Radiation

GhengisRexx

Mongoose
I just converted the Harrier from Pirates of Drinax and had a couple observations related to radiation. First, semantics. Most of the references in the rules regarding radiation and shielding refer to meson weapons, but do not mention particle accelerators which also are a source of radiation damage. Second, against an unshielded ship radiation damage will incapacitate the crew very quickly, 200-1200 rads, -500 for the ship armor (about 2d radiation damage to the crew every hit, on average rolls.) I can see this damage affecting the entire crew on a small ship, but what about bigger ships. Maybe (100/tonnage )*100% of the crew is affected by radiation from a turret/barbette hit with radiation?

Seeing how deadly the Harrier will be, I looked at defenses vs radiation. Does radiation shielding reduce rads by an Additional 1000 rads, resulting in -1500 rads? If this is so, shielded ships are immune to radiation weapons. If the Radiation Shielding does indeed result in 1500 rad reduction, then perhaps a lower priced option with less shielding might be worth adding.

If the total protection is increased TO 1000, the ship is nearly immune, but not totally. (A preferable mechanic, IMHO)
 
Question has been asked a few times :) Currently open to interpretation... 1000 is almost immune, 1500 is immune - so there is a little difference :)
 
Thanks for the response. That works well.


What about the other question? If a ship takes radiation damage, how much of the crew is affected? On a small ship it seems logical that it would be the whole crew, but if I shoot a 10,000T freighter with a particle accelerator, I don't think I am going to irradiate the whole crew. I suspect that a hit with any radiation causing weapon would be terrifying for the crew and quite likely to be devastating to morale.
 
Crew casualties are something we will take a look at on fleet level (and will abstract out). Against big ships, I would say they can be effectively ignored due to redundancy...
 
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