Federation-Apocalypse Implements of Destruction

This list provides some benchmarks for various classical weapons. Its worth noting that – in the Federation-Apocalypse setting – simple inanimate objects are treated differently from living creatures and active constructs, such as vehicles. There are detailed systems for the important stuff. The landscape and scenery can be dealt with far more simply without any real loss to the game.

Secondarily, most of these benchmarks are for classical, 20’th to 21’st century gear. Modern Core equipment may be considerably more effective than the classical stuff, up to the limits of what’s physically possible – or at least up to the limits of what isn’t suicidal to use as a personal weapon.

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Classical Stuff:

• 1d6: Molotov Cocktail, Light Pistol, Arrow, Mace.
• 2d6 (1d10, 1d12): Dynamite Stick, Incendiary Grenade, Machine or Heavy Pistol.
• 3d6 (2d8, 2d10, 1d20): Modern MiniGrenade, Superheavy Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, Hunting Rifle, Medium Machine Gun, Flamethrower.
• 4d6 (3d8, 2d10, 2d12): Modern Military Grenade, Sniper Rifle, Elephant Gun, Heavy Machine Gun, Vehicle Flamethrower, Minigun, Plastic Explosives. Attacks at this power level have a roughly 50-50 chance of instantly killing normal people and will almost certainly leave them dying even if they survive the initial attack. They’ll also blow out light interior walls and doors without a problem.
• 5d6 (4d8, 3d10, 2d12): Vehicle-Mounted Rotary Autocannon, Recoilless Rifle, Demolitions Charge.
• 6d6 (5d8, 4d10, 3d12): Rail Gun, Photon Grenade, Bazooka, Light Artillery, Satchel Charge. Attacks at this level will blow up cottages, demolish light stone walls, and smash the trunks of sizable trees.
• 8d6 (6d8, 5d10, 4d12): Heavy Artillery, Light Shaped-Charge Anti-tank Weapons, Anti-Vehicle Mine. Attacks at this level will almost certainly kill normal human beings and may well leave few identifiable bits. They’ll also blow holes in stone or concrete walls and blast open ordinary safes.
• 10d6 (8d8, 6d10, 5d12, 3d20, 35 Points): WWII Battleship Gun, Superheavy Artillery, Direct Hit from a Shaped-Charge Antitank Weapon, Blockbuster Bomb, (assorted) Vehicle Energy Weapons, Antimatter Radiator (Especially destructive to Electronics), Rail Cannon. Attacks like this can usually be counted on to destroy modest heavy-construction buildings or medium-sized light-construction structures and will make substantial craters.
• 15d6 (12d8, 10d10, 8d12, 5d20, 50 Points): Cruise Missile, Singularity Grenade, Fusion Cannon, Core Missile Launcher (Shaped Microfusion Warhead), Antimatter Beamer. Attacks at this level normally destroy sizable buildings and inflict considerable damage to the area.

Many of the 15d6-category weapons affect sizable areas, albeit usually at lesser levels of effect. While the total energy involved continues to increase beyond this point, it can no longer be effectively directed against individual targets – regardless of the weapons system in use – hence most of the energy released by the 20d6+ effects goes into affecting larger and larger areas. Magic and Psionic effects may bypass this limitation: they don’t have to obey the usual laws of physics, hence they can cause immense amounts of damage to relatively limited areas.

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The Heavy Stuff:

• 20d6 (16d8, 13d10, 11d12, 7d20, 70 Points): Neutron Bomb, Tacnuke, Heavy Microfusion Warhead, Antimatter Needler (yes, that’s a Core hand weapon). Attacks at this level will usually cause severe damage within a radius measured in hundreds of feet.
• 25d6 (85 Points): Fission Bomb, Meteor Swarm spell, Singularity Cannon. This sort of thing inflicts massive damage to small cities and causes huge numbers of casualties in populated areas.
• 30d6 (100 Points): Fusion Bomb, Relativistic Slivergun. Reduces major cities to rubble.
• 35d6 (125 Points): Antimatter or Total Conversion Bomb, Cometary or Asteroid Strike. Attacks of this kind wreck areas hundreds of miles across.
• 40d6 (140 Points): Stellar Flare, Planetary Collision, Anime Super Energy Cannons. This sort of thing can be expected to destroy continents or planets.
• 45d6 (160 Points): Nova, Brane Collision, Death Star blast. May cause severe damage to nearby planets and usually destroys any planet it hits directly.
• 50d6 (175 Points): Supernova, Neutron Star Collision. Sufficient damage to destroy a star, often inflicts notable damage to nearby solar systems.
• 55d6 (190 Points): Gamma-Ray Burster, Seyfert Flare. This sort of thing destroys small star clusters and inflicts massive damage to substantial portions of the local galaxy.
• 60d6 (210 Points. Usually considered automatic death by massive damage): Struck by Cosmic String or Domain Boundary, Big Bang. Pretty much destroys everything it touches.