It's not really doable to handle grenades like they would work in RL otherwise people would be re-rolling characters constantly. In RL if an explosive goes off in a confined space it's the blast wave/overpressure that does the most damage and will collapse lungs, induce pulmonary edemas and all manner of icky sticky internal badness etc

One of my favorite terms, I believe from Shadowrun, was the Chunky Salsa Effect. Explosives in small rooms does nasty things.

However, I've heard that explosives in open spaces are much different than in confined spaces. If you're in an open enough area, especially outside, then it becomes fairly hard to hurt more than one person because the blast dissipates and the shrapnel goes everywhere except where the targets are. Apparently Hollywood does a lot to make grenades seem more deadly than they actually are. (Note: I've never used a grenade and any knowledge I have on this topic I believe I read on the internet, for whatever that's worth.)

Explosives can act weird too. Ever read survivor stories from bombings? I read one from the Boston bombing about a mother who was standing pretty darn close to the bomb with their child sitting on their feet. Basically all that separated the child from the bomb was the mother's legs. Mom lost her legs but the child was practically unscathed. It's amazing how much of a blast can be absorbed/deflected/contained by meat.

To me this means that a miss in this game means that something got in the way of the blast and the characters were not meaningfully injured. Narrate minor cuts and bruises and being showered with debris, but they can get away without suffering any Wounds. Doubly easy to narrate if they are wearing armor which could also help lessen the impact. A miss is not necessarily a miss, just like a hit is not necessarily a hit.

You need to keep in mind the stuff in the Boston bombing was essentially firecracker filling in a pressure cooker, not TNT or C4, so it didn't produce a true blast wave. You get like 100 PSI off military stuff, and GP bombs will produce that out 50+ meters depending on size. 100 PSI is certain, instant, messy death for beings. Tough to keep doing that in a RPG unless you have a PC roller on speed dial or something...

You need to keep in mind the stuff in the Boston bombing was essentially firecracker filling in a pressure cooker, not TNT or C4, so it didn't produce a true blast wave. You get like 100 PSI off military stuff, and GP bombs will produce that out 50+ meters depending on size. 100 PSI is certain, instant, messy death for beings. Tough to keep doing that in a RPG unless you have a PC roller on speed dial or something...

Very true. Just as I'm sure the damage would also depend on what kind of armor someone is wearing. I'd think a full suit of laminate would protect against an explosion better than padded armor or a catch vest, even though the game statistics of +2 soak are identical.

All in all, explosives are messy and dangerous in real life and I'm fine with them not being the "I win" button in a RPG. Especially in one where I can chuck a grenade at a melee and use a talent to ensure my buddy doesn't get hit while the squad of stormtroopers he's fighting all get taken out.

Armour on its own would do absolutely nothing to protect against any kind of huge explosion, except make it easier to mop up whatever's left of you. The pressure would pretty much turn every internal organ in your body into jelly. Armour protects fine from shrapnel, but the kind of blast you get from real-life explosions ignores any kind of armour. It's like saying that a suit of armour would keep you alive if you fell from a plane 10 kilometres up.

Armour on its own would do absolutely nothing to protect against any kind of huge explosion, except make it easier to mop up whatever's left of you. The pressure would pretty much turn every internal organ in your body into jelly. Armour protects fine from shrapnel, but the kind of blast you get from real-life explosions ignores any kind of armour. It's like saying that a suit of armour would keep you alive if you fell from a plane 10 kilometres up.

That really depends on how the armor works when it comes to energy transfer. If armor really provided no benefit, then why do bomb squad members wear them when approaching ordnance? If the concussive wave of energy isn't transferred through the armor to the person inside, then you won't get turned into jelly from it.

Armour on its own would do absolutely nothing to protect against any kind of huge explosion, except make it easier to mop up whatever's left of you. The pressure would pretty much turn every internal organ in your body into jelly. Armour protects fine from shrapnel, but the kind of blast you get from real-life explosions ignores any kind of armour. It's like saying that a suit of armour would keep you alive if you fell from a plane 10 kilometres up.

That really depends on how the armor works when it comes to energy transfer. If armor really provided no benefit, then why do bomb squad members wear them when approaching ordnance? If the concussive wave of energy isn't transferred through the armor to the person inside, then you won't get turned into jelly from it.

All depends on the amount and type of the explosive involved. You get near standard GP bombs and the suit is useless. EOD people won't go near something too big, they only do the whole suit thing by small stuff. War is bad but the proliferation of robots has been a real windfall for EOD.

Egads - this is all way too much work. I'm going to stick with my hollywood physics version of Commando where Schwarzenegger can have stuff blowing up next to him and get gets up to mow down 50 mooks with his bazooka.

Egads - this is all way too much work. I'm going to stick with my hollywood physics version of Commando where Schwarzenegger can have stuff blowing up next to him and get gets up to mow down 50 mooks with his bazooka.

That's probably best. Real war is all beyond visual range/artillery/CAS, very buzzkill.

So, before I go into full rag-on mode of how things like Concussion Grenades and Frag Grenades and Thermal Detties work in this game line's mechanics, lemme make sure I haven't misunderstood the rules for them.

Well, you understood the rules fine. As others have given a lot of advice already let me try and go a different route...

So, Jimmy The Itchy Rodian is a pirate and he and his crew have just boarded a crippled Consular Class Cruiser. Jimmy has a couple of Concussion Grenades amongst his kit and so he, they and his blaster carbine do some good ol' fashioned compartment-clearing.

So in he goes, and he encounters a room that has Joe the Aqualish, Sally the Mon-Cal and Tessko the Trandoshian in it.

Because of how the Initiative Check went, Tessko goes first and tries to fill poor Jimmy with holes using his blaster. Jimmy takes a hit but his armor and soak take care of most of it and no Crit is rolled. Jimmy's turn is next on the Initiative Check so he says "Nuts to this!" and tosses a Conkie Grenade in the room, using Tessko as his "primary target".

Now, again, I wanna make sure I get this right.

1) Jimmy chooses a primary target for the grenade.

2) Assuming the grenade hits its primary target, damage ensues - pretty hefty damage - at least to the primary.

3) If Jimmy manages to come up with some Advantages, he can spend them to "activate" the Grenade's Blast Keyword because it's a special feature of the weapon and must be activated or, regardless of who else is nearby, regardless of how powerful the grenade happens to be - only Tessko would take damage.

*imagine a record scratching to a stop here*

I always imagined the grenade went off really close to the initial target having his body be a shield (intentional or not) keeping others in the group out of harms way.

There are very few settings, realistic or speculative that see any grenade or explosive's efficacy as being that erratic. For one thing, it's unlikely most players would get enough Advantages in a Check to be able to affect more than two people other than the explosives' primary target, which, in the open isn't that big a deal (it's still not quite credulous but its better) but in closer quarters just doesn't reflect how deadly grenades are.

Well, then too the shrapnel would be blocked by the meat shield(s) as well and I can see why they would want to steer clear from a "let's only take grenades" type of play (but that is of course very much meta thinking.)

My big problem is that it's possible for a grenade to miss its primary target and do no damage to anything at all (or at least anything that can shoot back at you). Again, this is a little easier to take in open spaces than in confined ones.

I always imagined such a grenade to be a dud. That might be a leap though but the few times (twice so far) a grenade managed to miss I used this line of thought.