Broken CDs, How much damage do they do? Options

[Tanka]

You know what I'm talking about... You got an AOL CD and decided to play frisbee with it. Next you know, it breaks on the door, you go to pick up the pieces, and you end up bleeding for nearly an hour. It also leaves splinters in there, and just plain sucks.

So, what exactly is the damage code for a broken CD?

I'd like to venture (Str +3)L that, if you aren't careful, does the same back to you.

[BumsofTacoma]

id say str - 1 light.

null agains any armor(trust me it aint going through anything but skin, thats if your lucky......er unlucky)

[Tanka]

Broken CDs are much sharper than knives, actually. I just did a test by breaking a coasterized RW and taking one of my knives, then trying to cut a piece of paper, then a piece of a mailing box. The CD went through both like it didn't exist, whereas the knife had some problems with the box.

(Str-1)L is too knifish, and CDs are made much differently than knives. When you break a CD, many things happen. The plastic covering (the part that is usually scratched and smudged) is blown apart. The silicon that is inside to help slow down wear and tear of the data is spilled everywhere (which is really fragging hard to clean up). The actual CD that holds the data shatters and creates very jagged edges, and one that is always sharper than most any knife I or any of my friends have come in contact with.

[Game2BHappy]

okay then... how about (Str)L, double impact armor?

[Ol' Scratch]

I'd say it's like Rattan Sticks. Give it a base code of (Str-1)L and then apply the Flechette rules. In other words, it's (Str-1)M against bare flesh, but against armor it's doubled and drops back down to L.

[Adarael]

That's ridiculous, really.
A CD cannot make an effective melee weapon unless one has some kind of adept powers (Missile Master, etc). It's a piece of plastic that's only *vaguely* as sharp as a dull knife.

That's like asking for the damage code for a plastic spork.

[Tanka]

Broken CD, mind you. Ever try to pick one up without cutting yourself in some fashion?

[Adarael]

About every week, actually. I work as a tech, and we break a lot of junk CDs that come in the mail.

[Austere Emancipa...]

I gotta agree with Adarael here... I've broken quite a few of them with my bare hands, never hurt myself on them. I mean sure, something with glass-like qualities will be rather sharp when it's broken. But by this logic you ought to make a broken bottle at least (S+4)L, preferably (S+2M) or something. And that's just silly.

[Game2BHappy]

...and the broken bottle is easier to hold onto. Personally, if one of my players picks up odd items for melee I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt - it fosters creativity in their style. Realistically, my sweatshirt will likely stop a determined CD wielder. :)

[Tziluthi]

I don't know about broken CDs, but how about the damage code for frisbee-ing a whole CD at someone. They can hold a pretty impressive amount of speed, and they make a bloody loud clunk when they hit something. (Str)L Stun would be my guess.

[Kagetenshi]

I don't know about that. Remember, a Light wound is a fairly big deal in Shadowrun, enough to make a task a fair amount harder; I just don't see a CD doing that kind of damage. Maybe (STR-4)[null], where null is nothing but can be staged to something through large numbers of successes.

~J

[Tanka]

Yet, IIRC, paintballs do some amount of Stun. Of course, this leads to the Daria quote...

"Those paintball thingies hurt!"

[Kagetenshi]

Paintballs do what, 4L stun? I find that a bit high, but a lot more reasonable than a CD doing anything above 2L in human hands. Even 2L is high.

~J

[Tanka]

You have to remember staging, too. Your average guy (Bod 3, no armor) is going to bring that down. Now, say he's wearing a lot of clothes, giving him a virtual Impact 1, if the double armor rules is incorporated, that means he has to roll... 2s. Which they'll do almost every time.

Your Bod 1 guy, however, is going to get cut and wind up in pain quite a bit.

Oh, and, while we're at it... Paper cuts! Even your Bod 6 guy winces in pain when he slices his finger open with one of those. (ed) They also tend to sting a lot because your hands are one of the sweatiest parts of your body. Distraction mod, anyone?

[BumsofTacoma]

Paintball guns can fire at up to 400 fps, sometimes higher, that can do damage, leave welts, draw blood at close enough range. especially if you shoot a marble or ball bearing.

I have snapped cd's in two with one hand and never cut my self.

although throwing them does hurt. and if you hit someone in the head with it they do bleed pretty good, if thrown hard enough that is. :eek:


i couldnt tell you how much it would hurt, i never winced at paper cuts, i have bad nreves and sens little or no pain in most of my skin, problem is this also means little or no pleasure. :(

[Eindrachen]

CDs could, theoretically, do significant damage, but the chances they will should be next to none.

I'd set the damage code to [Str/2] L. I'd venture to guess it's more aerodynamic than a shuriken, so I'd give it a slightly better range; say, base the ranges on Str x2, or Str +3. Make Impact armor the one to use, and if it hits any armor rated 4 or better, the CD shatters (becoming useless for throwing).

Keep the code for melee use, but raise TN to hit someone by +2 (it is definitely not a very wieldy melee weapon); keep the shatter rule.

[Kagetenshi]

Ah, but most people aren't going to be wearing enough clothing to provide any impact armor, except maybe in the dead of winter. So we're talking an average of 1.5 successes; one in two times, they're going to sustain a wound bad enough to make a task that a single die has a 50% chance of success on into a task that a single die has a 33% chance of success on.
I just don't see that happening with a CD.
As for paper cuts: yes, they hurt. Do they make EVERYTHING harder to do? I sharpen knives a lot, and I have a casual disregard for my own safety while doing so, so I end up with a lot of cuts on my hands. I can tell you that they rarely interfere, and even then usually only with certain specific tasks that rub the cut the wrong way. No modifiers unless most of the body is covered in them.

~J

[Tanka]

I wear the equivalent of Forearm Guards while outside of my house (Not including work). Does that mean I can stage better than the rest of you guys? :grinbig:

[RangerJoe]

This just reminds me why I want to make a white collar office-assassin adept. Think of the possibilities: oragami paper knives, CD-ahem-optical chip barrages, skilled shots of pen ink into his enemies' eyes....

[Hero]

About the paintball thing, the highest velocity I have obtained is 350fps, airsoft guns on the other hand are in the 400fps range. The reason why paintballs hurt as much as they do even when at lower velocities then airsoft guns, is because the large impact area, have an airsoft buddy to back it up that says per round the paintball hurts more then an airsoft pellet. Being shot with a hot marker, hot means above field regulated velocities, hurts like a mothers and is capable of knocking somebody out. I have shot about three people to my knowledge in the balls at ranges no greater then 8-10 feet and they dropped like a sack of bricks, and one of those people I nailed once inside each thigh. Lets just say he was not able to play for 20+ min. So I think the 4L that is applied to paintball markers it well deserved.

And as for the broken CD thing, you don't through broken CDs, you use them to slash and stab people. Throughing a broken CD does not accomplish much unless you get a luck hit in the face and what not, but the lucky hit has to hit with the broken edge of the CD. So I say a broken CD used as a slashing/stabbing tool would do as much damage as a knife, and maybe a special wound modifier for healing because of the shards.

[Tanka]

[BumsofTacoma]

[Kagetenshi]

Even non-thrown they're still just not going to be an effective weapon. Not at all. Not knife-level, not toothpick-level. There's just no way to use it effectively. They're one of the things that if you have it in your hand when a fight starts, you drop it and fight with your bare hand.

~J

[Tanka]

I'd fight with one just to say I did... Of course I have the insane reach of being tall and also being lanky so I can move around hits somehow... But that isn't the point!