| From: | Tzeentch tzeentch666@*********.net |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Funny SR3 Nuke Effects (was Re: Question for the gearheads.) |
| Date: | Tue, 16 May 2000 21:33:59 -0700 |
> > Hey, how big was the blast in Chicago? :)
>
> The Cermak Blast looked, if I recall correctly, like a 20-kiloton warhead.
> Whether that was the magic involved or what is hard to say. If 20 ktons
is
> the case, it was significantly larger than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima
> and Nagasaki in 1945 (in the neighborhood of 12.5 ktons, IIRC); look what
> *those* puny fraggers did....
>From what I gathered in Burning Bright they were using some type of atomic
demolition munition. Probably 0.01kT or so. They were not wanting to nuke
the entire city, just utterly reduce the Invae in the immediate vicinity to
component atoms. At that level of yield you're not going to see hollywood
style nuke effects. Sure it will do a lot of damage and any Invae left alive
in the area won't be happy. Especially if it was some sort of enhanced
radiation weapon (the often rumored but never seen neutron bomb).
When the tacnuke detonated the explosion was contained by the extremely
powerful "force field" erected by the insect shamans at a convenient moment.
Thus the nukes blast was contained and likey had an effect similar to a
shaped charge. Now, all story points aside anything inside that dome would
be TOAST. Beyond chunky salsa here, I can't even imagine the stark energies
contained in the dome (flash the air to a superheated state most likely) and
then the rebounding pressure waves with nowhere to go! And remember the
blast wave pushing the air out of the way? Holy smokes folks we're talking
chunky salsa effect to a factor of 1,000. Consider the rules in SR3 dealing
with 'blasts in a confined space' (p. 119, SR3) and note that the initial
blast would have had a very high Power.
THE FUNNY STORY OF A NUKE IN SHADOWRUN
Ok, now down to the funny stuff (well, funny to me at least)
Lesse .01 kilotons (a REALLY REALLY small nuke). That's still 10 *tons* of
explosive power. By SR3s own little "multiple kilos" explosive rule, and
assuming that TNT is a Rating 1 explosive (which leads to some funny
assumptions about how powerful SR3 explosives are but anyways): 1 x (9172
(we rounded up))^.5= 96D. ooohhh. Anyone see a problem with this? ;)
According to SR3 it looks like (assuming Commercial explosives) that the
Power of this nuke will drop to zero after (96/3=) 31 meters!! hahah I'm
reminded of Rifts for an inexplicable reason.
Ah HAH you say, look, we have C4 on the table (p. 283, SR3)! We can use that
as a basis for the power of TNT in Shadowrun! Exactamundo. Lesse, C4 is
about 1.4x as powerful as TNT. so lets divide 6 (the rating of C4 in SR) by
1.4. We get 4. Obviously the "commercial explosives" on the table is
dynamite. Armed with a value of 4 we get a much heftier 384D. But oddly
enough these more powerful explosives lose power more quickly then weaker
ones...Odd! Lets say the power reduction is between commercial explosives
and C4 (seems logical in light of how the explosives in SR are set up).
Looking at the table we see that the Key of Ultimate SR Explosives
Understanding is that the Power reduction/meter is equal to its Rating.
Eureka! So using the more reasonable Rating 4 TNT we get an nuke that peters
out to 0D after 96 meters! WTF!?
Obviously the SR3 explosives system is far more cinematic then realistic or
plausible.
Ken
---------------------------
There's a war out there, old friend, a world war. And it's not about who's
got the most bullets, it's about who controls the information. What we see
and hear, how we work, what we think, it's all about the information!
Cosmo, 'Sneakers'
