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Old 04-15-2010, 09:44 PM   #1
Ubiquitous
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Default Internal Explosion Rules

If my character shoots someone in the chest with an APEX round, the bullet blows up inside them. Cr Ex to the Vitals, full damage, pops them like a grape, right?

But what if they wear armor? Bullet punches through, blows up inside...is the Explosion now Tightly Enclosed, or Contained? Do I increase the damage based on the rules for Explosions in confined areas?
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Old 04-15-2010, 09:52 PM   #2
Humabout
 
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Default Re: Internal Explosion Rules

I'd say at best,--and this is totally your call,--if the APEX round penetrates the victim's hard armor but does not inflict even so much as 1 point of injury, then you could call it tightly enclosed, or if it penetrates sealed armor, contained.

Personally, and this is not RAW to my knowledge, I tend to amp up internal explosions a bit more than just "hit to the vitals." I treat it as a separate x3 wounding modifier applied after the hit location's woundign modifier. This tends to lead to the "head popping like a meat-filled balloon" effect more often, and I'd say that's pretty realistic, seeing as even a firecracker going off inside you would almost certainly kill you.

And thank you for bringing up a senario I never considered. I'll be far more prepared the next time I run a modern/future game.

[EDIT]
Mind you, the senario you describe would require that the target be wearing two layers of armor or else the APEX round would either be stopped or penetrate flesh to become an internal explosion. I'm assuming you have a PC who layers their armor?
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Old 04-15-2010, 10:53 PM   #3
SuedodeuS
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Default Re: Internal Explosion Rules

Away from my books, but I think the effect is already tightly enclosed, or at least contained. In order for it not to be such, the explosion needs to be able to escape. In order to escape from inside the human body, it would need to destroy most everything in its path. By the time you get to that level of damage, "contained" or "uncontained" doesn't matter to the target - he's already dead.

Basically, if you get hit by small arms explosive, you take 3x damage. If you get hit by antivehicle explosive, either your body can contain it and you take 3x damage or it cannot and you die.

EDIT: I'm assuming here that you're talking about the possibility of taking more than 3x damage from an internal explosion if you are wearing armor. If you're talking about some odd case where a bullet penetrates armor but not flesh prior to detonating, I'd probably just go with ignoring DR and counting it as a contact explosion (for maximum damage).
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Last edited by SuedodeuS; 04-15-2010 at 10:56 PM.
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Old 04-15-2010, 11:13 PM   #4
lexington
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Default Re: Internal Explosion Rules

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ubiquitous View Post
If my character shoots someone in the chest with an APEX round, the bullet blows up inside them. Cr Ex to the Vitals, full damage, pops them like a grape, right?

But what if they wear armor? Bullet punches through, blows up inside...is the Explosion now Tightly Enclosed, or Contained? Do I increase the damage based on the rules for Explosions in confined areas?
The example for an Internal Explosion is "a follow up attack that penetrates the target's DR" so I would go with that. Hmm, this makes the explosive rounds in UT much more appealing.
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