Explosions in Other Environments

Other Atmospheres: These rules assume Earth-normal air pressure.
A thicker or thinner atmosphere enhances or reduces the blast effect.
Underwater, divide collateral damage by range in yards instead of 3 ¥
range in yards. In a vacuum or trace atmosphere, with no medium to
carry the shockwave, damage comes only from the expanding gases
themselves: divide damage by 10 ¥ range in yards.
Contact Explosions: A person can throw himself on a grenade, etc. to
protect his friends; see Sacrificial Dodge and Drop, p. 377. He takes max-
imum possible damage; his DR protects him normally. Everyone else
gets his torso’s DR + HP as “cover DR.”
Internal Explosions: If an explosive goes off inside someone – e.g., a
follow-up attack penetrates the target’s DR, or a dragon swallows a
hand grenade – DR has no effect! In addition, treat the blast as an attack
on the vitals, with a ¥3 wounding modifier.
explosives, the PCs or GM should
decide how many dice of damage – in
multiples of 6d – the blasting charge
is supposed to do, and what kind of
explosive it is.
Explosives normally do crushing
damage with the Explosion modifier
(p. 104) – and often the Fragmentation
modifier (p. 104).
How Much Explosive? An explo-
sion doing 6d¥n damage takes (n¥n)/4
pounds of TNT. If you are using an
explosive other than TNT, divide
the weight required by its relative