How does a blast wave kill you?

[Cpl. Kalkwarf]

Ummm Guys isnt this already taken into effect using the Concussive damage in the rules already.... in an abstract way of coarse.?

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Cpl. Kalkwarf

Ummm Guys isnt this already taken into effect using the Concussive damage in the rules already.... in an abstract way of coarse.?

By necessity, T2K (and most other RPGs) oversimplify complex effects to facilitate game play. But yes, that, at its heart, is what causes most of the damage in an explosion: concussion. What's being compressed is air itself, and it can hit someone or something like a freight train. That's concussion. Imagine being slammed against a brick wall suddenly. (Or more like the brick wall being slammed against you.) Another way to look at compression is as overpressure; momentarily, the atmospheric pressure in the shock wave radiating out from the explosion is much higher (depending upon the force of the explosion).

What's worse is that some concussion injuries aren't immediately obvious. It may be weeks or months before someone realizes, "Dale's been acting more and more strange lately."

Here's something not in the rules: Very large explosions, such as from Daisy Cutters or nuclear explosions, can hit you with a concussive blast wave when the air is pushed out from the explosion, and then the air that got displaced suddenly gets sucked back in, fast enough to cause another damaging concussive wave on the way back in!