Brain Burn

[Fallon Kell]

So, it's been my educated assumption that while blasters generally do more damage than slug weapons, they do that damage in a hemispherical pattern leaving wider, shallower injuries than firearms narrow, roughly conical wounds.

Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but in the instance of head shots, I think it may make a difference. Everyone knows that if you take a normal gunshot directly to the head at short range, you almost certainly die. Despite this, a normal 9mm round (approximately 3D damage) versus a moderately strong human (3D, minus 1D for a head hit = 2D) is likely to yield a stunned or wounded result. So I have a rule that firearms to the head kill, except in mitigating circumstances.

But I have blasters roll damage normally, due to the shallower wounds.

What does the EU say? Am I off my rocker? Discuss.
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[Bren]

Regarding surface vs penetrating damage for blasters:
IIR we see blasters knocking chunks of permacrete out of the wall of the landing bay on Tatooine. That doesn't sound much like surface damage to me. In addition, virtually all armor has better physical protection than energy protection - which again makes it seem that blasters are at least as penetrating as physical weapons such as firearms.

On the other hand, if you view blasters as more a wide area surface injury, then the blaster equivalent of your firearm instant kill head shot is a blaster automatic blinding result. 4D damage to your eyeballs can't be a good thing. One could also combine this with some pretty intense scarification.

Regarding instant kill head shots:
The head wound that is "only a graze" or that knocks the hero out is an extremely common trope in fiction. I don't know that I would want a special rule to ban that. A normal STR 2D human will be wounded or worse from a head shot. I consider an NPC with a 3D STR as quite fit or strong rather than moderately fit or strong.

I don't see firearms showing up in the EU, aside from a few WEG adventures and supplements. Personally, whether firearms or blasters, I don't want to add to the lethality or maimingness of combat by adding an automatic anything result.

[jmanski]

Just add +1D to the damage for headshots.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[Fallon Kell]

[cheshire]

I ususally increase the difficulty and damage of a called shot. Once you're calling a shot to the head, it increases the damage. I also think that the exact hit location in the head makes a difference when we're talking about how things go in game. There are people who are shot in the face and live depending on the bullet's trajectory once it hits the flesh. My friend has an Iraq war vet for a roommate and the guy had a bullet enter his face, ricochet off of the inside of his helmet and re-enter the skull. The man is on disability, and is blind in one eye, but he's alive. My friend is an EMT and had a colleague arrive at the scene of an attempted suicide. The man put a gun to his forehead and pulled the trigger. The bullet lodged in the front of his skull and did VERY little damage. He was even conscious. (Incidentally when the paramedics arrived they asked why he didn't try again. The man said, "CUZ IT HURT!")
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Fallon Kell]

[atgxtg]