[Torg] Theoretical Discussion on Plasmatic Ammunitions

[Kansas Jim]

Jerry S Fisk wrote:

>      Well, plasmatic rounds for some of you who are new here or have not 
> played in a while are from the Tharkhold realm.  Page 118 of the TK 
> Source book describes these rounds as having the following properties.  

Basically it's explosive ammo with a blast radius. And as I never tire
in pointing out, Tharkold's explosive ammo (both the regular and plasma
variety) is less effective than explosive ammo found anywhere else in
the game (Tharkold's does +1 DV, everywhere else it's +2 DV.) :)

> wish I could see something like that.  :(  Earlier in the same passage 
> it mentions that each round has a nanotech laser trigger that causes a 
> micro fusion blast when the built in control circuits detect proximity 
> to the target. 

Proximity fuses on bullets really don't make a lot of sense IMO. Though
I suppose since we're essentially firing little grenades rather than
bullets maybe it does.

(Speaking of which, don't forget the long-range contradiction checks!)

> these rounds never make penetration and the true damage of a plasma 
> round comes from the concussion and burn effects.  Yes, I know that even 
> with a concussion effect you can still get a hole through the body with 
> the proper shaping of the charge.  But with the blast radius would this 
> be the case?  Would the micro fusion blast be shaped enough to do that?  

I think the more pertinent question is could the blast be shaped enough
to do that? I'm of a mind that it might be an advancement better placed
at Tech 27 or 28.

> How far away could the control circuit's proximity sensor be programmed?

That on the other hand is something that you should be able to do with
the tech.

>      If I can get a little ghoulish here.  What if the proximity sensor 
> was programmed to go off late?  While the round is within the victim?  
> You would still get a blast and damage to others, but your original 
> target would be history.  It sounds like something the demons of the 

The target would only be history if the blast actually blows him to
pieces. With a mere +1 to the DV you're not going to get that kind of
effect from a handgun bullet. I'd say that if a plasma round goes off
inside a target you won't get any blast radius out of it at all unless
the DV is enough to do at least three wounds, and even then I'd probably
say that the blast radius is greatly reduced and not omni-directional
(ie, you get some blowback out from where the bullet entered but maybe
nothing from the other side of the body.)

>      Lets turn our attention to the shotgun shell.  I am not going to 
> open up the whole shotgun can again.  I know that there was a lengthy 
> discussion about the mechanics  and so forth for it.  Albeit many years 
> ago, that is.  I just want to focus on the shells.  Lets say a Ultracad 
> designer liked the shot gun and made a pattern.  He then made the 
> pattern for a slug and traditional scatter shot shells.  He wanted to 
> make a plasma version of the two shells.  I see that the slug variety 
> would be created similar to the ammunition of other hand guns.  
> Personally I would not see a reason to make this shell, but if the 
> character liked it he would make it any ways.  Which leaves the scatter 
> shot shell being the more popular to create.

Assuming that the micro-fusion technology can be made as small as a
shotgun pellet at Tech 26. You might be limited to spraying a dozen or
two bullet-sized rounds rather than several dozens to hundreds of little
pellets.

> Tharkhold they do not use powder.  On page 117 of the TKSB  they use 
> case less ammunition with integral propellant charges.  Instead of a 
> mechanical firing system they use an electronic one.

All that means is that the propellant is ignited by an electric current
rather than by a firing pin smacking the back of the bullet.

> version of the shotgun.  However instead of shells, you would be putting 
> pellets.  Like in a BB gun.  This one I do know about. ;)  When making 

No, you would still be loading shotgun shells, they would just be
caseless. The speculative designs for caseless shotgun ammunition
I've seen have the pellets embedded in the propellant.

>      Since this scatter shot is nothing but pellets.  What would happen 
> if some CE fire arms comes across these pellets and mistakes them for 
> normal shotgun pellets and then proceeds to load them into jackets?  
> Would the firing of the shotgun cause the gun to blow up in face of the 
> person firing the gun?  Or would the pellets just act as regular pellets?

Depends on where he is and if he's P-Rated, since making the pellets
explode could require a long-range contradiction. If he's an Ord and
fires these shells off somewhere that's below Tech 26 then I'd say
they act as regular pellets. If he's P-Rated but doesn't know they're
supposed to explode, same deal.

Now if he's somewhere that's at least Tech 26 and fires them, it's
possible that they'd go off. But that raises a question, namely...

>      What about a BB gun?  The BB gun uses compressed air to fire the 
> BB.  Would this activate the pellet?  I personally do not think so since 
> there is no electronic ignition system saying "go."  But would the 
> integral propellant fire if its on bard control chip detects rapid motion?

A single pellet wouldn't have its own propellant charge so that doesn't
matter. But yeah, how actually is the proximity sensor of a plasma
round activated? Is it something the firearm has to do? But then it
would seem that you could only fire plasma rounds from a firearm
designed or modified to use plasma rounds, not from any firearm as the
writeup in the Tharkold SB suggests.

-- 
Kansas Jim, Torg guru (ksjim (at) sdc (dot) org)
Torg website: http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/index.html