| From: | Adam Getchell <acgetchell@*******.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Waterknives and other weapons |
| Date: | Fri, 28 Aug 1998 14:31:49 -0700 |
ShadowRN. Perhaps I could also put this in Paolo's nice collection?
Notes: These weapons are also discussed in the Traveller 4 supplement
"Emperor's Arsenal" written by Greg Porter. I've added more detailed
physics, engineering, and Shadowrun mechanics where necessary.
Waterknife:
This device consists of essentially 4 parts: a pair of water tanks, a small
jet turbine compressor, a flexible carbon polytetraethylene hose with woven
buckminsterfullerene strands, and a pistol grip with a computer-adjusted 1
mm diameter synthetic diamond nozzle.
The device fires an extremely high pressure stream of water at ~ Mach 4
with a fine suspension of buckyballs to produce a highly ablative cutting
tool. The jet turbine requires ~3 seconds to spin up to speed [1 Combat
Turn] and consumes jetfuel, packaged separately. The device consumes 1
liter of water per second of use, and is quite loud.
Weights: 30 Liter tanks 34 kg ( 4 kg empty)
Compressor 5 kg (.5 kg fuel)
Hose 1 kg
Pistol 2 kg
* Smaller tanks can be obtained, with correspondingly less usage time
@ The pistol contains a magazine clip with the buckyball resevoir, which
can be refilled at a cost of 50 nuyen.
Conceal: Yeah, right Damage: 20S** Weight: 42 kg Avail: 18/28 days
Cost: 50,000 Street Index: 4 Legal: 2-W
** When used against Barriers, device has a Power of 20 to resolve damage
to barriers. When used as a melee weapon, the device may be used in 3
modes: Reach 0 with a power of 16, Reach 1 with a power of 12, or Reach 2
with a power of 8. The use of these modes simply indicates a which range
the cutting instrument is used; cutting power drops off dramatically with
distance. The waterknife halves Impact Armor.
The waterknife can also be used as a ranged weapon. Use ranges for Tasers,
and the damage code is 8S. Power drops by -1 per half meter of distance,
and goes against half impact.
Reloading the weapon requires separate re-filling of the water tanks, jet
fuel, and buckyball reservoirs.
Design notes: A volume flow rate of 1 liter per second through a 1 mm
diameter aperture yields a velocity of ~1273 m/sec. In this supersonic
regime, the nozzle actually opens outward in a cone, rather than inward (as
would a normal subsonic concentrator). Due to this effect, expansion of
water from the nozzle to open air will actually serve to concentrate the
stream.
That being said, friction and turbulence is going to drop off range in a
hurry, which is why I picked Taser ranges. Past 16 meters someone will
probably just get hit by a fine spray of water and buckyballs. It might do
damage to eyes without protection (GM's call).
Damage is a function of tissue trauma. Whereas a bullet makes a hole
through tissue (tearing as it goes), a waterknife will cleanly slice on a
continual basis. Playing the waterknife across someone's torso will
probably cut them in half, messily. Since it is a continous fire weapon I
adjudged damage level to be S. You can drop it to M if you want.
A called shot to the tank will just cause a leakage of water. However, a
called shot to the jet turbine compressor will essentially set off a
fragmentation grenade on the wearers back. Apply grenade damage and
optional rules on p. 119 to the poor sucker. ;-)
Goop Gun:
A device that looks frighteningly similiar to a waterknife, it fires a
stream of synthetic, sticky hydrocarbons that stream out in long threads
that stick to anything and harden upon contact. The weapon consists of two
tanks, a flexible hose, and a pistol. The two components are stored
separately, and, like epoxy, do not take on their special properties until
combined in the nozzle of the pistol. The tanks also contained pressurized
CO2 as propellant. The weapon is treated (and used) as a shotgun, and uses
light pistol ranges.
Weights: 30 Liter tanks 19 kg ( 4 kg empty)
Hose 1 kg
Pistol 2 kg
Conceal: Yeah, right Fire: SS Damage: 8MStun** Weight: 22 kg Avail:
10/10 days Cost: 1200 Street Index: 4 Legal: 2-V
** Each "shot" does "stun" damage which is resisted by Quickness or
Strength only (plus any combat pool). Accumulation of "damage" is for the
purposes of mobility restriction only, rather than anything that could
knock a character out. "Deadly" damage indicates complete lack of mobility.
The nozzles can have choke settings selected for various spreads, but in
any case the weapon only fires once per Phase. Each shot consumes 1 liter
of "goop"; the tanks hold 15 liters of goop plus 15 liters of compressed
air. A character can elect to spend a Complex action on their turn to make
another resistance test to free themselves from the goop, but it gains all
modifiers from "damage". The firer can, as per melee rules, to stage the
Power of the attack up once the Deadly threshold has been reached, to make
it more difficult to break free.
Design Notes: This weapon basically sprays a target with streamers of
high-tech epoxy. It is possible to kill someone by spraying it such that
they cannot breathe, but this would require a called shot (in this case,
the damage would be stun rather than "virtual" stun). The staging up of
power represents piling on the goop to render someone pretty immobile, such
as in the case of attacking a troll. Note that a called shot to the
pressurized airtank would have disastrous results, realistically equivalent
to several grenades (all that shrapnel) though you might just have them
take base grenade damage, staged up by Power (per the optional rules on p.
119).
Fall Down:
Another backpack device security weapon, this one fires a stream of
synthetic, nearly frictionless ethylene polymers mixed with buckyballs. The
immediate effect is to render the surface thus sprayed an extremely low
coefficient of friction (think wet ice on wet ice). Many secure minded
installations are equipped with this in sprayers so that, in an emergency,
civilians can be rendered prone and out of the possible line of fire. The
weapon is treated as an autofire weapon (except no recoil), using light
pistol ranges.
Weights: 30 Liter tanks 19 kg ( 4 kg empty)
Hose 1 kg
Pistol 2 kg
Conceal: Yeah, right Fire: FA Damage:** Weight: 22 kg Avail:
10/10 days Cost: 1200 Street Index: 4 Legal: 2-V
Each shot, using 1 liter of substance, covers a 1 meter by 1 meter surface
[to a depth of 1 mm, if you're interested]. Any person or creature standing
upon a surface covered by "Fall Down" must make a Quickness (12) test for
any movement related activities, including standing. Characters thus
rendered prone may attempt to crawl off the substance, at the rate of
Quickness/4, by making a successful Quickness (10) test; failure of this
test renders them immobile for that Combat Phase, but a new test may be
attempted on the next Initiative Pass.
Design Notes: This coats an area with nearly frictionless compound, making
movement rather chancy. If you've done any judo training ;-), you'll notice
that it is extremely hard to crawl across a mat when it is slick with
sweat, hence the rules on crawling. A GM might grant a player some sort of
luck roll to have an object not completely coated act as traction, but I
wouldn't. ;-) Same notes apply as above regarding called shots to
pressurized air tanks.
Hope you enjoy the looks of terror on players faces as they see security
guards with tanks strapped on their backs.
<evil GM laugh>
--Adam
acgetchell@*******.edu
"Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability in the opponent." --Sun Tzu
