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Author Topic:   Nuclear Weapons
Exorcist6
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Posts: 3
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 22 January 2000 05:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Exorcist6   Click Here to Email Exorcist6     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Has anyone ever made stats for nuclear weapons in star wars? If so please mail them to me.

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Armage Bedar
Emperor

Posts: 477
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 23 January 2000 12:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Armage Bedar   Click Here to Email Armage Bedar     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Much of the following information derived/borrowed from http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Nwfaq/Nwfaq.zip.

10 KT Atomic Warhead
Model: Imperial Munitions Type 1B Nuclear Fission Warhead
Type: Mass destruction weapon
Scale: Character (for easy conversion - people will be most affected by nukes)
Skill: Demolitions, missile weapons, etc.
Availability: X
Range: Depends on launcher
Blast Radius (airburst at 600 meters): 0-1.6/2.8/4.8km
Damage: 20D/10D/5D
Game Notes: Side effects of nuclear blasts include mushroom clouds (see below)
and electromagnetic pulses (treat as Blast Radius: 0-250/500/1000m, damage:
10D/6D/3D (ionization), damage increases the higher the blast is)

1 MT Thermonuclear Warhead
Model: Imperial Munitions Type 2A Nuclear Fusion Warhead
Type: Mass destruction weapon
Scale: Character (for easy conversion - people will be most affected by nukes)
Skill: Demolitions, missile weapons, etc.
Availability: X
Range: Depends on launcher
Blast Radius (airburst at 2440 meters): 0-6.0/10.5/16.1km
Damage: 20D/10D/5D
Game Notes: Side effects of nuclear blasts include mushroom clouds (see below)
and electromagnetic pulses (treat as Blast Radius: 0-250/500/1000m, damage:
10D/6D/3D (ionization), damage increases the higher the blast is)

20 MT Thermonuclear Warhead
Model: Imperial Munitions Type 3C Nuclear Fusion Warhead
Type: Mass destruction weapon
Scale: Character (for easy conversion - people will be most affected by nukes)
Skill: Demolitions, missile weapons, etc.
Availability: X
Range: Depends on launcher
Blast Radius (airburst at 2440 meters): 0-22.5/43.5/56.3km
Damage: 20D/10D/5D
Game Notes: Side effects of nuclear blasts include mushroom clouds (see below)
and electromagnetic pulses (treat as Blast Radius: 0-250/500/1000m, damage:
10D/6D/3D (ionization), damage increases the higher the blast is)

10 KT Neutron Warhead
Model: Imperial Munitions Type nA Nuclear Fission Warhead
Type: Organic mass destruction weapon
Scale: Character (for easy conversion - people will be most affected by nukes)
Skill: Demolitions, missile weapons, etc.
Availability: X
Range: Depends on launcher
Blast Radius (airburst at 600 meters): 0-0.5/1/4km
Damage: 20D/10D/5D (organic only)
Game Notes: Neutron radiation is not stopped by walls or other structures, nor
does it destroy said structures. It only affects living things.


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Nuclear Blast Effects

The first thing bomb victims experience is the intense flux of photons from
the blast, which releases 70-80% of the bomb's energy. See the Hiroshima-
Nagasaki file for first hand accounts. The effects go up to third degree
thermal burns, and are not a pretty sight. Initial deaths are due to this
effect.

Then next phenomenon is the supersonic blast front. You see it before you
hear it. The pressure front has the effect of blowing away anything in its
path. Heavy steel girders were found bent at 90 degree angles after the
Japanese bombings.

After the front comes the overpressure phase. It would feel like being under
water a few hundred metres. At a few thousand metres under the sea, pressurised
hulls implode. The pressure gradually dies off, and there is a negative
overpressure phase, with a reversed blast wind. This reversal is due to
air rushing back to fill the void left by the explosion.

The air gradually returns to room pressure. At this stage, fires caused by
electrical destruction and ignited debris, turn the place into a firestorm.
Just like Dresden in WWII. It is estimated over fifty thousand died in the
first few days of the Hiroshima bombing.

Then come the middle term effects such as keloid formation and retinal
blastoma.

Genetic or hereditary damage can show up up to forty years after initial
irradiation.

The following diagram is of blast zone radii, courtesy of Outlaw Labs.
Note that damage from blast pressure falls off as a function of 1/r^3.


---

Nuclear Blast Zones (attached)

---

The Mushroom Cloud

The heat from fusion and fission instantaneously raises the surrounding air
to 10 million degrees C. This superheated air plasma gives off so much light
that it looks brighter than the sun, and is visible hundreds of kms away.
The resultant fireball quickly expands. It is made up of hot air, and hence
rises, at a rate of a few hundred metres per second. After a minute or so,
the fireball has risen to a few kilometres, and has cooled off to the extent
that it no longer radiates.

The surrounding cooler air exerts some drag on this rising air, which slows
down the outer edges of the cloud. The unimpeded inner portion rises a bit
more quicker than the outer edges. A vacuum effect occurs when the outer
portion occupies the vacuum left by the higher inner portion. The result is
a smoke ring.

