Mustard gas

[Vespers War]

Highly persistent chemical warfare agents are not really what a military usually looks for. If something sticks to surfaces for a long time, you endanger your own soldiers, either when reclaiming lost territory or passing through newly conquered. Using long persistence chemical agents is a lot like salting the land, except also contaminating buildings, wells etc. one might want to use.

Early on (I'm talking WW1 to the mid-1920s), a mixture of persistence levels was sought for chemical weapons. The longer-lasting vesicants would be used for multi-day area denial for regions the using military didn't plan to traverse. Areas that were to be occupied would use short-duration gases like phosgene or Vitrite (70% cyanogen chloride + 30% arsenic trichloride).

Later, the Soviets were very interested in persistent chemical weapons as a way of denying their flanks during a push into enemy territory. In their view, it was more important to maintain speed and be able to ignore their flanks than it was to preserve infrastructure they didn't have time to occupy.

[pmulcahy11b]

Don't the BYBs have a decent write up on various gasses

[Vespers War]

Don't the BYBs have a decent write up on various gasses

V2.2 has two columns of text about chemical weapons. As basic rules, they're adequate, although they're very simplified and use only a few broad categories.

Irritant gases: cause no damage, but make a panic roll or flee and an AVG:CON roll or be incapacitated for 10 minutes (unless wearing a gas mask).

Blood agents: if not wearing a gas mask, take 2d6 to the chest each combat turn. This category includes asphyxiating agents.

Blister agent: if not wearing a mask, same damage as blood agent. If not wearing a chemical defense suit, treat like an irritant agent without a mask.

Nerve gas: deals 1d6 to head and 1d6 to chest every 3 combat turns. No head damage if masked and no chest damage if masked and suited. If a serious wound level is reached, damage continues even after removal of the gas until dead or injected with atropine.

Blister, blood, or nerve gas will contaminate ground for several hours and vehicles for several days.


As a simple set of rules it's not terrible. My thoughts on where additional complexity might be called for:
1. Blood and asphyxiating agents should probably be split apart. Their non-lethal symptoms can be very different.
2. Blister agents do not cause as much damage as blood/asphyxiating agents.
3. Not all blister agents have an immediate irritant effect (Lewisite does; sulfur mustard doesn't). Likewise, not all gases cause immediate damage (phosgene poisoning symptoms can appear hours after exposure).
4. There are no long-term effects of gas exposure to blood or blister agents, when in reality secondary infections were a major factor in casualty rates.
5. I don't think nerve gas should be as significantly less damaging than blood/blister agents. It does 1/3 the total damage, split between two locations.
6. Blood agents, blister agents, and nerve gases all have their clouds last the same amount of time. This should probably vary by agent and delivery method.
7. Contamination is also the same regardless of chemical type, at several hours for the ground and several days for vehicles. This should vary by agent.

If I was to rewrite the rules for chemical weapons, I'd be tempted to treat chemical agents as diseases with very high Infection Number, very low Recovery and Failed Recovery Death Probability numbers, and heavy Postrecovery Debility penalties. Most of them are unlikely to kill you, but they leave you extremely fatigued and susceptible to other diseases.

[swaghauler]

V2.2 has two columns of text about chemical weapons. As basic rules, they're adequate, although they're very simplified and use only a few broad categories.

Irritant gases: cause no damage, but make a panic roll or flee and an AVG:CON roll or be incapacitated for 10 minutes (unless wearing a gas mask).

Blood agents: if not wearing a gas mask, take 2d6 to the chest each combat turn. This category includes asphyxiating agents.

Blister agent: if not wearing a mask, same damage as blood agent. If not wearing a chemical defense suit, treat like an irritant agent without a mask.

Nerve gas: deals 1d6 to head and 1d6 to chest every 3 combat turns. No head damage if masked and no chest damage if masked and suited. If a serious wound level is reached, damage continues even after removal of the gas until dead or injected with atropine.

Blister, blood, or nerve gas will contaminate ground for several hours and vehicles for several days.


As a simple set of rules it's not terrible. My thoughts on where additional complexity might be called for:
1. Blood and asphyxiating agents should probably be split apart. Their non-lethal symptoms can be very different.
2. Blister agents do not cause as much damage as blood/asphyxiating agents.
3. Not all blister agents have an immediate irritant effect (Lewisite does; sulfur mustard doesn't). Likewise, not all gases cause immediate damage (phosgene poisoning symptoms can appear hours after exposure).
4. There are no long-term effects of gas exposure to blood or blister agents, when in reality secondary infections were a major factor in casualty rates.
5. I don't think nerve gas should be as significantly less damaging than blood/blister agents. It does 1/3 the total damage, split between two locations.
6. Blood agents, blister agents, and nerve gases all have their clouds last the same amount of time. This should probably vary by agent and delivery method.
7. Contamination is also the same regardless of chemical type, at several hours for the ground and several days for vehicles. This should vary by agent.

If I was to rewrite the rules for chemical weapons, I'd be tempted to treat chemical agents as diseases with very high Infection Number, very low Recovery and Failed Recovery Death Probability numbers, and heavy Postrecovery Debility penalties. Most of them are unlikely to kill you, but they leave you extremely fatigued and susceptible to other diseases.

I couldn't agree more with your assessment.

One other thing I do for Diseases, Contamination (chemical and nuclear), and even Critical wounds is to have the PC make a "Save" against one or more relevant ATTRIBUTES (CON, STR, AGL, etc...) just like the AGING SAVE in character generation. Roll OVER your current score or lose a point of that Characteristic.

To balance the potential loss of Attributes out, I give the PCs ONE EXPERIENCE POINT per adventure session to apply to the Attribute of their choice. Once they have accrued a number of EXPERIENCE POINTS GREATER THAN their current score, they may roll a D10 to raise that score. IF they roll OVER their CURRENT STAT, the Attribute increases 1 point and a number of EXP equal to the NEW SCORE is deducted from the Attribute's EXP total.

[ChalkLine]

My great grandad was a gunner in The Great War and was hospitalised for gas injuries (gas was a favourite for counter-battery use). He was considered healthy enough to serve in The Second World War later so its long term effects might vary.

[Raellus]

Personal Connections & Famous Mustard Gas Recipients

Were you ever able to speak to your great grandad about his war experiences, Chalk

When I was in high school in the early 1990s, I had to do community service as an I.B. diploma requirement. My class of four volunteered at the nursing home in the British Hospital in Montevideo, Uruguay. One of the gentlemen residing there at the time was a gunner on Vickers F.B.5 "Gunbus" two-seat pusher plane during the Great War. He wasn't reticent about talking about his experiences in the war- unfortunately, however, he couldn't remember many details.

Back on topic, Adolf Hitler was temporarily blinded by a British gas attack during WWI. Several sources specify that it was mustard. Unfortunately, he suffered no serious long long-term physical effects from the exposure. Psychological effects, on the other hand...


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