Dragon's Breath

Basic Information

Dragon's Breath is a type of shotgun ammunition that produces a long burst of flame, similar to a flamethrower. Sparks and fire shoot out to a range of about 5 meters.

The rounds have several drawbacks. They're expensive, and illegal in many areas. They tend to jam up automatic or semi-automatic shotguns, and may even be dangerous to the shooter if used in such a weapon¹. Besides the problems with the action, the thermite used in the cartridges is quite capable of doing significant damage to the bore of the weapon. On top of all this, there's the normal dangers that come from any incendiary weapon.

Allegedly these rounds were originally developed for riot control somewhere in Eastern Europe in the interwar period.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Video of Dragon's Breath usage

2. Wikipedia entry

Game and Story Use

• It's pretty useless in normal combat situations, but if you face a foe that's vulnerable to flame it might be worth a shot…
  • Specifically, it is almost completely useless in a standup fire-fight, but is likely to have significant psychological impact in an ambush - and then attract a lot of bullets.
  • …but if your opponent is a swarm-shifter (or just a swarm) the ability to create a burst of flame could be very useful.
• If one of your players insists he has to have one, let him use it as an intimidation weapon, but make sure he also has to deal with the drawbacks, and make sure his enemies adjust their tactics.
  • Making sure that the game rules accurately reflect the drawbacks of using this sort of ammunition might well persuade the PCs of that on their own.
• No-one has yet been mad enough to make this in 40x46mm SR, or any other grenade launcher calibre, let alone ordnance calibres. But then in the real world, no-one has that much need to kill it with fire. Where the need exists on the other hand…

Footnotes

1. This is because the cartridge continues to emit flaming debris for several seconds after firing - a self-cycling weapon will try to eject the cartridge whilst it's still burning, releasing the debris into the raceway where they can ignite lubricants, damage the action and possibly even touch off the following round. Then there are the risks associated with ejecting a spent case with flames emerging from it and the uncertainty as to where it will land…