Thermal Detonator and Vehicle Damage

By arunwe2012, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

This question is related to thermal detonators, but applies to any personal-scale weapon dealing damage to a vehicle.

If I understand correctly, scale from personal to vehicle is 10:1, which means that you need to deal at last 10 points of damage to damage a vehicle.

In the specific case of thermal detonator, that have breach 1, does it mean that...

a) an armor 1 vehicle is affected by breach, so full damage from td would be 20 + success (let's assume 1). So 21, between 10, 2 points of damage.

b) an armor 2 vehicle will suffer 1 point of damage (21-10 because of armor 1 -reduced by 1 by breach-, equals 11, so 1 point)

c) an armor 3 vehicle won't suffer any damage at all (armor 2 because of breach reduction, 21 points, converting to scale is 0.1 point of damage, so no applicable)

Are these calculations correct?

Yes indeed. 20 personal damage against a vehicle with 0 Armor = 2 Hull Trauma.

As far as I can tell, it's a bit hazy about where and when the 10 to 1 conversions take place, so if you were fighting primarily at character scale and something big and large with Armor and Hull Trauma Threshold came into play, I wouldn't be opposed to converting its Armor to Soak at a scale of 1:10 and treat its Hulla Trauma Threshold as a Wound Threshold, multiplying its value by 10 and then plinking away at it with personal scale weapons :)

every little helps! Not sure how others feel about this.

Edited by awayputurwpn

Yeah, Armor 3 is a tough nut to crack, and Armor 1&2 aren't all that easy either. I'm pretty sure that for most vehicles FFG expects the players to use narrative effects over general blasting away.

The most obvious one that comes to mind is... get the explosive inside the vehicle. Also remember that when placing explosives, successes = more damage, too. Who cares if the shell is intact if everything inside is pasted along the inside like messy contact paper?

This analogy *may* have actually been used in-game. When assassinating a head of state. In her armored car. So one of our members (who's overly fond of glow sticks - the rave kind - and spice) could run off with two slaves she'd purchased. Under the guise of TWI'LEK SOLIDARITY.

"Kids these days... I'm getting too old for this."

Right.... Demolitions is able to kill vehicles that are Armor 3, but that's not exactly a combat thing....

Tell that to the kid in the snow with a lightsaber and a concussion grenade in Empire. ;-)

Tell that to the kid in the snow with a lightsaber and a concussion grenade in Empire. ;-)

That's what I was referring to with "narrative effects" in my earlier post. There's technically no way to use a lightsaber to cause damage to an AT-AT resulting in a Major Hull Breach result. The GM can of course allow you to do something more specific though.

Tell that to the kid in the snow with a lightsaber and a concussion grenade in Empire. ;-)

That's what I was referring to with "narrative effects" in my earlier post. There's technically no way to use a lightsaber to cause damage to an AT-AT resulting in a Major Hull Breach result. The GM can of course allow you to do something more specific though.

at least not until you have the lightsaber skill when F&D comes out...until then, you're just some mook who found a piece of tech you can barely even wield without risking your own limbs.

Yes indeed. 20 personal damage against a vehicle with 0 Armor = 2 Hull Trauma.

As far as I can tell, it's a bit hazy about where and when the 10 to 1 conversions take place, so if you were fighting primarily at character scale and something big and large with Armor and Hull Trauma Threshold came into play, I wouldn't be opposed to converting its Armor to Soak at a scale of 1:10 and treat its Hulla Trauma Threshold as a Wound Threshold, multiplying its value by 10 and then plinking away at it with personal scale weapons :)

every little helps! Not sure how others feel about this.

How clear is the CRB when it comes to the conversation? Do you need to fullfill the full 10 damage to get the 1 HT, or do you get 1 HT at 1 damage and 2HT at 11 damage? If the rule isn't clear, then has anyone ever actually asked or are we operating on an assumption without clarification?

c) an armor 3 vehicle won't suffer any damage at all (armor 2 because of breach reduction, 21 points, converting to scale is 0.1 point of damage, so no applicable)

I could see an argument where this example does 1 HT, because the damage exceeded armor.

Yes indeed. 20 personal damage against a vehicle with 0 Armor = 2 Hull Trauma.

As far as I can tell, it's a bit hazy about where and when the 10 to 1 conversions take place, so if you were fighting primarily at character scale and something big and large with Armor and Hull Trauma Threshold came into play, I wouldn't be opposed to converting its Armor to Soak at a scale of 1:10 and treat its Hulla Trauma Threshold as a Wound Threshold, multiplying its value by 10 and then plinking away at it with personal scale weapons :)

every little helps! Not sure how others feel about this.

How clear is the CRB when it comes to the conversation? Do you need to fullfill the full 10 damage to get the 1 HT, or do you get 1 HT at 1 damage and 2HT at 11 damage? If the rule isn't clear, then has anyone ever actually asked or are we operating on an assumption without clarification?

c) an armor 3 vehicle won't suffer any damage at all (armor 2 because of breach reduction, 21 points, converting to scale is 0.1 point of damage, so no applicable)

I could see an argument where this example does 1 HT, because the damage exceeded armor.

The book is pretty clear, you gotta get the full 10 points to do 1 point of hull trauma. Taking down vehicles with personal weapons in this system is supposed to be hard, often impossible, though its possible a new supplement may fix that.