Comic for Wednesday, May 31, 2023

[Darth Fluffy 302]

On 6/3/2023 at 4:08 AM, The Old Hack said:

It depends a lot on the society as well. There was a time where diamonds were not as highly valued as other rare gems. A few centuries ago spices fetched REALLY high prices due to rarity. The word 'salary' stems from a time where you would issue pay in the form of salt. Also baseball trading cards can reach really impressive values, though I am less sure that the fame of players in other dimensions would carry over as readily. As to Magic: the Gathering, I wonder what that would be called on the other world. Technology: the Menacing?

Spices would be risky; an unfamiliar spice is not likely to be recognized as valuable. You wouldn't know the agricultural situation in the other world, and spices may be like they are now, fairly common. On the other hand, if you come from a spice impoverished realm, you might not think of that, and they are very portable.

The salt one is funny. Yes, it was valuable in ancient Rome, and you need some in your diet; if it is scarce, that is a factor. Animals look for and remember salt licks. You have to wonder why the ancients did not use large scale evaporative flats to extract salt from the sea; sea water is in relatively endless supply. If you could time travel, you could buy a couple of large cartons of Morton's (US salt brand) and go back and buy up much of Rome. I don't think that's a great item to count on being scarce in your alternate universe, but again, you might not know that if you were in the scarce salt side.

Gems in general have issues. They have to be graded. if uncut, the value is lower. If cut, they have to be cared for; they tend toward brittle, and can chip. Diamond in particular and hard, but not tough. If you drop one, it can fracture. (Diamonds are much more plentiful than the market would seem, prices propped up by De Beers marketing. If you want a notion of their real value, try to sell one back to a jeweler.)

Art and publications of any form, including card, are going to have to deal with 'What the hell is that?' (I like your idea for a Technology: the Menacing game.)

A classic car could work within our world. Make your transport part of your wealth transfer. I don't see this working across universes.

Technology can be a valuable commodity. That's likely what they want to take back.

[ijuin 572]

Tech makes sense for what they want to take back because most of the things that we know that the EGS side has that the other side does not are either tech or the products of tech. Non-magical (and thus harder-to-trace) telecommunications, computers, high-tech materials such as ballistic or ceramic armor, or weapons would all seem valuable to a rebel faction.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

4 hours ago, ijuin said:

Tech makes sense for what they want to take back because most of the things that we know that the EGS side has that the other side does not are either tech or the products of tech. Non-magical (and thus harder-to-trace) telecommunications, computers, high-tech materials such as ballistic or ceramic armor, or weapons would all seem valuable to a rebel faction.

If a gun presents a danger to even a powerful mage, a minigun would probably be even more so of one.

[ijuin 572]

On the other hand, a minigun is harder to conceal and transport than a sniper rifle, and the element of surprise remains important.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

14 hours ago, ijuin said:

On the other hand, a minigun is harder to conceal and transport than a sniper rifle, and the element of surprise remains important.

Absolutely agreed. But it is all situational. The point isn't which is better, a sniper rifle or a minigun. The point is what kind of action they are preparing for.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

20 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

If a gun presents a danger to even a powerful mage, a minigun would probably be even more so of one.

You mean a US Vietnam era 'minigun'? An electric Gatling gun requires a power source and burns through a lot of ammo. If tech is rare on your side, I don't think you'd want to 'pray and spray'. (On the other hand, if you could take an entire Huey with sufficient fuel . . . You might even fend off a few griffins)

A compact submachine gun might be a good option in that vein. The ammo is lighter than a rifle round, so more portable. You could standardize on 9mm, see next paragraph.

Did you mean a small, concealable gun? That would make sense. Something on the order of Bond's Walther PPK. I wouldn't go with a Derringer, nor 22 of any sort, although they can be lethal. 9mm ammo is plentiful here, so relatively easy to acquire, and does the job. 22s are also widely available, and are cheap to purchase, but suffer from storage issues, they aren't sealed as well, and are of generally insufficient power.

 

16 hours ago, ijuin said:

On the other hand, a minigun is harder to conceal and transport than a sniper rifle, and the element of surprise remains important.

A sniper rifle seems like a sensible option. You'd want to stay hidden while you take out the magical heavy guns from a distance.

 

2 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Absolutely agreed. But it is all situational. The point isn't which is better, a sniper rifle or a minigun. The point is what kind of action they are preparing for.

I think these poor schmucks are in for a long, protracted guerilla conflict; they are not the powerful ones on their side. Something portable and concealable seems warranted.

I have to say, this particular thread has a very real sad side. We've experienced this BS, this is not entirely hypothetical, it's just being applied to a fictitious environment.

 

[ijuin 572]

11 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Absolutely agreed. But it is all situational. The point isn't which is better, a sniper rifle or a minigun. The point is what kind of action they are preparing for.

If the goal is targeted assassination, then the sniper rifle would be preferred. If the goal is a massacre (i.e. high body count in a target-rich environment, such as a gathering of Mages), then the minigun or machinegun is warranted.

However, if our rebels are not planning on raiding military stores and instead want to  keep to the civilian or black market, then a 1919 Browning .30-06 machinegun or civilian semiautomatic rifle such as the infamous AR-15 would be a more practical choice than a rotary gun.

[mlooney 3,417]

Other than cost and cost of ammo a mini gun and a 1919 are equally hard to get as far as licenses go.  And there are so few mini guns in "private" ownership that you aren't going to get them on the black market.  Biggest problem they would have is you _really_ need good ID and a back ground check to get a license for a fully auto weapon.

[ijuin 572]

Then if they really want to be completely anonymous and don’t want to dive too deeply into the organized crime scene, they should probably go with the AR-15s and some sniper rifles, along with some portable mortars or grenade launchers of some sort.