Shemmarian Weapons Caches

[tundro]

I read (VK R?) that ARCHIE is having Shemmarians leave caches of weapons around northern mexico. Now being that everywhere else you read about them, Shemmarias NEVER let thier weapons get taken, and if someone DOES manage to get one, they will try and confiscate them (presumably so they won't get reversed engineered, or that some sharp cookie out there notices that the internal workings are eerily similar to Titan Robotics tech). But now he's leaving them lying around for people to find? That seems AWFULLY sloppy of him. Anybody have any ideal why he suddenly would do this? Maybe something I'm just not seeing?

[Shark_Force]

does it specifically say he leaves his own design of weapons?

if it just says "weapons", then it could actually just mean he's leaving assault rifles and shotguns loaded with silver or wooden bullets in them.

in fact, given that in vampire territory an SMG loaded with such rounds actually damages vampires while the most powerful nuke in ARCHIE's arsenal (or the arsenal he could have, if there are no nukes in it) will do precisely zero damage to them.

even if it has modern weapons, that doesn't mean his weapons... they could be L-20 laser rifles or some other generic or knock-off weapons (note: an ARCHIE knock-off could actually be equal or superior to the real deal, in most cases. it could be that there are clips of ramjet or explosive rounds to go with the regular weapons. or wilks CFT rounds. or any number of other options.

of course, this all presumes it isn't specific as to what weapons he leaves there. obviously, if it says he leaves shemarrian rail guns and such there, well... yeah, i would ignore that

[tundro]

does it specifically say he leaves his own design of weapons?

if it just says "weapons", then it could actually just mean he's leaving assault rifles and shotguns loaded with silver or wooden bullets in them.

in fact, given that in vampire territory an SMG loaded with such rounds actually damages vampires while the most powerful nuke in ARCHIE's arsenal (or the arsenal he could have, if there are no nukes in it) will do precisely zero damage to them.

even if it has modern weapons, that doesn't mean his weapons... they could be L-20 laser rifles or some other generic or knock-off weapons (note: an ARCHIE knock-off could actually be equal or superior to the real deal, in most cases. it could be that there are clips of ramjet or explosive rounds to go with the regular weapons. or wilks CFT rounds. or any number of other options.

of course, this all presumes it isn't specific as to what weapons he leaves there. obviously, if it says he leaves shemarrian rail guns and such there, well... yeah, i would ignore that

Pg. 114 VK R:

"Sometimes, 1D4 Shemarrian rail guns or other MD weapons will also be part of the cache. This is why visitors to Northern Mexico will, from time to time, see humans and D-bees wielding Shemarrian weapons."

So there it is. I just can't see why ARCHIE would do this and risk someone trailing it back to him. Any thoughts?

[Warmaster40k]

Inconsistencies in the books is nothing new, either let it slide or redact it.

[tundro]

I imagine that in any game I ran, someone would have to do something really spectacular to aquire one, and then only on the condition that whomever earned that piece of hardware would NEVER sell it (make it some point of honor or something along those lines...I don't think I would even consider giving one to someone of selfish to evil alignment). I'm going to figure that it was an oversight and probably just forget that I read it.

[Killer Cyborg]

does it specifically say he leaves his own design of weapons?

if it just says "weapons", then it could actually just mean he's leaving assault rifles and shotguns loaded with silver or wooden bullets in them.

in fact, given that in vampire territory an SMG loaded with such rounds actually damages vampires while the most powerful nuke in ARCHIE's arsenal (or the arsenal he could have, if there are no nukes in it) will do precisely zero damage to them.

even if it has modern weapons, that doesn't mean his weapons... they could be L-20 laser rifles or some other generic or knock-off weapons (note: an ARCHIE knock-off could actually be equal or superior to the real deal, in most cases. it could be that there are clips of ramjet or explosive rounds to go with the regular weapons. or wilks CFT rounds. or any number of other options.

of course, this all presumes it isn't specific as to what weapons he leaves there. obviously, if it says he leaves shemarrian rail guns and such there, well... yeah, i would ignore that

Pg. 114 VK R:

"Sometimes, 1D4 Shemarrian rail guns or other MD weapons will also be part of the cache. This is why visitors to Northern Mexico will, from time to time, see humans and D-bees wielding Shemarrian weapons."

