Also in jedi, Leia takes a hit to the arm. While painful for a period of time, she doesn't seem to have any lasting effects? Though we never actually see the wound itself, but during the end she gives Luke a big ol hug like nothing happened. (Though, this is possibly more story-based heroic healing rather than anything based on how this might actually effect people).

Hero healing, I would bet.

Also, the shot seems to be a glancing shot.

Also in jedi, Leia takes a hit to the arm. While painful for a period of time, she doesn't seem to have any lasting effects? Though we never actually see the wound itself, but during the end she gives Luke a big ol hug like nothing happened. (Though, this is possibly more story-based heroic healing rather than anything based on how this might actually effect people).

Hero healing, I would bet.

Also, the shot seems to be a glancing shot.

It was a minor critical injury that was patched up with a Medicine check between those scenes. They probably have some awesome painkillers in the SW galaxy.

I tend to think of blaster fire having the same effect as a jacketed hollow point bullet that is meant to penetrate light barriers before expansion (e.g. car windshields, drywall). However, instead of doing damage with just kinetic energy, the blaster dumps a lot of thermal energy and burns/cauterizes. The smoking hole behind Greedo can be thought of as an over-penetration of the blaster bolt. Remember, always be sure of your target and the things/people behind it!

It was a minor critical injury that was patched up with a Medicine check between those scenes. They probably have some awesome painkillers in the SW galaxy.

"Luke! I'm so glad you're back. Hey, if you're injured, that guy behind the Ewok hut has some killer meds. I can barely stand up!"

"Well, that's good, Leia! I... wait, are we even rolling? Am I talking to Leia or Carrie?"

"Shh... it's called 'Method Acting.'"

*blink* *blink*

Wow. Thanks all. I have so many more ideas now. Light blasters, heavy blasters, blaster rifles, different mods... they'll all leave different wounds.

Light blaster - Small wound, little penetration, burn but not likely to ignite textiles.

Heavy blaster - larger wounds, explosive penetration, nasty burns, ignition of textiles likely.

Blaster rifle - large wound, deeper penetration, less expansion, nasty burns and ignition.

Not detailed descriptions, but a decent breakdown.

*blink* *blink*

Wow. Thanks all. I have so many more ideas now. Light blasters, heavy blasters, blaster rifles, different mods... they'll all leave different wounds.

Light blaster - Small wound, little penetration, burn but not likely to ignite textiles.

Heavy blaster - larger wounds, explosive penetration, nasty burns, ignition of textiles likely.

Blaster rifle - large wound, deeper penetration, less expansion, nasty burns and ignition.

Not detailed descriptions, but a decent breakdown.

You don`t need detailed descriptions. You can let your players improvise how the blaster wound looks when they see it. Then, if you like it, you can make it canon in your game. If not, that is just the wound from that speciific blaster(or what really turned out to be a slugthrower or a completely different murderweapon).

Leia's "poncho" thingy catches fire when she gets hit on Endor.

Blaster shots are made of science.. SCIENCE!

Asking what kind of wound a blaster bolt makes is kind of like asking what the maximum altitude of a T-47 airspeeder is.

Assume some general properties of blasters from what you've seen in Star Wars (e.g. they are lethal, they don't seem to leave a bunch of blood or body parts everywhere, they seem to catch stuff on fire a little every now and then) and go from there. I like RodianClone's suggestion of letting the players describe the wound. Great way to get players cooperatively narrating.

Googling "fireworks injury" gives a rough representation of how I think a blaster wound would look like.

Although, I don't recommend doing it unless you are pretty desensetized to gory pictures.

EDIT: That said, SW also has vastly superior medical science so blaster wounds would be much easier to treat than fireworks injuries are for us. But they'd still look as gory on the battlefield.

As I understand it, Blasters are supposed to be Tibanna gas that has been compressed and ignited into a plasma.

So, I’d be looking at what kinds of things happen when a gas gets superheated to the point of being a plasma and then comes into contact with various things.

Since plasmas and plasma burns are not that common in our culture, I’d look at other serious heavy types of localized burns, such as might be seen with oxyacetylene torches, etc…. I mean it’s a burning gas hot enough to cut metal, right?

On one hand, I think fireworks damage is a pretty accurate and smart summary of how blasters would work in the real world.

OTOH, I doubt the set and effects designers on the OT seriously thought through the practical impact and damage of these weapons, and the thought that every blaster shot is going to likely cause gruesome and physically apparent injury runs a bit in contrast to the high-flying daredevil feel of the game. Generally, I treat wounds in mechanical terms. Most hits aren't going to leave behind especially gory or long-term wounds, either because the effects of blasts are generally concussive, because the quality of medicinal technology is quasi-magical, or because that sort of damage is reserved for specific critical hits and narratively scarring villains or careless heroes.

I do like the idea of attributing different types of damage to different calibers of weapons, but I doubt I'd ever get that detailed with it. Viciously scarred faces and major tissue burns are the province of recurring villains with a grudge.

