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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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 Posted: 26-Mar-2007 13:40 Post subject: Rejected Tech |
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This is an idea I had for a campaign twist, and I'd like to see what people think.
The party stumbles upon the Holy Grail of BTech players: a Star League weapons depot loaded with goodies.
Thing is, it's a cursed gift. 
Statistically speaking, at some point along the way the Star League designers had to come up with designs that failed for some reason. This depot is where many such failures are stored. The people working on them placed them in here in the hopes that they'd one day have a chance to figure out what went wrong, and even included detailed notes concerning their research. Unfortunately, the Aramis Civil War and the Succession Wars prevented anyone from returning to finish the work.
The party would then have a tough choice. They could simply abandon the gear where it is. Or, they could take select pieces of the gear and try to figure things out. They might even bring in techs to determine the design flaws.
Each option has its possible advantages and disadvantages.
XP would be awarded depending upon how the players go about dealing with what they discover; the more creative the solution, the more XP.
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Fang
Federated Suns
Captain
Joined: 11-Sep-2006 00:00
Posts: 290
Location: United States
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| Posted: 26-Mar-2007 14:47 Post subject: |
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| I rather like the idea. lots of room to play with that. Also, if you are a sadistic GM, could have spectacular results.
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Warhammer: 3025
Freelance
Captain, AFFC (Ret.)
Joined: 29-Jan-2005 00:00
Posts: 1856
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| Posted: 26-Mar-2007 18:08 Post subject: |
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Plasma cannons, neutron blasters, and atomic autocannons! Oh my!
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4120
Location: United States
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| Posted: 26-Mar-2007 20:14 Post subject: |
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| Warhammer: 3025 wrote: | | Plasma cannons, neutron blasters, and atomic autocannons! Oh my! |
Well...we have Plasma rifles...
Great idea Kraken, I did something similar with my group way back in the early 90s. They found some AC30s and LRM 25s along with some other stuff...I even allowed them to use the stuff till the ammo ran out...it was fun and for once they didn't go over board on the stuff. They sold off some of the weapons to NAIS and to the Kurtians. So they managed to gain out of this better then they went into it.
The idea you give is a one that I think can be used to really mess with the players and force them to roleplay as well as think their actions through.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Fang
Federated Suns
Captain
Joined: 11-Sep-2006 00:00
Posts: 290
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 10:47 Post subject: |
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| OR.....you could play Paranoia! with mechs. MWUhahahahaha......
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Stinger
The Knights of Chaos
General
Joined: 30-Apr-2002 00:00
Posts: 1833
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 12:34 Post subject: |
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This is a great idea. And o so potentinally leathal to your players. Here are a couple Ideas for you to play with.
Jammer pod - Back mounted pod measuring 18 feet long. The Jammer pod is used to defeat missile and electronics packages. The upper section of the pod sticks up from behind the mech by 7 feet. the top section of the Jammer pod mounts a dedicated phased array radar to track and plot missile trajectories When incomming missiles are detected the system will automatically launch Chaff or Flares to try and spoof the targeting systems of the misiles (-2 on the missile to hit roll). The major drawback is that it can actually interfer with the users targeting control systems (this adds a +1 to all gunnery rolls). It has also been known to on extreme occasions shut down all control systems rendering the mech fully shut down, when this happens it takes 3 rounds for the mech to get back online. Though this happens rarely, it can be recreated, it can not be fixed at this time. (This only occures when 3 or more missle launchers are fired at the mech using the Jammer pod, on a roll of 4 or less the jammer pod overloads and shut down).
Napalm Cannon - A cannon that is based on the AC5 frame. It shoots a shell filled with a napalm jelly like the Inferno rounds. The big draw back to the weapon is it runs hotter and has a shorter range. It does boast slightly better damage then the AC5 (5 points of armor damage and 3 points of heat). The ammo feed system, has been a huge problem, it has the uncanny ability to jam at the worst possible moment, when this happens there is no saving the mech from the resulting fireball. (for game purposes it jams just like a Ultra AC5, on a roll of 2, The explosion is unavoidable). During testing mechs were automatically set to auto eject to spare the pilot from the resulting inferno.
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Stinger
If it's "creepy" to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I'm "creepy". Howard Wolowitz. BBT.
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Fang
Federated Suns
Captain
Joined: 11-Sep-2006 00:00
Posts: 290
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 13:52 Post subject: |
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What about radiated autocannon and rounds? Slightly heavier than standard autcannon. Extremely low yield pay load in the shell it self. does heat and above normal damage(Ac/10 nuke would do ...say15 points of damage). plus, pilot of stricken mech takes damage each round until mech has gone through some kind of detox. Not really in line with the aries conven, but could still be interesting. Draw back? Shielding in Ammo bay would be the equivilent of CASE, but twice the weight. A hit on the shielding does not incur a reroll as CASE does, but instead exposes the pilot to the radiation from the shells. Pilot takes damage until end of battle( no real details on how to work that out yet) Hit on ammo results in regular ammo explosion, with the bin's shielding acting as CASE. Anyone in the hex behind takes a radiation bath as the vented explosion and radiation would fill the hex behind the mech. Range would be limited so only really available for an AC/10 and AC/20 variant. Lead lined barrelsand protected ammo feed mechanisms would increase weight of weapon significantly
Just an idea....
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Rudel Gurken
Allisters Light Thunder
Major
Joined: 15-Jun-2005 00:00
Posts: 1456
Location: Germany
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 14:16 Post subject: |
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| Karagin wrote: |
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Well...we have Plasma rifles...
