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The Babylon Project, Babylon Project, Babylon5, Babylon 5, TBP, Role Playing Game, RPG, PsiCorps, Psi Corps, Dust, Stims, Drugs, Explosives, Bombs, Poison, Anarchist Cookbook
These rules are an unofficial supplement to The Babylon Project. A Role Playing
Game by Chameleon Eclectic. This setting for this game is based on the Babylon
5 television show by Warner Bros. Please feel free to
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comments, corrections, or changes.
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This page is for rules concerning drugs, poisons, and home made explosives. It contains information on costs, effects, and the skills necessary to properly prepare and use them. Skills , Drugs , Poisons , Explosives .
For additional rules go back to the index.
Most of the skills needed to handle the use of drugs and explosives exist in the main TBP rule book. However, the are no rules for one of the favorite tools of Centauri justice, namely poison. This section will briefly discuss the applications of known skills, and add one new skill Alchemy .
This skill covers the making of Explosives, Drugs, and Poisons in well equipped laboratories. Chemical Engineers will suffer penalties for attempting to work with improvised equipment or raw materials. These penalties can be as small as -2 for working in a sub standard lab, to -6 for working in a kitchen with generic household chemicals.
Covers the placement of explosive devices to cause the maximum amount of destruction. Given time and access a civil engineer can cause major structural damage to buildings with relatively small amounts of explosives. Also, civil engineering covers the layout of public walkways, etc. This will allow a civil engineer use blue prints (rather than personal observation) to determine the best place to set explosives to injure large quantities of people.
Triggering devices for bombs will require one or both of these skills depending on type. Generally timers and remote activated triggers will fall under the electrical category. Pressure switches, mail bombs, anti-tamper trips and other 'booby trap' type devices will typically be mechanical. A critical failure on a trigger role will generally indicate a premature detonation of some kind, either immediately or while setting the device in the field.
These skills cover the use of mind altering drugs for interrogation purposes. While there are no 'truth serums' even in the 2250's skilled interrogators can use disorienting drugs to extract information from people. Psi scanning is usually a more efficient way to get this type of information, but many organizations are hesitant to include telepaths in their activities. These skills also cover the efficient searching of a site for bombs or other devices.
Clearly the largest source of information on drugs can come from pharmacists. Drugs such as Stims are legal in most circumstances, but can be abused (see Dr. Franklin). This skill provide allows for the creation of drugs in the confines of a well equipped laboratory setting. This skill does not provide for the use or creation of specific poisons, but misapplication or overdosing on many drugs can be fatal. Generally the cause of death will be obvious in a postmortem examination.
Better living through illicit chemistry . This skill cover the creation
and (mis)use of pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs, and common household products
to create poisons and other drugs. Also, covers the creation of explosives
from commonly available materials. Usually based on Intelligence.
Specialties include Poisons, Explosive, and Drugs
- Creation of explosives by Alchemy results in products that unstable and
dangerous to the user. However, they will not contain “taggants” that allow
authorities to back track the source of the explosives (unless they were
in the raw materials. This skill only covers simple triggers (i.e. fuses,
pressure sensitive caps). Complex bombs to be set off by remote, timers,
anti-tampering devices, etc. will require other skills.
- Interrogation and recreational usage are covered under the specialty of
drugs (mind-altering).
OPTION: In the basic configuration for the Alchemy skill, the specialties of poisons and drugs are separated, but function across racial lines. Depending on the background of the character in question this may make little sense. If appropriate the GM can group Poison and Drugs, and then have racial specialties. i.e. Explosives, Poisons & Drugs: Human, Poisons & Drugs: Centauri, etc.
This section under construction. Sorry.
Dust is a psychoactive compound that affects the psionic areas of the brains of both telepaths and non-telepaths.
When taken by non-telepaths the user is subjected to physchotic episodes and rages. He also conducts scans of all nearby individuals on a round by round basis. Use a net net ability level of 3 [stat+skill] for resolving these scans. Note: Dust does work on Narn's even though their race has no telepaths.
When taken by telepaths Dust has extremely unpredicatable results. Roll a d6: [1-2] TP goes unconcous from overload; [3-4] +3 to ability accompanied by violent psychosis; [5] +5 to ability accompanied by fear and a desire to flee; [6] +7 to ability and will mentally attack nearby indivduals at Damage 8, task versus victims Resolve.
