Grenade Launcher 

Game Stats

• Maximum Range: 50 yds.
• Aimed Range: 25 yds.
• Fragmentation grenade damage: 5 (burn) + 5 (impaling) + 1d20 (impaling)
• Incendiary grenade damage: 10+1d20 (burn)
• Primary blast radius: 5 yds.
• Secondary blast radius (fragmentation only, impaling damage only): 15 yds.
• Reload time: 3 rounds (spring-loaded), 2 rounds (flintlock/clocktech)
• Concealable: no
• Civilian Carry: no

   

Description 

The term "grenade launcher" describes a variety of man-portable weapons designed to project an explosive shell.  Grenades were first used in the Kisugochi Empire, but the grenade launcher is Harkanian in origin.  They are expensive, rare, and delicate mechanisms.  The Harkanian army makes limited use of grenade launchers as support weapons.

Grenade launchers are always hand-made on an individual basis by expert gunsmiths, often in collaboration with an alchemist, mage, or both.  Individual guilds or guild alliances may have standard "patterns," but even more than other firearms these weapons tend to be individual works of art. Grenade launchers are usually about 24 to 36 inches in length and often quite heavy for a firearm.  Some grenade launchers weigh up to 15 or 20 pounds when loaded; few are lighter than 10 pounds.  No less individual are the grenades themselves.  All grenades are hollow cast-iron "shells" filled with black gunpowder (and sometimes other substances as well).  Their shape, size, and method of detonation varies according to the tastes and judgment of the individual gunsmith who makes them.

Method of Operation

Grenade launchers can be broadly categorized into two types, describing how they launch their projectiles: "flintlock" and "spring-loaded."  So-called "flintlock" grenade launchers propel their grenades with a charge of gunpowder, and are operated exactly like a very large-bore arquebus, with all the foibles thereof.  "Spring-loaded" grenade launchers function more like crossbows.  A spring-loaded grenade launcher propels its grenades with a powerful spring and plate (called the "cup"), forming a piston.  The piston pushes the grenade out of the barrel like a mechanical shot putter.  A spring-loaded grenade launcher is prepared to shoot by cocking the spring by means of a clockwork crank.  When the spring has been fully cocked the cup is at the bottom of the barrel.  The grenade is then pushed down the barrel with a large ramrod (called a "plunger"), just as with a flintlock grenade launch, but without any powder charge.  When the grenadier pulls the trigger, the spring is released and drives the cup forward, launching the grenade.

Grenade launchers are also be categorized according to how their grenades detonate.  Some grenades contain a slow-burning fuse which detonates the grenade when the fuse burns into the grenade's powder charge.  These grenades must be either lit prior to loading (a dangerous operation with a flintlock grenade launcher) or lit at the moment of launch.  Some models of grenade launcher (both "flintlock" and "spring-loaded") carry a second flintlock mechanism mounted near the weapon's muzzle.  The grenadier places his grenade's fuse in a special clamp designed to keep the fuse close to this "fusing lock" even when the grenade is plunged to the bottom of the barrel.  The fusing lock is rigged to strike sparks at the same instant as the main propellant mechanism (either black powder or spring-and-cup), lighting the grenade at the instant of launch.  Other types of grenades are designed to detonate on contact.  Such grenades can be fired out of any grenade launcher, with or without a fusing lock.

Advantages

The main advantage of the grenade launcher is its great firepower and destructive potential.  It turns an individual man into a miniature artillery piece.  Unlike cannon and mortars, however, which are relatively immobile, a grenadier with a grenade launcher is not much more encumbered than an arqubusier.  A typical grenade has a blast radius of up to 15 yards, with a "kill radius" (the range at which secondary targets will almost certainly be affected by the explosion) of about 3-5 yards.  Grenade launchers are particularly deadly in urban settings or other terrain where the enemy is forced into close proximity.

Disadvantages

The grenade launcher is a delicate device that has a number of drawbacks.  Unlike arquebuses, which pose essentially no danger to the user, a grenade launcher can pose a significant user risk.  A grenade launcher's barrel, like an arquebus', is almost always strong enough to withstand the force of the propellant charge.  However, the grenade itself may detonate inside the barrel as a result of misfire or otherwise, maiming or killing the grenadier.  These risks are particularly present with flintlock grenade launchers.  Flintlock models remain in use because they are faster to load than spring-loaded grenade launchers.  A spring-loaded mechanism poses almost no risk of a misfire, but it takes more time (and muscle power) to cock the spring than to load and prime a powder charge.

