Explosive Thoughts

[CTaylor]

Explosion is a pretty nifty advantage, although as I suggested in the 6th edition discussion, it ought to be a modifier to most other area effects rather than a stand alone.

 

It has a few problems as written, however. Take a 6D6 energy blast, not too bad damage, it will on average stun and might with a good roll knock a normal person out with one shot, but is not particularly threatening to a superhero.

 

Put explosion on that and it affects a larger number of people, but look at how big it is. This turns a normal blast into a titanic ball of energy that if you shot it at the 50 yard line on a football field would reach past the 10 yard line on either end, and extend that same radius straight up. That's a colossal blast, pretty impressive! Yet it's not even a very powerful blast, and look at how absurdly large it is.

 

Yet look at what it does. The perfectly average 6D6 roll will be 21 stun and 6 body. Here's what the dice would could like with a perfectly average blast on 6D6: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (like a 6 die Yahtzee straight).

 

Explosions do full damage at ground zero, the lose dice each 1" distant, the largest die left. So in the target hex, this average blast does 21 stun and 6 body, then in the first ring of 6 hexes around this it does 15 and 5, then 10 and 4, 6 and 3, and so on. At the far edges, the vast conflagration feels like a warm, gentle breeze.

 

So we have to problems here: too freakin' huge, and the damage tapers off so rapidly that after the first few hexes all you do is create a huge light show.

 

Lying last night in bed I thought of how to address this. One option that occurred to me is to reverse the process: make the explosion reduce by the smallest dice, not the largest. So the progression would look like this instead (Stun/Body):

 

21/6 - 20/5 - 18/4 - 15/3 - 11/2 - 6/1

 

This makes the explosion more effective overall, rather than very potent in the center and harmless half the radius (or more). It makes the effectiveness more broadly based (the area of main potency is much broader) yet at the fringes be still somewhat effective on most rolls.

 

I'm not sure all explosions ought to follow this concept, but it does seem like a reasonable build. It would make explosion more effective and thus more powerful overall in most cases and certainly on average, so perhaps it is worth a 1/4 advantage rather than a default build.

 

The size troubles me as well. It seems like the radius and explosion powers are absurdly gigantic, far larger than makes sense. I could see building a power that's this huge, but not by default. Maybe both should be 1" radius per 10 points, so the explosion loses 2D6/1". That would exaggerate the present fading effect more significantly, so maybe if this was done, reversing the die loss should be the default.

[archermoo]

Re: Explosive Thoughts

 

As a note, I don't think you have your real world distances quite right. For a 6d6 EB with Explosion it does the full damage to anyone within 1 meter of ground 0. It does 1 die less to those between 1 and 3 meters away, 2 dice less to those between 3 and 5 meters, 3 less to those between 5 and 7, 4 less to those between 7 and 9, and 5 less to those between 9 and 11. Past 11 meters it does no damge. Which is just over 12 yards. So if it went off on the 50 yard line it only extends to the 38. Nowhere near the 10, much less past it.

 

Also of note, your reversed progression would be 21/6, 20/6, 18/5, 15/4, 11/3, 6/2. Wheras the normal progression would be 21/6, 15/4, 10/3, 6/2, 3/1, 1/0.

[CTaylor]

Re: Explosive Thoughts

 

Explosions go in both directions: in other words, it goes 10 meters in every direction, plus the central 2 meters. That adds up to 22 meters across, which is 71 feet. So the area is slightly smaller than I indicated... by 10 yards. So it fills a football field to the 20 yard line on either side from the halfline. Not as big as I said but still gigantic.

[archermoo]

Re: Explosive Thoughts

 

Explosions go in both directions: in other words' date=' it goes 10 meters in every direction, plus the central 2 meters. That adds up to 22 meters across, which is 71 feet. So the area is slightly smaller than I indicated... by 10 yards. So it fills a football field to the 20 yard line on either side from the halfline.[/quote']

 

No, it doesn't. 71 feet is 23 2/3 yards. Center that on the 50 yard line and it goes from one 38 yard line to the other, as I said before. And covers less than 1/2 the width of the field, which is 160' across. Or 53 1/3 yards.

 

20 yard line to 20 yard line is 60 yards, or 180 feet.

 

Oh, and backing off to 20 yard line to 20 yard line from the original 10 to 10 doesn't make it 10 yards smaller. It makes it 20 yards smaller. 10 yards on each side. Though as I pointed out, the actual area is considerably smaller than that.

[CTaylor]

Re: Explosive Thoughts

 

OK you're right, the size is that area and my math is wrong. However: it's still a huge area, which is an issue that still applies to my original point. Thanks for the math work for me

[Bloodstone]

Re: Explosive Thoughts

 

Ultimate Energy Projector had an option for smaller explosions. As I recall, full damage to target hex and half damage to all adjacent hexes.