Grenade rules

[Shard0808]

Something I've been meaning to bring up since the autumn conclave has been the rules for grenade 'risky actions'. Is there a chance that these rules could get looked at for the community addition?
The way I understand it is that the current risky action rules are somewhat unrealistic, a trained inquisitor with hundreds of years in combat experience can fumble when throwing a grenade and in a blind panic just throw it over his shoulder. Having thrown a few grenades during my career and knowing that there is at least one other forum member with military experience, I can tell you that common sense dictates that accidentally lobbing a live grenade behind you when you're aiming for the target directly in front of you is generally not advised, and quite implausible.
Throwing a grenade as a risky action? In reality I'd say no, it's simple common sense and any degree of training means that you are well equipped to use it effectively with minimal risk. Grenades are used on ops quite regularly, and I've never heard of anyone blowing up the man behind or standing next to him...
In the Inquisitor setting, they're probably too powerful to use without a degree of risk. Fumbling a grenade, it being a dud, or scattering within a 45 degree arc of the character seem like fair examples of it going wrong.
I don't know how exactly this would be changed, or the process for changing a rule. Rules and Implementation wise, I'm not sure on the ins and outs, and having only played the game a small amount I'm not sure if I'm the man for the job, though I'm more than willing if no-one with more experience wants to take it on board.

Thoughts?

[MarcoSkoll]

The grenade rules are something I want to change to some extent with the "Revised edition" (or whatever name is eventually decided on), but it's worth saying that Inquisitor is not meant to be entirely realistic. What we see runs on laws of physics closer to a typical action movie - the result is meant to be interesting, rather than likely.

That said, if there's an opportunity to be cinematic in a more realistic fashion (without compromising gameplay speed), I'm all for it.

My personal gripe with grenades is their exceptional accuracy. E might be one of the classic "short" range bands, but most characters can't (or at least don't) throw them much further than a -15 range penalty. And that often results in a ~50% chance of a successful hit, getting a grenade EXACTLY where you want it, right down to the millimetre.

And given the damage grenades do on a direct hit (with a krak grenade by default inflicting six 3D6 hits), that can actually make grenades considerably more lethal than bolters or plasma guns.

The reaction system I'd like to put in the Revised edition should change things a bit, as giving characters the chance to leap clear of grenades (or, possibly, throw them back!) would make direct hits considerably more difficult to achieve... and possibly, as an advanced rule, you could have a "cooking off" rule that both increased the difficulty of reacting and the risk of fumbling...

But in the short term, what I'd probably do with grenades, beyond the stat changes I put in the RIA, is:
- a small scatter even on a successful hit roll (the temptation is D6 half yards, minus a half yard for each degree of success),
- treat the "hit" on a scatter die as half scatter, not no scatter
- change them to a Hazardous (2) or (3) action
- maybe switch the fumble table to a 1, 2-3 & 4-6 table, but reduce the scatter for a dropped grenade to D6.

But that's as much thought as I can give it in the time I have available right now.