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Old 09-15-2015, 01:50 PM   #1
Koningkrush
 
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Default Radiation Rules Confusion

I'm just confused as to when rolls are made. Is a roll only done at the end of a day, or is it immediately done the moment someone takes in at least one rad?

Joe sips a cup of tea inside of a reactor all day starting at 12 P.M. He takes in 0.1 rads a second until 12 A.M.

Does Joe roll on the table immediately after 10 seconds using accumulated rads of 1?
From the way I'm reading the rules, Joe would also have to make a second roll if he stays in the reactor for another 10 seconds after it hits 12 A.M. (since only one roll is made per day) with accumulated rads of 4321.
But, what if he books it out of the reactor right before it hits 12 A.M.? Does he not have to ever roll for those 4320 rads until he one day absorbs an additional rad?

Also, what defines a dose? would his entire "Dose" be 4320 rads? Or would there be 43200 one second doses of 0.1 rads?

The rules in the book seem very compacted and I'm hoping that someone can explain it in a easy way with maybe some examples.

Last edited by Koningkrush; 09-15-2015 at 02:02 PM.
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Old 09-15-2015, 02:10 PM   #2
trooper6
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Default Re: Radiation Rules Confusion

B435 Says, "Whenever a character is exposed to radiation, the GM should note both the dose and the date. Each dose diminishes separately from all others; it starts to heal after 30 days, at the rate of 10 rads per day. However, 10% of the original dose never heals (except via ultra-tech, magic, etc.).
Example: A reactor technician spends a day in a “hot” environment and receives a 200-rad dose. After 30 days, that particular dose starts to heal at 10 rads/day. After another 18 days, the remaining dose is 20 rads – 10% of 200 rads – and stops healing."

This implies the unit of measurement is by Exposure (only one roll a day)

So, your guy sitting in the rector? The above implies you get one roll per "exposure," max one per day.

So here is what I'd do.

Joe decides to sip a cup of tea all day. That day represents 1 Exposure.

At the end of that day (regardless of if he leaves right before midnight, or if he stays in),
I note down: Monday Jan 1, Exposure: 4320 rads.
Then I make him roll -5 HT on the Radiation Effects Table. He is probably going to die really soon. He is definitely now permanently sterile and blind.

If he desides to say another 10 seconds after midnight for another rad and then leave the reactor I note down: Tuesday Jan 2, Exposure: 1 rad.
And he has to roll again. It doesn't really matter because he probably is already suffering from Rapid cerebrovascular death from the last roll...and that is the most serious thing you can get. But I'd still note it...in case some how he is able to survive a while for healing to happen.
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Old 09-15-2015, 02:30 PM   #3
Koningkrush
 
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Default Re: Radiation Rules Confusion

Do you roll each day for each separate exposure, or do you add up all the exposures for one single roll each day?
Also, do you only roll once for an exposure, or do you subtract 10 each day and continuously roll for that exposure until it's at safe levels? If you keep rolling, does that mean having a 10 rad exposure means you will have to roll every day for the rest of your life for a 1 rad dose since you cannot heal under 10%?

Last edited by Koningkrush; 09-15-2015 at 02:33 PM.
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Old 09-15-2015, 02:58 PM   #4
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: Radiation Rules Confusion

Quote:
Originally Posted by Koningkrush View Post
Do you roll each day for each separate exposure, or do you add up all the exposures for one single roll each day?
Also, do you only roll once for an exposure, or do you subtract 10 each day and continuously roll for that exposure until it's at safe levels? If you keep rolling, does that mean having a 10 rad exposure means you will have to roll every day for the rest of your life for a 1 rad dose since you cannot heal under 10%?
You add up all the exposures and roll once per day.

You also roll only once per exposure. You don't roll just for having unhealed rads.
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Old 09-15-2015, 03:55 PM   #5
trooper6
 
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Default Re: Radiation Rules Confusion

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
You add up all the exposures and roll once per day.

You also roll only once per exposure. You don't roll just for having unhealed rads.
Indeed, also, looking at the rules, it doesn't look like healing those rads stops the effects you've rolled on the table, that is irreversible and follows the rules on the table.

So for example. Let's say there is a reactor meltdown. Joe rushes in 4 times to save people in the reactor. Each time he rushes in he gets exposed to 100 rads.

So the GM writes down somewhere:

Joe Radiation Record:
Jan 1, 1980
Dose 1: 100 rads
Dose 2: 100 rads
Dose 3: 100 rads
Dose 4: 100 rads
Accumulated Rads: 400

At the end of the day Joe has to roll on the Radiation Effects table for his accumulated rads, which is 400.

Let's note that Joe has ST 13, IQ 10, DX 12, HT 14

He rolls HT-4. Let's say that the roll is a success...So: B on the table, Hematopoietic syndrome.
This says that After HT hours, 14 hours he is nauseated for 26 hours, he loses 1d from DX, IQ, and FP, and he has Hemophilia. He also suffers from A: Radiation burns and chronic "somatic" damage as a fun bonus, so he gets 1d injury and and gains the Low Pain Threshhold disad for one week.

