Thermite, do your Shadowrunners use it? Options

[ShadowDragon8685]

And no, I don't mean that silly "Thermite Burning Bar" in the BBB, either.

I mean Thermite. It's a powdered mixture of aluminimum and iron oxide which, when ignited, burns at 2,500 degrees centigrade. (When done right; YMMV.)

The cool properties of thermite are:

1. It's very, very, very hot.
2. Because it's Aluminium oxidizing with the oxide of another metal, it dosen't need external oxygen to burn. This means there is literally no way to stop the reaction once it's started.
(Don't just take my word on it if you're skeptical. Check Wikipedia.)
3. It's dirt-cheap and easy to make, plus unless you're trying to "powder" the metals involved (Aluminium and rust) by packing bars of aluminum and rust flakes around a bomb, you can't have a catastrophie while making it. (Just remenber your eyes, mouth, and body protection; this is powdered metal you're working with.)
4. Did I mention that once you start the reaction, there's no stopping it? Not water (they use Thermite for underwater welding!), not CO2 gas, not Halon, not nothing. I'm not sure the stuff won't burn in a vacuum.

[Kagetenshi]

You can stop it burning by cooling it very rapidly or by scattering it. Furthermore, you seriously underestimate the danger of grinding aluminium. It's not fantastically dangerous, but it still takes some care to avoid some nasty things happening.

That said, we use it early and often.

~J

[ShadowDragon8685]

They poured the stuff into liquid nitrogen. I don't see any (practical) ways to stop it if that didn't work.

And as for scattering it, the only way I see of doing that would be to throw a frag grenade into the container of it. And really, are you going to throw a frag grenade into a pile of reacting thermite? Because I'd think you're loco.

The main idea behind using it, though IME, would be as a distraction - arrange it in flowerpots around the target site, possibly with flower-shaped ignition sources. Once they start going off, the fire surpression won't work on it, and people will panic and GTFO.

Or on top of the engine block of every car in the garage - that'll be a nice distraction - though better to put it over the fuel tank if the cars are driven by combustible fuel stored internally.

Or just set off a 55 gallon drum of the stuff on the roof. :)

[Austere Emancipa...]

Thermate gets used a bit in my games. A few incendiary grenades are often carried around, but they aren't used for much more than immobilizing vehicles and flushing people out.

[ShadowDragon8685]

[Serbitar]

Wasnt thermite extremely expensive and had an availablity of ultra high?

Forgot the numbers.

Edit: ok, not that bad. Avail: 12/14 days; SI: 2; 500 Nuyen/kg (see kg, not pounds or feet or gallons)

[Ryu]

The usability of thermite is often questionable in my opinion.

Welding is not somethings my runners had to do.

Silent destruction certainly is something that does come up.

Using a thermite bar to open something is not very realistic, and a controlled thermite reaction takes too much time and preparation.


If you go custom and aim for destructive value, try putting magnesium in a thermite tube.

[mmu1]

Our group uses it a lot.

Aside from the normal use for property destruction or heavy-duty cutting, we've used it to kill several things with absurd regenerative powers.
A character of mine also forced a guy's face down into a burning thermite charge and held him there until he stopped twitching, but he had it coming. (He'd used elementals and spirits to bury 30-40 people alive behind tons of rock, though we were only going to beat the crap out of him and turn him over to our employer, until he had the bright idea to use one of his spirits to hold our rigger hostage to avoid capture, and hurt her badly in the process. The spirit got banished, and he died screaming.)
In addition, I think we used a burning bar as a threat to get someone talking, but never had to actually fire it up and make good on it, fortunately.

[Austere Emancipa...]

[Ryu]

I know about the noise; we did some thermite burning in school - I know why I loved the natural sciences. I think that you can use it in an industrial environment without anyone not knowing the "right" sounds of the place being the wiser. As oposed to anyone near a major explosion.

We did not need thermite so far because noise is no issue if you are far away, and much destruction can be caused with the right technical skills alone. As in taking a hammer to the right places of the controlling electronics.

[Marmot]

Screw thermite, we had our troll attack someone with a thermal lance in the genitals once. Now if that isn't hardcore, I don't know what is.

[X-Kalibur]

[Marmot]

This is true, but the question would then be: After taking a thermal lance to the genitals, would you want to get back up?

[Butterblume]

I am still trying to figure out a way of using termites on a run :P.

[PBTHHHHT]

The answer is very carefully. It's kinda like you shouldn't be running with scissors... oh you mean... :-P

[KarmaInferno]

We used carpenter ants, is that close enough?

Snuck into a site earlier and seeded the area with the ants. Waited til they called an exterminator and intercepted the call. Showed up as the exterminators.

:)

Thermite can make an effective interrogation tool. I'll leave it at that.

:D


-karma

[PBTHHHHT]

Nice. Question for ya, what did ya stick inside your extermination cans for equipment?

[Kagetenshi]

We got offered a run by the U.B. It may or may not involve termites.

~J

[Fix-it]

thermite is an ideal way to destroy things because it is rediculously easy to aquire.

You need:

Scrap iron
Aluminum
Some way to set it off (magnesium and model rocket fuses)

for the from-the-barrens-down-on-his-luck runner type, it's right next to AK-47s as an everyday weapon.

[ShadowDragon8685]

I know - that's why it works underwater. :)

I guess it depends on the kind of vacuum - are we talking orbit, or a vacuum chamber? If we're talking orbit, it would probably disperse, but in a vac chamber, it might work... But it woulden't look normal. No flame - just metal getting hotter and hotter...

Plus, setting it off in vacuum would be hard.

[Sir_Psycho]

Is thermite like this in any of the rulebooks?

If not, anyone want to cook up some house rules?

[Kesslan]

Thermite is one of those oddities in the rulebooks. I think part of the only reason it's so expensive and has such a high avail raiting. Isnt because it's hard to use, but because at least in the every day setting... you really just dont see it being used at all.

It's one of those specialty industrial/military application type things. And even then it's not too common. But in the end if your careful, and know what your doing, it's stupid easy to make.

Personally I've rarely ever used incindiaries on runs. And the few times I did, it was almost allways to burn evidence. Nothing makes ash out of evidence better than some incidiaries the fire department cant put out! Woo!

[Kyoto Kid]

[Ryu]

About the only problem one might have producing thermite is accidentially igniting the aluminium while grinding it, right?

[Ophis]

One player of mine has a tendency to use burning bars on down vampires (regen that sucker!) another had the tendancy to try and work Thermite into every plan, ever only for it to get vetoed by the saner (all the rest) parts of the team. I think his best one was trying to work out how much termite it would take to burn through thirty floors of the Renraku Arc to allow the depositing of a box on a particular floor.