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We have them now in 3067 but whats with the 2635 prototype!!! 
Looks like a Plasma Rifle, smells like a Plasma Rifle but there has to be a reason that it was not introduced until around 3067! 
EDIT:
By the way: Whats with selfguiding missiles (10 damage?) that do their job... until a single missile decides that there is a more worthwhile target in the opposite direction!!!
(4- with 2D6)
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Reality is where the Pizza-man comes from!'Gucken, petzen, verpissen!' (Look at it, squeal it, get the hell away from it!) – Motto of the recon troops'Artillery doesn´t know friend or foe! They only know worthwhile targets!‘ – Kuritan Infantrist
[Last edited by Rudel Gurken on 27-Mar-2007 14:28; edited 1 time in total]
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Rudel Gurken
Allisters Light Thunder
Major
Joined: 15-Jun-2005 00:00
Posts: 1456
Location: Germany
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 14:21 Post subject: |
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| Fang wrote: | What about radiated autocannon and rounds? Slightly heavier than standard autcannon. Extremely low yield pay load in the shell it self. does heat and above normal damage(Ac/10 nuke would do ...say15 points of damage).
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I hope you're meaning a high radioactive payload in each round and not a real nuclear warhead!!!!!!!!!!! 
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Reality is where the Pizza-man comes from!'Gucken, petzen, verpissen!' (Look at it, squeal it, get the hell away from it!) – Motto of the recon troops'Artillery doesn´t know friend or foe! They only know worthwhile targets!‘ – Kuritan Infantrist
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CO_17thRecon
Kell Hounds
Major
Joined: 10-Sep-2002 00:00
Posts: 1297
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 14:37 Post subject: |
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Hm. Nuke cannon. I kinda like that idea, but instead of "dirty" ammo, why not go for full on nuclear capability?
In fact, that technology would be simple enough to work easily!
Downsides?
Well, first off, getting more ammo would be very difficult, and would expose you to a great deal of questions as to what you wanted something like that for...and you'd probably still have to alter it once you got it. If they actually delivered fully completed ammo to you, they'd have a very good guess at what it was for. Same thing almost with the cannon itself.
Bigger downside?
If someone sees you using this, you WILL become a war criminal. No two ways about it. This makes it hard for "above the board" units to even attempt it.
*grins widely and evilly* But what about pirates who don't give a darn? And actively enjoy the suffering of others on occasion?
I HAVE to write up rules for this. (My version anyway. Still not clear if Fang meant dirty ammo or small nuke payloads in the shells.) Back with'em later.
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"What the...?! Where did you get THAT?!"
"Creative aquisition."
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Rudel Gurken
Allisters Light Thunder
Major
Joined: 15-Jun-2005 00:00
Posts: 1456
Location: Germany
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 14:56 Post subject: |
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| CO_17thRecon wrote: |
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I HAVE to write up rules for this. (My version anyway. Still not clear if Fang meant dirty ammo or small nuke payloads in the shells.) Back with'em later. |
Caution! Even the smallest tactical nuclear warhead wouldn't only make some damage plus some radiation but will totally obliterate that Mech and anything that's around him! The Hiroshima bomb had between 12 and 16 kt TNT and modern tactical nuclear warheads have yields up to the tens of kilotons!! The smallest modern tactical warhead has 0,3 kt and even that would do a lot more than 15 damage!!
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Reality is where the Pizza-man comes from!'Gucken, petzen, verpissen!' (Look at it, squeal it, get the hell away from it!) – Motto of the recon troops'Artillery doesn´t know friend or foe! They only know worthwhile targets!‘ – Kuritan Infantrist
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CO_17thRecon
Kell Hounds
Major
Joined: 10-Sep-2002 00:00
Posts: 1297
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 16:03 Post subject: |
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Noted, Rudel. Unfortunately, much like other things in BT, I'm going to bend physics to make the Nuke weak enough to not simply be a steamroller. That being said, I wouldn't want to get hit with the thing. Also, my apologies for the large amount of rules...it started out simple, I swear!
Linky: www.mordel.net/barandgrill.php?redirect=viewtopic&t=8144
...I wasn't sure of the protocol of posting the stats here, since this discussion is veering from the idea itself into the Tech. At least, for me. That being the case, I posted it in the design section, and you can get to it via the link above.
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Jarylan Blackwell
"What the...?! Where did you get THAT?!"
"Creative aquisition."
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Fang
Federated Suns
Captain
Joined: 11-Sep-2006 00:00
Posts: 290
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 16:20 Post subject: |
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| Original idea was dirty ammo. But the nuke MAC looks so freakin cool, I really like that idea too
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mud
Draconis Combine
Tai-sho
Joined: 23-Jul-2002 00:00
Posts: 1618
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2007 17:12 Post subject: |
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you don't even need the Star League warehouse to pull this off...
maybe the unit gets a defective shipment of armor, which looks fine but is particularly brittle (ie, non energy weapons do double damage), or has heat resistance problems (energy weapons do double damage)
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Fang
Federated Suns
Captain
Joined: 11-Sep-2006 00:00
Posts: 290
Location: United States
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| Posted: 28-Mar-2007 11:54 Post subject: |
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Finding Dirty ammo /potential nuclear capable devices would also raise a lot of moral and ethical questions. be interesting to see hwo the party handles them. Do they use the ammo and weapon until caught? Sell it off to Capellans or WoB? Or bury it deep and pray no one finds it....
Sorry Kraken. I just realized I kinda went off ona tangent from the original thread. Still, an intersting idea you have to admit. What about early proto types of MASC or other mech enhancements.
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