Cars as weapons in 6E

[ArgusSK]

Hi all...Steve just let me know in the rules questions forum that the rules for improvised weapons have changed from 5E to 6E. I know nothing about 6E...can anyone encapsulate for me what the difference is?

 

My complaint is that according to the 5E rules, if a superhero hits someone with a car, they just do their normal STR damage. That seems a bit silly to me as I would think smashing someone over the head with two tons of steel should hurt more than just punching them...but hey, comics don't have to be realistic to be fun...has this concept changed much in 6E?

 

Thanks.

[Daltwisney]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

Hi all...Steve just let me know in the rules questions forum that the rules for improvised weapons have changed from 5E to 6E. I know nothing about 6E...can anyone encapsulate for me what the difference is?

 

My complaint is that according to the 5E rules, if a superhero hits someone with a car, they just do their normal STR damage. That seems a bit silly to me as I would think smashing someone over the head with two tons of steel should hurt more than just punching them...but hey, comics don't have to be realistic to be fun...has this concept changed much in 6E?

 

Thanks.

 

Basically, in 6E, if an object is 'tougher' than your strength can break with an average attack, it may help you do more damage. If your average attack would break it, then it won't.

 

Also, remember that 'hitting someone with a car' is not the same thing as 'being hit by a car'. The velocity component in the first case is completely supplied by the character's strength, not a driver speeding along at 100 mph, or gravity acting from significant height.

[lemming]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

Pretty much the same as it's been for the previous five editions.

[Beast]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

the car being larger than your fist would give you added levels for the area it is

so you can swat those pesky high dcv targets

also the wt might be enough to keep weaker targets contained with the car parked on their chest

a fuel soaked area from a damaged gas tank might stop that blaster from using that high heat attack who tries to blast that car parked on their chest

[Matt Holck]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

*knocks down a power line tower on top of the car*

[Ice9]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

Actually, it seems like it could make sense that a car would actually do less damage than a normal punch, if the puncher had a high enough strength. Someone with 100 STR could punch through a titanium wall, and since their arm/hand doesn't explode from doing so, presumably they have correspondingly tough fists. Given that a car is substantially softer than that, it could easily be less effective. Like a weightlifter hitting someone with a styrofoam bat.

[StormK]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

A brick is not the only one who can toss cars around...

 

What about a telekinetic character launching a car at someone, or dropping it on someone's head?

A car weighs around 1500 to 2000 pounds. The weight alone has to do some damage.

[Daltwisney]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

The damage is only indirectly related to the weight.

 

More accurately, the damage comes from the Momentum of the object, its mass times its velocity. (p = m*v)

The strength of the thrower determines the energy (momentum) imparted to the object, which means that the higher the mass, the lower the velocity achieved, and actually, the velocity drops over distance due to friction/air resistance.

Now, if you wanted to telekinetically hold a car above someone and drop it, allowing gravity to give it momentum, it will accelerate to terminal velocity (if the distance is great enough) and then the energy 'transferred' will be greater due to the mass.

 

Hero treats throwing objects as 'instantaneous' (you throw, it hits) which propagates the illusion that all those objects are traveling at the same velocity, but in truth, if the same amount of force (strength) is used to throw a baseball and a car, the car travels MUCH slower, which is why it does the same damage (assuming sufficient PD and BODY for both objects).

[ghost-angel]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

simple version of 6E (which is NOT pretty much the same as previous versions BTW):

 

If your Dice Of Strength Damage are LESS THAN the Objects PD+BODY you can start adding more damage using an object as a weapon. The limit is double your STR, an exception to the Adding Damage Rules.

[StormK]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

simple version of 6E (which is NOT pretty much the same as previous versions BTW):

 

If your Dice Of Strength Damage are LESS THAN the Objects PD+BODY you can start adding more damage using an object as a weapon. The limit is double your STR, an exception to the Adding Damage Rules.

 

Now THAT starts to make sense!! So a big monster throws a car at you it might not do as much damage as if he just smacks you with a mega tentacle. Hulk Clone picks up two cars and mashes them into boxing gloves, and he can dish out a little more damage. Maybe there should also be something about the car taking damage and losing the amount of extra damage that can be done?

[Daltwisney]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

Now THAT starts to make sense!! So a big monster throws a car at you it might not do as much damage as if he just smacks you with a mega tentacle. Hulk Clone picks up two cars and mashes them into boxing gloves' date=' and he can dish out a little more damage. Maybe there should also be something about the car taking damage and losing the amount of extra damage that can be done?[/quote']

 

Objects of opportunity (cars, trees, dumpsters, etc) that are used as weapons take the same damage they deal out. If the BODY of that damage is higher than their PD, they are damaged. If the BODY of the damage is higher than their PD + BODY, the item breaks and is no longer usable as a weapon (in the case of some objects, it may just function as a lesser weapon, would be a GM call).

[Susano]

Re: Cars as weapons in 6E

 

And as Empowered demonstrated -- hitting someone with a car is often nowhere near as effective as driving into them at 70 mph!