Untrained Explosives

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Untrained Explosives
« on: January 11, 2013, 11:31:56 AM »
It's come up a few times now that we've wanted to use explosives to blow something up.

We have a Commando, but he doesn't have the 'Explosives Expert' move.

Satchel charges are listed as weapons, which makes it look like the untrained can use them (at least for the purposes of hurting people or vehicles with damage dice, since no other weapons seem to require special training).

a) Combat Action +lucky (this seems the obvious choice, but we didn't think of it during the session)

b) You cannot make explosives detonate without that move

c) You can detonate explosives just fine, but they won't take down structures, only hurt vehicles or people as per the weapon damage rules

d) Oh, that's an oversight

Re: Untrained Explosives
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2013, 08:46:20 PM »
Yeah, it's a).

If you have the move, you get a bit of a retroactive "I already set this up earlier," power, too, which is why it's special.

Re: Untrained Explosives
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2013, 08:58:05 AM »
We played a bit more with explosives in our last session, and I would like to report that rolling LUCKY for routine use of explosives is really unsatisfying. In our context, the Commando was mouse-holing along a street to get around a machine-gun nest, and rolled poorly on lucky, taking a stress (over his grit) and wounds. He was forced to take the 'flee' action, which was a rather ignominious departing move for the platoon's most gung-ho member.

I think what made it unsatisfying is that all other weapons work as designed without a roll, and it seems like explosives should as well. I would propose the following, or some variant of it:

If explosives are part of your load-out: It works as designed. If you are trying to do something fancy, roll TACTICS. On a 10+, pick 3, on a 7--9, pick 1, on a miss, the MC will offer you a hard choice or a worse outcome. Options: Inflicts grievous harm; Is perfectly timed; Is perfectly placed.

If explosives are NOT part of your load-out: roll LUCKY. On a 10+, pick 2, on a 7--9, pick 1, on a miss, it does not work as planned an the MC will make a hard move. Options: as above, plus: It works as designed.

Explosives could be added to a character via a move: Explosives-trained. You have been trained in the manufacture and use of explosives. Add explosives to your loadout.