Demolition

Advanced, Crafting
Intelligence
You use the Demolition skill to blow things up without blowing yourself up at the same time! It is used to plant explosive devices and defuse bombs, as well as for the safe handling and manufacture of explosives. Demolition involves explosive devices that are planted or set, rather than those that are simply lobbed at the enemy.

Manufacture Explosives

Given enough time and resources you may use the Demolition skill to make an explosive device from scratch, or rig an otherwise normal device to explode. The Difficulty of the Test varies according to what ingredients you have available and how long you have to manufacture it. Rigging a frag grenade to explode when primed is a simple matter, but building a melta bomb from scratch is considerably harder. Generally, manufacturing explosives uses the rules for Crafting items.

Planting Explosives

Explosive devices such as demolition charges, melta bombs and krak grenades are far more effective when planted on a target. To plant an explosive make a Demolition Test. Success indicates that you have successfully planted the explosive, with a trigger mechanism and condition of your choice. Possible triggers include timers, fuses, proximity sensors or remote controls. Failure indicates that you believe the explosives to be planted properly, but when triggered they fail to go off. If you fail by five or more degrees, you accidentally set the explosives off yourself ! Boom!
You may voluntarily make the Test more difficult, for example increasing the time to plant a bomb in a more vulnerable location. By doing so, the Damage dealt is increased by +2 for each level of Difficulty increased or additional minute spent setting the explosive.
For every degree of success on the Demolition Test, the explosive is harder to detect and to defuse. Note the number of degrees of success down when you plant an explosive—it will be used in any Opposed Demolition Tests made to defuse or discover the bomb.

Defusing a Bomb

A character can also use the Demolition skill to defuse a bomb. To defuse a bomb before it explodes requires you to make an Opposed Demolition Test against the Demolition Test of the character who set the bomb in the first place. Success means that the bomb has been defused in time. Failure means that you have not disarmed the bomb yet, although in all but a catastrophic failure you can try again next Round, if you still have the time. Failing by five or more degrees indicates that you have accidentally set the bomb off by mistake!
A Demolition Test to plant or defuse an explosive is usually a Full Action. A test made to manufacture an explosive takes at least one minute, and usually considerably longer, depending on the complexity of the device.

Booby-Traps

A booby-trap is an explosive device intended as a trap. It is planted as a normal explosive, but typically with a proximity trigger designed to go off when a door or package is opened. An Awareness Test Opposed by the Demolition Test to plant the booby-trap may be made to notice it before it goes off.

Detecting Explosives

Normally an explosive device is located using the Awareness skill (to physically notice the device) or Security skill (to detect it using sensors). You may use the Demolition skill to find an explosive device (if you are using your own knowledge of planting explosives to find the most logical place where it could be placed). In all cases, the Test to detect the explosive is Opposed by the Demolition Test made to plant the explosive.

Explosive Entry

Sometimes, when there isn’t enough time to bypass a lock manually or a doorway proves too much of an obstacle, only a well-placed explosive charge will do. If you have a small amount of explosive, either in the form of a shaped charge or a carefully placed grenade, you may make a Demolition Test instead of a Security Test to bypass a lock. Success indicates that the lock or door is destroyed, allowing access but probably alerting any guards. Failure indicates that the lock is destroyed but the door remains sealed, the explosives failed to detonate, or that the explosion emanates outwards instead of inwards, catching anyone nearby in the blast.

Repurpose Explosive

Whenever you successfully locate a bomb or some other explosive device, you can alter its trigger mechanism so that it detonates when you want it to rather than when the original demolitionist wanted. Resolve this as an Opposed Demolitions Test, with a success on your part allowing you to reset the bomb as if you had planted it, thereby allowing you to make all decisions about the explosive as normal. A failed Test indicates that you are unable to alter the explosive without first defusing it. A catastrophic failure by five or more degrees indicates that the bomb goes off.