Warhead data

[mmartin798]

I can start things off. The 3rd edition rules with their flat 1d20 fragments was always a problem for me. All the grenades in the game are of a vintage that optimized for uniform fragmentation. Some mechanic mimicking the inverse square rule should have been there. 4th edition, with the number of fragments scaled in part by the distance from the grenade is a step in the right direction.

Even though I have not yet gotten a group together to play 4th edition, I do like the idea of the DoS allowing for more spectacular results. While it may not be 100% true to real world, it makes for better story telling.

The damage per fragment is my biggest gripe. The stereotypical room breaching scenario of tossing in a grenade and charging in after it goes off is a viable for any situation using the rules as written. Real world says that it might work for a bunker, but not a wooden building. Doing that would injure or kill the people crouched outside the door waiting to go in when the grenade goes off. As written the rules make Project personnel, who are covered from head to toe in armor with AV 7 or greater assuming they are wearing a helmet, immune from damage if they manage to get the grenade 2.75m away from themselves. That just does not seem right.

I mean, if you have someone with an HP-35 and they shoot and hit this person from 5m away, you will do 2dp someplace. If this same person is 5m from a badly thrown grenade that hits (DoS = 1), using the 4th edition rules there are 10 fragments with 3 that hit doing no damage. Make it an extremely well thrown grenade (DoS = 10), you get 100 fragments with 21 hitting for, no damage. This person is at the edge of the lethal range of the grenade and takes no damage. It just feels off.