The inner material gradually expands out into a mushroom cloud, due to
convection. If the explosion is on the ground, dirt and radioactive debris
get sucked up the stem, which sits below the fireball.

Collisions and ionisation of the cloud particles result in lightning bolts
flickering to the ground.

Initially, the cloud is orange-red due to the formation of a mixture of nitric
oxides (NOx - cf car smog). This reaction happens whenever air is heated.

When the cloud cools to air temperature, the water vapour starts to
condense. The cloud turns from red to white.

In the final stages, the cloud can get about 100 km across and 40 km high,
for a megaton class explosion.

---

EXCELLENT pictures: http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Library/Effects/index.html.

If you want more stuff, I'll whip it up - just let me know...

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- Armage Bedar
The STATS Man
Administrator, SW-RPG HoloNet Discussion Forums
Imperial Technology Systems

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Exorcist6
Trooper

Posts: 3
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 23 January 2000 11:33 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Exorcist6   Click Here to Email Exorcist6     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you very much Armage. Those stats are great, but I have a few more questions.

Do you think that nuclear weapons are used often in the Star Wars universe? why or why not? Is there something that hinders the effects of a nuclear bomb?

Thanks again.

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Armage Bedar
Emperor

Posts: 477
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 23 January 2000 01:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Armage Bedar   Click Here to Email Armage Bedar     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I don't think they're used mainly because there are more efficient and cheaper ways of getting a job done. Energy weapons can level a city bit by bit, and they can't be shot down like nuclear weapons can.

The Imperials, when they subjugate a planet, intend to use it afterwards. Contaminating an area with deadly radiation for decades and decades is NOT good. And if they plan to use a weapon for fear, they have nightcloaks, Death Stars, and other esoteric items.

Of course, you could just say that true fission/fusion weapons tech has been modernized and miniaturized into proton torpedoes and concussion missiles...

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- Armage Bedar
The STATS Man
Administrator, SW-RPG HoloNet Discussion Forums
Imperial Technology Systems

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Fwiffo
Stormtrooper

Posts: 83
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 23 January 2000 02:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Fwiffo   Click Here to Email Fwiffo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I doubt they'd be used in the modern arsenal of the Empire. They could be found as relics of the past, however, sealed away in some hidden weapons vault of some forgotten kingdom. They could be used by some planets that are still 'low-tech' as well.

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"You have joined the sacred order of The Stonecutters, who, since ancient times, have split the rocks of ignorance that obscure the light of knowledge of light and truth. Now let's all get drunk and play Ping-Pong!"

Pete Haas, habeeb24@aol.com


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WingcommanderLuna
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Posts: 26
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 23 January 2000 03:02 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for WingcommanderLuna   Click Here to Email WingcommanderLuna     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
To see another set of home-made rules for the use of nukes in Star Wars, feel free to visit:
http://www.algonet.se/~ellebell/rules/nukes.html

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Urban Lundqvist
http://www.algonet.se/~ellebell --> wingcommander.luna@home.se

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Sarge
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posted 27 January 2000 11:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Sarge   Click Here to Email Sarge     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The characters that I GM for have the skills to build nukes, and the skills and imaginations to acquire nuclear materials. If I let them, they would be able to cruise around the galaxy in their light freighter and nuke Star Destroyers. I don't think that would be right for a SW campaign, so I decided that all capital warships and Imperial military bases transmit a "Nuclear Damping Field" that prevents atomic explosions. I might allow them to infiltrate and deactivate the damping field so they could nuke a priority target, but I wouldn't make it easy.

I see nukes as a potentially unbalancing factor in a SW game. If I let the players use them, or any other very powerful item, I'll be sure to have thought out at least one restriction to keep the players from abusing the power and unbalancing the game.

Here's an example of a weapon that could have unbalanced the game if I hadn't restricted its use. The characters salvaged a used back up hyperdrive and managed to jury rig it into an escape pod by removing all the life support equipment and installing the hyperdrive components in the passenger area. The idea was to launch the pod, aim it at the enemy by remote control, and activate the hyperdrive. If one of you physicists wants to calculate the amount of impact energy released by an object with the mass of a pod travelling faster than light, go ahead. I just decided that it would punch a pod shaped hole right through anything less than a planet. BUT, since it is a hyperdrive weapon, it can only be used when a hyperdrive could be used. In other words, it can't be used in a nebula or close to a gravity well. And where do most space battles take place? Near planets, which are natural gravity wells. So if they want to use the "Hypertorpedo" against a Star Destroyer, they'll have to find a way to lure the Imps out of the gravity well, and stay alive while they do that. If I think it's good for the story to let them do that, they will probably find a way to make it happen. If not, tough luck, and the Imps are too smart to be lured into the kill zone.

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:) <<<<

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Kayle Skolaris
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Posts: 674
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 08 February 2000 09:03 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kayle Skolaris   Click Here to Email Kayle Skolaris     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm not sure how much good nukes would be against ISDs. If one accepts Curtis Saxton's website information and the novel 'Anakin Skywalker: The Story of Darth Vader' then all of the destroyers present at the Hoth asteroid belt sustained multi-megaton impacts on their shields. Additionally, the novel 'Slave Ship' describes weapon mountings on Imperial ships designed to withstand recoil in the gigaton range. I sincerely doubt any modern nuclear weapons would even scratch the unshielded hull of an ISD, much less seriously threaten a fully shielded warship.