I roll 1 for the penalty to DX, 5 for the penalty to IQ, 2 for the penalty for FP. I also roll 3 for the HP damage.

End of Day 1 Status: HP -3, FP -2, DX -1, IQ -5, Nauseated, Low Pain Threshold, Hemophiliac, 400 accumulated rads

Let's say Joe goes to the hospital after the heroic day in the reactor, His doctor has a Physician skill of 14.
So this is where he is at the start of Jan 2. There are now two different processes to track. Healing from Hematopoietic syndrome and Radiation burns and chronic "somatic" damage is one track; Healing the accumulated rads is a second track.

Day 2:
Joe Rolls on his HT +1 for the physician for Natural Healing. He rolls a 14. The he recovers 1HP. The physician rolls his skill and rolls a 13. Joe gets recovers another HP.
Joe is still nauseated. He rolls HT-4 for his hematopoietic syndrome, and rolls a 12...a failure...and he doesn't improve.
He doesn't yet heal any accumulated rads.

End of Day 2 Status: HP -1, FP -2, DX -1, IQ -5, Nauseated, Low Pain Threshold, Hemophiliac, 400 accumulated rads

Day 3:
Joe Rolls on this HT+1 for Natural Healing: and rolls a 17 a failure! But the Physician is successful in his roll and Joe has healed all of his damage. This means he no longer has Low Pain Threshold. This also means, since he recovered from the radiation burns and chronic somatic damage, he much make two HT-4 rolls for sterility and Terminally Ill. He rolls a 15 for the first one, so Joe is now sterile (this will never be healed). He rolls an 8 for the second roll so he doesn't gain the Terminally Ill disad.
He also rolls an 8 to recover from hematopoietic syndrome and recovers 1pt in DX, IQ, and FP. He is no longer nauseated.
He doesn't yet heal any accumulated rads.

End of Day 3 Status: FP -1, IQ -4, Hemophiliac, 400 accumulated rads

Day 4. Joe doesn't have any HP damage to heal...but he is still suffering he stays in the hospital a bit longer.
He also rolls a 10 to recover from hematopoietic syndrome and recovers 1pt in IQ, and FP.
He doesn't yet heal any accumulated rads.

End of Day 4 Status: IQ -3, Hemophiliac, 400 accumulated rads

Day 5. Joe decides he is feeling good enough to leave...plus he needs to continue adventuring and stop Dr. Atomic. So he rejoins the party and they do adventuring stuff.

He also rolls a 12 to recover from hematopoietic syndrome, which is a failure and recovers nothing.
He doesn't yet heal any accumulated rads.

End of Day 5 Status: IQ -3, Hemophiliac, 400 accumulated rads

Day 6
He also rolls an 8 to recover from hematopoietic syndrome, which is a success and recovers 1pt of IQ.
He doesn't yet heal any accumulated rads.

End of Day 6 Status: IQ -2, Hemophiliac, 400 accumulated rads

Day 7
He rolls a Critical Success to recover from hematopoietic syndrome and recovers 2pts of IQ! He is completely healed and is no longer Hemophiliac. He still has 400 accumulated rads and he will be sterile for the rest of his life.

Day 31.
He heals 10 rads from each dose.
So the GM notes:
Joe Radiation Record:
Jan 1, 1980
Dose 1: 100 rads--Now: 90
Dose 2: 100 rads--Now: 90
Dose 3: 100 rads--Now: 90
Dose 4: 100 rads--Now: 90
Accumulated Rads: 360

On Day 32, Joe heals another 40 rads and has an accumulated rad level of 320. He knows that he is going to go into a battle with Dr. Atomic and so he puts on a Biohazard Suit (Protection Factor of 2.5) and takes a dose of some anti radiation drugs. Then he infiltrates Dr. Atomic's lair!

They have a big fight. Dr. Atomic has a Radiation Run that does 1000rads of damage per blast. The gun hits Joe twice (2 Doses) before Joe is able to take down Dr. Atomic for good with a well placed punch to the jaw.

So, the Environmental suit divides each blast by 2.5. So the two blasts are now worth 400 rads of exposure each. His anti-radiation drugs cut that in half again. So he takes two doses of 200 rads each.

This add to his total doses so we get:

Joe Radiation Record:
Jan 1, 1980
Dose 1: 100 rads--Now: 80
Dose 2: 100 rads--Now: 80
Dose 3: 100 rads--Now: 80
Dose 4: 100 rads--Now: 80
Feb 1, 1980:
Dose 5: 200 rads
Dose 6: 200 rads
Accumulated Rads: 720

So at the end of the day, Joe has to roll on the Radiation Effects table because he had a new exposure. With a total of 760 accumulated rads he rolls on the 161-800 rads entry (good thing he healed some rads and took precautions!)

He rolls an eleven...which fails HT-4.

