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Bren
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 Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:49 pm Post subject: |
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| jmanski wrote: | | 1. Radiation deals damage at specific intervals (x damage every y rounds) |
This. For three reasons.
1. That's how radiation works in the real world.
2. Immediate damage is effectively the same as being shot with a blaster. I want radiation damage to be something different.
3. The Force Power Absorb/dissipate energy ("A/D") lists difficulties for handling several sources and power levels of radiation both constant and more or less instantaneous.
| Absorb/Dissipate Energy p 142 SWR&E Rules wrote: | Sunburn and minor energy sources - Very Easy
Intense sun - Easy
Solar wind and other modest energy sources - Moderate
Radiation storms and other intense energy sources - Difficult |
Against any of these A/D may be kept up, but against strong energy discharges like a blaster bolt or Force Lightning the power may not be kept up. This supports radiation damage as a X damage per Y rounds type of effect.
The difficulty to A/D a blaster pistol shot is Moderate + 4D and the duration occurs during a single action in one round. Moderate is 11-15 and the average (w/o Wild Die) on 4D is 14 so the difficulty is about 25-30 which is the upper half of Very Difficult. So damage from intense radiation must be much less than 4D/round.
I'm going to assume that the duration of a blaster shot is less than the time required to perform 1 action. Using a Force Point a highly skilled character could perform 12 actions in a round (or more). So a rough approximation for the duration of an action is 1/12 of a round.
| calculation wrote: | | Difficult is 16-20 which is about equal to Moderate +1D to +2D. |
Since A/D can be kept up for the entire round we could assume that the damage from a continuous intense radiation source is less than the damage from a series of 12 or more 1D or 2D damage blaster shots. So let's increase the duration required for damage to accumulate from intense radiation 1D or 2D per 12 rounds.
How long is a round? A round is 5 seconds (Rounds p 77 SWR&E Rules) so a minute is about 12 rounds. So intense radiation does 1D to 2D damage each 12 rounds or each minute. For ease of calculation I’ll use 1D damage.
Again for ease of calculation it would be nice to scale the damage based on typical units such as minutes, hours, days, and months. We could set durations for lower intensity radiation based on scaling up real world intervals. So intense radiation is 1D damage per minute. Then we increase the unit of time for each increase in radiation intensity.
| My radiation damage table wrote: | Sunburn and minor energy sources - Very Easy – 1D damage/month
Intense sun – Easy – 1D damage/day
Solar wind and other modest energy sources – Moderate – 1D damage/hour
Radiation storms and other intense energy sources – Difficult – 1D damage/minute |
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 10:11 pm Post subject: |
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It almost seems more proper to treat radiation like a slow-acting poison than as a weapon, with a base damage linked to the relative Strength of the field that then slopes up based on the amount of time a character is exposed to it.
Also, I didn't think until just now to check the Medical Sourcebook, which has a section on Radiation Sickness (see pages 31-33), but it is largely a duplicate of Volar's house rule, just with a better format.
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:48 am Post subject: |
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This being Space Opera, there are additional kinds of radiation to be dealt with, specifically the Chiss Radiation Bombs used in Outbound Flight. Realistic radiation seems to be a slow killer; the Chiss Radiation Bombs, OTOH, have a near instantaneous effect on all unshielded organic life in their blast radius...
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Bren
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 1:49 pm Post subject: |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | | This being Space Opera, there are additional kinds of radiation to be dealt with, specifically the Chiss Radiation Bombs used in Outbound Flight. Realistic radiation seems to be a slow killer; the Chiss Radiation Bombs, OTOH, have a near instantaneous effect on all unshielded organic life in their blast radius... |
I don't pay much, if any, attention to the Chiss or Outbound Flight, so I don't recall what this is but from your description and the link you provided, it sounds like the Chiss have discovered a neutron bomb. I doubt I'll use that, but if I did the duration of effect sounds like it is effectively instantaneous. Which means it would seem to make sense to treat it either exactly like a regular damage* from an energy weapon like a blaster or (if one has some radiation effects table) to treat it as delivering a high rad dose all in one instant - again pretty much like a blaster except we look at the rad effects table for that level of dosage.
