
Sugarmann again w/ the 'guns are less regulated that teddy bears bit.  Get something new Josh.
S&W sales plummeted after they caved to Clinton in 2000. The evil NRA lobby is attacked again.  Who buys the guns?  NRA or people.
WA 594 is the big push and what they conclude the film on.  They don't mention 10x the amount spent by anti-gunners to get 60% of the vote even after their numerous claims of 90% of the people and 74% of NRA members want background checks.  This is of course normal as they have to present the NRA as this giant organization (while at the same time representing only a tiny fraction of gun owners) that is funded by big businesses.
Pushing ballot initiatives hard. 
"You can come away w/ fully auto gun" terrorist quote and  the terror watch list mixed in w/ some NRA members looking flabbergasted.  Don't mention the absolute failure of the list, Ted Kennedy, or boy scouts. 
Next up is the three day default for firearm purchases and that it is 'common' for criminals to get guns this way.  They mention the Charleston shooter who brought this to light.  Don't mention the shooting was over a month later. Why didn't they go after him? 
Back to the Sandy Hook family saying background checks only 'one component'.  Admitting they're not going to stop there even after all the claims that we're being  paranoid and fear mongering.
Claim law abiding citizens are the norm for committing 'gun crimes'.  This is the only time they mention that    '2/3rd s of gun deaths' are suicides, which leads into.....
Public health issue.  The CDC not allowed to research.  Don't mention 'sponsored' research was to paid anti-gun advocates.  Don't mention the millions spent by joyces to fund fake research.
Dan Gross attacks gun dealers.   More gun stores than starbucks and Mcdonalds? Demanding a 'Code of conduct'.   Connect the dots.  They attack and shut down dealers after pushing UBC's. No dealers, to firearm transactions or sales.
Back to Chicago and Father "Snuffy" Phleger.  Doesn't mention FOID card in Illinois.  Claims you can buy 200 guns legally then sell them and claim it was lost/stolen.   No, this is called 'trafficking' and is a crime that anti-gun judges will sentence you to one year of probation for.
JOHN BOCH!!!!
The Colorado movie theatre.  Ignore that it was a GFZ and guy passed up other theathers. They don't mention AR jammed and it was a shotgun he mostly used. They push that  S&W made the gun and the lobby encouraged them to sell more guns.   
Back to 594 passing by 60%.  No mention the non-enforcement of it by authorities or the money again.
Shannon Watts  says 25 states is the turning point for laws.  Yet she opposes CCW which is legal in all 50 states, the rise of cons. Carry and open carry.
They set up crosses then go on w/ their lives.  That's why we win.  They ring bells and light candles.  We're actually connected to our rights.
The after talk.  One long NRA hit segment. Malevalence. Gum up the system.  Not good w/ people.  Gun lobby's marketing.  'risk of guns in the home'.   Valerie Jarrett  is one of the spokesperson.  Another is Robin Kelly- bought by bloomberg for $2m
Feinblatt from Bloomberg's Everytown (who's name is not mentioned once).  If they're not w/ you on background checks you can't be w/ them.  Previously NRA was attacked for black and white world.
Hypocrites.

You could almost make a checklist of this as an anti-gun want list and meme's. All it goes to show is that they are after your guns and they will continue to lie and spend millions of dollars to do it.

They want Universal Background Checks.
They want to close down shops who don't follow their 'Code of Conduct' which will shut them down anyway.
They want to ban semi-auto rifles.
They want to ban arbitrarily sized magazines.
They want to ban big guns.
They want to ban too small guns.
They want to ban Concealed Carry
They want to ban Open Carry
They want to make it nearly impossible to have a gun in the home because it's unsafe.
They want to restrict ammo purchases.

But they don't want to take your guns. 

And don't talk to the media.

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Sunday, May 15, 2016

Rak's Packs

Years upon years ago, I was given or found a copy of an old Dungeon or Dragon magazine article called 'Mack's Packs'.  It was a list of standard consumables often used by adventuring parties,  food, rope, torches, etc.  Handy to use instead of digging through lists over and over.  I always liked the idea and modified it for the Palladium 1st ed. fantasy game and w/ a few additions of my own, specifically standard packs and refills.  It makes it easier for players and GM's to keep track of them.  "You've been out 3 days, remove equivalent amount of food from your list"

Below is my list of 'Rak's Packs', their weight, and cost in gold pieces based off of the PFRPG 1st ed.


Item: Weight  Cost(gp)
Rak Pack #1. Food & Equipment:

1 Gal. Waterskin 8 lbs 15
1 Cloth Backpack or SaddleBag 3 lbs 20
40’ of ½” Rope 800lb test 5.5 lbs 10
1 week rations:

 8 loaves bread 1 lb 2
8 lbs cheese 8 lbs 16
8 Jars dried fruit 4 lbs 4
8 Jars dried vegetables 4 lbs 4
4 lbs sausages 4 lbs 8
1 small sack .1 lbs 4
12 Iron Spikes 1 lbs 2
1 Grappling Hook .4 lbs 10
4 oz salt in container 1 lbs 2
Total:  40 lbs 100



Rak Pack #1b Economy Food Refill:

1 small sack .1 lbs 4
1 week rations:

4 loaves bread 1 lb 1
4lbs curds&whey 4 lbs 4
4 Jars dried fruit 2 lbs 2
2 lbs sausages 2 lbs 4
3lbs Oatmeal 3 lbs 3
4 oz salt in container 1 lbs 2
Total:  13 lbs 20



Rak Pack #1a Standard Food Refill:

1 small sack .1 lbs 4
1 week rations:

 8 loaves bread 1 lb 2
8 lbs cheese 8 lbs 16
8 Jars dried fruit 4 lbs 4
8 Jars dried vegetables 4 lbs 4
4 lbs sausages 4 lbs 8
4 oz salt in container 1 lbs 2
Total:  22 lbs 40



Rak Pack #1c Gourmet Food Refill:

1 small sack .1 lbs 4
1 week rations:

 8 loaves bread 1 lb 2
6 lbs fine variety cheese 6 lbs 24
8 Jars canned fruit 4 lbs 8
8 Jars canned vegetables 4 lbs 8
2 lbs Smoked Beef 2 lbs 8
2 lbs Smoked Fish 2 lbs 6
2 lbs Smoked Pork 2 lbs 6
1 lb Salted Butter 1 lb 3
4 oz pepper in container 1 lb 2
4 oz salt in container 1 lbs 2
1/2 Gal Fruit Juice 4 lbs 1
1 lb Coffee 1 lb 6
Total:  30 lbs 80



Rak Pack #2A- Lantern:

1 small sack .1 lbs 4
3 1qt. flasks oil 6 24
1 Lantern (filled) 1 qt 12 hrs 3 24
1 Tinderbox, Flint/Steel 0.9 8
Total:  10lbs 60



Rak Pack #2B- Quality Torch:

1 small sack .1 lbs 4
12 Torches (3 hr ea) 12 lbs 36
1 Tinderbox, Flint/Steel 0.9 8
Total:  13lbs 48



Rak Pack #2B- Economy Torch:

1 small sack .1 lbs 4
12 Torches (1 hr ea) 12 lbs 12
1 Tinderbox, Flint/Steel 0.9 8
Total:  13lbs 24



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