Captain Obvious Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Dr. Destroyer' date=' if he has his forcewall up, can also stagger away from ground zero! [/quote'] DFWDrD Megaplayboy, master of understatement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Black Lotus Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do How much damage do nukes do? Why, a million babillion fafillion jiddly-iddly-ooo-willion, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Yet people survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs just a few hundred yards from ground zero. If I had to design a clean Tac Nuke, it would go something like this: (Total: 843 Active Cost, 130 Real Cost) Killing Attack - Ranged 5d6, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Explosion (+1/2), Nonselective Target (-1/4), Attack Versus Limited Defense (Flash Defense ; +1 1/2), Does Flash, sight group, rather than STUN (+0), (225 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF Bulky (-1 1/2) (Real Cost: 35) ["Killing Flash" is necessary to make this conform to the shape of the rest of it] plus Killing Attack - Ranged 5d6 vs ED, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Explosion (+1/2), Nonselective Target (-1/4), Penetrating (x2; +1) (187 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF Bulky (-1 1/2) (Real Cost: 29) plus Killing Attack - Ranged 5d6 vs PD, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Explosion (+1/2), Nonselective Target (-1/4), Double Knockback (+3/4) (169 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF Bulky (-1 1/2) (Real Cost: 26) plus Killing Attack - Ranged 5d6, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Explosion (+1/2), Nonselective Target (-1/4), No Normal Defense (+1), Does BODY (+1) (262 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF Bulky (-1 1/2) (Real Cost: 40) I would roll 5 dice plus a single STUN multipler, and apply that number to each effect. Assume 3's on all dice. First, Flashed for 15 phases - Flash Defense. Then the heat wall, 15 BODY 30 STUN - rED; minimum 5 BODY 10 STUN unless rED double hardened (humm, should have put "No KB" on that one). Next the shock wave, 15 BODY, 30 STUN - rPD, with 21" KB. Finally the gamma kicks in, 15 BODY 30 STUN unless character has LS vs Radiation. That's at ground zero, reduced effect for each km away from ground zero. Lethal to normals without some luck and good cover, survivable by some supers. YMMV Panpiper 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Yet people survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs just a few hundred yards from ground zero. Sure. All of those people who got nat 18 on their 3d6 Luck. It's a Talent; normals can have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhamin Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do It should be noted that Bulletproof from Galactic Champions can survive a nuke' date=' and on average won't even take body. Dr. Destroyer, if he has his forcewall up, can also stagger away from ground zero! DFWDrD [/quote'] Works for me. At the end of DC's Kingdom Come, Superman and everybody inside Green Lantern's Forcewall survived the airburst from a tac nuke couple dozen yards away. Of course, Captain Marvel gets vaporized but then he is holding it in his hands at the time. As GM, I would probably had out double damage for grabbing an explosive focus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Realistically this ties in to the 'is damage exponential?' thread: if it isn't, nukes do an awful lot of killing damage. If it is, I'd agree with Vorsch 12-15 dice killing (and multiple effects: heat, blast, radiation etc) for a reasonable sized nuke, but I like McCoy's write-up. I think the damage is too low, but far more game-friendly. Nukes should only really be used as threats and sfx though. If characters have to actualy worry about taking the damage it tends to get a bit silly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megaplayboy Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Realistically this ties in to the 'is damage exponential?' thread: if it isn't, nukes do an awful lot of killing damage. If it is, I'd agree with Vorsch 12-15 dice killing (and multiple effects: heat, blast, radiation etc) for a reasonable sized nuke, but I like McCoy's write-up. I think the damage is too low, but far more game-friendly. Nukes should only really be used as threats and sfx though. If characters have to actualy worry about taking the damage it tends to get a bit silly. They'd be listed as "small arms" in a DBZ campaign:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox1 Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Realistically this ties in to the 'is damage exponential?' thread: if it isn't' date=' nukes do an awful lot of killing damage. If it is, I'd agree with Vorsch 12-15 dice killing (and multiple effects: heat, blast, radiation etc) for a reasonable sized nuke [/quote'] HERO in its various editions had a number of conversion charts for explosives. With the exception of 5th edition's sticks of dynamite, they've always been exponential if at a different progression than other parts of the system. It's easy to determine base damage therefore. For example, using the slower 1.54x progression of my house rules and the explosive chart on my website- a 1 megaton nuke comes off as a 20d6K explosion. HERO with it's 2x progression would be significantly less. Back that off two or three dice to split up the energy and split it into Blast, raditiation, heat, and EMP and you have your nuke in game scale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Realistically this ties in to the 'is damage exponential?' thread: if it isn't' date=' nukes do an awful lot of killing damage. If it is, I'd agree with Vorsch 12-15 dice killing (and multiple effects: heat, blast, radiation etc) for a reasonable sized nuke, but I like McCoy's write-up. I think the damage is too low, but far more game-friendly.