Some weapons explode and spread secondary shrapnel over a large area. This is usually not enough to hurt a car any further, but to pedestrians it can be lethal. To simulate this, some weapons are described as having a burst effect.
On these pages, all weapons with a burst effect will be listed, but some weapons from the original game also have this effect. These include:
- All HE grenades, missiles and bombs
- HE RPG
- Pattern mines
With burst effect weapons, the weapon effects all pedestrian targets within the burst zone. So, if you throw an HE grenade onto a section with four targets and hit it, then all four targets have been hit and must roll for any damage effects.
There are however, two ways of working out a burst effect.
The easy method is that the two lanes that the burst counter hit is actually the entire burst effect. This makes things nice and simple, yet strangely inaccurate and weirdly shaped.
In method 2, you require the use of the spin template and a normal mine/smoke/passive counter. What then happens is, that when a burst effect weapon if fired, the impact point must be located. If this is a vehicle or pedestrian, then simply position the passive counter over them. If it is a grenade, then the area should be located. If it is simply a lane or other section, position the passive counter over the centre of that lane. Position the passive counter as centrally on the impact point as possible. This is the central focus of the weapon, and everything within under this passive counter takes the full HE damage of the weapon.
If you don't wish to use a passive counter, the diameter should be 3.5 centimetres or just under half a space on the range ruler.
Now place the spin template over this passive counter as centrally as possible. Every pedestrian within the inner cut away area of the spin template is effected by the secondary shrapnel and fragments from the weapon. Everything within this inner ring takes an HE hit that equals half the strength of the original damage, rounding down. Thus a +6 HE missile will do +3 HE damage, and a +1 HE grenade will do +0 HE damage. Vehicles are not effected, only exposed pedestrians. A target will not, however, take damage from both an Inner and outer blast zone, they will only take an effect from the most damaging zone.
If you don't wish to use the spin template, then the diameter is actually 8 centimetres or 1 space on the range ruler.
Because you're using the inside of the spin template, you will get a bigger burst effect radius, which is a two lane radius, so half again as big as the Easy Method.
A burst effect weapon explodes outwards from its point of impact. When this burst effect hits something, that target takes damage. But things hiding behind cover may not take damage. For example, a 40mm HE grenades explodes creating a burst effect which kills several people standing out in the open and within its radius. But in the outer zone there is a wall that another pedestrian is using to cower behind. This person will not take damage from the blast even though he is in the blast radius because the wall will shield the person from the blast.
Cover can include holes in the ground, vehicles, walls, buildings, wrecks and the like. Common sense should be used when determining what is considered cover - it should be something fairly solid. Sadistic gamesmasters may instead state that cover acts like armour and thus any damage that gets through the AV of the cover will hurt the pedestrian. As an example of an AV, a standard brick wall for a house will have an AV 4 and a wooden fence an AV 3.