A powerful stimulant taken by injection. Small and irregular doses are not adictive, though over use to addiction levels is relatively easy. Addicited individuals will be exceedingly irritable, prone to rages, and will frequently make mental mistakes (-2 to -6 on all mental tasks depnding on degree of addiction).
Poisons come in many forms subject only to the imagination of the creator. The following table summarizes the important modifiers for handling poisons. Task resolution is discussed below the table.
Poison Modifiers |
|||||||
| Mod. | Delivery | Quantity | Detection | Onset Speed | Delayed Action | Lab | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+2 |
Injected | Lots (250 ml+) | Noxious | 10-60 min. | n/a | Large | n/a |
0 |
Drunk / Eaten | Moderate (25-250 ml) | Unpleasant | 2-10 min | none | Small | 1 |
-2 |
Inhaled / Open Wound | Small (2.5-25 ml) | Mild | 20 - 120 sec | 4 hr | Improv | 2 |
-4 |
Skin Contact | Very Small (0.25-2.5 ml) | Not Detectable | 4 - 20 sec | 4 - 24 hr | None | 3 |
Notes:
Delivery is the method of delivery into the body of the target.
The Open Wound Category at (-2) covers most weapons where the blade or needle
is simply coated in a poison. Weapons that are specifically designed to inject
poison may fall under the +2 category if a vital area is hit (Areas 1-5),
or at +0 for a non-vital area (Areas 6-15). Any weapon hit that does initial
damage (even if reduced to 0 in final damage) will deliver the poison, however
a weapon that is fully blocked by armor will not.
Inhaled or ingested poisons automatically affect the chest (Area 2-3) or
Vitals (Area 4) respectively.
Quantity is self explanatory. Most weapon delivered poisons will
fall in the -2 category.
Detection is how noticeable a poisons is to living senses (not
mechanical sensors). Noxious poisons will be immediately noticed at a distance
(i.e. ammonia cleaners, rotten egg smell, etc). Unpleasant poisons may not
be noticed at a distance, but would be obvious if consumed in food (i.e.
excessive bitterness). Mild flavors may be covered in strong tasting dishes
or drinks. Detection may be handled as a task versus Perception if needed.
Onset speed is the time between the symptoms starting and the damage
resolution from the poison. Unless delayed action is also included the individual
will immediately know they have been poisoned even though damage will not
be resolved until later. Prompt medical action (universal antidotes, stomach
pump, etc.) BEFORE the task is resolved may add +2 to +4 to the victims roll
at the discretion of the GM.
Delayed Action allows for a delay between administering the poison
and the onset of symptoms. The victim will have no way of realizing that
he is poisoned until the onset of symptoms or a thorough medical examination.
Additional categories; delay of 1-7 days is (-6), 1-6 weeks (-8).
Lab covers the facility where the poison is formulated. The categories
refers to the size of a general chemistry lab. A facility specifically designed
for the making of poisons will gain an additional +2, thus a Small Poison
Lab is (+2), and a Large one (+4). GM WARNING: Access to advanced poison
facilities should be carefully limited for both PC's and NPC's as the large
bonuses can turn a dangerous poisoner into an unstoppable killing machine.
The discovery of poisoning facilities by local authorities will almost always
be treated harshly by local authorities.
Phase is the number of components required to activate the poison.
For example Londo poisoned Refa with a 2 phase poison where the first was
the drink and the second could be administered later.
Poisoning is a contested task between the individual who made the poison (based on his stats and skills) plus or minus the cumulative modifiers from the above table Versus the victim's Endurance (usually with no applicable skills). Damage is then set be the result of the test by the following table.
| Critical Failure | Dam 4 |
| Significant Failure | Dam 6 |
| Normal Failure | Dam 8 |
| Marginal Failure | Dam 10 |
| Marginal Success | Dam 12 |
| Normal Success | Dam 14 |
| Significant Success | Dam 16 |
| Critical Success | Dam 18 |
Final Impairment is read on the BURN row of the table, though the bleed shift for poisoning is always zero. Actually, of course, the victim isn't bleeding, but dying from the poison. However for simplicity's sake we will resolve it the same way. Medical rolls to stop the 'bleed' effects of poison are at -2. Poisons never 'break bones' and therefore poison wounds do not suffer the slow healing effects from being in the purple "B" column.