[/quote'] Can always be scaled up. This was intended to be a tactical nuke, if you take the "bulky" off the focus it might even make a suitcase bomb. Double the dice for once carried by an ICBM, add a continuous area effect NND if it's not a clean bomb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Can always be scaled up. This was intended to be a tactical nuke' date=' if you take the "bulky" off the focus it might even make a suitcase bomb. Double the dice for once carried by an ICBM, add a continuous area effect NND if it's not a clean bomb[/quote'] ICBMs can also add on Autofire for multiple warheads... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do ICBMs can also add on Autofire for multiple warheads... I'd do Autofire or add a few Killing dice. Straight doubling of the dice / other very large number of dice combinations seem very anti-genre in my campaigns where Nukes would be aything more than a plot device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do I was just thinking, under most systems, the description under 'Damage' for nukes would just read something like 'You so dead'. In Hero, well, this thread is up to page 5, and there have been many come before... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSword Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Nothing to add to the numbers game, but a few recommendations for seeing the nuclear blast: First up: Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie. After some of the video was declassified, the director put it together and colorized it. In some of the shots you can clearly see the effect of the heat wave before the shock wave hits the object. Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Richard Rhodes) has a picture which compares the Mike Shot (1 Mton) vs the Hiroshima blast. To make it more dramatic, the fireballs are superimposed on the Manhatten skyline. The prequel to Dark Sun is "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megaplayboy Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html The largest nuclear device ever built, the so-called "Tsar Bomba" was tested at a yield of 50 megatons, and the design was capable of a 100 megaton yield, roughly sufficient to wipe out a large portion of West Germany, or completely obliterate the metro areas of New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago. Total destruction within a 25km radius, and capable of causing 3rd degree burns out to 170km. Any character who could walk, fly, or even crawl away from a blast like that should be properly addressed as "Sir." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do For those interested, the US govt has a number of declassified nuke videos for sale at $10 a pop: https://www.osti.gov/opennet/forms.jsp?formurl=films/histfilms.html The only one I've personally seen is "Exercise Desert Rock," which is one of the above-ground tests they did in the 50s involving US soldiers. The video is essentially an Army training film made after the exercise. The only problem with it (apart from the obvious problem!) is that they don't give any actual numbers for yield, dose rates, etc. The only Nuke I wouldn't plot device are the mini-nukes that were designed to be mounted on the back of a jeep and fired out to a couple km at a target - usually a building or emplacement. Was it the "Davy Crockett" back in the 60s that was sortof a nuclear bazooka whose range was considerably less than its blast radius? Only time I ever actually used a nuke in a game, it was a plot device. Heroes shoved it through a dimensional portal to nuke the big demon. It did [exactly-as-many-as-it-needs-to]d6. bigdamnhero "They tell you never to strike a man with a closed fist, but it is on occasion hillarious." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lumbering Ox Posted August 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do If I were going to toss a nuke at player characters, I would prob define damage vs mundane as per real life results. As for supers, I would pick a level for whereever they are in the damage radius and pick a roll/combination of rolls for that distance from ground zero, rather then figure out total damage and drop off rates. Superdude is 1 mile from a ground zero 20 MT attack he takes Xd6 of damage A and Yd6 of damage B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted August 30, 2005 Report Share Posted August 30, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Was it the "Davy Crockett" back in the 60s that was sortof a nuclear bazooka whose range was considerably less than its blast radius? Yes, the Davy Crockett .. from my reading up on the tests they performed it did have enough range to get the firing point outside the blast radius. But I never seriously persued researching the Davy. Most, if not all, were distributed to bases near the Iron Curtain in case we need to "strategically strike" targets with nuclear weapons. yeah. Jeep mounted thermonuclear warfare ... anyone up for a game of Car Wars? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted August 31, 2005 Report Share Posted August 31, 2005 Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do yeah. Jeep mounted thermonuclear warfare ... anyone up for a game of Car Wars? Speaking of which, Uncle Albert's Catalog from Hell has Car Wars stats for nuclear weapons of several sizes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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