Well, I don't post much because I'm RUNNING the damn PBEM, but every once in
a while....
> Date: Thu, 2 Apr 92 9:38:59 MET DST
> From: [email removed]
> Subject: (3913) CHAT: Gauss Tranq
>
> Well, there isn't really any MegaT rules for tranq, just classic Traveller
> rules, and while I'd listen to the inventor of the tranq round for his idea
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
...I get an oblique reference I CAN'T ignore. You rang, Mister Jonnell? |->
> on how they works, this is how I run them in MegaT:
My article on tranq rounds for MT never made it to print before MTJ went
belly-up.... in fact, I'll bet that Issue 3 never DOES come out, primarily
because it is supposed to have the one article I DID get to them in it. |-P
However, the ideas begun in crude form in my article in JTAS and carried over
(poorly and sloppily) into MT are worth elaborating upon, and I think I'll
write an article for CHALLENGE when my thesis defense is past. Until then....
> All tranq rounds have penetration 1, attenuation 1, damage 1 and max range
> Medium. I've already talked about 'cocktail' and 'broad spectrum' tranq so I
> won't repeat that again.
This is probably an okay oversimplification. One thing I have a lot of trouble
with, though, is the idea of broad spectrum tranq. I have run, and hence the
PBEM runs, with the rule that one species' tranq is another species' poison.
A tranq made for a Vilani will work on all other humans without trouble, and
will knock out Vargr as well, but it will have no effect at all on a K'Kree,
kill a Hiver or Droyne dead in its tracks, and drive an Aslan psychotic.
This causes players to be a bit careful whom they shoot. |-\
> The damage inflicted when they hit are real physical damage (beware of
> exceptional successes!), but in addition to this they give a certain fixed
> number of extra chemical hits, one at the time. The exact number depends on
> the strength of the tranq you are using. Most non-dose-control give 2 to 4
> extra depending on the the type of weapon they are used for: Automatic weapons
> use strength 2 tranq and single shot weapons give strength 4 tranq.
> If the total damage level (physical and chemical) reduces the character to
> unconciousness he is unconcious. If it takes all his hits, he's dead.
> All chemical hits will wear off one per hour, or all at once if the victim
> is injected with a antidote (in autoinjector form).
This sort of ruling is a necessary evil. That's why I invented dose-controlled
tranq (or MCA, metabolically controlled anaesthetic, as my original article
called it) in the first place. There are alternatives, in some cases, to the
amount of physical damage done. See below.
> Dose control on the other hand are typically high strength (8 or so) but
> the chemical hits will stop to accumulate once the character is unconcious.
> It is still possible to die from the physical damage resulting from multiple
> tranq hits however.
By the time you're high-tech enough to have MCA, you're high-tech
enough to avoid this sort of thing in most cases. Instead of requiring
intramuscular injection, just mix the tranq with DMSO or something
like it and suffuse it into the bloodstream through the skin. Thus,
*I* have written up items like snub pistol or gauss weapon tranq
rounds as being capsules of this liquid, which spatters into a fine
mist on impact. If a drop gets on exposed skin, you're out cold. Even
better, but requiring a larger round like a shotgun shell or a
grenade, is tranq-gas, a fine suspension that liberally coats a danger
space of a hex or two and can work its way into any clothing that's
not air- and watertight. (Footnote: is there any interest in a standard
for grenades that are smaller than the 40mm RAM? Like a 10mm or 20mm?)
For armor, the only alternatives are non-mushrooming DS rounds with a tranq/
DMSO load in them. They get through armor, leave as small a hole as possible,
and ablate anaesthetic as they go through. I think that it would be difficult
to design a round that could get through armor yet be stopped by skin with
only a welt, and as noted above, if a person's not in airtight armor like a
combat environment suit, combat armor, or battle dress, then regular mist
rounds can do the job.
Comments?
- --
Mike Metlay
[email removed]
[address removed]