Example: A member of the Centauri Assassin's Guild is hired to poison a local business man. He chooses to do this by the ancient and well respected method of Chaumurky, "The poisoning of the drink". The assassin has an intelligence of 6, Alchemy of 3 with a specialty in poisoning. Furthermore, he has access to the main lab of the guild. He chooses to use a mildly flavored poison that he hopes to slip into the businessman's Bravari. In addition to insure he has time to escape he want the poison to take effect a few hours after ingestion, but after that it can take several minutes to work. Slipping through the kitchens of the palace he manages to pour a small amount of poison (~10ml) into a drink to be served to the businessman who drinks it. The businessman has an endurance of 5, and a Toughness of 1.
The base skill for the Assassin is 11 [6+3+2].
The base skill for the businessman is 5 [5+0+0].
The modifier for the poison is -2: [+0 Drunk, -2 Small Quant, -2 Low Detection,
+0 Onset (2-10min), -2 Delay (1-4 hours), +0 One Phase, +4 Large Poison Specific
Lab]
Random modifiers are Assassin (-1), Businessman (+2). Thus the final task
values for the two sides are
Assassin 8 [11-1-2] and Businessman 7 [5+2], for a net marginal success to
the assassin.
The businessman takes damage 12 to area 4 vitals. Final Impairment yields
damage 13 (-1 for toughness, +2 for area). If not given first aid within
20 minutes the business man will die, and he is also on the decline path
and will expire within 15 hours without hospitalization.
Flammable compounds (like gasoline) that form the backbone of most illicit explosives are not normally available in domed colonies or space stations. Though they still are available on habitable planets. Because of this players will have to be a bit more ingenious in obtaining raw materials for improvised bombs. For example they may try to tap into the environmental system for a methane breathing race.
The following is a list of costs for explosives and related equipment if purchased by approved and licensed end-users (i.e. mining companies). Black market prices will be at least five times these amounts, and more likely ten to fifteen times.
| Item | Cost (EACr) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Granulated Explosive | 60/Kg | Loosely packable crystals |
| Rigid Explosive | 50/Kg | Rigid sticks similar to dynamite |
| Plastic Explosive | 100/Kg | High cost due to malleability |
| Shaped Charges | 100/Kg | +2 damage in primary direction, -2 damage in others |
| Liquid Explosives | 150/Kg | Nitroglycerine, unstable |
| Blasting Caps | 5/cap | detonates by electrical signal |
| Plunger | 75 | 1 signal to one or more caps |
| Blasting Board | 500 | Coordinates sequential signals to multiple caps |
NOTES: Cost is per Kg of effective explosive. Some delivery systems (most notably rigid explosives) contain filler material and will actual weigh more than 1 Kg per Kg of effective force. As a general rule, the more stable the explosive the more filler material is involved.
Damage for explosives will be impact damage if the device is planted in a non-fragmenting container (i.e. a paper box). Damage will be Cavity Shock (CS) if the explosive is packed with a potential fragments (i.e. nails, bolts, etc.)
Amount |
Point | 2m | 4m | 6m | 8m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 111 g | 14 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 |
| 250 g | 16 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 8 |
| 1 Kg | 18 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 10 |
| 4 Kg | 20 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 12 |
| 9 Kg | 22 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 14 |
| 16 Kg | 24 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 16 |
NOTES: Point, means that the person is immediately on top of the explosive (within ~25cm) when it goes off. Distances should always be rounded up to the lower damage (thus someone 3 meters from an explosion would read damage from the 4m column).
OPTION (for quantities of explosive of 1kg or more): To more precisely calculate the amount of damage you may use the following equations:
Disarming of a bomb will normally be covered under Mechanical or Electrical Engineering. However, Investigation or Tactics may make an attempt with a base skill level of zero (using Wits + Coordination [rounded up] for attribute). A critical failure will cause the device to explode immediately. Other failures will allow for sufficient time to run for cover.
The Centauri Empire will cheerfully take your comments if you send them to our local Ambassador .