[UT, HT, Basic] Explosive rounds & damage "blow-through"

[The_Ryujin]

@DouglasCole: Ah, gotcha. The only thing that I had to go on about your 4th edition version is from what you put up in one of the threads about how warships go down to cannon (and musket) fire way to quickly that I read a long time ago.

But yeah, I'd be all for an updated sheet if you got the time/energy to do so. I'm working on a campaign atm so that would be greatly appreciated.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by The_Ryujin

@DouglasCole: Ah, gotcha. The only thing that I had to go on about your 4th edition version is from what you put up in one of the threads about how warships go down to cannon (and musket) fire way to quickly that I read a long time ago.

But yeah, I'd be all for an updated sheet if you got the time/energy to do so. I'm working on a campaign atm so that would be greatly appreciated.

Ah! Yeah that's something I and others have been independently noodling on.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

My method has only changed in a few minor ways. Nothing other than tweaks. I'm happy to provide a slightly newer sheet.

Oh, absolutely!

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by lexington

Oh, absolutely!

I'll throw it up on my blog in a few days.

[Ulzgoroth]

I've never been able to identify a RAW handling of internal fragmentation.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I've never been able to identify a RAW handling of internal fragmentation.

There is no RAW as far as I can tell. Its one of those things (like exactly how to treat HEAT warheads) that has never been addressed. Presumably it is an automatic vitals hit, though.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I've never been able to identify a RAW handling of internal fragmentation.

I'd just use the same handling as explosions: free vitals hit, with the victim providing cover DR for everybody next to him.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by lexington

There is no RAW as far as I can tell. Its one of those things (like exactly how to treat HEAT warheads) that has never been addressed. Presumably it is an automatic vitals hit, though.

What's unclear about HEAT warheads?

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

I'd just use the same handling as explosions: free vitals hit, with the victim providing cover DR for everybody next to him.

How many hits? Fragmentation functions as a rapid-fire attack.

Also, there's no such thing as a vitals hit for the damage types that fragmentation can do.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

What's unclear about HEAT warheads?

Does the first line apply explosive damage to people in the area and does it count as an internal explosion given that it penetrates the target?

[The_Ryujin]

Yeah, you'd think that they would of addressed internal explosions in at lest the Monster Hunter books by now (Cause let's face it, feeding some damned abomination of the night a frag grenade is good for the soul).

Personally I'd rule that for internal explosions frag hits have an effective Rcl of 1 and land an extra hit per ever point you role under the effective skill of 15. I would then check for a vital hit for each of the frags, only they would land a vital hit on a 2+ do to the circumstances. This is pretty brutal I know but, having an explosion go off inside you kinda is.

Now for HEAT damage, from what I can tell the figures in at lest High-Tech are based on empirical data rather then a strict formula based on how much of the explosives total energy is put into shape charge effect compared to what's wasted as a normal explosion. In this regard how much of the explosives energy goes into he penetrating jet and how much is wasted is based on how early of a HEAT round it is, how well made it is and the warheads diameter (All things being equal, the bigger the "fist" of the HEAT round, the longer the "finger" of the jet). So for now if you need a custom HEAT round I'd figure out how many pounds of explosives it's going to have, then figure out how efficient you want it to be (look at the examples in High-Tech to you a rough idea) divide the explosive's mass into how much is gonna to the penetrator and how much is going to be just blast effect and then figure out the damage for each using the rules in the basic set.

To give you an example let's say you wanted a man portable HEAT rocket with a with an explosive energy equal to 6lbs of TNT that's fairly efficient . I then take a look at High-Tech and see that the German Armburst is close to what I want so I reverse engineer it's figures to see that it's jet's damage is on par with 4lbs of TNT and it's blast effect is on par with 1lbs, a 4/1 ratio. I then divide the rockets warhead by that ratio giving 4.5lbs to the penetrator and 1.5 to the blast effect which gives me a HEAT round with 6Dx4 (10)cr ex penetrator and a 6Dx2 cr ex blast effect.

Oh and Doug, I'm looking forward to your updated ballistics sheet. You sir are one kick arse individual.

Edit:
@lexington: Oh, that's what you wanted to know. The first line is how well the HEAT round penetrates. By RAW it would seem that you treat it pretty much as a contact explosion but only against what it has directly hit, that is you don't bother with the blast effect since that's what the second line is for. Though in all honesty, piercing with the incendiary modifier is probably a better way to handle the damage type for the penetrating jet then crushing explosive.