EDIT: * I meant, only antipersonnel energy damage. |
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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The major difference is that neutron bombs appear to have a delayed effect, killing unshielded organic life in a few days, whereas the Chiss weapon effect is instantaneous.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Bren
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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So a better neutron bomb.  |
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | So a better neutron bomb. |
Maybe, but I'm hesitant to tie it directly to Neutron Bombs since they have a known function of delayed reaction.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Bren
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | | Bren wrote: | | So a better neutron bomb. |
Maybe, but I'm hesitant to tie it directly to Neutron Bombs since they have a known function of delayed reaction. |
Depends on how far you are from the center of the blast though, does it not? And it's not like "not dead until tomorrow" means "still able to function today."
But by all means have it be something else. Personally I prefer not to tie Star Wars tech too closely to real tech. I'm running space opera because I don't want to worry about, have to consider, or account for how technology really works in the really real world. |
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Naaman
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| Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:25 am Post subject: |
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If you're looking at nuclear radiation, you might also want to consider time tables and equipment for decontamination.
Something like a lint roller, for example, could serve as a make-shift decontamination tool in a pinch.
If you have a group of PCs that happens to know (or discover) that they need to interact with radioactive sources, there should be options for them to prepare to do so to mitigate the risk of contamination.
Furthermore, certain kinds of suits or armor that character already have may act as sufficient shielding against radiation, rendering it of no effect or of negligible effect. |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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Though the suit itself will get irradiated and depending on how long exposed, may be ruined.
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Naaman
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| Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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In real life, any garment that has been used to protect against radiation is discarded in a "rad-waste" bin, never to be used again.
The suits are designed to be disposable, made of little more than paper and rubber and thin cloth.
More expensive stuff (like customized armor, or "heavy duty" hazmat gear like turn out gear, etc.) would probably be decontaminated, scanned for hot particles, and once cleared, put back into service if it is still serviceable.
With the addition of radiation to a game, making friskers and other scanning gear available would be appropriate, I think (not that PCs would necessarily have it or choose to acquire it before they needed it).
Also, what skills would be used to deal with radiation?
It seems like Scholar: Chemistry might be the primary skill used to understand the nature of radioactive isotopes, while Scholar: Physics might serve best in understanding the behavior of particles.
Should there be a technical skill that covers decontamination or would that be covered by a scholar specialization or other knowledge skill? |
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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In the SWU, it's probable there's a tech fix to get around having to dispose of irradiated items, maybe an energy-field based decontamination system.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Bren
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| Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 2:06 pm Post subject: |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | | In the SWU, it's probable there's a tech fix to get around having to dispose of irradiated items, maybe an energy-field based decontamination system. |
Or a creepy worm-thing that eats irradiated particles, absorbs the energy, and leaves an un-irradiated and mostly harmless waste behind. |
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cheshire
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| Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | It almost seems more proper to treat radiation like a slow-acting poison than as a weapon, with a base damage linked to the relative Strength of the field that then slopes up based on the amount of time a character is exposed to it.
Also, I didn't think until just now to check the Medical Sourcebook, which has a section on Radiation Sickness (see pages 31-33), but it is largely a duplicate of Volar's house rule, just with a better format. |
I think generally speaking, you're right. I did start this thread out for the purposes of converting a radiation-based grenade in one of the WOTC books. But I think it makes a LOT of sense to build radiation out as an environmental hazard. The slow-acting threat really can build some dramatic tension for the setting.
In fact, my next adventure is going to involve recon on a ship the Rebellion is going to want salvaged. I think that using increasing radiation exposure might actually be the thing to ratchet up the tension for the session.
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CRMcNeill
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| Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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I'm reminded of the Environmental Damage rules I wrote up in AJ#2, but it would need some sort of delayed-reaction damage chart, maybe tied in with Stun-equivalent effects to represent the initial stages.
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