Firing at explosives

[Rev. Sylvanus]

Hey all,

Here's my question.  Let's say for whatever reason your badass creation has externally mounted rockets (on a fighter jet's wing, an Alltimate's left arm, or a fig-held rpg for instance).  How do or would you treat the structure level/armor of the rocket if your opponent chooses to fire on it rather than the creation itself?  1d6 armor with HP relevant to size?  1d10 armor with HP relevant to size?  J/c.

~Rev.

[Ben-Jammin]

I would use 1d6 for most explosives. I could see one d10 in some instances though, such as kinetic rounds, seeing as how it would have to be made of a harder material.

[IVhorseman]

Do Kinetic rounds even explode though?

I'm kinda leaning towards giving them XSd10 armor, just so it takes the force of one of those weapons exploding to make one explode, but it's a tried and true brikwars tactic to just shoot all of their explosives. I wouldn't bother giving them hitpoints, but I'm also not a fan of hitpoints in general.

[Rev. Sylvanus]

Do Kinetic rounds even explode though?

I'm kinda leaning towards giving them XSd10 armor, just so it takes the force of one of those weapons exploding to make one explode, but it's a tried and true brikwars tactic to just shoot all of their explosives. I wouldn't bother giving them hitpoints, but I'm also not a fan of hitpoints in general.

xsd10 seems alright.  I'll give it a whirl.

All I was thinking for HP was that some missiles (like XS 4-5) can be two or three inches long, which would grant the Size "hp" based on length.

[IVhorseman]

Specifically dealing with explosives, my beef with hitpoints is that if I damage something that's designed to explode, I damn well expect it to just blow the fuck up right then and there instead of having to whittle down HP off from it.

[Rev. Sylvanus]

I guess you are right; a well-armored missile is a little counter intuitive.

[Gungnir]

Wouldn't they technically be considered surface elements? That would mean they'd be one SL lower than the thing they're mounted on, right?

[Rev. Sylvanus]

Idk, that's why I'm asking  

But that too would make sense...

[mgb519]

I give them one d10, because I assume that people wouldn't design their explosives to blow up when a moth landed on them. Also, I have less luck with d10s anyway, so it turns out for the best.

[IX_Legion]

1d6. It's just too funny.

And no, kinetic rounds do not explode. They are basically an inert lump of metal that uses kinetic energy to damage a target. Of course, explosives don't really explode when shot EVERY TIME like in action movies, but  

[Natalya]

If it is an explosive, I say 1d6, but the minifig with the gun might incur a skill penalty when trying to shoot it because most explosives are size 0.

[Zupponn]

My Brittanians have a death machine with dynamite strapped on the front of it.  I say that the attacker needs more than 4 damage to blow it up.

[IX_Legion]

Find a better place for your dynamite.

[Zupponn]

Why?  The point is that the death machine can charge forward and suicide itself if needed.  It's also hilarious when it's destroyed by the enemy.

[stubby]

In real life, dynamite will blow up if you so much as look at it funny.  1 point of damage should always be enough for dynamite of any size.

I've been giving this a lot of thought since the question was first raised.  At first I thought there should be some difference between explosives that are "armed" and ones that aren't (dynamite is always armed, for instance, while complex nuclear warheads or electric-charge-activated plastic explosives might not be).  But all of the rules I thought of in that regard got too complicated, too fast.  So my thinking now is that if the battle is underway, then all explosives are armed, and if you don't want somebody shooting your explosives then launch all your explosives before the enemy gets close enough to snipe at them.  (Or don't, because this is BrikWars.)

The next question, then, is how much damage does it take to set off an explosive?  The answer is based on their small physical Size, which also makes them very hard to hit most of the time.  (Remember that physical Size is different than Explosive Size - a Size 3x Explosive may only be a Size 1" object, because of the different way that explosives are measured.)

Most explosives are detachable objects (for obvious reasons), rather than being a part of a Creation they might be mounted on, so their Structure Level is limited by their own Size.  That is to say, an explosive of Size 0" has SL 0, while an explosive of Size 3" has a maximum SL:3.  Otherwise you just go by the materials chart in 7.1; very few explosives will be housed in anything sturdier than a sheet metal casing (SL:1, armor 1d10).