Core Update 22 Rules Clarification: Blast Effect on a Miss

[Yenaldlooshi]

For the description of the blast effect on page 79 I don't see any description of how to handle a miss.

For myself, I am thinking that knowing where a blast ended up is an important detail in the combats I would run or be run in.

Are there scatter rules for a Blast miss that I am just not aware of in the Mongoose Traveller rules canon? Perhaps in a JTAS article even?

 

[Arkathan]

Here is how I handle it:
Roll a directional die. If you don't have a die with arrows on it, roll a D10 and use the upper point as direction. Or you can always "borrow" a spinner from a nearby kid's game...
Take the effect of the miss. Roll that many dice. The PC's can roll dice up to or equal to demo or hvy weap skill to counter. Use ALL of that roll to subtract from the original miss roll. If positive, the hit point moves that number of inches/1.5 meter map units in the indicated direction. If negative, it goes the other way. Bounce at realistic angles off intervening obstacles.
(Don't miss with grenades in a narrow corridor. It rarely ends well)

 

[Saladman]

Under Thrown Weapons, 1e had:

If the attack fails the projectile scatters in a random direction for (6 + Effect) metres. This is usually only important if the projectile explodes on or after impact.

I don't know where it went in the new edition, or why.

In fact I never noticed it was gone, or that it only ever explicitly applied to thrown weapons and not, say, a launched rpg as well. I've been thinking that was still the rule and I was still by the book.

 

[Yenaldlooshi]

If there is not an extant Mongoose rule, this is what I was thinking:

Blast weapons should target area map points not necessarily people.

Roll the attack and if it misses, note the effect level of the miss.

Imagine the target square in a hex (if there is no hex already) and Roll 1D6 for direction (example; 1 is long, 2 is long/right, 3 is short/right, 4 is short, 5 is short left, 6 is long left.

If they miss, then the blast effect happens in the direction above away from the target point equal to the effect level of the miss in meters. (miss by 1 then only off by 1 meter).

Yes, they may still effectively hit the target anyway, but that is ok. They just wont have it perfectly centered. The bigger the blast the less likely it will matter if they miss by a bit, as it should be. There is a reason why people say " 'close' only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades"

This works for hand grenades and weapons that detonate based on targeted location, but maybe not so much weapons that use direct fire with contact detonators for their blast. (a low tech RPG round for example). That's ok too I think as the rule above is game-play simple enough.

I might also consider borrowing "cone of effect" or "danger zone" (queue Archer quote) rules from MgT and other systems for this if it is not too cumbersome or breaks game play.

Still was hoping for something in the Mongoose canon though... or "cannon" as the case may be. (<-- see what I did there?)

 

[Yenaldlooshi]

On second thought, I think this might have to be a "Referee Call" situation. The Ref can look at the environment and decide what the likely possibilities might be, roll as he feels fit or just call it out.

In this way he could use something like the rule idea above if the attack is in an open field or if it is a direct fire type of blast going down a hallway, simply assign the blast to the backstop point at the end of the hall. Possibly hitting other targets behind it as it travels. Just use common sense.

One thing I think is for certain, he should always advise somehow/someway where the blast effect did end up if it missed with consideration as to the degree of effect from the missed roll.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

On second thought, I think this might have to be a "Referee Call" situation. The Ref can look at the environment and decide what the likely possibilities might be, roll as he feels fit or just call it out.

Yes, as the situation calls for:

MgT2 Core 2022, p131:
Missed attacks with grenades will generally result in nothing interesting happening unless there are dangerous or amusing targets nearby, at the discretion of the referee.

Of course Striker (the Traveller miniature wargame rules) has complete rules for indirect fire and deviation.
CT Striker, B4, p22:



But how do you miss with a thrown weapon with a range of 20 m and a blast radius of 9 m?

 

[Yenaldlooshi]

That was the diagram I remembered!! I knew it existed somewhere. I just could not remember where.

"How do you miss with a thrown weapon at a range of 20m and a blast radius of 9m!?!" -- Screamed every Imperial Marine Drill Instructor ever at some point.

If you couldn't miss, then you would need to roll lol! Combat is a funny thing, does things to a man...

Actually, I would think in many situations a character might be trying to aim precisely for a blast point in order to include as many enemy as possible in the blast. Their failure to do so on the roll might change the result to a certain degree of success based on the deviation or scatter of the blast, but probably should not automatically make the blast disappear from battle space.

Using deviation and scatter based on the rolls effect can make a blast easier to hit with in the game and also create unintended results, as it should be I think.

 

[Saladman]

But how do you miss with a thrown weapon with a range of 20 m and a blast radius of 9 m?

At that point its not so much who you miss, its who you include.

 

[IanBruntlett]

At that point its not so much who you miss, its who you include.

Thanks for that. I did not know that Blast X was for radius metres. The 2016 CRB (p75) and 2022 CRB (p79) don't make that clear...

 

[Geir]

2022 CRB (p.79) :
Blast X: This weapon has an explosive component
or is otherwise able to affect targets spread across a
wide area. Upon a successful attack, damage is rolled
against every target within the weapon’s Blast score
in metres.

What it doesn't say, but which should be true, is on an unsuccessful attack, assuming the weaponry detonates, the blast needs to go somewhere. Scatter rules do add complexity and slow the action though, so grenades are written as (2022 CRB p. 131):

Missed attacks with grenades will generally result
in nothing interesting happening unless there are
dangerous or amusing targets nearby, at the discretion
of the referee.

But... why we have no scatter rules, but rules for dogfighting spacecraft... is a matter of campaign style.