WASP Injection Knife Options

[ImmoralSalvage]

Yeah a friend of mine wanted to introduce the WASP Injection Knife to shadow run. The main problem is that it is an instantaneous death since the air pressure ruptures all the internal organs. Now granted the knife needs to load a new CO2 canister after every use, but the weapon still seems broke to me if you guys would be willing to share your thoughts with me on this I would appreciate it.

[Muspellsheimr]

Next time, use the damn search. This is at least the third time this has been brought up.

[hyzmarca]

Someone should point out how extremely homoerotic a knife that ejaculates actually is, instantly defeating any attempts to use it in combat by making the players far too embarrassed to try.


But to be more helpful, a watermelon ain't a person and is substantially more vulnerable to spectacular damage than humans are. Just watch any Gallagher show to understand this. I don't believe that it would cause instant death. Maybe a slight damage increase.

[ImmoralSalvage]

True but if I inject you with a needle full of air. The air bubble will reach your heart and cause it to burst, and kill you. So I kind of assumes that this would work on a similar principle.

[Gast]

Yes, if you ram the knife into his heart and then pump your hot, um, air in it, he will most certainly die. Although a simple knife to the heart would have been sufficent.

[hyzmarca]

True but if I inject you with a needle full of air. The air bubble will reach your heart and cause it to burst, and kill you. So I kind of assumes that this would work on a similar principle.

Actually, no.

If you inject air directly into someone's artery then the the air may block blood flow to vital areas of the body. This is known as an air embolism. There is no heart exploding and the injection must be done into a blood vessel, preferably an artery because most venous air embolisms are survivable. And the gas can flow around for a very long time without actually casing any damage, giving time to get the person in a pressure chamber.

The most important part here is that it must be injected into a blood vessel. Knives do not do this very well and all. The second point is that an embolism can float around for days without causing any problems.

This knife does not cause embolisms.

Edit: Actually, this knife might cause am embolism if you stab someone in the lung with it, because there are many blood vessels in the lung which air can be forced into. But the lung-stab is going to be what kills the guy.

[HappyDaze]

Edit: Actually, this knife might cause am embolism if you stab someone in the lung with it, because there are many blood vessels in the lung which air can be forced into. But the lung-stab is going to be what kills the guy.

The resulting pneumothorax that prevents reinflation of the lung is a big hit too - and any pericardial damge from such a weapon is likely to be instantly fatal. Gut wounds are going to be a real bitch, but most limb trauma - the most common type of knife wound - is only going to be increased by a slight bit.

My call - treat it as ExEx modifiers to the knife damage and be done with it.

[Method]

hyzmarca and HappyDaze are basically right. All emboli (air, thrombus, fat, bacteria, etc.) come in two flavors- venous side and arterial side. Emboli from one side don't cross over because capillary beds (peripheral and alveolar in the lungs) filter them out (unless you have right to left shunt like a patent foramen ovale). There are very few arteries in which an air embolism would cause "instant death" (and even then stroke and MI aren't really instantaneous), and most of those arteries are central and deep- the kinds of arteries where simply having a knife stuck in them is ungood 'nuf to get the job done in pretty short order. Big air embolism in the lung causes pneumothorax, but the resultant collapsed lung isn't going to kill you all that fast unless its a tension pneumo, which is ungood. A knife in the pericardium is also ungood 'nuf to get the job done without a lot of air. Bleeding into the pericardium causes cardiac tamponade which will also kill you in short order.

Overall, this knife is interesting, but its kind of pointless.

And I liked this thread:

highlights included "never bring a knife to a shark fight", and something about bludgeoning sharks with your huge balls

[ImmoralSalvage]

I would like to thank everyone for there in put. I told my friend and he is still convinced it is and instant kill this is what he said “Its putting a small bead of air into you then blowing it up to the size of a basketball instantly it would look like the chest bursters from Alien� I personally know nothing about this weapon so I don't know if that is true or not, but if it is that’s even more reason for me to ban it from my campaign.

[Ol' Scratch]

That or it would just shoot the knife right back out and clobber you with it. The body is surprisingly resilent. Far more than a watemelon is. It would hurt, but not that much.

If I were going to give it stats, I'd take a basic knife, make it an Exotic Melee Weapon, worsen the AP by +1, improve the DV by +2 to +4, and give it a similar reprecussion to a monofilament whip if you get a glitch. Maybe add a +1 or +2 Knockdown bonus to it just to make it interesting. But that would be about it.

There's no such thing as an "instant kill" in Shadowrun. You can have someone shoot you at point-blank range with a railgun and you still get to roll against it. A knife that gives you a blowjob isn't suddenly going to be a doomsday weapon.

[HappyDaze]

The body is surprisingly resilent. Far more than a watemelon is. It would hurt, but not that much.

Indeed. I'd have been more interested if they would have at least shoved it into a hefty side of beef.

[Method]

...then blowing it up to the size of a basketball instantly it would look like the chest bursters from Alien...

Well i guess so, but then an Ex-Ex heavy pistol round does the same, only it can do it from a distance... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Muspellsheimr]

I would like to thank everyone for there in put. I told my friend and he is still convinced it is and instant kill this is what he said “Its putting a small bead of air into you then blowing it up to the size of a basketball instantly it would look like the chest bursters from Alien� I personally know nothing about this weapon so I don't know if that is true or not, but if it is that’s even more reason for me to ban it from my campaign.

Have him purchase the weapon (real life), kidnap some bum, & prove it to you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ork.gif) (or use a large chunk of meat, if you are not into murder). For some reason I doubt he will even be able to hold on to the weapon when he uses the injection feature, & even if he does, the result will be nothing like what he expects, as described by numerous posters above.

[ImmoralSalvage]

Ok Thanks for the advice.