Elephant Guns (OT?)

[Grumbling Grognard]

I found this on YouTube the other day.  Quite interesting IMHO.

If you "just" want to see him fire one, skip to about 20min in, otherwise sit back and listen and learn where exactly your agent can get their hands on about the best weapon around to stop the really big ones, the elephant gun:

Elephant Guns


Elephant Guns for lazy sods who just want to see him shoot one


Hope you enjoy as much as I did (ouch...)
Scott

[Connectamabob]

Very interesting video! Made me hungry to look up Elephant guns on Wikipedia, which lead to a few hours of after-dinner wiki crawling. I knew elephant guns were a thing that existed, but didn't know much of anything about them other than that they were were super-large caliber/gauge small arms.

Since my SA is more in the modern day than the 20s, my first though was of anti-material rifles (which are apparently descended from elephant guns). Was surprised to find that "stopping guns" are still a thing in the modern day (well, rifle-sized ones, at least: I knew that's basically what stuff like the S&W M500 are for).

I suppose my concerns game wise would be twofold: I wouldn't want to risk "power creep" unbalancing the game, and I wonder about in-setting plausibility.

On the former hand, one thing I've learned from MMO forums is that players love to make suggestions that seem balanced, but are actually gradually creeping their way to unfair advantage/god weaponry. They don't even know they're doing it most of the time, they just think they're suggesting something cool, and have suggestions on how to balance it, but even with the balance suggestions the math always adds up to just a skootch of an upgrade. I'm extremely wary of adding higher damage weapons to the game because of this.

On the latter hand, I feel like Threshold represents something more akin to X-Files or (gack) Torchwood than SG-1 or XCOM. The thought of Mulder schlepping a Barrett around with him "just in case" feels... a bit out of place? I suppose it's tempting to turn around and point at Elliot Ness all tooled up for urban guerrilla warfare in counterpoint, but IMO that level of militarization kind of implies eldritch/occult activity is too prolific/major/out of control to be a secret from the public. I do fancy Threshold has paramilitary teams, but they're the backup, not the main characters. That's maybe just my own interpretation though.

I suppose that still leaves room to argue for howdah pistols and the aforementioned M500, but see the former hand above.

And on the gripping hand, I've kinda got the old CoC mentality that the deck should be stacked against the "heroes". Always under-prepared, always out-manned (or out-entitied), and all the action/screaming happens between when backup is called and when backup arrives... if backup gets called at all.

[sukhe_bator]

Plus there's always the dollar sign to contend with. No point in bagging a dead 'un when you could potentially capture one alive AND ultimately flog the book/film rights.
That generally means though that the initial team sent in with a non-lethal alternative end up as sushi/or toast (a la 'Jurassic World')
Howdah pistols are cool though. My particular fav part is they are often equipped with a flick bayonet
between the 'sawn off' shotgun barrels.

[Dezmond]

It is a little remembered fact the German Mauser T Gewehr was originally devoloped for use against the infestation of Dark Young unleashed by the carnage of the western front

[WallyTWest]

"It is a little remembered fact the German Mauser T Gewehr was originally devoloped for use against the infestation of Dark Young unleashed by the carnage of the western front"

95% Sure that's in the Wikipedia page...

[Mr. Peabody]

Interesting this comes up!

I've been very tempted to take the Elephant Gun because, wow, it packs a punch! But it seems like a pick for a Character or Agent with some experience under their belt. It's going to take a skill or two not to be hampered by 'Ready' at 12".

Of course, you could always just go for the Hand Cannon prototype! That requires very little skill on the part of the user.

[Cherno]

For those of you who have seen the classic horror comedy "Tremors" (and if you haven't, you should!), gun nut and survivalist Burt Gummer literally breaks out an Elephant Gun (he keeps it in a museum glass case) when all other guns fail to kill the Graboid that has broken into his basement.

[tomcat51]

Weird, I watched that scene only last night 

[Grumbling Grognard]

Funny you guys should mention the pistols.  I watched this one about a week or so ago on them:  Howdah Pistols Video  (sorry, he does not shoot them this time)

As for "in game", heck I was not proposing a change or add of anything in the game itself, I was just posting a link to a video on some very cool, old custom rifles up for sale I saw. 

Scott

[Grumbling Grognard]

OMG.  That is brillant.  I had *completely* forgotten about this bit!   

Now, for another tid bit...I am currently sitting, and live less than 200 yards from where Reba (in that clip as the wife) used to live with her ex-husband (he is still around here somewhere...nice guy btw).  Yep, she's a TEXAS gal!  Can't you tell by the way she handles that 12 gauge?

For those of you who have seen the classic horror comedy "Tremors" (and if you haven't, you should!), gun nut and survivalist Burt Gummer literally breaks out an Elephant Gun (he keeps it in a museum glass case) when all other guns fail to kill the Graboid that has broken into his basement.

[WallyTWest]

That's a great film- and some great documentation to go with it!!!

I've had games like that- an old one or MiGo jumps out of cover and is being nailed with gunfire for what seems like turns. Hitting or ROF is no big deal- but I find myself wishing I had an AP or heavy +wound weapon...

I guess that's game balance-

I was noticing in the Dundwich Horror- one of the men who goes up the hill brings an elephant gun with him.

[Mr. Peabody]

Tremors.... I love that film.

[WallyTWest]

Definitely a movie about Chthonians- how many Classic Chaosium/Lovecraft monsters still need to be covered?

Dimensional Shamblers still need a profile too-

Perhaps we need an Expansion entitled "Elephant Guns, Graboids and Dimensional Shamblers"