Pain rays are designed for area denial, such as breaking up mobs of rioters or forcing an approaching suspected threat to break off. However, they can be used for more unsavory purposes, such as torture with a low risk of injury.
In game terms, pain rays have a SM corresponding to the width of their beams. If this is 0 or more, the beam everything in the swath of hexes along the beam path equal to the width of the beam (for convenience, treat SM -1 as a 2 hex wide beam). If you are hit with a beam, make a HT check at -5 to avoid the pain. The degree of pain depends on how much of you is illuminated by the beam:
Beam SM | Effect |
your SM-2 or more | Terrible Pain (-6 to IQ, skill, and self-control) |
your SM-3 to your SM-4 | Excruciating Pain (-5 to IQ, skill, and self-control) |
your SM-5 to your SM-6 | Severe Pain (-4 to IQ, skill, and self-control) |
your SM-7 to your SM-8 | Intense Pain (-3 to IQ, skill, and self-control) |
your SM-9 to your SM-10 | Moderate Pain (-2 to IQ, skill, and self-control) |
your SM-11 to your SM-12 | Annoying Pain (-1 to IQ, skill, and self-control) |
Pain beams are not affected by non-conductive armor. They cannot get through conductive armor or any conductive material at all (including sheets of aluminum foil). If the pain ray is entirely incident on a part of the body completely protected by conductive material it has no effect. If the beam is partially blocked by conductive material, the level of pain will be reduced according to the effective SM of the area of skin exposed to the beam (for quick decisions, just reduce the pain penalty by 2).
Pain rays propagate for a set distance while remaining collimated. After that distance they begin to disperse due to diffraction and lose enough intensity to no longer cause pain. Beyond the listed range, they merely produce a feeling of warmth. Poor atmospheric conditions will reduce this range. At the point where there is a -2 vision penalty due to stuff in the air, the pain ray stops working and again only produces a warm feeling of radiant heat.
Pain rays do not work underwater. They are likely to fail to work on the more slow and sluggish cold-blooded animals, whose body temperatures tend to be well below those of humans and will take quite a bit more warming to reach the threshold of pain.
TL | Weapon | Damage | Acc | Range | Mass (kg) | ROF | Shots | Min ST | Bulk | Rcl | Cost | LC | Notes |
11 | Pocket Prod | HT-5 aff (SM -10) | 3 | 2/2 | 0.2/0.1 | 1 | 500 | 3 | -1 | 1 | $250 | 3 | |
11 | Pain Ray Pistol | HT-5 aff (SM -8) | 6 | 8/8 | 1/0.5 | 1 | 500 | 5 | -2 | 1 | $1.1 k | 3 | |
11 | Pain Ray Carbine | HT-5 aff (SM -6) | 12 | 35/35 | 5/2 | 1 | 500 | 8† | -4 | 1 | $5 k | 3 | |
11 | Pain Ray Cannon | HT-5 aff (SM -1) | 18+4 | 1.5 km/1.5 km | 200/100p | 1 | 500 | 52M | -10 | 1 | $250 k | 3 |
Descriptions
Pocket Prod: A compact hand-held pain ray pointed and aimed like a modern TV remote. It's narrow beam makes it more convenient for getting people's attention in a very unfriendly way, or convincing animals to move along, than actually providing control, subdual, or compliance. Skill: Beam Weapons (Pistol). Aperture 4 cm. Beam energy 0.18 kJ. Energy used per shot 0.2 kJ. Extra power cell 0.1 kg, $5.
Pain Ray Pistol: A side-arm sized pain ray. The relatively small area affected by the beam limits its effectiveness. Like the pain ray carbine, its focal dish is semi-transparent and folds up when the gun is powered down. Skill: Beam Weapons (Pistol). Aperture 9 cm. Beam energy 0.8 kJ. Energy used per shot 0.9 kJ. Extra power cell 0.5 kg, $25.
Pain Ray Carbine: A pain ray longarm. Its focusing dish is semi-transparent so as not to obstruct the gunner's sight-line when aiming, and folds up like flower petals when not in use. Skill: Beam Weapons (Rifle). Aperture 20 cm. Beam energy 4 kJ. Energy used per shot 4 kJ. Extra power cell 2 kg, $100.
Pain Ray Cannon: A vehicle-mounted pain ray with a large pointing dish, designed to disperse unruly crowds. Skill: Gunner (Beams). Aperture 150 cm. Beam energy 180 kJ. Energy used per shot 200 kJ. Extra power cell 100 kg, $5000.