In addition to these dangers, grenade launchers can pose significant logistical difficulties.  Flintlock grenade launchers consume far more powder per shot than an arquebus, and grenades are larger and heavier than arquebus shot as well.  This limits the ammunition a single grenadier can carry.  Most grenade launchers are mechanically more complicated than an arquebus (particularly spring-loaded launchers with fusing locks, the safest and most versatile style of grenade launcher), making them harder to maintain and more prone to breaking in the absence of regular maintenance.

Most grenade launchers' theoretical range is about 50 yards, but this is merely the distance the grenade can be expected to travel.  The aimed range of a grenade launcher is generally only about 20 to 25 yards, with ovoid grenades (which are harder to cast and therefore more expensive) having a slightly longer range than spherical ones.

Variants

Contact grenades are created by mixing a shock-sensitive explosive such as fulminate of mercury with the black powder charge inside the grenade shell.  When such a grenade strikes a hard object, the shock detonates the fulminate of mercury, which in turn ignites the larger black powder charge.  The use of a shock-sensitive explosive as a fuse means that contact grenades occasionally detonate upon the shock of firing rather than the shock of hitting the target, usually with disastrous results for the grenadier.  A fused grenade may also detonate inside the barrel in the case of a flash in the pan, but in those cases the grenadier usually has a few seconds to throw away the malfunctioned weapon and run for it (Monica Jasmine lost three fingers on her right hand in just this way).  A contact grenade that detonates from the shock of firing detonates immediately, with no warning.  There are a variety of ways to mitigate this risk.  The simplest is to use a spring-loaded grenade launcher, which is slower to load but less violent than a flintlock grenade launcher.  Occasionally the fulminate of mercury is confined to the forward nose of an ovoid grenade, which makes it less likely to detonate from firing shock but also makes it more likely that the grenade will simply fail to detonate entirely because the "fuse" section of the grenade did not hit the target.  The most expensive but most reliable mitigant is a thaumically enhanced spring-loaded grenade launcher which renders the fulminate of mercury temporarily inert until the grenade leaves the barrel.

Spring-loaded grenade launchers can be enhanced with a clocktech mechanism that automatically cocks the spring after firing.  The clocktech mechanism is wound before battle, and automatically cocks the spring.  When the weapon is fired the clocktech mechanism is temporarily disengaged, allowing the piston to spring forward.  The clocktech mechanism then re-engages and automatically winds the spring, leaving the grenadier free to concentrate on other tasks (or even move) while his grenade launcher readies itself for another grenade.

Grenades can be filled with a variety of alchemical powders, but the most common variants are incendiary and fragmentation grenades.  Fragmentation grenades are simply cast-iron shells filled with black powder.  When the powder detonates, the force of the explosion creates lethal heat, pressure, and shrapnel from the shattered grenade shell.  The best fragmentation grenades have their casings laboriously hand-scored so that they shatter into the maximum number of fragments.

Incendiary grenades are filled with black powder as well as more complicated mixtures of chemicals and generally require the assistance of an alchemist to create.  Each alchemist has his own favorite chemical cocktail, so incendiary grenades vary slightly from alchemist to alchemist.  When an incendiary grenade detonates (either by fuse action or contact detonation) the casing bursts into shrapnel and burning chemicals are spread by the explosion.  Incendiary grenades are not necessarily more or less lethal than fragmentation grenades at the point of impact, but the burning fuel they release can have secondary effects when used against inflammable targets.  The fireball and spray of burning fuel also has tends to have a greater psychological impact against most species than the explosion of a fragmentation grenade alone.

Grenade launchers themselves can be rifled.

Party Associations

Monica Jasmine has used two grenade launchers in her time with the party: a flintlock model that misfired in the battle with Baron Ulfhednar, and a thaumically enhanced clocktech model that she acquired shortly thereafter.  Both of Monica's grenade launchers have had fusing locks.

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