Re: [HoE] New Blast Rules (possible spoilers)

[Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>]

Steve Crow wrote:
> Now, you've got to roll 5d4 against anyone in the outermost blast radii.
> Then you've got to roll a totally separate 5d6 against anyone in the second
> outermost.  And 5d8 against anyone in the third.  And 5d10 against anyone in
> the fourth.  And then _another_ 5d12 against anyone at ground zero.  That's
> a total of...25 dice!

I haven't read the new rules yet, but I think you've given me a good
idea of how damage works now.

I do think the rules needed to be changed a bit, massive damage really
wasn't that massive. In real life, explosive damage drops off from the
epicenter exponentially, and it looks like this new system works that
way. Damage is going to be higher the closer you are to the blast. You
may have a point that Nuke is now *too* powerful, but in my mind it's
more of a double-edged sword now than anything else. Consider:

Next time the Doomie whips off a Nuke at close range, the Marshall rolls
up a bunch of dice, takes a look at the chips around the table, and
says, "Don't bother, you're all dead." If anyone DOES survive the blast,
the next time the Doomie says "I cast Nuke", they'll be using their
sleeve cards to put a bullet in his back before he can cast it again.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Silas' Doomsayers and
Doombringers can now kill entire parties with one single attack. (Random
tangent from the MAD take on Deathwisher III: "It only took us muggers
three weeks to figure out we could use guns, too!") But don't stop
there. Conventional explosives are incredibly cheap and easy to make. A
grog with a hand grenade is now much more dangerous. If the PCs insist
on using Nuke on anything that comes near them, return the favor with
bad guys who always carry around grenades and sticks of dynamite.

If the PCs persist, cruel Marshalls can have all their bad guys attack
at close range, where no sane Doomie would let off a Nuke. The problem
there would, of course, be the insane Doomies...

Now here's the kicker... let's say the PC Doomie is smart enough to put
lots of distance between the party and his target, oh, say, a Black Hat
Raptor. He casts Nuke, and it explodes... roll damage and start telling
the PCs how much damage they take. When they start to whine and moan
about how they were too far away, inform them that the Raptor was
carrying a full payload of missles, bombs, and other happy-fun stuff
that has a blast radius two to three times bigger than Nuke. They may
indeed be out of the blast radius of the Nuke, but are now well inside
the blast radius of whatever they just blew up.

The key is to always find some way to do damage to the entire party,
Doomie included, every time he whips of Nuke. Eventually they'll learn
not to use it or kill themselves. Either that or you need to tailor your
campaign so that using Nuke would be pointless (gobs of ambush/up close
fights), or set up your encounters so that it can be used to save the
PCs bacon when you WANT them to be saved.


Anyway, your biggest concern seems to be about the number of dice you
have to roll now... a very valid concern. DL/HOE is very dice-intensive
(PEG seems to be trying to reverse the trend in the RPG market... that's
off-topic, though). But like I said, realistic explosive damage should
be exponential. Exponents are vile, evil things in RPGs, so it really
boils down to how much realism you want in your game. That's a personal
preference/taste thing. I'll have to take a closer look at the new rules
and see if there's any way to do a nice shortcut. Too much dice-rolling
can be a bad thing.