Land mines & Minefields

Minefields are a veritable garden of death, filled full of hidden pressure sensitive land mines and laced with booby-trapped explosives. Booby-traps and minefields go hand in hand as many land mines also include pull igniter assemblies that are often attached to trip wires which snake about a minefield – if the mines don’t get you, the booby traps certainly will.

Minefields

A minefield consists of an area seeded with a number of land mines in a pattern, which, if a person were to walk in a straight line through the field, would result in the person eventually triggering at least one mine.

Minefields can be handled in two ways, the first way is to map out which mines are in which character squares along with where the trip wires run. This can be quite cumbersome but can result in an interesting puzzle for players to solve.

The second method is to assume that the minefield is seeded with land mines all of the same type at regularly spaced intervals. Whenever a character enters a new square he rolls a percentage chance that he has stepped on a mine.

Once a mine is located it is treated like a Booby trap.

Pressure Sensitive Land Mine

All mines have a trigger condition that will set off the mine. Once the trigger conditions have been meet - the mine activates and takes effect.

Mines that are pressure sensitive may only have a pressure sensitive area of 1-2ft in diameter, which is approximately 25% of a 5ft character square. Thus when a character enters a character square that contains a pressure sensitive mine he has a 25% chance of stepping on it.

Mines placed in areas that restrict where a character can place his feet (narrow path on a cliff), or in a place where the character would generally walk (eg: dug into a narrow footpath besides a road sign), have a higher chance of being stepped on. These mines have a 55% chance of being stepped on.

Vehicles have a higher chance of running over a mine because the wheels do not leave the ground, but because of the nature of vehicle combat it is important to understand that it is the front wheels that set off the mine - thus the Game Master should track which of the character squares the leading wheels are located in. Generally a wheel has a 40% chance of rolling over a mine in a character square, while a mine specially placed (eg: dug into the worn wheel tracks on a dirt road) has a 60% chance of being rolled over.

Although the mine may be stepped on or rolled over, the pressure fuse may not function - see Pressure Triggers.

Devices with Trip-wires

Trip-wires are lengths of wire or string stretched out in order to snag on the feet of a soldier as he passes through an area. Trip-wires are extremely difficult to locate as they are quite easy to camouflage into the natural environment.

Trip-wires must be attached to a trigger device such as a push or pull fuse assembly - it is this fuse assembly that activates the explosive device when the trip-wire is effected (see: Push & Pull Fuse Triggers).

For game mechanic purposes all tripwires when drawn on a map should follow the outlines of character squares, Thus a character will stumble through a trip-wire when he crosses from one square - across the trip-wire - into the other square.

Trip-wires are automatically triggered when crossed. But if the character has discovered the trip-wire, it may be crossed safely.

Spotting a Trip-wire depends upon the level of camouflage available, and whether a character is actively searching for a trip-wire. All characters gain a Spot check just before stumbling over the trip-wire, this uses the “Unaware” DC. If passed the character has spotted the trip-wire and stopped before touching it (remaining in the character square before the trip-wire). If failed the character has snagged his foot on the trip-wire (setting the trip-wire attacked device off, but also moving into the next character square).

A character who is actively searching may use their Search skill or Spot skill to detect the trip-wire, doing so uses the “Actively searching” DC. Success means the character has spotted the trip-wire.

A discovered trip-wire can be traced back to its source device.

Disarming a trip-wire depends upon the fuse assembly it is attached too. EG: cutting the trip-wire may not trigger some fuse assemblies that require a pull action, while cutting the trip-wire will trigger a fuse assembly that maintains tension on the trip-wire.

A trip-wire is attached to a device at one end, and an anchor at the other end (or maybe another device). Apart from stumbling over a trip-wire, moving ether the anchor or device may also trigger the fuse the trip-wire is connected too. eg: the German army would often lay mines in barbed wire with trip-wires anchored to the barbed wire, thus moving the barbed wire would trigger the mines attached via trip-wires!

Enviroment	Unaware DC1	Actively Searching DC1
Rocks or sand with little cover.	20	12
Low or sparse Grass.	24	14
Tall or thick Grass, bushes or Shrubs.	26	16
Jungle, dense folage.	30	20
Hidden in water such as a stream.	34	24

Device Triggers

All booby-traps and land mines make use of a trigger condition as defined by the type of fuse assembly used to make the device.

