Nuclear Warfare
By Jim Hunsinger

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Nuclear warfare is the deliberate unleashing of the power of the atom. The most destructive form of weapon known to man. Splitting atoms in an uncontrolled fission reaction. Not only does the weapon release an explosion of amazing proportions but it also releases extremely high radiation that lingers for many years. Also, upon detonation the nuclear weapon releases a powerful electro-magnetic pulse which can render unshielded electronics useless. In a world where nuclear weapons are used to destroy the enemy and deny terrain to that same enemy, radiation will abound. Below are some new rules covering nuclear explosions, radiation, and residual radiation. In addition there are rules on radiation sickness.

Radiation:
After a nuclear exchange there are many areas that will be heavily saturated with residual radiation from nuclear explosions. This is a problem because radiation is dangerous! As radiation accumulates in a humans body it can cause sickness and even death. Radiation, measured in "rads" is cumulative. That is to say that once the body absorbs the rads there is no getting rid of them. i.e. Pvt Carson passes through an area that is contaminated with radioactivity. He moves out of the area soon and only accumulates 20 rads. Three months later Pvt Carson is again exposed to radiation and accumulates a further 10 rads for a total of 30 rads. Radiation does not become a threat till at least 300 rads is reached so Pvt Carson does not yet have a chance of becoming sick.

• As a character accumulates rads refer to the following table. Go from left to right checking for each result one at a time.

• The player must roll their Body type with its modifier or lower or suffer the given effect.

RADS	DEATH	SERIOUS	SLIGHT
50	N/A	N/A	N/A
100	N/A	N/A	N/A
200	N/A	N/A	N/A
300	N/A	N/A	BT
400	N/A	BT	BT -1
500	BT	BT -1	BT -3
600	BT -1	BT -3	BT -6
700	BT -3	BT -6	BT -9
800	BT -6	BT -9	AUTO
900	BT -9	AUTO	AUTO
1000	AUTO	AUTO	AUTO

BT = Body Type

NOTE: A roll of 1 will always succeed.

Result Descriptions:

Slight:

Symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, headache.
Game effects: Body Type, Reflexes at 1/2.
Onset time: 1d6 hours after exposure.
Duration of sickness: 1d6 days
Notes: None

Serious:

Symptoms: Incapacitated; Severe bloody vomiting, bloody diarrhea, spotting of body from internal bleeding, bleeding gums, loss of hair.
Game effects: Incapacitated
Onset time: Immediately after "SLIGHT" duration.
Duration of sickness: 2d6 days.
Notes: Character will experience "SLIGHT" sickness before "SERIOUS".

Death:

Symptoms: "He's dead Jim".
Game effects: C'mon its self explanatory!
Onset time: Immediately after "SERIOUS" sickness duration has expired.
Duration of sickness: Pretty much forever!
Notes: The character is dead.

• When checking for sickness and death always round down to the nearest 100 rads a character has received.
• Characters in a sealed environment such as a walker, powerarmor, tank etc. will not be affected by radiation IF it remains sealed while in the radioactive area.
• Characters must make checks for sickness and/or death every time more rads are accumulated.

EXAMPLE:
Cpl Lizama moves through a radioactive crater in his powerarmor. He keeps his powerarmor sealed until he moves out of the area. He has not received any rads. Later that week his squad is exposed to a distant nuclear blast while out of their powerarmors. By the time Cpl Lizama gets out of the area he has accumulated 250 rads. Looking at the radiation table we look on the row for 200 rads and see that there is no chance for sickness. Later he is exposed to 200 more rads bringing the total to 450. We now look at the table once again, remembering to round down to the nearest 100 which is 400. On the 400 rads row we see there is no chance for death. Cpl Lizama has a body type of 7. He rolls a 6 avoiding "serious" sickness. We then check for "slight" sickness. That is body type -1 so Cpl Lizama needs to roll a 6 or lower. He rolls a 9. The game master then rolls 1d6 for how many hours before the sickness manifests and rolls a 3.  Three hours later Cpl Lizama begins to suffer from "slight" radiation sickness. A second roll of 1d6 is made to determine how many days the sickness will last. A 2 is rolled so Cpl Lizama will suffer from the slight radiation sickness for 2 days. Many months later Cpl Lizama is exposed to a further 500 rads bringing his total to 950. Checking the 900 row we check for death at body type -9 which means he will need a roll of 1 to live. He rolls a 4. First he will suffer slight sickness for 1d6 days. After that he will suffer 2d6 days of serious sickness. At the end of the serious sickness duration he will then die.

Radiation exposure formulas

Initial blast radiation

• At 2 x the blast radius, the rads = the kills of the weapon x 100
• At 4 x the blast radius, the rads = the kills of the weapon x 50

Residual Radiation

• (A/Y) x 5 = R.P.T. (Rads Per Turn)
           A = Months since blast
           Y = Kills of initial blast
• The above formula is for the calculation of rads per turn within a crater area.
• Rads per turn will be at 1/2 the above intensity out to 2x the crater radius.

Note: A crater need not be visible, If it was an air-burst and its been quite a while since the blast there may be no visible crater at all.

• Rules for initial blast and EMP are on pages 117 and 118 of the Mekton Z+ book.

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