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Old 12-05-2022, 04:10 PM   #11
Polydamas
 
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Default Re: Explosive Arrows and Ancient Rockets

In WW II, the loss of one capital ship was blamed on the detonation of black powder. It was used to power a catapult to launch aircraft.

If you know what charge the explosive arrow carried, GURPS has rules for calculating the damage of a given weight of black powder.
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Old 12-05-2022, 04:21 PM   #12
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Default Re: Explosive Arrows and Ancient Rockets

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In WW II, the loss of one capital ship was blamed on the detonation of black powder. It was used to power a catapult to launch aircraft.

If you know what charge the explosive arrow carried, GURPS has rules for calculating the damage of a given weight of black powder.
No way black powder sunk a WW2 ship!!

It's the formula that don't get through my thick skull
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Old 12-05-2022, 05:24 PM   #13
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Default Re: Explosive Arrows and Ancient Rockets

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In WW II, the loss of one capital ship was blamed on the detonation of black powder. It was used to power a catapult to launch aircraft.
Color me curious. I want to know more about that incident.
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Old 12-05-2022, 05:32 PM   #14
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Color me curious. I want to know more about that incident.
Looks to be the USS Arizona, lost at Pearl Harbor (and might have been lost regardless).
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Old 12-05-2022, 05:56 PM   #15
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No freaking way!

for some reason, i've always judge black powder as "weak"
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Old 12-05-2022, 06:09 PM   #16
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Default Re: Explosive Arrows and Ancient Rockets

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No freaking way!

for some reason, i've always judge black powder as "weak"
It's why I'm glad to be working with a game system that's based on fact, rather than WAGs, shibboleths and suppositions. Suffered through too many gamers in the early years who saw no shame in asserting that 25 lb swords were used in battle, that katanas could cut through tank armor ... or that a substance that was used for industrial blasting right up to the 20th century was insufficient to the task.
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Old 12-05-2022, 06:38 PM   #17
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No freaking way!

for some reason, i've always judge black powder as "weak"
It is. It's a low explosive, and weight for weight it isn't terribly powerful. However, (a) quantity matters, and (b) in the case of the USS Arizona, the main role of the black powder is that it's relatively easy to ignite, and therefore it catching fire caused the rest of the magazine to explode.
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Old 12-05-2022, 07:40 PM   #18
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Default Re: Explosive Arrows and Ancient Rockets

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Isn't the hale rocktet high explosive? something like dynamite?
I doubt it. Hale invented the thing more than twenty years before dynamite was around, and seven years before nitroglycerin.
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Old 12-05-2022, 08:02 PM   #19
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It's why I'm glad to be working with a game system that's based on fact, rather than WAGs, shibboleths and suppositions. Suffered through too many gamers in the early years who saw no shame in asserting that 25 lb swords were used in battle, that katanas could cut through tank armor ... or that a substance that was used for industrial blasting right up to the 20th century was insufficient to the task.
Hail GURPS!
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Old 12-05-2022, 08:04 PM   #20
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It is. It's a low explosive, and weight for weight it isn't terribly powerful. However, (a) quantity matters, and (b) in the case of the USS Arizona, the main role of the black powder is that it's relatively easy to ignite, and therefore it catching fire caused the rest of the magazine to explode.
And easy to make i suppose. At least easier then nitro or TNT.
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