Push & Pull Fuse Triggers

The Push and Pull fuse assemblies are designed for attaching to various devices via wire or string - the most common application is to attach a trip-wire. But each fuse is triggered by force applied in a certain motion.

• Push Trigger: A push trigger requires force applied to the fuse assembly in order to set it off - such as pushing a button. These fuses are used in booby-traps when an object is pushed up against the device.
• Pull Trigger: The most common fuse system is the pull trigger that requires a pulling action on the fuse assembly in order to trigger. Commonly used with trip-wires where the tug on the trip-wire is the pulling action that triggers the device.
• Push & Pull Trigger: Although rare these fuse assemblies function on ether a push or pull action on the assembly system. Some can even be set to act if an attached trip-wire is cut, eg: the tension on the line is released by cutting the wire causing the fuse assembly to trigger (this action will be described in the equipment description).
  A fuse assembly of this nature often includes a form of hook or eyelet on the surface of the device that a trip-wire can be attached too, while some are in the form of a button or lever.

Pressure Fuse Triggers

A pressure fuse assembly can come in a number of shapes and forms, such as a “crush fuse” that when weight is applied to the fuse it crushes a chemical mix that ignites the device.

All pressure sensitive fuses have a weight listing, if a weight equel to or in excess of this number is put on the mine it will trigger the mine. Thus a soldier might step on a mine, but yet may not set it off because he does not exceed the weight requirement.

Placing a Land Mine

Land mines are considered to be a “ready made” form of booby-trap that simply needs to be set in place and the fuse primed. This can be a simple task in the case of a pressure mine placed in a shallow hole and covered with dirt and grass. But a complex task when anti-handling devices and trip-wires are added to the mix.

• Anti-handling Device: The most common form of anti-handling device was a second fuse assembly (normally a pull trigger) within the land mine attached to a length of wire attached to a rock buried a little deeper than the mine itself. Thus when the sappers came to lift the mine the wire attached to the rock would pull the the second fuse and detonate the mine as the poor sapper attempted to remove it.
Each anti-handling device set with a land mine increases the DC to set it in place or disarm it by 2.
• Trip-wires: These were attached to certain types of land mines to increase their range, for example the infamous “Bouncing Betty” land mine was often connected to one or two trip wires.
  To place a land mine the character selects a character square in which he will place the land mine. If the land mine includes trip-wires there are laid out now as well. The Game master then makes a secret Demolitions Skill Test verse DC20 on the characters behalf. If successful the mine is armed and set in place, if unsuccessful the character has failed to arm the mine and set it in place. If the roll failed by 10 points of less, the character has accidentally set off the mine while arming it.

Placing a mine takes 1d4 rounds plus 1 round per 5ft of tripwire or anti-handling device.

Finding a Land mine

The most dangerous job a Sapper can face is the task of searching for land mines, at the worst of times this job is carried out on the sappers hands and knees while under enemy fire.

A character can search one character square adjacent to him, before moving into it as a full round action. A mine buried in the ground has a Search DC of 20, a successful result only means that the character has located a mine - it will still require disarming. If the character rolls a 1 for the search skill test, he accidentally sets off any mines in the character square.

Items of equipment can be used to improve the characters Search roll. While the mines themselves may provide a modifier to the Search DC.

A buried land mine can not be spotted from a distance, it must be found by searching. Although weather effects may cause the covering of dirt to wear away over time.

• Metal Detectors: A metal detector will automatically sound an alarm when it detects a metal object, thus no skill check is required. Land mines with the Wooden or Glass keywords will not be detected by a Metal Detector - these must be detected by searching.

Disarming a Land mine

Once a land mine has been discovered the character can attempt to disarm or disable it. The character makes a Disable Device skill test verse DC20 with the following modifiers to the DC.

Special	DC Mod
Unknown landmine design2	+6
Known landmine design.	-6
Per anti-handling device.	+2

If successful the land mine has been disarmed and can be removed safely. If failed by 6 or less the character has failed and the mine is still active, the character can attempt to disarm it again but the DC increases by 4 from the characters previous tinkering. If the skill tests is failed by 7 or more the character has set off the land mine while disarming it.

Disarming a land mine takes 1d4 rounds, +1 per anti-handing device or tripwire.

¹ The DC gains +2 in poor light, +4 in total darkness.

² For example, a landmine from an enemy.