Gunrunning?

[Hawk Warboy]

Well, I have delightedly been perusing my Tramp Freighters book received a fortnight ago. As a 2EdR player, there's obviously a number of questions that comes up - but I'll limit my first to this.

For the hypothetical gunrunner out there, what's the Cubic Meter per Metric Ton ratio for firearms? Should the "high-tech" value be used? It seems as though they could be denser than the average high-tech cargo, but I'm not sure. Also, with ammo, packaging and what-not included, what is the approximate count (in y'all's estimations) of Blaster Pistols, Blaster Rifles, Heavy Weapons, and so on per ton?

Anybody come up with anything hard(ish) and fast(ish) in these regards?

Thanks! I LOVE this place! I have returned to the RPG land of milk and honey! (Thanks to all who have put in so much work here - especially Garth!)
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R2-D2: "Boop bee duh doop buh duh boop BEEP!"
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[Ankhanu]

I don't think it would be unreasonable to guess a Blaster pistol would weigh, on average, somewhere near 1kg... so, without packaging, 1000ish pistols per metric tonne. A rifle might be about 3kg?? Going with that, about 330 rifles per tonne. For something heavy like an E-Web and its generator, maybe 20 per tonne (at 50kg for the unit).

Just guestimate how much a single unit weighs and extrapolate from there.
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[Xynar]

I would stick with the generic catagory just to keep things simple for yourself. Otherwsie be prepared for players to keep you bogged down with number crunching. Use the excuse of protected packaging to help stretch the numbers. But I assume that the question is more geared towards using the player characters' hidden cargo compartments so Ankhanu has some good info. I would aslo take into account the shape of the compartment before I would give them an answer. I have had to give specific details about a secret cargo compartment just so my players knew what they could get away with.
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Xynar
The Great Adventurer

[Ray]

"How come I can only move 100 rifles per metric ton?"

"Lots of bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts."

"Sith Spit! They couldn't just use popcorn?"

[Hawk Warboy]

Ankhanu, that's a good breakdown. I would guess that there is a good bit of packing material involved. My question is (even more so than the tonnage) about the volume. I might be begging for trouble in even attempting to pay strict attention to the volume aspect that TF brings up, but I'd think, in a cubic meter, you'd be limited to, say, 200 blaster pistols, 150 hvy. blaster pistols, 80 rifles, that sort of thing? (I have no idea.)

Any military buffs/nerds care to weigh in on bulk packaging (especially as SW/real life weapons seem similar in build/composition)?

Boy, I gotta go dig out my Twilight 2000 book, see if there's in there (that thing has everything...).

Again, thanks!
_________________
C-3PO: "What a desolate place this is..."
R2-D2: "Boop bee duh doop buh duh boop BEEP!"
C-3PO: "Where do you think you're going?"

[garhkal]

[Hawk Warboy]

Thanks, gharkal, that's about what I needed...

Doing the conversion (all very roughly) and assuming the 1911 has a vague mass/size equivalent to a heavy blaster pistol (a light one)...

That's 30 ft cubed, with (approximately - I'm not sure what the rack would weigh - I'm assuming around 25 lbs) 180 lbs of handguns. (Numbering 18.)

30 cubic feet are approx. 0.85 cubic meters. 180 lbs is about 81 kilos.

So, let's up it to a full meter. Looks like a pretty low density! Even rounding up, that's about 25 pistols in a cubic meter, and weighing about an eighth of a metric ton. So one ton would take up eight cubic meters and contain 200 pistols. Hmm.

Actually, that seems not totally off. A merciful gm could even give a similar breakdown for rifles (say, one ton taking up 6 cubic meters, containing approx. 150 rifles??).

Interesting stuff. Packaging is a big component of high-tech, gotta keep them secured...
_________________
C-3PO: "What a desolate place this is..."
R2-D2: "Boop bee duh doop buh duh boop BEEP!"
C-3PO: "Where do you think you're going?"

[garhkal]

Actually a 1911 is a lot smaller than what a heavy is based off (the mauser). I would say a desert eagle is the equal of a mauser (hbp)
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[Ray]

Or, you know, you could just use the Mauser.

[schnarre]

[Hawk Warboy]

Who doesn't love spending time in Poland?

BTW, this all may be increasingly moot in my mind. The Volume measurement GG6:TF introduces is just... weird. It has to be more about footprint than actual volume. Just examining basic cargo capacity measurements on small freighters with layouts that can be examined reveals CC in the order of >100 cubic meters, far above the norm of 40 the book cites (it doesn't go into that much detail). And this is figuring conservatively.

I'm also inclined to grant a value of volume/mass far closer to "High-Tech" goods than my previously mentioned 1/6th value. Just to keep it semi-consistent...

All this is giving me a headache. Where's a half-fueled LAV-25 laying aroung in deep camo when you need one?
_________________
C-3PO: "What a desolate place this is..."
R2-D2: "Boop bee duh doop buh duh boop BEEP!"
C-3PO: "Where do you think you're going?"