Official OOC Thread

Eastern Time U.S., I'm usually available later in the day. Sometimes mornings, but not always.

Until October it will be UTC+02:00 at my place. I'm much, much slower on the weekends (starting at Friday evening and ending at Monday morning... :), but during the week days (apart from some holiday days) I'm online most of the day, evening + early night and my answer should be quite fast, as I can't help myself but treat e-mails from GP as "proper members of my TODO list..." - so I try to push them out as fast as I can:D

But usually I will wait for other players to post their reactions before posting again - I mean between GM posts:)

GMT +2 that's what Poland, Finland, or am I to far East? I know Germany is GMT +1 or it was before this freaking time change.

I'm used to being GMT -8 and I think I'm -7 now but I have no clue. Daylight Savings is the absolute worst.

Exactly and accurate!

Yes , that's Poland here :)

Except that Caleb is US Army. The Marine Branch was corrected to Army recently.

A.R.M.Y.: Ain't Ready to be a Marine Yet
That is correct. Thanks Muns.

I don’t know what you’re talking about 🙄🤫🙃🤪. The character was originally envisioned as a Marine but dbcowboy changed it to Army when working on his background and finding out that what he wanted existed in the Army at the time and so his character would fit into the story’s background more easily.

Shush, here is pack of crayons for you marine.

Double Posting to Announce my new Single and the Unofficial Theme

Rooster by Me

Youtube Link

Its on apple music and amazon as well, I am just stupid and don't know how to link that properly.

@packratt66

Can I roll a S.T.E.A.L. to try to get another ammo belt?

That is a valid reason for S.T.E.A.L., however, there will be an opportunity during Session 0 to acquire additional equipment and ammunition. So you might wait for then to see what happens.

Roger that, sitting tight.

The game reminded me of a bit of maintenance I needed to do. Also this is a bit of in situ intelligence for the preferred rifle that almost every Romanian has.

The WASR-10

This baby is not a toy. It is also an even more stripped down version of the AK-47. My brother told me the charging handle was stuck on his. So I fixed it today.

Took me about ten minutes, did not require a field strip. The bolt carrier had *somehow* come out of the reciever. After a casual inspection it appeared to have suffered a brass over bolt malfunction. The jam had been cleared but the spring, what appears to be a shock absorbing spring from an automobiles suspension had over torque when cycling the bolt and pulled the upper apart.

I tried pumping the charging handle, it was sticking on the safety but the safety was not engaged. By safety, I mean a small steel plate and pin inserted over the trigger that when raised to the housing prevents both the charging handle from cycling and the trigger being depressed. It is not foolproof, nor would it prevent accidental cookoff if you, dropped or hit the rifle on something hard enough as the hammer can still move freely.

After pulling the upper housing the issue became apparent. The bolt carrier had been dismounted from the sheet steel that makes up the magazine well and trigger assembly. It slid almost perfectly into place, except the seams were misaligned. This prevented the charging handle from seating properly when cycled. It would pull a round from the magazine and seat it, but when falling back into place it would not fully close. This renders firing the rifle impossible. It was off by maybe 1mm though perhaps less, it was barely visible even when the housing had been removed.

So I pulled the spring, which again did not at all match what you would find in an AK-47. Repeated it on the seams and using a bit of violence shoved it back into place. There was a satisfying click. So I pull the charging handle. Click-clack joy.

The casing over the bolt carrier and trigger assembly only has one function, to keep debris from entering the rifle. It was completely operable without it, though the safety could not be engaged. When attempting to seat it I encountered a problem that I have never encountered on any weapon. When placed into the seams to close the housing, it no longer fit. To be clear the rifle can still fire in this state. I tested it by cycling it and dry firing several times.

It has a very odd design. First you must raise the flip sight. The housing does not slide into place, instead you must depress the hammer until it locks(it takes considerable force with just my thumb) then placing the lip of the housing at a 45 degree angle to the hammer press it beneath a lip at the hammer.

This can only be done with the safety "engaged" though with the housing off, this causes the pin to pop loose, so you must hold the safety in place with your free hand. Then with great violence slam the housing down til it pops(not clicks) into place. Then pulling the safety down it will click but still not seat correctly. Remove the thumb from the hammer and reengage the safety. Then when you pull the charging hammer the housing will click firmly into place.

A final note about this WASR-10, the safety cannot be engaged while the stock is collapsed. The stock will flap about if you collapse it with the safety engaged. I do not fathom what they meant by this. However, after my repair we dumped 900 rounds through it and noticed no performance issues.

This is possibly even more reliable a weapon than an AK-47. It just has some idiosyncrasies. This one is a model from 1999, and it seems to be jury rigged construction. The automotive spring, and sheet steel, not what I would initially have thought to be ideal, but I have been shooting this rifle since I was 12 when my stepdad bought it for my older brother (for $180 at Dick's Sporting goods)

I personally have shot tens of thousands of rounds through it in that time. My brother likely twice as many. We shot our own self loads, +p loads, you name it. My best guess is that my brothers friend Laz had put some kind of pissin hot round in it to cause the malfunction. Laz denies this, who on earth wants to be the guy that fucked up and unfuckupable platform?

At any rate even though it appears to be made with substandard materials. It goes back together quite neatly. And we were zeroing a target at 250m in the dim light here in Anchorage.

Not my favorite rifle by any means, but as it is exactly what we will be finding in game, a good bit of intel for you all to consider. Thanks for reading my novel.



Note the gaps at the flip up site and just above the mag well. I wonder if this rifle is standard at all. Or if the steel housing is from another rifle. There is no rattle and as stated above the only function it performs is to keep debris out. Still it functions quite well in spite of the fact that it shouldn't. Id give it 3.8/5 overall but if you don't count ergonomics it rises to 4.8/5.

The Romanians I worked with in Afghanistan had the wood furniture version with the full stock and there were no issues when we fired them. Yes, the selector is sticky, that is a known issue, but hey it is not a East German AK.

The Hungarian AMD65 is a POS that has the 'Kewl' look but over heats quite easily and is not accurate at all.

Anyway thanks @Jomsviking for the Sunday reading.

Yes indeed. A good read. I, personally, have experience with SKS and Mosin Nagant, but no real touch on the AK side except a few minutes of familiarization.

Do we have a closer in map of where we are?

It will be coming soon

Yay, I'm kind of a big map person. Not maps that are big but just maps in general. I think there's kind of a beauty to them on my iPad. I have a link to the Scottish map index, and I look at old 19th-century maps of the United Kingdom and Ireland from time to time just to see what I can see.