Nukes 4ed

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

The tricky thing with explosions is that thermal radiation and blast overpressure don't fall off at the same rate.

Well, they actually sort of do, it's just that the damage mechanisms are so different that it winds up not equivalent.

For blast, the radius at which a given overpressure is achieved varies with the cube root of the quantity of explosive, and the overpressure duration also varies with the cube root of the quantity, with a net effect that total shock wave energy varies with the inverse square of distance. The thing is, duration is not super relevant, it's mostly a binary 'if overpressure is high enough, the object is destroyed'.

Flash temperature and duration works in much the same way, but typically total energy deposited is more important than temperature.

[KeplerMine]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

I'd start with a base of 10 HP of burn damage at the maximum listed historical distance for 3rd Degree ("full thickness") burns, then scale from there.

Well, that makes sense. It's just a bit awkward because I was trying to make a calculator for my games (don't ask me why I need to quickly calculate the damage from nuclear weapons for my players, I have to).