The Engineering - Demolitions skill makes you a master of destruction, trained in the art of turning anything and everything into a pile of rubble with surgical precision. From taking down towering buildings to blasting through secure vaults, you know just how much explosive force is needed to reduce any obstacle in your way to a cloud of dust and debris.
With your expert knowledge of explosives and their effects, you can quickly assess the best way to demolish any structure, whether it be with a simple explosion or a series of precisely placed charges. You know the intricacies of each explosive device, from the raw power of a traditional bomb to the more subtle effects of timed and remote detonations. And with your steady hand and sharp eye, you can execute each demolition plan with deadly accuracy.
But with great power comes great responsibility, and you know that every explosion you create could comes with a high cost in space. You must be careful not cause unnecessary damage or blow though an outer hull, for the consequences could be disastrous.
You have been training in the use of arming and disarming explosives and know just how much, or more importantly, how little is required to terraform a variety of substances such as reinforced concrete, into confetti.
Each demolition task you attempt will have a difficulty rating based on the precision required, the complexity of the target structure, and your familiarity with it. The base difficulty to blow something up is 5, but controlled demolitions require significantly more expertise.
When you attempt to set explosives, you will make an Engineering - Demolitions skill check against the task's difficulty rating. The GM may apply Boons or Banes based on various factors, such as time pressure, available materials, structural familiarity, or environmental conditions.
Rule-playing Demolitions: Generally it's pretty easy to blow something up The base difficulty is 5.
| Object Construction | Toughness |
|---|---|
| Flimsy (plywood door) | 1D |
| Tough (hard wooden door, most guns) | 2D |
| Sturdy (bolted steel door, personal safe) | 3D |
| Very sturdy (a few layers of steel) | 4D |
| Reinforced (numerous layers of steel) Toughness | 6D |
Have the player roll a demolitions skill check, use the tables below to help your work out a DC.
If they roll well remove a few dice from the Toughness table above and roll the Hit Points for the structure. Have the player roll damage.
If the player exceeds the Hit Points for the structure it has had its molecular bonding rearranged to the player's intent.
For extra damage and special effects, the character must spend extra actions setting up the explosives.
The character also needs to indicate how much explosive they are using. They can use more than one Charge, however, each charge takes at least one action to set.
Items that take at least 10 points above their hit-points total are severely damaged, if not destroyed. Items taking less than that are weakened, and another attempt may be made against the remaining hit-points.
Remember that, while a character may think an object is constructed of one type of material, it may not be. Though this does not alter the difficulty of setting the explosive, it may change the results of special effects. For instance, an explosive set for thin wood won’t do much good if that’s only veneer for reinforced steel.
Also don’t forget explosives are loud, very loud and most security systems have some form of noise detection.
| Example | DC |
|---|---|
| Rigging a bomb so a car explodes the next time it starts | 10 |
| Blowing something open without leaving permanent marks or burns | 15 |
| Rigging an explosion so its force goes in a specific direction | 15 |
| Rigging an explosion so that only a certain, small piece of a much larger object is damaged | 20 |
| Extra charges that work in concert | +3 per charge |
| Familiarity with Target | DC |
|---|---|
| Very familiar or common (tree, wall) | -5 |
| Familiar (bulkhead, bridge support) | +0 |
| Unfamiliar (building of unknown construction) | +10 |
| Completely unknown item or construction Modifier | +15 |
Rather than spending skill points to move up skill levels, You may instead spend skill points to purchase any of the following tricks.
Cost: 2 Skill points
Requires: Tactical Training
Frequency: Once per Lockdown
Effect: You had one of your operatives plant explosives ahead of time at a location of your choice. You may remotely activate a C4 breaching charge on a door, wall, or vehicle. Takes one action to detonate.
Cost: 2 Skill points
Requires: Tactical Training
Frequency: Once per Lockdown
Effect: You can set timed fuses on explosives in half the usual time. When setting demolition charges under time pressure, you work with practiced efficiency, allowing you to rig explosives in half the normal duration while maintaining precision.
Cost: 2 Skill points
Requires: Tactical Training
Frequency: Once per Lockdown
Effect: You can create or employ shaped charges that focus explosive energy in a specific direction. When breaching armor, walls, or reinforced structures, your shaped charges penetrate with maximum efficiency, automatically adding +2d6 damage to the target while minimizing collateral damage to surrounding areas.
Cost: 6 Skill points
Requires: Expert Training
Frequency: Once per Op
Effect: You can demolish structures with surgical precision, selectively destroying specific sections while leaving adjacent areas completely intact. This allows you to bring down a building's wing without affecting the rest, collapse a bridge section while preserving approaches, or create precisely-sized openings through walls.
Cost: 6 Skill points
Requires: Expert Training
Frequency: Once per Op
Effect: You are an expert in handling explosives underwater. You can set charges on submerged structures, ship hulls, or underwater installations with no penalty. Your explosive placements account for water pressure, currents, and aquatic conditions, ensuring maximum effectiveness in maritime demolitions.
Cost: 6 Skill points
Requires: Expert Training
Frequency: Once per Op
Effect: You can create or modify explosives that detonate with minimal acoustic signature. These specialized charges use low-velocity explosives or suppression techniques, allowing for covert demolitions. The explosion produces only a muffled thump instead of a thunderous blast, though visual effects remain.
Cost: 10 Skill points
Requires: Master Training
Frequency: Once per Mission
Effect: You can craft and deploy EMP grenades that release intense electromagnetic pulses, instantly disabling all electronic devices within a 30-foot radius. This includes computers, cameras, drones, cyberware, and vehicles. The pulse lasts for several minutes, rendering technology completely inoperable. Warning: affects friendly electronics too.
Cost: 10 Skill points
Requires: Master Training
Frequency: Once per Mission
Effect: You can create advanced implosion charges that collapse structures inward upon detonation, creating a controlled demolition with minimal collateral damage. This technique is perfect for urban environments or ship interiors where explosive expansion would be catastrophic. The structure collapses into its own footprint, leaving surrounding areas untouched.
Cost: 10 Skill points
Requires: Master Training
Frequency: Once per Mission
Effect: Your mastery of explosives borders on the supernatural. For one operation, you can analyze any structure and intuitively know exactly where to place charges for maximum effect with minimum explosive material. All your demolitions checks gain a +1d8 Boon, you use 50% less explosive material, and you can accomplish demolition tasks one difficulty category easier.
Each custom explosive grants a stacking Boon when used for its designed purpose:
Boons apply when:
Breaching & Entry:
Structural Demolition:
Tactical Munitions:
Specialized:
Custom explosives require careful handling:
"Demo" Davis creates tactical entry explosives:
Sergeant "Kaboom" Martinez maintains explosive arsenal:
"Scrapper" creates makeshift bombs: