[High-Tech] [Ultra-Tech] Ultra-Tech style write-ups of TL5-8 ammo

[Rupert]

When it comes to warhead fillers, once you have a powerful enough explosive to get the desired fragmentation what matters are ease of manufacture, stability, and expense (and the first two have a strong influence on the last factor). Making a bigger bang when the primary effect of the warhead is from the fragments isn't a high priority at all. This is easy to lose sight of if you've been playing heroic action games at TL7-8, or TL9+ games with good body armour available, because in these games the main danger to the PCs is blast from direct hits and near-misses when it comes to HE/frag shells, but for the real world and lower point level and low DR characters this is not the case (though GURPS' fragment rules could do with a way of giving bigger shells' fragments more reach).

[Michael Thayne]

Okay, one oddity I noticed: in High-Tech, a 40mm grenade launcher round can create a smoke or tear gas cloud with a radius of 7 yards. In Ultra-Tech it would only have a radius for 4 yards. I think if I were mixing TL9 tech with lower tech levels I'd use the Ultra-Tech rules throughout.

As for what you put in those "biochemical aerosol" warheads, of the TL9 options, smoke and nerve gas appear to be wholly realistic, while the musk and riot gas a bit better than what's available at lower TLs. The "sleep gas", however, is vastly better than what's available at lower TLs, insofar as it carries no risk of overdose. The reality of attempts to create a safe "sleep gas" are much grimmer, to the point that a totally safe "sleep gas" seems out of place even at TL9 (unless you're going for a superhero/James Bond vibe). Another note, AFAICT the tear gas described in High-Tech should be fairly cheap relative to many of the gasses in Ultra-Tech—no more than $0.50/dose, maybe as little as $0.10/dose (between $4 and $20 to load a 40mm grenade).

[Rupert]

As far as I'm concerned, the gasses in UT have their effects, and lack of side-effects, etc., when they are used in well-ventilated spaces. Pop a sleep gas round into a small compartment with the air circulation off, and you'll probably have a medical emergency on your hands.

[Michael Thayne]

One thing that hasn't been addressed yet is missile performance. Real world missiles have a lot more variety than contained in Ultra-Tech depending on their precise purpose, but for something quick and dirty using the launchers in Ultra-Tech with half kinetic kill damage and half range probably gives vaguely reasonable results.