[UT] Pulse Laser Explosions

[jacobmuller]

Pulse Laser damage is Cr Ex.
Took me a while to register the implication.
eg Abe Mook is the target of Donna el Peachy's laser burst, 6d Cr Ex @ RoF 10; fair enough. Donna manages a terrific roll, gets 9 hits; Abe Mook is caught flat-footed and suffers 9 hits at 6d damage.
Implication? Abe is dead center of the Mook family mob. Shot #10 misses his family. Do you treat his family as being caught by nine 6d blasts or one single Big Bang* for 6dx3? (all within 1yd would take 6d damage; 2yds 3d; 3yds 2d; etc out to 36yds)
* taking my cue from Basic B415; if it were # sticks of dynamite, the damage would be Stick Damage * square root of # sticks.

[Apache]

Don't forget knockback.

Me loves pulse lasers....:)

[jacobmuller]

80 I totally forgot Knockback, Doh!
So does Abe suffer Knockback from nine 6d impacts separately or 9*6d or as if a single explosion of 18d (nine times 2.5yds, or 24yds or 8yds?)

80 Spaceships: oh, it's not that bad, eg SM+12 hit by Pyr#34 1Gj pulse laser would impart a 1yps impulse (only about 20 times the thrust of a typical hard science TL10 engine) And, if you use the dHP from Pyr#34 instead of the dST, it has even less effect.

[Jetman123]

I'd honestly do it in total damage, for knockback. Most pulse lasers pulse EXTREMELY quickly. Each explosion will add to the effect of the next one. They flick on and off extremely quick, even in weapons grade lasers - a hypothetical laser drilling through a spacecraft's hull with pulses would sound like "B-B-B-B-B-BOOOOOM." Treat it as if you were doing cinematic knockback from full auto fire.

As for the explosions? You could do it either way, I think, and it would be equally valid. Other players will probably know better than me on that.

[sir_pudding]

I'd think the explosions should be handled separately. There's no reason why the blast radius should be increased unless there's some weird harmonic effects or something going on here.

[lexington]

The pulse lasers in UT aren't really anything like lasers that pulse in real life. In fact the descrpition of normal lasers suggests that they fire many tiny pulses per shot.

I would treat the damage and the explosion just exploding ammunition, each going off separately.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I'd think the explosions should be handled separately. There's no reason why the blast radius should be increased unless there's some weird harmonic effects or something going on here.

The explosions have to be semi-directional anyway. No affecting anyone behind poor whatshisname with attacks that hit _him_. The explosions from those will radiate in a wide cone forward from the target. You might not even get the fellow next to (but not before) him. It'd have to be the fellow diagonally forward of your target.

This would apply to plasma guns too and are just one of the reasons I don't find the energy explosive weapons particualrly usefull.

Well, the antimatter ones would spray gamma rays omnidriectionally but that's a fairly slow way to kill people in the dosages being applied.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by lexington

The pulse lasers in UT aren't really anything like lasers that pulse in real life. In fact the descrpition of normal lasers suggests that they fire many tiny pulses per shot.

I would treat the damage and the explosion just exploding ammunition, each going off separately.

IIRC in the older UT, pulse LASERs were a type made to differentiate from beam LASERs, whose advantage was cumulative armour penetration. I think the roots of 4e differences lie in the 3e ones to some extent.

[jacobmuller]

I guess my main question should be: Should the Cr Ex damage of Pulse lasers be handled exactly as if it were a regular explosion or just damage that can set fire to things? (and cause very messy wounds as compared to a Beam lasers neat & tidy tight-beam-burn)

If it is a regular Ex, then, based on your replies:
Abe will suffer 9 separate wounds (never in doubt);
but I'll tally the damage, as if a single Ex charge, for area effect and knockback (less damage, less knockback, less dice rolling) - it'd be like 9 sticks of dynamite just chain-detonated On Him [roll eyes lol] in less than a 1/2 second;
and use Abe as cover for those not in his front arc.

edit: just realised the thread title is a bit too much like chamber explosions :)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

- it'd be like 9 sticks of dynamite just chain-detonated in front of him in less than a 1/2 second;
and use Abe as cover for those not in his front arc.

edit: just realised the thread title is a bit too much like chamber explosions :)

Not in front at all. In _contact_ with him.