Spacecraft radiation damage

[cunningrat]

High Guard, p. 13: "Several weapons carried by ships are capable of dealing radiation damage to the crew of a target, through the use of the Radiation trait (see page 75 of the Traveller Core Rulebook). This is simple to apply to the types of low-tonnage ship most Travellers will be using..."

It is? How do I apply it? A flat "everyone on the ship eats some Rads" seems to run counter to the range rules on p. 75 -- the RAW range would be 4 meters for a Particle barbette, or 20 with a GM call that the x5 multiplier for Starship weapons applies too. Do I need to track hit locations and where each crewman is in relation to each hit? That seems like an awful lot of work...

(Really hate the Radiation rules, just FYI.)

 

[Condottiere]

Radiation splatter?

I guess you'd have to identify exactly where the armour was penetrated, calculate the amount of radiation exuded, if radiation decreases by distance, and which unlucky ducks are within the burst zone to get exposure.

 

[cunningrat]

I guess you'd have to identify exactly where the armour was penetrated, calculate the amount of radiation exuded, if radiation decreases by distance, and which unlucky ducks are within the burst zone to get exposure.

That would seem to be what the rules would imply, yes. I don't think that qualifies as "simple", though, so I'm wondering what the High Guard author(s) might have intended, or how do other GMs handle it in their games. Given how popular Drinax is, I am sure the issue has come up in more than one game.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

For small ships, it's the entire ship.

Radiation: When a Radiation weapon is red, the target will receive 2D x 20 rads, multiplied by 5 for Spacecraft scale weapons. This effect extends from the firer, target and line of fire a distance in metres equal to the number of dice the weapon rolls for damage. If the fusion weapon is Destructive, this distance becomes ten times the number of dice rolled for damage.

1D for a spacecraft is 10D on the personal scale (Core, p157), basically it counts as Destructive. A 4D Particle Barbette would have a 40 m damage zone, i.e. the entire ship.


For larger ships it is kind of undefined. I tend to look at Radiation Shielding: Either you have it (and good Vacc Suits) and are immune, or you don't have it and are slaughtered.