On the subject of hypertorpedoes. In my not-so-humble opinion, it won't work. ALL hyperdrives are designed to drop out of hyperspace if they approach a gravity well too large to ignore in hyperspace. An ISD qualifies as such a gravity well. The hypertorpedo will drop out of hyperspace and plow into the ISD at whatever speed it was going at when it made the hyperjump. Any ship too small to yank it out of hyperspace won't be harmed at all since hyperspace is a completely different dimension.

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Sarge
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posted 08 February 2000 02:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Sarge   Click Here to Email Sarge     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In my campaign, the hyperdrive cut-out is a safety feature designed to prevent ships from running into planets, but it is no more foolproof than any other system. Our Tongue-Tied Engineer disabled the safeties to make sure the pod wouldn't be stopped by a gravity well.

As for hyperspace being a different dimension, true, but objects in hyperspace are affected by objects in real space, or why would you need to navigate around planets and stars? Therefore, objects in real space must be affected by objects in hyperspace. Can't have one without the other.

Anyway, it made a good one-shot weapon that the characters used to take out an Imperial cruiser during a critical mission.

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:) <<<<

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Kayle Skolaris
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posted 08 February 2000 03:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kayle Skolaris   Click Here to Email Kayle Skolaris     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As a one-shot weapon or the last resort of the criminally insane (which describes most of my group) it sounds like a fairly cool thing to do. I'd just be wary of letting it become standard operating procedure for the players. Toys like that can ruin a game VERY fast!

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Ubiqtorate
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Posts: 487
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posted 08 February 2000 07:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ubiqtorate   Click Here to Email Ubiqtorate     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What would you do about the long-term effects of a nuclear blast, by the way?

Suppose a group of characters visits a primitive planet a few days, months, or even years after a nuclear war. What kind of effect does the radiation have on them?

--Ubiqtorate

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Kayle Skolaris
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Registered: Feb 2000

posted 08 February 2000 08:23 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kayle Skolaris   Click Here to Email Kayle Skolaris     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
That's really a GM call, but I would suggest reading up on radiation sickness and the like. Depending on how much hard radiation is ambient in the environment life could get extremely unpleasant extremely quickly. I once played an alien character who was mildly radioactive as a result of his biology and believe me, things were very interesting in close quarters. I remember having his quarters aboard the party ship plated with gravitically collapsed durasteel and equipped with a magnetic seal lock. Kept the radiation where it belonged. Also made that particular part of the ship capital scale.....

Bear in mind that any R2 droid will be able to pick up dangerous levels of radiation and warn it's owners.

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Sarge
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posted 11 February 2000 01:33 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Sarge   Click Here to Email Sarge     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Kayle, I wouldn't let them make the hypertorpedo standard operating procedure. When the players started discussing that idea, I pointed out that the Empire has a lot more resources and would start mass producing their own hypertorpedos as soon as they realized what was going on. The players decided not to make any more.

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:) <<<<

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Kayle Skolaris
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posted 11 February 2000 01:49 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kayle Skolaris   Click Here to Email Kayle Skolaris     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yeah, that usually shuts 'em up pretty quick.....

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Pel
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Registered: Oct 1999

posted 20 February 2000 06:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Pel   Click Here to Email Pel     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
My players have asked several times to acquire nukes. So far they've gotten them only once and put them to good use by loading a shuttle with the bombs, setting the autopilot, and remote detonating them over a Golan defense platform. While the blast didn't destroy the Golan, it certianly put it out of action for a while. Besides, proton torpodoes are small nuclear charges.

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Pel Morba.

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Fwiffo
Stormtrooper

Posts: 83
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 20 February 2000 02:44 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Fwiffo   Click Here to Email Fwiffo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hyperspace does very much effect real space...this was clearly explained by Han in ANH when he was calculating jump coordinates. No matter how fast you're going, if you plow into a planet's crust, you're fooked.

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"She's like a spoon full of Drain-O. Sure, she'll clean you out real good, but she leaves you all hollow and empty inside."

Pete Haas, habeeb24@aol.com

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Jastor
Stormtrooper

Posts: 85
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 20 March 2000 06:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jastor   Click Here to Email Jastor     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yay. Im back with more information for
thoose who wants it:

1) THere is nuclerar devices in Star Wars.
2) They're not ancient
3) The empire uses them regurarly

The empire even got a special kind of stormtrooper unit: Radiation Zone Stormtrooper. After a ISD (or bombers) have
bombed an area, the Rad. troopers go in and
kill the rest that have survived (shelters etc.). THey have a special kind of armor
that protects them from the radiation (better than any other armor in the imperial
arsenal?) and they got my favorite weapon: Sorosuub stormtrooper II blaster rifle.

More information can be found under "The Enemie" in : "Rules of engagement. Rebel specops" (dont remember the exact title)

Signing off

//Jastor

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