Zan replied to me: > I just thought of David Weber's Mutineer's Moon series and wondered if > GURPS TL13 allows for offensive hyperdrive weapons. > > Can a grav tank generate a hyper field or warp field around a target and > drop it either into deep space or as fragments of disassociated > particles?
Displacer, TL16. So for a TL13 society that remains science fantasy :-) > Such a weapon could be used on an area and not do *too* much > damage to the planet. It would just be missing a spherical chunk. Gravity beam, TL12. A four-ton beam would do 6d*14(100), compared to 6d*768(2) for the AP beam, roughly similar penetration but much less raw damage. > If the field can only be generated from the center perhaps a > missile/drone could be fitted with a hyperdrive, launched toward the > target and set off. The first question is how hyperdrives work. Do they even work in an atmosphere? The second question is how they malfunction if the "starship" is overloaded. Related to that is what counts as load. Perhaps one of the problems with hyperdrive in an atmosphere is that the entire planet counts as part of the vehicle. Malfunction could mean that the drive simply won't work (not good for a weaponized effect) or maybe there is a big bang (there are easier ways to get that). Or maybe an overloaded ship can get into hyperspace but not out again. That could get fun if cruise passengers lie about their weight, or if troops carry unofficial kit. The front armor of a "medium" tank will be 27,000 to 36,000 points of DR. That calls for a brute force solution. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
