Explosion damage is weak?

[resisty]

A hand grenade sized explosion (8d) doing 28 damage (no frags) becomes notably non lethal once you get further than 6 feet from it according to the rules as I understand them.

Damage at 1 yds: 28/3 = ~9
Damage at 2 yds: 28/6 = ~5
Damage at 3 yds: 28/9 = ~3

Am I not getting it or do the rules really say that you would only take about 3 damage if you stood 7 feet away from a grenade-sized explosion (no frags)?

According to the rules of large area injury (B400), explosions cause large area injury. Does that mean that the damage applies to each location separately (i.e. damage rolled applies to skull, torso, feet, etc.)? I don't think so, but maybe I don't understand.

Seems to me that explosions in themselves are gimped by the rules. Thoughts?

[Icelander]

Explosions, on their own, rarely kill people from a great distance. Incidental fragmentation does.

Remember that if there is anything lying around that the blast could propel, there will be fragmentation damage from that.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by resisty

Seems to me that explosions in themselves are gimped by the rules. Thoughts?

Explosions are just fast moving gas. They need to be pretty damn big to be lethal. Fragmentation is what kills.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by resisty

Seems to me that explosions in themselves are gimped by the rules. Thoughts?

Explosions are gimped by physics. That's why grenades are designed to produce fragmentation and people stuff bombs with shrapnel.

Remember an explosion expands in all directions at once so from anything but very close up most of that energy is wasted hitting empty space.

[resisty]

According to a soldier that I know, an M67 grenade has a kill (not casualty) radius of 5 meters due almost entirely to the blast overpressure. Beyond that the primary risk is shrapnel.

My thought was that if that is true, a grenade-sized explosion in GURPS ought to do at least 10 damage out to 5 yeards.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by resisty

According to a soldier that I know, an M67 grenade has a kill (not casualty) radius of 5 meters due almost entirely to the blast overpressure. Beyond that the primary risk is shrapnel.

My thought was that if that is true, a grenade-sized explosion in GURPS ought to do at least 10 damage out to 5 yeards.

From the descriptions I've seen, the kill radius of a grenade assumes fragmentation.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by resisty

According to a soldier that I know, an M67 grenade has a kill (not casualty) radius of 5 meters due almost entirely to the blast overpressure. Beyond that the primary risk is shrapnel.

My thought was that if that is true, a grenade-sized explosion in GURPS ought to do at least 10 damage out to 5 yeards.

The M67 has a kill radius of 5 m period. Including fragmentation.

[SuedodeuS]

Originally Posted by resisty

According to a soldier that I know, an M67 grenade has a kill (not casualty) radius of 5 meters due almost entirely to the blast overpressure. Beyond that the primary risk is shrapnel.

My thought was that if that is true, a grenade-sized explosion in GURPS ought to do at least 10 damage out to 5 yeards.

... and according to a sniper I saw on the History Channel (indeed, a sniper who had a rather notable kill), sniper rifle rounds deal more physical trauma at medium range than at short range. Soldiers are hardly reliable when it comes down to the physics of how they kill people (although they do tend to be reliable when it comes down to methodology).
In general, explosions don't kill people. It's the aftereffects (shrapnel, collapsing structures, etc) that kill people. Well, unless you're really, really close to the explosion (or it's really, really freaking big).

[lexington]

Originally Posted by resisty

According to a soldier that I know, an M67 grenade has a kill (not casualty) radius of 5 meters due almost entirely to the blast overpressure. Beyond that the primary risk is shrapnel.

My thought was that if that is true, a grenade-sized explosion in GURPS ought to do at least 10 damage out to 5 yeards.

Well the M67 has stats in High-Tech so you might wish to ask Hans where the particular stats come from. Honestly I wouldn't take anecdotes from soldiers as absolute truth.

[resisty]

Thanks all! I think I've got the issue settled.