So what happens?
1) He goes blind for 1d months because he took a single dose of 200+ rads. I rolled a 1, he is blind for one month.
Since I rolled C, Gastrointestinal syndrome, Joe gets all the effects he had before, but now worse symptoms are going to start cropping up. In 1d/2 (I rolled a 4, so 2 weeks), Joe loses all of his body hair and must make daily HT rolls. A crit failure will result in 1d puts injury, a failure in 2 puts injury...a success means nothing bad happens to you that day...and if you get a critical success you stop having to make daily damage roll and and start making recovery rolls to heal.
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Old 09-15-2015, 03:59 PM   #6
malloyd
 
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Default Re: Radiation Rules Confusion

It works just like any other injury, it's just measured in something other than hit points. You add it them up, and then at some convenient point of down time you'd make the roll for the long term effects, in more or less the same way you would to add up damage to a limb and make the roll to see if a crippling injury was lasting.

I suppose if you don't leave the irradiated area to provide a convenient moment of downtime analogous to the combat being over, I'd probably roll every day when you went to sleep or something.

Honestly these days I'm inclined to think it would have been better to go for less realism, use hit points of Toxic damage, and trigger any special bad effects on failed HT rolls at d n x HP thresholds instead.
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Old 09-15-2015, 04:01 PM   #7
trooper6
 
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Default Re: Radiation Rules Confusion

Now, I could see a house rule that would take a bit more attention to detail but might be cool.

The first effects of radiation happens HT hours after exposure...so, rather than rolling once at the end of the say, I might note the time of the first exposure and roll after HT hours rather than at the end of the day (still keeping the one roll per day max).

So if Joe has HT10 and sits down at the reactor for tea starting at noon. I might assess his accumulated rads at 10pm and make him roll then for what he has accumulated. And count that as the dose.

If he stayed another two hours leaving right before midnight, I'd count that as a second exposure and have him roll 10 hours after that exposure (which would be the next day).
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Old 09-22-2015, 01:44 PM   #8
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: Radiation Rules Confusion

You know, between radiation and debates we have had before about poisons, malnutrition and diseases, I think there might be a more general issue in here. GURPS doesn't seem to do a really good job of handling what I guess you might call metabolic damage - stuff that isn't an obvious wound, but isn't short term exhaustion either, and I can't immediately think of a game that is a lot better at it.

I wonder if there shouldn't actually be a third tally, independent of either hit points or fatigue. Are there any games that have tried some sort of long term non-wound damage mechanic? I guess there are some traces in some games attempts at an aging system, which does seem like it ought to be related to the same subsystem.
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Old 09-22-2015, 02:12 PM   #9
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: Radiation Rules Confusion

Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Are there any games that have tried some sort of long term non-wound damage mechanic?
Attribute draining, particularly the equivalent of HT / Constitution / etc.
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Old 09-22-2015, 02:18 PM   #10
Barghaest
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Default Re: Radiation Rules Confusion

Quote:
Originally Posted by Koningkrush View Post
I'm just confused as to when rolls are made. Is a roll only done at the end of a day, or is it immediately done the moment someone takes in at least one rad?

Joe sips a cup of tea inside of a reactor all day starting at 12 P.M. He takes in 0.1 rads a second until 12 A.M.

Does Joe roll on the table immediately after 10 seconds using accumulated rads of 1?
From the way I'm reading the rules, Joe would also have to make a second roll if he stays in the reactor for another 10 seconds after it hits 12 A.M. (since only one roll is made per day) with accumulated rads of 4321.
But, what if he books it out of the reactor right before it hits 12 A.M.? Does he not have to ever roll for those 4320 rads until he one day absorbs an additional rad?

Also, what defines a dose? would his entire "Dose" be 4320 rads? Or would there be 43200 one second doses of 0.1 rads?

The rules in the book seem very compacted and I'm hoping that someone can explain it in a easy way with maybe some examples.
Technically it would be limited by the "one roll per day for continued exposure". In a situation like this when the roll happens depends on situation. If he's got some sort of radiation alarm somewhere in the room it'd warn him of the dosage he's taking otherwise I'd probably allow IQ (perhaps at IQ-3 to IQ-5) rolls for him to notice he's feeling "off" at points in the day (say one after 11 rads , again after 21 rads, one with a +3 bonus at 81 rads and finally one at a +5 after 801 rads) and if he passes those he might end up leaving the room.

Whenever he leaves the area of exposure (due to noticing the danger, going to use the bathroom or out to fetch more tea) that would end that exposure and be his accumulated dose for the HT roll. If he spends time outside the exposure area and returns, it would start a new dose (and thus be exempt from the "one roll per day for continuous exposure" since it's a NEW exposure and the process starts over).

If Joe were unconscious or locked into the reactor (or simply unwilling to leave the area)... then his exposure roll would happen when the day ends (determination is up the GM whether this is 24hrs from beginning of exposure or at midnight each day) if he is unable to leave the area prior to that. At that rate of exposure, he's pretty much dead whether he gets a critical success on his roll or not.
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