Antimatter Warheads

The most powerful warhead in the Abwehran's arsenal, the antimatter warhead is feared throughout the Abwehran Star Empire. The only problem is that antimatter is fairly hard and expensive to farm and produce. Because of this stocks of these warheads are kept low. Since Anti-matter can't be used in a shaped charge format like other missiles, the matter-antimatter explosion would be a standard burst.

To solve this problem, an Abwehran Antimatter warhead is actually a shell with a set of magnetic containment vials holding five milligrams of antimatter each. Being a proximity missile, the warhead is designed to shatter several meters from the target's hull to release its vials in a single direction. Chances are that most of the vials will just shatter upon the hull and create a matter-antimatter explosion using the target as a catalyst. However, there is also a small chance of a vial entering the target through a damaged section and setting off a matter-antimatter explosion inside the vessel itself.

See Damage Rating (Version 3) for an explanation of the damage system.

Each vial contains 5 milligrams of antimatter in it. Since one milligram of antimatter equates to 215 tons of TNT, the damage rating per vial would be 4 ADR. Because of the random chance of the design, GMs using AM warheads should roll a d4 (four-sided die) ¹⁾ and a d6 (six-sided die) ²⁾ to see how many vials hit their target.