Knuckle Bombs

[zero mostel]

Please delete this post

[Deskepticon]

Having never heard of a knucklebomb before, I decided to research it and found everything from band names to comic books... but no weapons. Until you can link me with a source, I'm going to assume that it's similar to a bangstick; that is, it's a type of knuckle duster or gauntlet with a shotgun shell attached, and is fired by landing a punch.

Considering that bangsticks already have stats in SWADE, this seems like a simple matter of Trappings. However, if you want to add range to it for whatever reason, I'd probably go with 1/2/4 and use the shotgun's diminishing damage stats.

Keep in mind, Range is different from Reach. The former notes how many inches away from a character a ranged attack travels; the latter is the number of inches beyond adjacent the weapon reaches. Simple put, a weapon with a range of 0/1/2 would receive the -2 medium range penalty to hit an adjacent foe. The target would need to share the attacker's space to be at short range (likely only possible with a Grapple).

[zero mostel]

For what I am trying to do, the idea of a shotgun works very well. But I do want to keep it at touch/1/2 for game purposes.

[Deskepticon]

zero mostel A range of Touch/1/2 doesn't make any sense though. First off, Touch Attacks use Fighting while range applies to Shooting /throwing. Furthermore, Touch Attacks are normally against adjacent targets, which is technically range 1".

Is the intention here to use Touch Attacks (i.e., Fighting) as the primary means of attack, but also allow the weapon to be fired at adjacent targets with a -2?

[ValhallaGH]

First, "knuckle bombs" is a meaningless phrase.
Is it bombs on the attackers knuckles?
Are they bombs the size of knuckles?
Are they bombs delivered by punching the airborne bomb toward the target? (Similar to a baseball being delivered by swinging a club.)

Second, why not model them on the bangstick (Melee Weapons, Modern, page 72 of Adventure Edition)?

Third, a Range 0/1/2 means the weapon has a penalty to hit at any range greater than suicidal. That's not a weapon anyone is going to actually want to use.

[SteelDraco]

I found a visual reference for what Knuckle bombs look like. They are the bumps on the gauntlet that when they are charged and hit something they do the damage.

So basically powered gauntlets? Those don't look like any kind of ranged weapons to me, but they'd be good trappings for something like a Melee Attack superpower, the Powered Weapon mod for gauntlets from the Sci-Fi Companion, or a tech-based use of the smite power.

Obviously these are highly stylized and non-realistic weapons, so you can do whatever you want, really. If that explosion had any kind of force in a real weapon you'd turn your hands into bloody stumps each time they went off, so realism clearly isn't a concern. Build-wise making them ranged weapons with a range of "the other side of the couch" is kind of weird, especially if they're also a melee weapon - I can't think of many reasons a character wearing these and specced for melee wouldn't just walk the couple of steps to punch someone with them rather than blasting them at a long range 2" away using a secondary skill (Shooting rather than Fighting) and at a -4, but if you like the idea, go for it.

Other options might be triggering a Small Burst Template AoE on a hit or a raise, like a small grenade, or adding some sort of knockback mechanic to the gauntlets.

[lunchmoney]

I'd never heard of knuckle bombs, either. So I googled the term. The top result, Urban Dictionary, is very different to what you are describing here

[ValhallaGH]

Yeah, I encountered that issue, too. Which is why I called it a "meaningless phrase" - that was the most polite interpretation of ZM's post.