11 July 2025

Mean Rounds Between Failure

I read a snippet about the reliability of the British L85A1 that gave a mean rounds between failure of just 95 rounds.

The US M4 carbine MRBF is 500.

That got me to wondering how that translated to a GURPS malf number.

The M4 gets the default TL6+ malf number of  17; which means it malfunctions on a critical failure.

The L85A1 gets a malf number of 16.

Are those 500 and 95 rounds between failure?

So I asked FuzzyGeff who's better with the maths than I am.  Any errors in the math as shown here are from me transcribing them incorrectly, I am sure.

A malf of 16 corresponds to a MRBF of just more than 20 rounds!

A malf of 17 corresponds to a MRBF of almost 52 rounds.

What the actual fuck?

But that's just firing single shots and both weapons can fire 3 rounds per roll in semi-automatic fire.

That raises the MRBF to 62ish and 155ish each.

Still WAY below spec.

It also illustrates that the "so unreliable millions of pounds were spent to fix it" rifle was holding to the default normal reliability standards in GURPS.

Even more fun...  This is per roll.

In full auto the L85A1's GURPS MRBF raises to 269.4 and the M4 to 775.7.

This underscores that GURPS is a GAME and not a simulation.

Making things less reliable than real creates more drama and excitement.

FuzzyGeff found a quote: "And once again, Probability proves itself willing to sneak into a back alley and service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot." that sums it up really well.

 

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