4d6 Blast

[heroquestelf]

Okay, so this is a hold over from the last forum.

I was told that blast distance halves each time it goes out another square, and when you reach zero the damage terminates at this point.

#1. Is this correct?
#2. I'm sorry. I'm a dolt. What is a square again?
#3. The damage keeps going, halving and halving until you reach zero. Here's a math major question for you, when do you reach zero? 1.2222222 divided by 2 is 0.611111, and that divided by 2 is 0.3055555. Dividing by 2 you theoretically never reach zero. At what point, mathematically, do you CALL Zero range? When the first number in front of the decimal is zero?

This is for range on an EMP gadget, just fyi.

[Antilles]

#1. Yes.
#2. Tabletop RPG's have their roots in tabletop wargames, where you move miniatures around on a map. These maps were divided into grids for ease of play. A square is a square in those grid systems. To give book-examples, turn to the combat chapters, where they use diagrams to explain various stuff. They demonstrate squares nicely. (The 'Firing Into Or Out Of Melee' or 'Line Of Sight' diagrams are the best, IMO).
#3. Doesn't happen, because the damage is rounded down each time it's halved. So you never end up with 1.22222, only 1.

[Mister Andersen]

To be pendantic, damage halves when it reaches the edge of each increment. The default size of an increment just happens to be 1 square. Some blast effects have a strict limit on the number of increments the damage can travel before it cuts out, vis a vis:

A weapon dealing a 100 point blast works out to do the following damage in each increment (starting from "ground zero") of 100/50/25/12/6/3/1

If that weapon has a 3 increment cap, the damage would be 100/50/25/12, and the person standing in what would be the 4th increment is unharmed.

[Agent 333]

To be pendantic, damage halves when it reaches the edge of each increment. The default size of an increment just happens to be 1 square. Some blast effects have a strict limit on the number of increments the damage can travel before it cuts out, vis a vis:

A weapon dealing a 100 point blast works out to do the following damage in each increment (starting from "ground zero") of 100/50/25/12/6/3/1

If that weapon has a 3 increment cap, the damage would be 100/50/25/12, and the person standing in what would be the 4th increment is unharmed.

Uh.... What weapon has a blast increment cap? That's news to me....

[Mister Andersen]

Some gadgets, from memory.

[Toccata]

The things like that that I can recall generally have a flat radius rather than an increment listed, but I might be forgetting something.

[Antilles]

One question: When you say it's for an EMP gadget, do you mean using the EMP mechanism, or something else? Becuase if it is the EMP mechanism, it doesn't use Blast, or even damage.