05-13-2022, 08:28 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Spaceships] rad weapons and radioactive cargo
This line pretty much eliminates any possible issues. Secondary radiation is going to be things like fast electrons and hard X-rays. Nothing that would affect uranium nuclei.
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Fred Brackin |
05-14-2022, 12:57 AM | #22 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Spaceships] rad weapons and radioactive cargo
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
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05-14-2022, 02:55 AM | #23 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Spaceships] rad weapons and radioactive cargo
Well, it does have a low rate of spontaneous fission, which is why a critical mass will self-ignite.
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05-15-2022, 12:43 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: [Spaceships] rad weapons and radioactive cargo
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I take back everything I said about extra PF from shipping containers and inherent ship safety systems to mitigate accidents. If nobody involved in the shipping process has useful skills like Freight Handling or Hazardous Materials, or thought to use them, then the PCs deserve every bit of what's coming next. Treating the combined cargo as Volatile is definitely the way to go. Assume that the energy from the particle beams will heat the cargo and that primary or secondary explosions will tear open at least one of the containers. That fills the cargo hold with white hot uranium dust and packing materials. In an inert environment or vacuum, the bad stuff might stop there. In an atmosphere, you've got Chernobyl in space. Vaporized carbon control rods or pellets might have the same effects as a dust explosion if they meet up with an oxygen atmosphere. Unless they are very lucky, your merry band of ultratech murder hobos might end up irradiating a significant volume of space, turning their ship into a high level radioactive waste site, and quite possibly dying slow and gruesome deaths from neurovascular Acute Radiation Syndrome. Depending on how much bad stuff you want the characters to suffer, the kindest course of action might be for multiple mutually hostile ships to show up, giving the PCs a chance to escape in the confusion before things get too hot and glowy. |
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05-18-2022, 11:13 AM | #25 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Spaceships] rad weapons and radioactive cargo
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GURPS Overhaul |
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05-18-2022, 11:57 AM | #26 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: [Spaceships] rad weapons and radioactive cargo
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The entire 50 ton mass probably takes up about 4 cubic yards or 1% of the smuggling hold (which is ~5% of the ship volume), so even if the ship got hit, it's pretty unlikely that the uranium would get hit. As it happened, when the pirate starfighters attacked, the ship's engineer engaged in EW to fool their sensors while the astrogator plotted an evasive course and their attacks missed. However, the ship's RF laser batteries didn't miss, and while none of the hits at 1/2d range individually did enough damage to destroy a system, the totality of penetrating damage was enough to put 2 starfighters at -1xHP and the other almost at the point. 1 Starfighter failed the HT check followed by it's anti-matter power plant losing containment before the SCRAM systems could activate and turned into a ball of energy and hard radiation. The other two decided that evasive maneuvers and retreats were the order of the day, and their mothership decided to go about it's business someplace else. So much ado about nothing but still interesting to think about.
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Read my GURPS blog: http://noschoolgrognard.blogspot.com Last edited by mlangsdorf; 06-20-2023 at 05:33 PM. |
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Tags |
smuggling, uranium |
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