how much can i blow with 300g of gun powder?

[rossik]

we are playing a pirate adventure, and twoo players asked to take with themselves 300g of powder each...


im soooo wanting to explode their backpacks...ehehee

but no, seriously, how much can u do with 300g?

 

[Henry]

300 grams or 300 grains?

If it's 300 grains, that's between half an ounce to 3/4ths an ounce of black gunpowder; not much, but enough to get a good fire going.

If it's 300 grams, that's about 10 ounces, and enough to get a NASTY fire going.

Unless black powder is under compression, however, there won't be an explosion.

And furthermore, this had better be a game question, and not a real-life one, or you'll get somebody hurt or killed.

 

[rossik]

oh, 300 grams...so, in "powder" state, it cant explode?

 

[Henry]

No, as open powder it just burns REALLY fast. looking up the Wiki on Gunpowder, specifically black gunpowder, will tell you a lot on the subject. While you'd never use Wikipedia for, say, a credited source in a research paper or something, it's pretty good for general knowledge, and gaming knowledge in particular.

 

[rossik]

ok, think i got it...
what do u think it would happen if tha powder inside a bag, inside a backpack, was "turned on"?

all the backpack would catch fire?

 

[nute]

ok, think i got it...
what do u think it would happen if tha powder inside a bag, inside a backpack, was "turned on"?

all the backpack would catch fire?

That depends on where they acquired it. If your campaign uses black powder for things like cannons and whatnot, then you can go the route of what's more dramatically appropriate.

If the characters "mixed it themselves", relying on the players' knowledge of real-world chemistry, you're well within your rights to adjudicate any number of things:

1) Nothing happens. In D&D-world, black powder is just an inert mix of chemicals.
2) In D&D-world, black powder is incredibly unstable, and the heat and pressure of sliding around in someone's backpack can set it off as per a flask of alchemist's fire.
3) Whatever's funny at the time. Kobolds with flaming crossbow bolts are my personal favorite when PCs carry around large amounts of caustic and/or flammable substances.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Since you have 300 grams each, that's 600 grams or about 21 ounces... that's quite a bit.
If you put that in a small keg, filled that keg with loose nailes, bits of chain and maybe some caltrops or coin shavings, you have a case, shrapnel and powder, add a fuse of some sort and you have IED (Improvised Explosive Device).

Remember that tightly packed equals greater pressure and larger 'bang'; you may need a shovel or hammer to tamp it down enough, hopefully that won't spark on you. (As you can see, this isn't the safest of propositions you are persuing)

 

[Warren Okuma]

we are playing a pirate adventure, and twoo players asked to take with themselves 300g of powder each...


im soooo wanting to explode their backpacks...ehehee

but no, seriously, how much can u do with 300g?

Depends. Treat as a concussion grenade if it is enclosed in a container, otherwise two doses of alchemical fire per.

 

[rossik]

.
If you put that in a small keg, filled that keg with loose nailes, bits of chain and maybe some caltrops or coin shavings, you have a case, shrapnel and powder, add a fuse of some sort and you have IED (Improvised Explosive Device).

uuuuuuuuuu...how much dmg do u think that can do????

 

[dougmander]

Gunpowder is a low explosive, without the concussive effects of high explosives.

In my own Northern Crown rules, a 5-lb. keg (over 2000 grams) of gunpowder does 5d6 damage on a direct hit, 3d6 within 5 feet, and 1 d6 within 10 feet. A grenade (2 lbs, or less than 1000 grams) does 3d6 on a direct hit, 1d6 within 5 feet. I would rule that 300 grams would do no more than 1d6 on a direct hit.