Telescopic Vision and Scopes

Telescopic Vision

As part of a discussion of some rules involving guns, aiming, and accuracy, +Christopher R. Rice brought my attention to the rules for Telescopic Vision (p. B92).

Holy Gawd, it is awesome.


Not only does each level cancel out range penalties for normal Vision rolls, but it has double effect if you take Aim. Not only that, but it adds to Acc like a scope – but doesn’t normally stack with scopes.

Unless, of course, you pay 8 points/level to modify it with Cosmic.

The interesting thing, to me, is that telescopic vision both cancels range penalties and gives a boost to Acc. It does so in a pretty big way, too, with each level effectively being a 2x magnification (multiplicative).

Telescopic Sights


Scopes, on the other hand, just give a bonus to Acc, and only after an Aim maneuver.

You also have to work for it. You have to Aim for as many seconds as the scope’s bonus (that’s something I forget, a lot). So if you have a tactical rifle set up, say a reflex sight with a 4x fixed-power optic on it, you get:

• +1 to Guns from the reflex sight
• +5 to skill if you Aim for one second
• +1 after the 2nd second of Aim, and an additional +2 for the scope

So with two seconds of Aim, you rack up +9 in total bonuses. Not too shabby.

How They Stack Up


Granted, it’s supernatural/exotic, but Telescopic Vision is just awesome. If you can buy it for a shooter, you should. Even better with Cosmic (+50%), stacks with technolgical devices (and there’s really no reason they shouldn’t stack; the eye would magnifiy a magnified image, though magnifying a digital image would likely just pixelate).

Different Concepts


I always thought, though, that a scope should probably be more like Telescopic Vision.

It brings the image closer. How much? Well, it’s right there on the tin. A 10x scope brings something at 1,000 yards as seemingly close as if it were 100 yards away.

It might be interesting to look at alternate possibilities. One would be that it effectively increases the SM of your target. The other would be to reduce range penalties. I think increased SM is better, though, because while your target looks bigger, it really is still that far away.

I think that SM increase would not impact the actual MoA limit on maximum skill, too.

All of this gives me some ideas that I think I want to write up and maybe send over Pyramid way . . . so I’ll quit now on this.

Accuracy


One of the other things that is interesting, though, and worth more discussion, is the concept of better and worse sights on a rifle.

I mean, take a look at this:

Remington guarantees 0.5″ 3-shot groups on this one at 100 yards. That’s Acc 6.5 if you could do it that precisely. But . . . how does it ship?

Probably like this (though it’s not the same gun):

That rifle, too, is probably Acc 6 or higher out of the box. But how do you even point it? There are no sights to speak of, no bullet drop compensator, not even the cheesy worse-than-my-Glock emergency sights on the Bushmaster M17S. And those are BAD. Probably Acc 2.

But there you go – how do you distinguish between the rifle and the quality of the sighting system. Can any iron sights really give the kind of precision required to get a 2″ group at 400 yards?

Maybe, maybe. But still, it’d be way easier to do it with a 10x scope, neh?

And what if you put a stabilized 64x scope (notionally a +6 to Accuracy) on a handgun? Well, the target just got a lot bigger, but your gun is still just Acc 2. And yes, there are rules about the maximum boost to skill you can get . . . but should there be?

Parting Shot

Thinking about scopes, aiming, and accuracy for other purposes has given me some ideas to noodle on, which means there’s another article in the offing.

But what concepts to include? I’d want . . .

• I’d like more resolution on what scope magnification gives a bonus
• I’d like to differentiate between the quality of the weapon vs. the quality of the sight
• It would be kinda fun to deal with field of view
• It should unify Telescopic Vision and Telescopic Sights, so there’s only one rule
• If I’m good, it’ll handle sighting-in and being out of alignment

I’ve already noodled a bit as I wrote this post on what to do about this, and I think there’s something to be said here. Now I just need to recruit enough help to make +Steven Marsh publish Pyramid #3/XX: Gunplay 2.

Pyramid #3/57 was pretty inspired for what issue was the Guns issue. 3/80 would work, but yeesh . . . .380 is not inspiring enough a caliber to make a good issue totem. 3/76 would be close at least to 7.62 . . .

All that aside, I really do think there’s likely a different – hopefully better – way of handling the magnification and precision issue. And now I’m off to find one.