Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

[Lumbering Ox]

I suppose would could look at the building damage a nuke does, with explosion rules and figure it out, if the rules mesh well with reality, but I was wondering if anyone else has looked at this.

 

At ground zero a nuke weapon will vaperoize just about anything for a short distance, thats gotta hurt at least a bit.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

Unfortunately, my books are packed up, awaiting a move.

 

But if I remember right, Nukes are written up fairly well in 3E. Perhaps someone else on the board has a book he can check for you. Granted, things have changed a bit so it will require a bit of re-work, but it might still provide a nice starting point.

[Vorsch]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

How evermuch damage a ton of tnt does +25dc

 

say 12-15D6 killing -1d6 per doubling of distance from ground zero ( not a adv that exists, would rate as +1 )

 

Plus a nasty NND killing for radiation

 

oppinions vary wildly on the subject, the 3rd ed write up had it killing ghost if i remember correctly.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

I believe there's a very long and involved thread on this topic over in the Champions section .. some mud slinging may have been involved as this seem a passionate topic.

 

My answer: As much as you need to get the effect you want. Nukes are not an every day thing and just skipping to Aftermath is acceptable in my book.

 

Unless your group toasses nukes around regularly. Then you should stat it.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

the 3rd ed write up had it killing ghost if i remember correctly.

 

HA! I had forgotten that!

 

Thanks for the chuckle.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

It is a big KA Explosion as many have pointed out, but I think the most devestating effects are that it is likely MegaScaled (or has bought down the Explosion fade a few times) and Linked to a large lingering Change Environment.

[MitchellS]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

There's a nuclear bomb write up in the Equipment Guide.

[austenandrews]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

When I ran Atomic Space Adventures, I believe I had small atom bombs in the 15d6K range and large ones in the 20d6K range. Don't have my notes handy to verify, nor do I recall how I got those figures. But they were fun to lob around in a space battle.

[Dr Archeville]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

Check ye HERO System Equipment Gyde. The write-up Long did was exquisite (heck, the entire book rocks).

 

Off the top of my head: Drain 20d6 BODY plus Drain 10d6 CON, both Affects Desolidifed and NND (defense is LS: [sE: High Radiation]) for the Immediate Radiation. The Flash is a Major Transform 7d6 (sighted person to blind person) and a 20d6 RKA fireball. EMP was a Dispel 20d6, all powers of an electrical circuit SFX simultaneously. Blast Wave/Winds are a 20d6 RKA, and the negative pressure (air rushin back in to fill the vacuum) is a 7d6 RKA. Then there's the conflagrations and firestorms, lingering radiation, fallout, and things of this nature....

[prestidigitator]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

Check ye HERO System Equipment Gyde. The write-up Long did was exquisite (heck, the entire book rocks).

 

Off the top of my head: Drain 20d6 BODY plus Drain 10d6 CON, both Affects Desolidifed and NND (defense is LS: [sE: High Radiation]) for the Immediate Radiation. The Flash is a Major Transform 7d6 (sighted person to blind person) and a 20d6 RKA fireball. EMP was a Dispel 20d6, all powers of an electrical circuit SFX simultaneously. Blast Wave/Winds are a 20d6 RKA, and the negative pressure (air rushin back in to fill the vacuum) is a 7d6 RKA. Then there's the conflagrations and firestorms, lingering radiation, fallout, and things of this nature....

Man! I'm not sure I'd want such a complex configuration. Wow. It looks like some thought was put into it, though. Heh.

[Fox1]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

Man! I'm not sure I'd want such a complex configuration. Wow. It looks like some thought was put into it' date=' though. Heh.[/quote']

 

As typical for Long, too much thought. Some of not on target as well.

[keithcurtis]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

As typical for Long' date=' too much thought. Some of not on target as well.[/quote']

Why not post your own write-up rather than knock someone?

 

Keith "just sayin' " Curtis

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

Why not post your own write-up rather than knock someone?

Indeed. I am not entirely satisfied with 5E myself, but I am content to use it and tweak it as suits my needs. I may even, on occasion when opinions are solicited, mention that I disagree with some things.

 

But I am certainly not going to come into another man's house and insult him for the privelege.

 

That's just rude, Man.

 

And while I'm certainly sure that Steve is remarkably unphased by such (the net is full of it, after all), I'd like to take just a minute to point out that when he, or anyone else, is doing an 'official' version of something, they have absolutely no way of knowing who-- if anyone-- is going to use it, or how they are going to use it. In order to present something with the most versatility / usefullness to any particular group, he is pretty much stuck _having_ to include each and every applicable aspect of it, leaving it up to the group to decide what parts they will or will not use.

 

You can certainly build a nuke way dirt cheaper than all that; buy XXd6 KA AOE, and ignore everything else. Just make sure that you have enough dice to either A) destroy everything in a suitable enough area or kill everyone who might care that there was not enough destruction to a suitable area. Your choice.

[Fox1]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

Why not post your own write-up rather than knock someone?

 

As for knocking someone...

 

Long's overdone construction methods means that the supplements now published by HERO are basically useless to me. I lose out on what used to be a good resource (before 5th edition I used to buy everything except Fantasy HERO products), and they lose out because I don't buy their stuff anymore.

