Bioweapons

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Olefin

I know that Raellus included a possible bio weapon as an adventure idea in his Korean Sourcebook

It was called PROJECT RED LOTUS.

And if I remember right he had stats there - but not sure if its what you are looking for.

Thanks, Olefin! I'd forgotten all about V1260. "Red Plague" begins on p.31.

I didn't include rules for the virus per se, but provided descriptions of the symptoms and an incubation timeline. Nearly 100% of those exposed to the virus, which is transmitted through bodily fluids, become infected. All infected develop the symptoms described. There is no vaccine or antidote (although retrieving materials which could lead to the development of one is one related adventure hook).

My sourcebook is rules-lite (except for vehicle and weapon stats, based on Paul M.'s amazing work- used with permission, of course), however, based on the given infection rate, I'd just roll a d100 and add the PC's CON score to the result. Any total over 95 means the PC did not become infected. Anything under, they did.

The virus escaped from a damaged lab bunker (see North Korean Tunnel Systems starting on p.38), so I didn't include anything on delivery methods (the KPA was still working on that when the war began). v1260 was basically my device for giving ref's the option of including a zombie ("Ragers") scenario in a Korea-based campaign. Said zombies are of the fast variety, a la 28 Days Later.

More broadly speaking, in A Brief History of The Second Korean War, I included the following:

"During its long retreat, the KPA implemented a merciless and ultimately self-destructive scorched earth policy, laying waste to anything considered to be of value to the encroaching Allies. Come winter, the consequences of this self-immolation would prove devastation for North Korea's long-suffering civilian population. Adding to the devastation, the panicked DPRK regime, desperate to halt the rapid Allied advance, reauthorized the use of chemical weapons, and ordered the deployment of biological weapons. Soon, weaponized anthrax and smallpox were adding to the skyrocketing death toll. Most Allied troops were adequately immunized against such contagions, but the civilian population of both Koreas was decimated by the unnatural pandemics that ensued." (KPSB p. 5).

It is assumed that these BW pandemics have run their course by 2000- the population density of the DPRK was so thinned out that the spread of BW epidemcis essentially stopped- although PCs might still encounter pockets of contagion in North Korean territory (or in refugee camps near the pre-war DMZ).