Building a 40K Radium Weapon

[Mrfyr]

So I'm trying to design a gadget-based innate attack that is based on the radium weapons used by the Skitarii in the Warhammer 40k universe.

My question is this: what is the best way to handle the radiation that is done to the user and the area immediately around them when they fire? My initial thought was to create an innate toxin attack with Radiation, Area Effect, and Emanation (suggestions for an appropriate cost for a version that does affect the user?), persistent, and resistible. Then to basically invert the cost into a disadvantage/limitation that could be added directly to the main attack or as part of a Meta-trait.

Any better suggestions?

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Mrfyr

So I'm trying to design a gadget-based innate attack that is based on the radium weapons used by the Skitarii in the Warhammer 40k universe.

My question is this: what is the best way to handle the radiation that is done to the user and the area immediately around them when they fire? My initial thought was to create an innate toxin attack with Radiation, Area Effect, and Emanation (suggestions for an appropriate cost for a version that does affect the user?), persistent, and resistible. Then to basically invert the cost into a disadvantage/limitation that could be added directly to the main attack or as part of a Meta-trait.

Any better suggestions?

How does 40k describe the radium weapons? What do they do in-universe, and what's the game effect in 40k itself?

[Mrfyr]

The weapons cause a buildup of radiation at/around the targets they are shooting, but also cause the same build-up of radiation to their wielders and their immediate vicinity each time the gun is fired.

[Aldric]

Only in W40K you find such weapons, and people eager to wield them.

I'd say just build it an an Emanation, it's doesn't matter much that the wielder is not affected by his weapon, he's going to be affected by the weapons of the rest of his team anyway, and they all probably have Terminally Ill too, should it matter.

[Jack Sawyer]

well I'm a week late to this, but as I understand the radium weapons from the codexes and such they are projectile weapons with radioactive ammunition (originally when the Skitarii were created their weapons were heavily skewed towards kinetic weapons - archaic ones at that.)

It could be irradiated material in the bullets or radiation-emitting, but it is just as likely its some kind of exploding bullet (either a mini 'dirty' nuke, or a non nuclear 'dirty' bomb)

That's my understanding of the weapon, at least.