 

So call this customer feedback that was presented when the subject came up. Nothing more. It's not like I stated a thread on the subject.

 

As for posting my own write-up...

 

I don't consider any of my write-ups to be useful for members of this board. I have vastly different standards for my campaigns and without context any contruction I'd present is pointless. So I don't post them.

[gojira]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

I think I have around here... ah yes... GURPS nuclear weapons.

 

Ahem.

 

Little Boy detonated over Hiroshima equivalent 12,500 tons of TNT. Or about 300,000,000 dice of damage. (Hero and GURPS are close in damage in that about 10 points of damage will kill, or at least mortally wound, an average person.)

 

Flash: about 40% of the energy of a nuclear device. Increase damage above by 15 for very clear conditions, 10 for normal conditions, or 3 for hazy conditions. People are only blinded if they are looking at the flash. Roll a 3d6, on a 17 the blindness lasts 1d days, on an 18 it is permanent.

 

EMP: look like it will take out most electronics like computers or radios. "Simple" electronics (I assume things like motors and relay switches) die on a roll of 15 or greater. Fiber opitcs are totally immune. Any equipment can be hardended by surrounding the device with metal and grounding the metal.

 

 

There's more but that looks like the gist of it. So blindness looks a lot less likely (to me), and much of the other damage doesn't really matter, it's just one huge explosion.

 

During the cold war the left used to publish charts one what would happen if an A bomb got dropped on a major city. Might be useful to get one of those and use it for reference.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

I think I have around here... ah yes... GURPS nuclear weapons.

 

Ahem.

 

Little Boy detonated over Hiroshima equivalent 12,500 tons of TNT. Or about 300,000,000 dice of damage. (Hero and GURPS are close in damage in that about 10 points of damage will kill, or at least mortally wound, an average person.)

Man! 300M dice?! Where's my dump truck? Err, my fleet of dump trucks (looks like it would take about 10-20).

[Cancer]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

With absurdly large numbers of dice like that, the resulting probability distribution is so narrow relative to the allowed range that taking the average result (number of dice * average one-die roll) is more accurate and faster than any physical dice roll you might try.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

Right. Just call it an even 900,000,000 STUN, 300,000,000 BODY.

 

Don't forget to subtract your Defenses!

[prestidigitator]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

With absurdly large numbers of dice like that' date=' the resulting probability distribution is so narrow relative to the allowed range that taking the average result (number of dice * average one-die roll) is more accurate and faster than any physical dice roll you might try.[/quote']

Oh, I know. It was just a great mental picture. Heck, my calculator could probably do it quite accurately in a few seconds (or minutes, maybe) anyway. I'm quite aware the roll is very, very likely to be pretty dead on average (and with that much damage--unless the system is pretty interesting--who cares if it is a little off anyway). In some ways I am very glad of Hero's scaling tendencies (actually, there are in fact some surprising things that survive relatively close to the center of the blast without significant physical damage; probably due to very unlikely shielding IMO)....

[Egyptoid]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

umm, all of it ?

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

I suppose would could look at the building damage a nuke does, with explosion rules and figure it out, if the rules mesh well with reality, but I was wondering if anyone else has looked at this.

 

At ground zero a nuke weapon will vaperoize just about anything for a short distance, thats gotta hurt at least a bit.

Are you talking a Clean or a Dirty Nuke?

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

umm' date=' all of it ?[/b']

 

Too late, Amigo!

 

I used that one at the gas station about an hour ago:

 

"How much gas did you have, Sir?"

[Duke looks at $44 and change on the meter]

"'Bout all of it, I think!"

[prestidigitator]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

Too late, Amigo!

 

I used that one at the gas station about an hour ago:

 

"How much gas did you have, Sir?"

[Duke looks at $44 and change on the meter]

"'Bout all of it, I think!"

What the hell? I am so confused now...maybe it's time to go for the evening.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

What the hell? I am so confused now...maybe it's time to go for the evening.

 

P---

 

The original title of the thread is a question:

"How much damage do nukes do?"

 

Egyptiod answered:

"All of it."

 

I found the coincidence amusing enough to comment on.

 

Sorry.

 

[Lumbering Ox]

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do

 

I guess one should buy immunity to fission and fusion.

 

As for 300 Mega dice, that would imply would it not the damage going out to 300 million " or 600 million M, or 600 000 KM, or 360 000 miles, which no A or H bomb has ever done.

 

I am going to guess there is an upper limit. As I understand nukes, if you are hugging a bomb the "damage" is the same, its basicly a super heated area in the 100 million degree range that would vaporise you. I don't suspect that would change much regardless of a 20 kt or 20 mt bomb, OTOH the bigger the bomb the bigger the area of effect, although it is more effectient to use more bombs of smaller yield then one of greater yield.

 

The other thing is as someone pointed out, things survive rather close if not exactly at ground 0.

 

This is why I am inclined to think of a lower damage with megascaling to increase the drop off. Perhaps with an area effect of much higher damage at the center.

 

I've seen those what nukes would do things, its not just the left that published them. Used to read up a bit on nuclear war, ah the good old days.