Salt Slugs (of the non-animal variety)

[Vargr]

I was checking shotguns and their different types of ammo and remembered something I read/heard in stories but that I am not sure is not apocryphical.

Salt Slugs. Shotgun slugs that are filled with salt (of the coarse variety).

According to legend these things don't kill, but hurt like hell; and were used for things like riot control or fending off animals.

As anyone ever heard of this? if so, what do you think the stats should be for these slugs in MGT?

 

[Duroon]

Not sure how to stat something like this but I have heard of them (it helps that I grew up in an area that had a lot of farms). Farmers used to refill shotgun shells with rock salt to chase off vermin (sometimes the two legged variety). If you have ever spilled salt on an open cut you know why they would do this sort of thing, it hurts like hell. The salt will penetrate the skin and then dissolve into the wound. Stings like a sonofabi*** ! A good set of cloth armor would keep this sort of ammo from doing squat though.

 

[AndrewW]

A good set of cloth armor would keep this sort of ammo from doing squat though.

Not if it hits an area not protected by the armor.

 

[rust]

As anyone ever heard of this? if so, what do you think the stats should be for these slugs in MGT?

I think according to the Central Supply Catalog this would be chemical
ammunition, and treated like this:

"Poison and Tranqu rounds use the Chemical Attack rules if they pene-
trate the target - rounds stopped by armour obviously do not deliver
their payload. Chemical rounds have ST characteristics."

The effect of the "poison" (= salt) would be to cause immense pain.

 

[BP]

...
The effect of the "poison" (= salt) would be to cause immense pain.

And high blood pressure :lol:

 

[alex_greene]

Just rule that salt shot does regular damage, but instead of rolling the dice and applying that number as damage, the slug just does minimum damage automatically. Hell, just state that the slug does 1 point of damage, tops. That's enough to deter most critters.

It wouldn't do more than enrage bear-sized or moose-sized critters, and against humanoids it'd hurt like hell, but it's not likely to kill a human target unless the muzzle of the shotgun's in the target's mouth.

 

[Vargr]

The effect of the "poison" (= salt) would be to cause immense pain.

Sounds like a good approach. How do you figure this effect would translate in game terms? Maybe temporarily stunning the target using the stun pistol mechanic? And a negative DM to physical actions after that until the pain subsides?

 

[rust]

Sounds like a good approach. How do you figure this effect would translate in game terms? Maybe temporarily stunning the target using the stun pistol mechanic? And a negative DM to physical actions after that until the pain subsides?

I think I would treat it as a negative DM to all actions until the victim has
found a way to get rid of the salt (e.g. taken a shower or bath, applied
some medical treatment, etc.) or a certain time has passed, for example
15 minutes.

 

[The Chef]

Kill Bill Vol2

 

[lastbesthope]

Kill Bill Vol2

"A View to a Kill" long before that.

LBH

 

[Rex]

Bah, having been on the receiving end of these I can say, Not a chemical weapon. I'd write up the damage, as temp stuff, or something like a Stunner.

Even bundled up, it HURTS a lot, and can KO you if your a Wuss, otherwise you can gimp away to nurse the nastiest rash you've ever had in your life on top of bruises like being hit with a sledge hammer.

If it hits skin, kiss it good bye that stuff's worse then being sandblasted. Probably won't kill you unless it's point blank in the face (remember, even BLANKS can and have killed people), but it can certainly make you wish you got hit with real buck shot.

~Rex

 

[Vargr]

Bah, having been on the receiving end of these I can say...

Wow, first hand experience! Do you mind if I ask the specifics of said event? How did you find yourself on the receiving end of one of these?

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

That's certainly intriguing... I've been stabbed twice (both times by my idiot brother*—which oddly didn't hurt, at least at first), but as we don't have guns here in the UK, it would be interesting.

*Mind you he did also manage to cut off his own thumb tip, which he had sown on again—like I said, an idiot.

 

[Galadrion]

Never had personal experience with salt (though some of my school cohort did - country life ain't all bucolic and innocent-like), but I did have a run-in with another type of home-brew non-lethal shotgun load: flour.

Common kitchen baking flour.

It packs into a fairly nice shotgun load, basically comes out of the muzzle as a solid slug (and a nice cloud of blasted-loose flour that flames really spectacularly - look up "grain silo explosion" some time) and stays solid... right up until it hits you. Then it disintegrates... right after conforming precisely to whatever surface it hits and dumping the entire kinetic energy bundle into it. The ORIGINAL "bean-bag" stun round - accept no substitutes! (Believe me, it's no fun for a thirteen-year-old to catch one of these - but it's also relatively harmless, except in that it can knock you around rather... firmly. Watch which part of you gets knocked around, and what you get knocked into.)

 

[rust]

This reminds me of the "trick ammunition" used by some stage magi-
cians. The projectiles look exactly like normal ones, but disintegrate
harmlessly in flight or on impact, and the magician then shows "the
bullet he caught with his teeth or fingers". There once was a nasty in-
cident where such a magician had angered his female assistant enough
to change the composition of the projectiles she prepared for the show
slightly, resulting in a lightly wounded and heavily shocked magician.

 

[Rex]

Bah, having been on the receiving end of these I can say...

Wow, first hand experience! Do you mind if I ask the specifics of said event? How did you find yourself on the receiving end of one of these?

One of those "Get off My Lawn!" situations. The Flour round others brought up is better for knocking people on their backside though.

~Rex

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

True, but it doesn't HURT as much. Pain is a GREAT deterent...

 

[Galadrion]

As I said, it depends on what you get knocked in to - as an example, poison oak would be no fun at all... And even without that, a shotgun-strength punch, even with no penetration, still hurts. Just doesn't do any direct damage worth worrying about.

Edit: unless it lands directly over the spleen or kidneys or on the face, neck, or head, or...