If I were to get into more detail, say if I wanted to run a significantly gritter game, I'd make more adjustable settings on guns, with effects ranging from destructive high burn to concussive and causing little in the way of long-term damage. You could have an added strategy with bounty hunters needing to take in victims intact.

I do keep track of wounds on my character. Mostly because it's started to become a bit ridiculous now that he's collected almost 20 blaster scars. (Like grandpa suggested, 'Kid, you do know it's OK to dodge?') I guess one of these days I should set aside time to take a dip in a bacta tank and get them buffed out!

I'm working up some detailed descriptions for the murder scene(s) for the mystery. My players tend to want gritty details in descriptions when they need to figure something out. Therefore, I need good descriptions of as much as reasonably possible, else the only details will be the important stuff, and then there's no mystery, etc.

Streak's talk about scars brought up an interesting idea. What if you got hit in the same place? The scar tissue would probably be tougher, so the wound might change, which could be a clue to identifying the victim, etc.

As I understand it, Blasters are supposed to be Tibanna gas that has been compressed and ignited into a plasma.

So, I’d be looking at what kinds of things happen when a gas gets superheated to the point of being a plasma and then comes into contact with various things.

Since plasmas and plasma burns are not that common in our culture, I’d look at other serious heavy types of localized burns, such as might be seen with oxyacetylene torches, etc…. I mean it’s a burning gas hot enough to cut metal, right?

Actually, according to Wookieepedia (the only real collection of information we have, no matter what you might think of it), it's not hot while traveling through the air. "Blaster bolts themselves carried no heat."

It's not until they impact that something happens:

On impact, however, their displacement of matter produced kinetic energy that causes heat: the atmosphere was displaced by the bolt's passage (causing the blaster's iconic sound^[4]); materials struck by bolts tended to deform and fuse; and liquids inside organic bodies instantly changed state to steam, expanding and doing terrible damage to surrounding tissue.

So that's the thing. It is more of an explosion than a burn.

So that's the thing. It is more of an explosion than a burn.

But like, a really hot explosion. That is kind of also a burn

The Wookieepedia editors try really hard to make sense of the jumble of the EU-that-was, and I admire them for it! More accurate, canonical information can be found under the canon pages: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Blaster/Canon... and I like how it keeps things very uncomplicated.

At the end of the day though, Star Wars is space opera that has always played fast and loose with its sci-fi elements. The EU writers went to extraordinary lengths to try and explain everything in the movies in strictly science fiction terms, but as others have already said here, blasters (and blaster bolts) have the effect that the script writers and directors want them to have in the moment.

So that's the thing. It is more of an explosion than a burn.

But like, a really hot explosion. That is kind of also a burn

The Wookieepedia editors try really hard to make sense of the jumble of the EU-that-was, and I admire them for it! More accurate, canonical information can be found under the canon pages: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Blaster/Canon... and I like how it keeps things very uncomplicated.

At the end of the day though, Star Wars is space opera that has always played fast and loose with its sci-fi elements. The EU writers went to extraordinary lengths to try and explain everything in the movies in strictly science fiction terms, but as others have already said here, blasters (and blaster bolts) have the effect that the script writers and directors want them to have in the moment.

Most explosions are... well... hot.

And they burn...

So...

But is the explosion a detonation or deflagaration, and is the effect inherrent in the 'projectile' or is it a synergistic effect between the shot and target?

FWIW, I have always thought of blaster impacts as more "punch" than "explosion." Like it's just a massive transfer of energy to the target, rather than an actual explosion of energy upon impact.

We do see flak-like explosions from bigger weapons in the Star Wars galaxy, but the small arms seem to be very efficient in directing their energy to the target and not just indiscreetly spreading it all around with an outwards explosion.

Also there's this fairly recent article that provides a good read. Not to blaster wounds exactly, but just some good reading about Star Wars blasters to get you in that mindset.

But is the explosion a detonation or deflagaration, and is the effect inherrent in the 'projectile' or is it a synergistic effect between the shot and target?

But is the explosion a detonation or deflagaration, and is the effect inherrent in the 'projectile' or is it a synergistic effect between the shot and target?

Well, according to Wookieepedia (again), it's the interaction between the energy and the target. Especially organic targets suffer horrendous damage as liquids vaporise and explode.

So (from what I gather, but I'm not good at that kind of stuff), the energy bolt impacts the target, the energy is transferred and an explosion usually occurs, but it's not the bolt exploding, but the engergy released when interacting with the target.

So, a steel wall might not get much more than a scorchmark, but organic matter usually explodes violently from the vaporisation of liquids at the detonation point.

And since most stuff contain at least a little liquid, things like clay or wood will explode a bit as well. Some even catch fire from the intense heat generated from the energy transfer.

But then, like I said, I'm no expert on stuff like that.

All I know to do is metalshaping, welding and keeping kids in check.

Smoking holes spewing blood with charred flesh around it

Smoking holes spewing blood with charred flesh around it

I played in a campaign once that was like that...and a PbP game as well. I didn't enjoy it...blood spewing from blaster wounds just doesn't do it for me. If I want blood, I'll play a vibrodagger-wielding Bothan Infiltrator!