Grenades!
A Rules Expansion for Frag
by Nicholas Anderson
Grenades are an integral part of any good shooting game, as they should be for Frag. Contained herein are some rules for grenades and grenade launchers for the Steve Jackson Game Frag. It introduces two new weapons, and various new rules for people to use to expand their version of Frag.
Grenade Launcher
New Weapon
A Grenade Launcher will launch a grenade across the board at your opponents, and can also be used to bounce grenades around corners for trick shots, or to avoid being in direct range of a player.
The weapon will have four pieces of ammo, with no special charging rules.
When firing the grenade normally, calculate according to Frag rules. When you hit the target the grenade explodes, causing damage to the person and to all adjacent people. Damage to the main square is 4 points and to all adjacent squares is 2 points (as shown below). If the target is next to a wall, the explosion will not spill over through the wall.
0
2
0
2
4
2
0
2
0
If you miss with the grenade, the grenade will bounce a number of times (1-3) before exploding. The amount of bounce in a grenade should be set at the beginning of the game. To figure out how the grenade bounces you can use two methods. The most accurate would be the 8-point method, but for the sake of those that wish to keep Frag strictly a d6 game both rules are included.
Six-Sider Option
Eight-Sider Option
T is the target square. With the Six-Sider Option, you do not use the rear 2 squares; the game presumes that, while throwing the grenade in that direction, there is a greater chance of the grenade to bounce in that direction. The Eight-Sider Option is full chaos, which adds to the fun of the game.
After you have determined the direction of the bounce, roll 1d divided by two (round up) to determine how far the grenade bounces. For each bounce, roll on the chart until the grenade comes to a stop. At each point the grenade hits, move the template so that the target is where the grenade bounces, and roll again. When the grenade comes to a stop it explodes using the same rules; hopefully you will hit your intended target. If the grenade comes in contact with any person, it will explode immediately.
Another option to use is set a limit of 20 squares for a grenade to travel, starting from your square. After those 20 square the grenade will explode.
If the grenade bounces up against a wall, whether it is done on purpose or via the bounce rules, you should take into mind standard physics. Let's say that the target was next to a wall on his left side. If the target was missed and the grenade bounced to the left to location 1 on the Eight-Sider Option, but the wall was along that part of the template, then the grenade would land one square up from location 2 on the template.
Bounce a grenade around a corner is another way to kill your target. When bouncing a grenade off of wall, you calculate the difficulty by counting to the wall and then counting to the target. A grenade will always bounce 90 degrees from the wall towards your target square, from the center of your square. Use the corner of the rulebook as the angle to check to see if you can hit your target. If, from your position, the target cannot draw a line using a 90 degree angle, then you cannot hit that target. If you miss the roll, then roll according to the scatter rules from the point on the wall to determine where it really lands.
Bouncing a grenade is a tricky subject and may not be for everyone. If any of the rules are confusing or you simply don't like them, you can always have the grenade just explode on impact.
Thrown Grenades
New Weapon
Thrown grenades work almost the same way as grenade launchers except for figuring distance. When throwing a grenade, only use half of your accuracy rounded up to figure out how far you can throw it. In addition to the difficulty, you can have a thrown grenade be either primed or un-primed. A primed grenade will explode once it has finished bouncing on that turn, using the same rules as above. An un-primed grenade will explode at the end of the players next turn. All other rules are the same.
If you are using the distance traveled rule, then a thrown grenade can travel a distance of 10 spaces before exploding.
You can print out the table below to make your own grenade counters.
Article publication date: May 3, 2002
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