Bruce... ([email removed]) says:
:So far the characters have not been using the RADAR (etc) to "toast" victims
:but more along the lines of temporary "short-circuiting" the targets' minds
:causing unconsciousness and vomitting and basically ruining their day.
:...
:Nobody has suggested actually building one of your "toasters", they are using
:existing equipment on existing vehicles (eg Helicopter and Jet Aircraft).
:
:What sort of effect and at what range can we expect from this standard sort of
:equipment? Obviously they're not putting out 10kW.
I'm not sure that a microwave would have this kind of effect on the brain/mind.
What happens (physically) is that the energy from the microwaves is absorbed
by some tissue (usually water or plasma) in the body. The extra energy becomes
heat. The organs most susceptible to this effect are in the endocrine system.
(Notably, no more babies. Eric--wanna help me out here?)
Confusion, uncosciousness, vomiting all sound to me like symptoms of radiation
sickness (the radioactivity kind, rather than this kind). If indeed there were
some way to know for sure that this _actually_ rather than ficitionally happens,
then we've got a good case against TV and radio stations.
As for range, it's line-of-sight. Power generally falls off as 1/r^2 where
r is the distance to the target. It is possible to be in the shadow of some
other target. Metallic objects bounce the waves around. Maybe you should
ask your GM to come up with a weapon table for you. :=)
My personal feeling is "hey-it's a game! If they're all having fun, just
make it somewhat self-consistent. (Don't let 'em change the behavior later
to suit their whims.) I have *NO* idea what a TL14 microwave saet will do
to a person's brain."
- --
Richard Johnson [email removed]
Qui custodii ipsos custodes?