Low Tech cannons mortars and shells

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Well, following the rapid fire table, doubling the number of fragments should give +1 to hit, and would reduce each fragment's damage to 70% of the original. Four times as many would be +2 to hit and x0.5 times the damage. Basically the same as adjusting the number of pellets in a shotgun shell, just don't worry about the exact numbers, just the ratios.

That matches my thoughts, yeah.

Originally Posted by Rupert

In my view every doubling of shell diameter should also probably give a +1 to hit, probably using 40mm as a baseline so 40mm+ gets +0, 80mm+ a +1, and so on. Going down I'd be generous and say 20mm and under gets -1 and 10mm and under gets a -2.

So, 5mm (if possible) is [1] at Skill 12, 10mm is [1d-2] at 13, 20mm is [1d] at 14, 40mm is [2d] at 15, 80mm is [4d] at 16, and so forth. And perhaps grenades can be specifically designed to adjust these, with every -1 SSR to damage giving +1 to skill and every +1 SSR to damage giving -1 to skill.

Originally Posted by Rupert

Maybe they're considered to be fairly slow, like sling bullets?

Lead sling bullets do pi, not cr - although now that I check LT, I notice that Harsh Realism for Ranged Weapons does indeed suggest downgrading to cr. So maybe that particular Harsh Realism effect is automatically in play for the landmine?

Originally Posted by Rupert

Cutting actually describes fragments pretty well - compared to injury they penetrate poorly (though perhaps not as poorly as they should), and they tend to be irregular and jagged shapes that cut and tear.

While it's true that they are jagged and cut and tear rather than crush their way through soft tissue like a bullet, they are also typically rather small and, by my understanding, tend to wound and kill by penetrating into flesh and disrupting organs (and causing bleeding) rather than slicing bits off. That feels more like piercing to me; in terms of resisting penetration it probably has more in common with cutting, true, but GURPS typically lumps cut and pi together anyway when split DR is in play. I don't think fragments should be as dangerous to the undead (or machines, or homogenous targets) as they are to the living, and treating them as piercing - so that IT:Unliving and IT:Homogenous results in reduced wounding - handles that nicely. Although maybe I'm mistaken, here?