RE: [OT] oddball enrivonment questions

From: ~ On Behalf Of Tomb
Sent: 18 February 2002 20:46
Subject: [OT] oddball enrivonment questions

> 1) Running a scenario at ECC - low-G, no-atmosphere asteroid.
>    FMAS. 1"/2m. 

> 2) All combatants will be wearing powered combat armour 
>    (Battle Dress). Fast, with enhanced strength and sensors. 

I'll assume you use the term to indicate the old Traveller armour,
which for list members unfamiliar with the game "consists of a
complete vacuum-suit-like array of metal, synthetic and electronic
armour". I always took this to mean the character ended up looking
like an SW Stormtrooper.

Are you sure you want to make the forces that tough? You could
have far more fun (low calibre rounds and melee weapons) with
soft suits, but maybe that's just my old Paranoia GameMaster
tendancies rising to the bait.

> Queries:

> 1) Effects of (both hand and rifle) grenades in low-G, Zero Atm.
>    (both frag and explosive). Do they work?

A fragmentation grenade will work as well as it ever did against
Battle Dress, which to my mind should mean unlikely to be effective.
What do you mean by explosive, if not fragmentation?

> Can you generate a concussion wave? [No]
> Are fragments likely to be dangerous further away?

Yes, the fragments don't slow down until their ballistic path
leads them back to luna firma. However, the likelihood of being
hit is no higher than normal. The fragments fly out in a sphere
(or whatever the dispersion pattern is for your grenade), half
hit the ground and most of the rest go into space. These are way
over escape velocity so they won't be seen again. The remainder
fly near enough to level to be dangerous for some time, but
they are dispersing in all directions so your chances of being
hit are slight, outside the usual danger space.

> Are characters going to be blown over/around by any explosive
> force? [See concussion]
> Can people throw further? [Oh yes]
> How will this affect bounces?

Now for a brief word on terrain. You've got rocks, gravel and
sand. The sand could be ultra-fine dessicated stuff that for
many purposes acts like water, but you can't see through it
and if you fall into a deep pool in low gravity you are likely
to become completely disorientated. If the pool is not too
deep, you eventually sink to the bottom and (oxygen permitting)
can drag yourself out on your hands and knees if you don't
just stand up to discover you were "trapped" in only two feet 
of sand.

I'll add a note on some other variations at the end.

> How will it affect accuracy?

Your troops will be able to see further and throw further, but
they won't be much more accurate unless they use grenade
launchers with dinky little integrated laser rangefinders.

In reality you will use grenades as you always have. There
might be some enemy in the crater up ahead, so you throw in a
brace of grenades and go over the lip as soon as they have
gone off. There's scope for a terrible accident here, as all
weapons are soundless and you won't see any flash unless it is
reflected off a nearby object!

Any sort of flash grenade won't be much use since the suits
(even ordinary emergency ones) will have photo-reactive
visors quick enough to save the sight of anyone glancing into
the sun or a nearby ship exhaust.

Illumination grenades, on the other hand, may be useful on 
the day side as the lunar landscape tends to alternate 
between brightly-lit areas and deep shadow. Your powered
armour is likly to have some sort of thermal imaging intended
to sweep these shadows for lurking snipers. Any sort of light
amplification will be foxed by the contrast unless it is
electronically filtered. 

Assuming it combusts in vacuum, any sort of smoke will simply
disperse at once. On a related note, anti-laser aerosols won't
work either. I can't make my mind up about chaff, but I
suspect it will simply fall too quickly to be useful.

> 2) Effects of low-G, no-atmosphere on: 
> 
>    Gauss Rifle / Gauss Pistol / Gauss SAW

Gauss weapons will work beautifully unless they have a problem
adapting to the cold or the heat, or have some loading
mechanism dependant on an atmosphere or a certain amount of
gravity. The main limitation will be the sights and the fact
that low gravity and no atmosphere normally mean a small moon
or asteroid, so the horizon is very close. Again, the weapon
effect is improved but the accuracy remains the same.

>    Laser Rifle/Carbine

Depends on your PSB. Lasers you can see* will do far better
in a vacuum, as will any that are affected by water vapour.
"Invisble" lasers, which should be superior anyway, will work
as normal. Rapid-fire laser systems may have cooling problems
unless they are designed for zero-pressure.

* Except that in a vacuum you'll only see them when they hit,
  or pass through a very temporary cloud of debris from a
  casualty.

>    Tac Missile Launcher (GMS/P)

May need some modification for these conditions. In a vacuum,
a fin-guided missile needs to revert to TVC (thrust vector
control?) where you put the fins inside the rocket exhaust.
No nasty recoil, but the rocket exhaust playing over the spent
propellant could give a very high signature, especially if it
also kicks up a surface layer of dust.

>    Plasma Gun (Man-portable)

Again, modify it for zero-pressure and it should still work,
unless there is an unsurmountable cooling problem. The range
will still be limited by the muzzle velocity of the weapon,
since as I understand it plasma weapon technology will
basically consist of a race to get the pulse to the target
before it disperses.

Artillery will still work if you slow the rounds down to
below escape velocity. The ballistics will be pretty strange,
and you end up with something more like a mortar, but you
should be able to hit most points on the moon.

> 3) Effects of environment on movement - faster, slower,
>    easier, more treacherous? 

I've already described the basic surface. You may also
get scree slopes and cliff faces where every boulder is
loose; a single falling rock can start a rock slide that
has been building up for a million years or more.

Throw in a cravasse or two, but don't put spikes at the
bottom or your participants will think that you are
being flippant.

If there is a trace atmosphere then all bets over the
lack of water are off; gasses stand in for liquids and
can sublime from frost to vapour without warning. Clouds
and mist are possible, though they evaporate quickly.
When they condense back down again they can freeze and
fall as a very light layer of snow.

Given a very cold planet, conditions become extreme.
Elements normally found in gaseous form lie instead in
pools, and can even form sheets of ice. Crystals of frozen
gas can get underfoot or coat rock surfaces. Compared with
the surroundings, even a well-insulated suit is blazingly
hot and will cause the gas to evaporate on contact. It 
can even cause rock to shatter with explosive force.

> 4) Effects of environment on wound resolution (if any) -
>    automatic sealing is present,

Are we talking trauma maintenance here? [a la Forever War?]

>    but is there still an increased chance of an over-
>    large puncture causing death?

On several counts. Anything travelling with enough force to
blow a hole in Battle Dress is not going to do much good to
whatever is inside it.	You may also get injuries from
spalling, or a projectile may ricochet inside the armour
rather than exit. Decompression will lead to very rapid
exsanguination even if it is quickly patched, unless the
suit can restore full pressure. Damage to the life support
unit on the suit will be fatal unless shelter is nearby.
Finally, if a corpsman does get to you, what can he do if
you're behind all that armour?

For these reasons, trauma maintenance only saves you if
you've lost all or part of a limb. Injuries to the head 
and torso are still fatal.

>    Wounds more severe? [Oh yes]

Books I swiped these thoughts from:
===================================

A Fall Of Moondust (A.C.Clarke)
						   "We tour at dawn"

Starship Troopers (R.A.Heinlein)
		       "I'm where I am now thanks to a woman driver"

A Circus Of Hells (Poul Anderson)
     "So what's a nice girl like you doing on a planetoid like this"
 
The Forever War (J.Haldeman)
		      "Four good reasons for full medical insurance"

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The above is the personal blah-blah of the author and does not
reflect the opinions of his employers, legal representatives
or pet cat.