GURPS Disasters: Meltdown and Fallout

[Arcanjo7Sagi]

Thread necromancer! *Evil Laugh*

A question:

In page 11, it says:

Radiation is a “Rare” hazard and is included in the category of Metabolic Hazards. This advantage adds to or removes the need for HT rolls against radiation damage (see Radiation, pp. B435-436).

Immunity removes the need for most HT rolls, though even that does not give total protection: For 21-800 rads, apply class A effects. For 801-4,000 rads, apply class B. For 4,000+ rads, apply class C. (See the Radiation Effects Table, p. B436, for details on results.)

Resistant and Immunity do nothing against effects which are not resisted by HT rolls, such as being cooked by extreme heat or embrittled by neutron bombardment (see Radiation Damage to Exotic People, p. 16).

What rolls exactly does he ignore? Even in A, B or C cenario, still has HT rolls for damage, attribute penalties, etc. Just to be clear.

[Celti]

Originally Posted by Arcanjo7Sagi

What rolls exactly does he ignore? Even in A, B or C cenario, still has HT rolls for damage, attribute penalties, etc. Just to be clear.

You're ignoring the HT roll that references the Radiation Effects Table, and treating it as something slightly better than an automatic critical success; normally, even at 21+ rads there is a chance of suffering class D effects (i.e., slow and torturous death) on a critical failure!

If you want to be immune to the rolls within the various effect categories, take full-blown Immunity to Metabolic Hazards.

[Arcanjo7Sagi]

Originally Posted by Celti

You're ignoring the HT roll that references the Radiation Effects Table, and treating it as something slightly better than an automatic critical success; normally, even at 21+ rads there is a chance of suffering class D effects (i.e., slow and torturous death) on a critical failure!

If you want to be immune to the rolls within the various effect categories, take full-blown Immunity to Metabolic Hazards.

It's not clear that Immunity to Metabolic Hazards makes you better at dealint whith radiation per se, unless you have the Machine meta-trait. Immunity to Radiation is included in Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, so, as far I can see it, unless you are a machine, an undead or something similar, you still suffer some radiation effects. In that way the Radiation Tolerance advantage would still be useful.

I ask this question thinking about the following situation: a transhuman character who has a metabolism so fast and efficient that he can recover from metabolic hazards almost immediately. This particular character in the current draft has Immunity to Metabolic Hazards (witch Switchable), Metabolism Control 5 with Maestry (to also represent the rapid metabolic adjustment) and Regeneration (Regular) with Heals Radiation. I am in doubt if I keep IMH or if I dismember this in several distinct advantages, like Immunity to Diseases, Immunity To Poison and Immunity to Radiation (although this way it can be more expensive than IMH alone).

PS: My concern is not about the final cost of the template, but to make the template within the concept, regardless of the cost.


PS2: About the Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, Krom says that:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Noxious effects only, defined as being ones that cause afflictions (pp. B428-429 and temporary disadvantages), FP loss, and/or HP loss. If some miracle drug cures cancer, grants 10 bonus HP, and gives you Mind Reading, but also lowers your ST to 1 and causes Paranoia, you simply don't suffer the ST loss or Paranoia. When ItMH occurs as part of the Machine meta-trait, of course, none of the effects apply, as "machine" is a different metabolism from "meat." Meta-traits can shift your entire class of being as a zero-cost feature, and this tends to be a red herring when trying to decipher ItMH. Nearly all metabolic hazards target a specific class of metabolisms by default; you can be immune to one for a different metabolism at zero cost. For instance, I've never experienced ill health effects from computer viruses.

Because of this post by Kromm, I thought that even with Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, a biological character would still suffer from some radiation effect, like those in Immunity to Radiation description in GURPS Disasters: Meltdown and Fallout page 11.

PS3: I don't know if it's relevant, but here's another Krom's post, about having Immunity to Metabolic Hazards and Radiation Tolerance:

Originally Posted by Kromm

You need it either way. Radiation is a "direct, physical attack" -- build it as an Innate Attack with the Radiation damage modifier (p. B105) -- and Resistant, and hence Immunity, don't affect such attacks. OTOH, if you're Diffuse or Homogenous (see Injury Tolerance, p. B60), you probably don't care.