Radiation Damage (Rule)

[Volar the Healer]

This thread is dedicated to answering the request raised by Chabit Rane. He asked for a detailed house rule for radiation effects. There will be four parts:

1) radiation effects chart
2) general rule explanation
3) sources of radiation
4) medial treatment for radiation exposure

Please do not post comments on this thread as it will make it difficult for others to use the house rule presented. Please post any comments on the thread labeled "Radiation Damage (Comments)".
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[Volar the Healer]

Radiation Effects Chart

25 REM (5) Minor blood changes after 1D6 days. this is only detectable by medical scan

50 REM (10) Fatigue after [STR] hours lasting 1D6 days. 1D6-2 minor benign tumours after [STR] days. this is only detectable by medical scan

100 REM (15) Nausea and internal bleeding after 1D3 hours lasting 1D6 days. Females suffer forced, painful menstruation.

250 REM (20) Skin turns red after [STR] hours. this is a radiation burn Vomiting starting after 1D6 hours lasting 1D3 months.

500 REM (25) Vomiting after [STR] rounds lasting until incapacitated. Incapacitated after [STR] hours lasting [STR] days. Death unless a STR resistance roll of 10 is made. Females are sterile for 1D6 months.

1,000 REM (30) Vomiting after 1D6 minutes lasting until unconsciousness. Unconciousness after 1D6 hours lasting until death. Death after [STR] days unless a STR resistance roll of 15 is made. Males are sterile for 1D6 months.

2,000 REM (-) Vomiting immediately lasting until unconciousness. Unconcious after 1D6 minutes lasting until death. Death after 1D6 days.

5,000 REM (-) Unconscious after one round. Death after 1D6 minutes.

Explanation
The number in parenthesis is the strength resistance roll to avoid suffering the stated effects. If this roll is made, the character suffers the effects of the next lower level of radiation exposure.

Fatigue: -1 pip from all attributes
Nausea: -2 pips from all attributes
Vomiting: -1D from all attributes, vomit every [STR] minutes, always accompanied by diarreha
Incapacitated: -2D from all attributes, cannot move, unconcious for 1D6 hours, awake for [STR] rounds, then lapse back into unconsciousness.
[STR]: make a STR roll to determine number
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[Volar the Healer]

General Rule

Radiation cannot be seen or felt by human beings. The Director can recreate this fear by keeping track of the character's exposure secretly, rolling their resistance rolls "behind the Director's screen", and just informing them of the effects their characters are suffering.

Radiation is cumulative. A character exposed to 150 REM will be nauseous for a period of time, then recover. If the same character is later exposed to another 150 REM exposure he suffers the full effects of his total 300 REMS. Good Strength rolls will allow him to avoid the worst of the effects, but he still carries the full exposure. A human body heals .5 REM / year.

Some beings (eg. Gotals) are sensitive to radiations and can detect it:
Perception:
5) They're in a radiation field. this is always the case on technologically advanced planets
10) They can distinguish type of radiation.(IR/UV/telecommunications/gamma radiation)
15) They can distinguish the strength of the field. (weak/strong/deadly)

Insectoid beings have resistance to radiation. Any being with an exoskeleton (eg. Verpine) does not suffer radiation effects until they're exposed to ten times the levels given on the charts.

Things such as vomiting, diarrhea, & forced menstruation may be too much for some folks. Although realistic, in Star Wars such things are never shown. So characters can just be "really sick" or incapacitated while suffering the game mechanic modifiers.
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[Volar the Healer]

Sources of Radiation

Damaged hyperdrive 1D6 Rem / hour (until repaired)

Flying really close to a star w/o shields 10D6 Rem / orbit

Walking on a radioactive molten planet 2D6 Rem / day

"Low technology world" fission power plant meltdown:
1D6 Rem / minute if you're trying to repair the machinery
1D6 Rem / hour if you're down wind (in the fallout)
1D6 Rem / day if you're in the area after it's fixed

"Low technology world" medical X-ray/flouroscope examination 1 Rem

Surviving a near miss from a nuclear weapon detonation
1D6x100 Rem if your unit was the target
1D6x1,000 Rem / hour if you're down wind (in the fallout)
this is reduced by half every 1D6 hours (Director rolls only once)
1D6 Rem / day if you're crossing the contaminated area quickly

Heavily polluted world (Balmorra) 1 Rem / day
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[Boomer]

I like all of this, it's great.

But what about Radiation Weaponry? Have any ideas for a balanced set of Radiation weapons?
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[Volar the Healer]

This is the radiation damage (rule) thread. Please post all comments on the radiation damage (comments) thread, or the rule thread will quickly become unusable by others.
Thank you.
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[garhkal]

Volat. IMO his question would be fitting for here, as he was asking for rules for radiation weapons...
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[Volar the Healer]

Medical Treatment for Radiation Exposure

Wound Equivalent:
50-99 REM Stunned
100-499 REM Wounded
500-1999 REM Incapacitated
2000+ REM Mortally Wounded

Natural Healing will eventually allow the character to recover from radiation exposure just like any other wound. It is a race between the natural healing rule and the radiation effects rule - both of which must be rolled to see which will triumph. At low levels the radiation effects rule usually runs it's course before natural healing can stop it. At high levels the radiation effects rule will usually kill a character before natural healing has time to work.

A Medpack can be used to reduce the effect one level (eg. Mortally wounded is lowered to Incapacitated), lessening the effects, but the exposure remains. Standard difficulties appy.

Accelerate Healing can be used to heal any level of wound equivalent given enough time. Standard difficulties apply. It can also be used to remove 2 REM / die of Control the Jedi has per day it is kept up.

Bacta Treatment will eventually cure any level of exposure. Standard times apply. Bacta Treatment actually repairs damage at the genetic level, so all exposure is removed after Bacta treatment is complete.
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