Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post

John_A_Tallon · 10-27-2017, 08:57 PM

[Mod reminder: Cyrillic characters trip a LOT of our spam filters. Avoid them unless they are truly necessary. Please do not edit this post for any reason; if you need to make corrections, post a reply.]

This one isn't written to quite the same standard of rigor as the palladium glass alloy one. In particular the production rates and operating costs for the job roll are just in "good enough to game with" territory. The CO poisoning effects may also need tweaking, but they're consistent with my research into the effects of acute carbon monoxide poisoning.

Code:

TL  Type		     REF	Description
8   Polycarbonyl explosives  1.9	Carbon monoxide polymer

Polycarbonyl Explosive

In 1947 R.J. Mills' experimentation with carbon monoxide revealed that at pressures above 5.2 GPa it can form an explosive polymer which remains stable when brought back to standard atmospheric pressure. The material's metastablity was a curiosity that was largely prohibitively expensive to research further until advances in materials research made anvil presses more common in laboratories in the 1990s.

This explosive can be produced as early as TL6, but the extremely high pressure requirements impose a high cost in production equipment and limit the yield of each production run to minuscule quantities. The material is solid and yellow to dark red in appearance, and will darken and become glue-like in consistency with exposure to atmosphere. With exposure to humidity or upon being dissolved in water it develops an acrid smell identical to human vomit. Aside from heat, the only by-products of the explosive are glassy carbon and carbon dioxide. The pure material can be detonated with a laser initiator or by more traditional detonators.

The sensitivity and energy content of polycarbonyl explosive can be tweaked during the production process. With three hours of work and a successful Chemistry roll, impurities can be introduced that allow the REF of the compound to be set to any value less than 1.9. On a failed roll the REF is set to whatever the GM likes. On a critical failure the compound explodes! Impure polycarbonyl will leave traces of whatever doping agent was used.

The high price of the material is entirely because the very same presses that can make it can also make gem quality diamonds (which, being neither dangerous nor illegal, are a safer way for a press owner to make a profit). Enterprising adventurers can use Chemistry or Electronics Operation(Scientific) to operate an anvil press to make their own. On a critical failure there is a mishap that results in the press being damaged (1d x $5,000 in repairs required) or a leak of toxic gas (acute carbon monoxide poisoning: immediately roll HT-2, on a failure suffer the Seizure incapacitating condition (p. B492) for 20-HT seconds; furthermore roll each second at HT-2, on failure take 2 points of toxic damage).

Anvil presses can be purchased on the open market for $150,000 and require a steady supply of electricty and maintenance by a skilled mechanic to keep in operation. Tanks of gaseous carbon monoxide of high purity can be purchased from industrial suppliers for $60 and can provide enough gas for 8,000 grams. Alternately the gas can be generated chemically using materials worth about $1 per production run. Electricity and maintenance on the press costs $1,500 each month. This can be cut in half if the player succeeds at a Mechanic(Industrial Presses) job roll (thus making running the press their full time job).

The price of polycarbonyl at TL6 is $3,000,000 per pound. The introduction of cheaper anvil presses in TL8 like the BARS press (Беспрессовая Аппаратура высокого давления) brings the price down to $1,400,000 per pound. If produced by a business that doesn't care about the opportunity cost, the price is $3,000 per pound. Typical production runs take four hours and yield about a gram per press. One gram of polycarbonyl explosive does 1d-1 damage. One pound does 4dx4 damage.

10-27-2017, 08:57 PM	#1
John_A_Tallon Join Date: Aug 2011	Polycarbonyl Explosive: REF 1.9 at TL8 [Mod reminder: Cyrillic characters trip a LOT of our spam filters. Avoid them unless they are truly necessary. Please do not edit this post for any reason; if you need to make corrections, post a reply.] This one isn't written to quite the same standard of rigor as the palladium glass alloy one. In particular the production rates and operating costs for the job roll are just in "good enough to game with" territory. The CO poisoning effects may also need tweaking, but they're consistent with my research into the effects of acute carbon monoxide poisoning. Code: TL Type REF Description 8 Polycarbonyl explosives 1.9 Carbon monoxide polymer Polycarbonyl Explosive In 1947 R.J. Mills' experimentation with carbon monoxide revealed that at pressures above 5.2 GPa it can form an explosive polymer which remains stable when brought back to standard atmospheric pressure. The material's metastablity was a curiosity that was largely prohibitively expensive to research further until advances in materials research made anvil presses more common in laboratories in the 1990s. This explosive can be produced as early as TL6, but the extremely high pressure requirements impose a high cost in production equipment and limit the yield of each production run to minuscule quantities. The material is solid and yellow to dark red in appearance, and will darken and become glue-like in consistency with exposure to atmosphere. With exposure to humidity or upon being dissolved in water it develops an acrid smell identical to human vomit. Aside from heat, the only by-products of the explosive are glassy carbon and carbon dioxide. The pure material can be detonated with a laser initiator or by more traditional detonators. The sensitivity and energy content of polycarbonyl explosive can be tweaked during the production process. With three hours of work and a successful Chemistry roll, impurities can be introduced that allow the REF of the compound to be set to any value less than 1.9. On a failed roll the REF is set to whatever the GM likes. On a critical failure the compound explodes! Impure polycarbonyl will leave traces of whatever doping agent was used. The high price of the material is entirely because the very same presses that can make it can also make gem quality diamonds (which, being neither dangerous nor illegal, are a safer way for a press owner to make a profit). Enterprising adventurers can use Chemistry or Electronics Operation(Scientific) to operate an anvil press to make their own. On a critical failure there is a mishap that results in the press being damaged (1d x $5,000 in repairs required) or a leak of toxic gas (acute carbon monoxide poisoning: immediately roll HT-2, on a failure suffer the Seizure incapacitating condition (p. B492) for 20-HT seconds; furthermore roll each second at HT-2, on failure take 2 points of toxic damage). Anvil presses can be purchased on the open market for $150,000 and require a steady supply of electricty and maintenance by a skilled mechanic to keep in operation. Tanks of gaseous carbon monoxide of high purity can be purchased from industrial suppliers for $60 and can provide enough gas for 8,000 grams. Alternately the gas can be generated chemically using materials worth about $1 per production run. Electricity and maintenance on the press costs $1,500 each month. This can be cut in half if the player succeeds at a Mechanic(Industrial Presses) job roll (thus making running the press their full time job). The price of polycarbonyl at TL6 is $3,000,000 per pound. The introduction of cheaper anvil presses in TL8 like the BARS press (Беспрессовая Аппаратура высокого давления) brings the price down to $1,400,000 per pound. If produced by a business that doesn't care about the opportunity cost, the price is $3,000 per pound. Typical production runs take four hours and yield about a gram per press. One gram of polycarbonyl explosive does 1d-1 damage. One pound does 4dx4 damage. Last edited by Andrew Hackard; 10-28-2017 at 12:09 AM.