So there it is. I just can't see why ARCHIE would do this and risk someone trailing it back to him. Any thoughts?

Because the original VK had artwork on one page that showed a guy holding a Shemarrian Rail Gun, and people freaked out over it, and Palladium writers felt the need to go out of their way to explain the easily explicable.

[keir451]

I always figured that the VK 1 artwork question could be solved by saying that the "owner" was actually an Archie bot in disguise.
As for the weapons caches, I run it on the idea that Archie is depositing pre-Rifts weapons and equipment, NOT his own products. So PC's might run across a depot with a few NEMA era weapons (remember they LOOK like old CS weapons) and maybe even a few suits of body armor or even a Chaos Earth Roscoe suit or two.

[Killer Cyborg]

I always figured that the VK 1 artwork question could be solved by saying that the "owner" was actually an Archie bot in disguise.

I just figured he was badass.

[The Beast]

I always figured that the VK 1 artwork question could be solved by saying that the "owner" was actually an Archie bot in disguise.

I just figured he was badass.

I figured the artist thought it looked cool.

[Shark_Force]

huh. well, that just makes even less sense.

what the heck would you need a shemarrian rail gun for in vampire territory?

i mean, yeah, there are enemies other than only vampires, and yeah, sometimes vampires wear armour, but... i have a hard time believing that a stash of L-20s couldn't have done the job just as effectively, but at significantly lower cost in resources. also without handing out technology that ARCHIE explicitly goes to a lot of trouble to make sure it doesn't fall into other peoples' hands...

yeah, i'd ignore that nonsense.

[taalismn]

On the VK1 railgun----Or it could be a Black Market fake.....cash in on the badass rep of the Shemarrians by selling repackaged weapons. It's a rather shallow scheme, dependent on the gullibility of the buyer, but then such schemes are part and parcel of the Black Market.
Of course, the plan might backfire if the Shemarrians saw such fakes(or not, genuine article Shemarrian hardware likely has concealed ID chips), or ARCHIE-3 may just feel like harassing anybody using what appear to be hus designs.

[nilgravity]

I thought Shemmarians had a commercial line of weapons that were booby trapped or something for gathering intel. Or was that someone posting what they would do as ARCHIE? (I don't have the books so I am going by a poster of this board)

[taalismn]

I thought Shemmarians had a commercial line of weapons that were booby trapped or something for gathering intel. Or was that someone posting what they would do as ARCHIE? (I don't have the books so I am going by a poster of this board)

Nope. The only weapons the Shemarrians sell/trade are the bolt-action rifles used by the men-folk for hunting. That's considered 'safe' technology.
Though it wouldn't surprise me if ARCHIE-3 'smart-chipped' all Shemarrian weapons for ID/tracking purposes...maybe anything with an integral scope could be rigged to record images everytime it's used/fired, and that memory downloaded via the Shemarrians when the weapons are confiscated.

[tundro]

I thought Shemmarians had a commercial line of weapons that were booby trapped or something for gathering intel. Or was that someone posting what they would do as ARCHIE? (I don't have the books so I am going by a poster of this board)

Nope. The only weapons the Shemarrians sell/trade are the bolt-action rifles used by the men-folk for hunting. That's considered 'safe' technology.
Though it wouldn't surprise me if ARCHIE-3 'smart-chipped' all Shemarrian weapons for ID/tracking purposes...maybe anything with an integral scope could be rigged to record images everytime it's used/fired, and that memory downloaded via the Shemarrians when the weapons are confiscated.

This was kind of my thinking as well...it would be MUCH easier to track down any weapons that have been obsconded with. I guess the fact that he suddenly just decided to hand out tech that he himself considers a big NO-NO in any non-Shemarrian hands just struck me as completely wrong.

[taalismn]

[This was kind of my thinking as well...it would be MUCH easier to track down any weapons that have been obsconded with. I guess the fact that he suddenly just decided to hand out tech that he himself considers a big NO-NO in any non-Shemarrian hands just struck me as completely wrong.

A mean scheme he might pull on a limited basis might be to plant deliberately flawed technology in the caches; gimmicked weapons or flawed designs good for 'x' number of uses before they catastrophically self-destruct(doing collateral damage to anybody in the area as well), enforcing the idea that these weapons only work in Shemarrian hands. The Shemarrians, of course, would know enough to repair/disarm, or avoid altogether the boobytrapped weapons.