Question for a possible campaign

[Pat Payne]

In the old "First Strike" supplement, the last three scenarios of the Basic Battletech section are a cool "Heart of Darkness"-tinged mini-campaign where the attackers are assaulting a Germanium mine held by a rogue Davion agent. I'm looking at turning this into a full-on roleplay campaign for my home group, but stumbled upon something in looking at Germanium on Wikipedia:

Among the common compounds of Germanium is a gas called Germane, which is highly pyrophoric (in other words it spontaneously combusts on contact with air) and toxic. I've no doubt that a loony-bird like The Old Man wouldn't hesitate to weaponize that as a last-ditch effort. My only question is, if he were to have run pipes in the ground to use as hidden gas jets/improvised mines -- or set up improvised flamethrowers with the stuff near the mine, how much damage in AS terms would burning Germane do? Would it even be chemically feasible for him to get enough Germane to weaponize it? Is there anyone who knows enough about the chemistry who could weigh in?

Thanks!

[martian]

If you are a Gamemaster, then Germane is explosive exactly as much as you need it to be.

[snewsom2997]

Going to have to agree with martian on this.

Make the Old Man's breakout of (Special Weapons >:D) conditional on the good guys achieving one or more goals, or reaching a certain milestone.

[Pat Payne]

Not a bad idea -- if they can disrupt The Old Man's operations enough, they won't have to face the fires of perdition.  >:D

I've a mind to write the encounters up as tracks, so I could perhaps write that in as a Warchest addon that he can use if he can afford it...

[Colt Ward]

I think it would be better written up as a additional objective for the players . . . +whatever, players must get infantry or BA into a pumphouse before X turn and have them there for Y turns to take control or break opposition's remote control of system.  If they do not, NPC/opposing player gets to use 5 (or whatever) hexes of germane torch sites.  You could also treat the sites as 'lava' hexes for the purpose of the effects though for a twist if they are in neighboring hexes they pick up extra heat.

Give it to them as a optional addition to one of the early scenarios.  If they do not choose to accept the option then the opposition could randomly have some of the germane burners to position in later scenarios.

It could/would also drive home the need for infantry to secure facilities.

[mbear]

You could also treat the sites as 'lava' hexes for the purpose of the effects though for a twist if they are in neighboring hexes they pick up extra heat.

Maybe use the Volcanic Eruption rules first, to represent the gas exploding? Makes it even more important that they get the control systems for the mines.  (See TacOps, pp. 37-38 for volcano and lava/magma effects.)

[snewsom2997]

Maybe use the Volcanic Eruption rules first, to represent the gas exploding? Makes it even more important that they get the control systems for the mines.  (See TacOps, pp. 37-38 for volcano and lava/magma effects.)

I like.  >:D

[Pat Payne]

I like.  >:D

So do I. In fact that idea (and the fact that it looks like it's on sale at RPGNow at the moment) spurred me into getting TacOps :)