Gun Fu: Die Hard

Happy trails, Hans!

‒ John McClane in Die Hard (1988)

John McTiernan’s Die Hard (1988) is the ultimate action movie for the festive days. Like most such films made in the 1980s, it ticks many boxes of the genres covered by GURPS Gun Fu. NYPD Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) is the ultimate badass in both body and spirit, and the shooting shown is in the same vein ‒ “Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!”

Weapons in Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition

Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, has made a lot of detail changes to the weapons available to investigators. Focusing on my particular interests and insights, I went through the Keeper Rulebook to check what works and what does not.

Many of the mistakes were already present in the Call of Cthulhu, Fifth Edition, and Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition, but it would have been a good opportunity to deal with them. Others are unique to the new edition.

Ultra-Tech: Amtrak Federation Air Rifle

A three-barrelled high-velocity .25 calibre air rifle that could be switched from triple volley to full auto, hung from the flexible mounting above the cockpit. A ground-crewman checked the two racks inside the cockpit filled with 180-round magazines … With a comparatively high rate of fire of one hundred and eighty rounds a minute, they were able to direct an almost continuous rain of nickel-coated lead …

‒ Patrick Tilley, The Amtrak Wars 1: Cloud Warrior (1983)

 

Patrick Tilley’s The Amtrak Wars (1983-1990) is a six-part epic chronicling the events in 2989/2994 AD prior to the fulfilment of the “Talisman Prophecy.” It is set in a devastated and substantially changed North America, with several factions involved in a deadly struggle for supremacy. These include various tribes of Mutes, the Iron Masters, and the Amtrak Federation ‒ inexplicably changed to the Lone Star Confederation in the later reissue, making the many train connections obsolete. It is perfect as a setting for a GURPS After the End campaign.