Guide to the Weapons Locker articles
Context
Writeups.org has a number of “Weapons Locker” articles.
The name references a 1980s supplement for the old Marvel Super-Heroes Role-Playing Game by TSR.
They’re not lists of game stats – though there is a lot of stats. They are closer to a guided tour about weapons and their role in action-adventure stories.
The header picture of this article references a small running gag throughout the modern firearms Weapons Locker articles. Where Angelina Jolie is demonstrating an improbable variety of guns.
All these articles are part of the “Weapons locker” subcategory, in the categories breadcrumb near the beginning of each article.
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Caveats & notes
- All Weapons Locker articles are interested in fiction, with an emphasis on comic books. Plus action movies and video games, since those media do the heavy lifting in shaping perception of weapons.
- There’s also a focus on US fiction rather than, say, Bollywood or Nollywood action flicks. Or fantasy manhwa, or Chinese CRPGs, or whichever.
- As heavily emphasised in the articles, all the content is about stories. There often are side notes about how things work in the real world, but the article always prefer to depict fictional workings. No matter how unrealistic.
- Many of the articles are presented in two parts. One that covers the relevant weapon types most often seen in stories, and another that presents more rare, specialised or completely made-up weaponry.
- Stats are provided for the DC Heroes Role-Playing Game and, if I have the energy, the Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition Role-Playing Game.
- Neither of these RPG systems is fine-details-oriented. So we’re going to cover weapon categories rather than specific weapons. Since almost all weapons within a given category would have the exact same stats.
- On the other hand, we did add a fair few optional rules to increase the detail level. See our technical RPG articles for this sort of material.
- Historically, a major source of pictures and data for firearms in movies and games for the Weapons Locker articles has been the Internet Movie Firearms Database . This is less true now, but it’s still an invaluable resource on this niche subject.
Ms. Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft in the 2018 movie adaptation of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot (pfew).
Not-universe-specific articles
Generic articles – modern firearms series
- Weapons locker – Modern firearms – Handguns part #1. Covers the standard weapons in the following categories – Concealed Handguns, Medium-sized Handguns, Large Handguns, Machine Pistols.
- Weapons locker – Modern firearms – Handguns part #2. Covers the same categories, but focuses on the rare/exotic/specialised guns.
- Weapons locker – Modern firearms – Small arms part #1. Covers the standard weapons in the following categories – Submachineguns, Shotguns, Rifles.
- Weapons locker – Modern firearms – Small arms part #2. Covers the same categories, but focuses on the rare/exotic/specialised guns.
- Weapons locker – Modern firearms – Grenades. Covers the following weapon categories – Grenade Launchers, Grenades.
- Weapons locker – Modern firearms – Heavier weapons. Covers machineguns, flamethrowers, disposable rocket launchers, etc..
- Weapons locker – Modern firearms – Less-than-lethal. Only covers less-than-lethal *ranged* weaponry.
- Weapons locker – Modern firearms – Accessories and ammunition. Covers sights, silencers, feeding mechanisms, lights, specialised ammunition (realistic or not), etc..
- Weapons locker – Modern firearms – Improvised. Covers home-made guns, for instance in a post-apocalyptic setting.
Adνеrtisеmеnt
Generic articles – melee weapons
- Weapons locker – Melee weapons – Chapter zero. The technical primer. It recaps the rules issues and solutions about small weapons in DCH.
- Weapons locker – Melee weapons (part 1 – Small melee weapons). Common small melee weapons (knives, hatchets, sai, etc.).
- It’s followed by Weapons locker – Special-purpose small melee weapons. For the not-so-common stuff.
- Weapons locker – Melee weapons (part 2 – Medium melee weapons). Common medium melee weapons (swords, axes, maces, etc.).
- It’s followed by Weapons locker – Special-purpose medium melee weapons. For the not-so-common stuff.
- Common heavy melee weapons (halberds, zweihanders, etc.).
Generic articles – shields and armour
- Weapons locker – shields. A robust mixture of additional rules for shield-slingers, and types of shields across the ages (and beyond).
- Weapons Locker – Body armour – Chapter zero. Technical introduction, covering the generalities and the technical tools about body armour.
- Weapons Locker – Body Armour – Chapter 1 – Low-tech, lighter body armour.
- Weapons Locker – Body Armour – Chapter 2 – Low-tech, medium weight body armour.
- Weapons Locker – Body Armour – Chapter 3 – Low-tech, heavier body armour.
Generic articles – other articles
- Weapons locker – Bows. Covers bows, arrows and accessories ancient and modern. Crossbows will be in another article.
- Weapons locker – The Quick Missiles Essay. Provides stock stats for the main missile and warheads types. It’s a short article but has suited all our needs so far.
- Weapons locker – Old West firearms. Covers the guns used in movies, comics, novels, etc. set in the Old West — the decades that follow the Civil War. It is now presented as a three-parter, since there’s a/ a lot of guns and b/ a lot of explanations in that one.
- Weapons locker. That was the last evolution of the original article. It covered a lot of ground – albeit in a shallow manner. So there is still material in it that has yet to be covered by more modern articles. But it’s really old.
Good ol’ B.J. Blazkowicz brandishing an improbable chaingun in the first major First Person Shooter (FPS) video game.
Universe-specific articles and links
- Weapons locker – Star Trek weapons – Phasers. Covers all hand-held types of phasers from the various Star Trek series. From TOS to the 2009 reboot.
- Weapons locker – Classic DooM. Covers all the weaponry (and the backpack) from the foundational 1990s DooM video games. Includes rationalisations about the characteristics of the weapons.
- Weapons locker – Lightsabres. Covers the various types of lightsabers found in the Star Wars universe, and their use.
- Weapons locker – Mass Effect and Weapons locker – Mass Effect 2. Include notes about tactics and various suggestions to rationalise the video game logic.
- Weapons locker – HλLF-LIFE. Covers all the hand-held weapons (including bio-weapons) from Half-Life, Opposing Forces and Half-Life 2.
- Weapons locker – Unreal Tournament. Covers the arsenal from one of the classic video game shooters of the late 1990s.
- Weapons locker – Fallout. Includes a discussion of weapons in Fallout, and a detailed discussion of firearms in a post-apocalyptic setting.
- Weapons Locker – XCom 2012 reboot. Covers the early tech tree with planes, body armour, lasers, grenades, and other advanced ordnance to fight alien intruders.
- A series of weapons locker articles for the Warframe video game, wot starts there.
- A technical article about the Borderlands video games, wot has guns.
- Weapons locker – Aliens is being considered. Or so I’ve been saying for decades.