[Ultra-Tech] HEMP Warheads and damage keyword

[Galaktus3000]

Hi everyone,

I have just a few questions concerning the HEMP warhead (UT-155)

1. What means the "inc" keyword just after the imp? How does it works?

2. The damage output is very high (and the price very cheap), my players want it at all cost. Have I missed something?

Thanks (and sorry for my bad English!)

Galak

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Galaktus3000

Hi everyone,

I have just a few questions concerning the HEMP warhead (UT-155)

1. What means the "inc" keyword just after the imp? How does it works?

2. The damage output is very high (and the price very cheap), my players want it at all cost. Have I missed something?

Thanks (and sorry for my bad English!)

Galak

1. "Inc" means "Incendiary". It starts fires. See p.433 of Campaigns.

2. Nope, you haven't missed anything. HEMP is the TL10 miniturization of the dominant heavy weapon type since WWII.

[Ulzgoroth]

The thing that you might have missed is that high damage is not always the highest priority. HEMP is often the best way to defeat armor, but as a payload round it strongly favors large-caliber rounds which come with worse RoF and Rcl stats.

A lot of small bullets is a lot easier to actually hit with.

Some high-powered weapons also do better with solid penetrators than HEMP, especially against advanced armors that get bonuses against HEAT/HEMP, but that's uncommon for conventional guns.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

2. Nope, you haven't missed anything. HEMP is the TL10 miniturization of the dominant heavy weapon type since WWII.

Well, the dominant antitank payload type. Many heavy weapons are not anti-tank or not payload rounds.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

The thing that you might have missed is that high damage is not always the highest priority. HEMP is often the best way to defeat armor, but as a payload round it strongly favors large-caliber rounds which come with worse RoF and Rcl stats.

A lot of small bullets is a lot easier to actually hit with.

Some high-powered weapons also do better with solid penetrators than HEMP, especially against advanced armors that get bonuses against HEAT/HEMP, but that's uncommon for conventional guns.

Well, the dominant antitank payload type. Many heavy weapons are not anti-tank or not payload rounds.

This is all true. Consider the 10mm Portable Railgun, which does 3dx5(3) pi+, which is definitely a better damage value than a 10mm HEMP round. You run into a similar problem when you use ETC or ETK rounds, where a solid round > HEMP. Or, put a different way, the original UT run assumed ridiculous damage on all (slugthrower) fronts.

I'm also not sure how physically accurate it is. I understand that a lot of numbers in UT were arbitrarily decided upon to match values in the basic book. The armor design systems that you can find in Pyramid articles seem to confirm this. We don't really have an official UT slugthrower design system to confirm any of this; if we did, I don't know what HEMP would look like in that case.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Well, the dominant antitank payload type. Many heavy weapons are not anti-tank or not payload rounds.

"Dominant" doesn't mean "only".

Between shoulder-fired rpgs (including but not limited to the _extremely_ common RPG-7), actual guided missiles (land and air-launched) , direct-fire gun rounds, indirect-fire howitzer rounds and air-dropped cluster rounds HEAT makes up a plurality of all heavy weapons.

Moreover, HEAT is a technology that dominates the possibilities of modern weapons. While improved materials make personal armor better than ever HEAT strongly limits the usefulness of vehicular armor. There's is an extremely strong imbalance in the costs of heavy armor and weapons capable of penetrating said armor.

The arrival of HEMP presents the possibility of limiting the usefulness of improved personal armor (and battlesuits) as well. While other (much heavier) weapons might marginally exceed 10mm HEMP look at the performance of 15mm which can be used in the derringer-sized Holdout Gyroc or 18.5mm for the Gauss Shotgun Pistol.

Anyway, the desirability of HEMP to the OP's players mimics its' desirability to many other actors in UT settings.

[Galaktus3000]

Thank you for your replies!

I’m new to GURPS, now I really see how the system is lethal in the SF genre. If my players can find HEMP rounds, the bad guys too...

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Galaktus3000

Thank you for your replies!

I’m new to GURPS, now I really see how the system is lethal in the SF genre. If my players can find HEMP rounds, the bad guys too...

It tends to be quite lethal anyway. The (generally legal) Gauss Shotgun Pistol does a base 8D P++ with simple Solid ammo.

[Rupert]

In my experience the baseline weapon at TL10 against which all other small arms should be compared is the Laser Rifle. With its very high Acc, excellent Rcl, good rate of fire, and large magazine capacity unless you have more than DR40 vs laser fire all over they'll mess you up (and if they're good or have plenty of aim time, you'll need more because they'll aim at armour chinks unless the GM rules UT complete suits to be immune to such tricks - which I don't recommend doing). Slap an underbarrel 40mm grenade launcher on for those targets that need a bit of HE or HEMP love, and you're set for most situations.

Some other weapons are better in certain circumstances, but at TL10 the laser rifle really is as excellent all-round weapon.

When considering handguns, much of this also applies to the heavy laser pistol.

[VariousRen]

Originally Posted by Galaktus3000

Hi everyone,

I have just a few questions concerning the HEMP warhead (UT-155)

1. What means the "inc" keyword just after the imp? How does it works?

2. The damage output is very high (and the price very cheap), my players want it at all cost. Have I missed something?

Thanks (and sorry for my bad English!)

Galak

One thing to note with HEMP is that it's also LC 1. That means it's generally restricted to military personnel in the same way a mounted heavy machine gun would be. Actually getting some of these rounds is going to be difficult unless the player is working for some sort of military group (at which point you're also worried about other people showing up in tanks and distant artillery strikes).

For a game centered around civilians (I'm setting up a TL10 space trader game myself) HEMP makes a good tech-magic reward to give out to players. They can't just go down to the store and buy more rounds, but finding a small reserve lets them take on bigger threats while expending limited resources.

[Galaktus3000]

Originally Posted by VariousRen

One thing to note with HEMP is that it's also LC 1. That means it's generally restricted to military personnel in the same way a mounted heavy machine gun would be. Actually getting some of these rounds is going to be difficult unless the player is working for some sort of military group (at which point you're also worried about other people showing up in tanks and distant artillery strikes).

For a game centered around civilians (I'm setting up a TL10 space trader game myself) HEMP makes a good tech-magic reward to give out to players. They can't just go down to the store and buy more rounds, but finding a small reserve lets them take on bigger threats while expending limited resources.

My players play important characters in a huge and rich corporation (cyberbunk/space op genre TL10, some 11). They have a lot of contacts in the black market, end even our neogorilla has specialized in armorer (personal weapons and ammunition).It wiil be hard for me to temporize. So...LC1 or not :)