Ballistic Hollowpoint
The critical table for expanding rounds — soft noses that mushroom and fragment in flesh, spending every joule where it hurts. The payoff for carrying ammunition that is useless against armor: it destroys tissue outright, and what it takes does not grow back. Sized against the RMU core Puncture table (Core Law p. 233), in that table's own location-band layout, with Weapon Law: Firearms 6.2 (book p. 120) as the historical starting point. Roll d100 (not open-ended) and cross-index with the critical's severity. Hollowpoints only crit here against unarmored flesh; the full ammunition rules — the Puncture-to-Hollowpoint substitution and the doubled cover bonuses — live with the ballistic body armor rules on Combat.
| Roll | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head1 | AThe round passes through foe’s hair and never gets its chance to open. Somewhere behind him it is making a mess of a wall.+1H | BThe round clips the rim of the ear. Too little meat to expand in, and it is gone before it knows it arrived.+4H | CThe round skids across the scalp, opening as it goes, and takes a strip of skin with it — far more than a ball round would have managed.+5H | DThe round strikes the bone above the eye and flattens against it. All that energy has to go somewhere, and it goes into foe’s skull.+10H | EThe round opens along foe’s jaw and takes a chunk out of it. The hole is the size of a thumb, and it was made by something much smaller.+6H, 1 |
| Chest2 - 3 | AThe round plucks through foe’s coat and opens on the far side of it. He is unhurt, and about a second from understanding how narrow that was.+3H | BThe round mushrooms against a rib and turns along the bone rather than through it. A wide, shallow bruise the size of a fist.+5H | CThe round opens just under the skin of the chest and ploughs a furrow you could lay a finger in.+4H, 1 | DThe round expands in the meat of the chest and stops there. A small hole going in, nothing coming out, and a great deal of ruin in between.+7H, 1 | EThe round strikes the breastbone flat and spreads across it like a thrown coin. Foe keeps his chest, and will feel this for a month.+16H |
| Abdomen4 - 5 | AThe round opens inside foe’s belt and spends itself on leather and buckle. He owes his evening to a strip of cowhide.+4H | BThe round grazes the flank, expanding as it passes. The gouge it leaves behind is wider than the round ever was.+3H, 1 | CThe round opens in the soft tissue above the hip and stays there. What it did on the way in is much larger than the hole it came through.+7H, 1 | DThe round mushrooms against the wing of the pelvis and stops dead. The bone holds; nothing else nearby is enjoying itself.+13H | EThe round opens across the belly wall without breaching it, tearing a shallow crater the width of a palm.+16H |
| Leg6 - 10 | AThe round expands against the thigh and stops in the muscle. The leg takes all of that energy at once and briefly declines to hold him up.+10H | BThe round opens along the calf and carves a trough out of it. Foe’s boot fills quickly.+7H, 1 | CThe round mushrooms inside the thigh. It misses the bone and the artery both, and still leaves a cavity you could put a fist into.+12H, 1 | DThe round opens in the back of the thigh and takes most of a hamstring with it. There is no exit wound, because there was nothing left to exit through.+15H, 2 | EThe round expands early and tears the thigh open along its length. The wound is a valley rather than a hole.+15H, 3 |
| Arm11 - 15 | AThe round opens against the outside of the arm and slaps it flat. A bruise the size of a saucer, and no hole at all.+7H | BThe round mushrooms at the point of the elbow and takes the cap of it away. The joint is still a joint, in the loosest sense.+7H, 1-5 | CThe round expands inside the bicep and comes to rest. Foe’s arm swells around the cavity while he watches it happen.+17H, 1 | DThe round opens between the bones of the forearm and takes the muscle out from between them. Whatever he was holding is gone.+20H, 2 | EThe round mushrooms in the inside of the upper arm and takes everything soft that lay in its way.+15H, 2-5 |
| Head16 - 20 | AThe round opens across the forehead and lays the scalp back off the bone. Foe is instantly blind behind a curtain of his own blood.+5H, 1 | BThe round takes the ear off entirely and goes on expanding into the air behind it. The pressure alone is enough to put foe off his stride.+8H, 1 | CThe round opens along the jaw and takes the cheek with it. There is a window into foe’s mouth that was not there a moment ago.+19H, 1 | DThe round mushrooms flat against the curve of the skull and skates off it. The bone holds, and everything inside it sloshes.+13H1[-50] | EThe round opens inside foe’s cheek and empties it. Teeth, tongue and a good deal else leave together.+16H, 3 |
| Chest21 - 25 | AThe round expands against a rib and breaks it wide rather than clean. The fragments go outward, which is the only mercy in it.+5H-5 | BThe round mushrooms between two ribs and stops against the far side of them. Foe’s chest wall is one bruise from front to back.+13H-5 | CThe round opens in the muscle below the collarbone and hollows out a channel three fingers across.+23H, 2 | DThe round enters the chest cavity and opens inside it. A lung tears along the whole path rather than being punctured.+25H, 31[-50] | EThe round expands on the ribs and drives the pieces inward ahead of itself, so the bone does as much damage as the bullet.+20H, 3-5 |
| Abdomen26 - 35 | AThe round opens in the belly wall and takes a cone of it away. Foe holds the edges together and finds there is more edge than he expected.+12H, 2 | BThe round mushrooms crossing the flank. It misses every organ and still ruins a hand’s breadth of everything else.+20H, 2 | CThe round expands in the gut and tears bowel apart over a span rather than perforating it. The smell arrives before the pain does.+25H, 3 | DThe round opens deep in the abdomen and empties a cavity the size of a fist. Nothing in there is where it was.+38H, 3 | EThe round mushrooms in the liver and takes a wedge of it out. Foe folds around the hole, and the shock arrives a beat later.+30H, 31[-50], -5 |
| Leg36 - 45 | AThe round opens across the front of the thigh, ploughing a trench through the muscle rather than a hole.+20H, 1 | BThe round mushrooms against the thigh bone and stops there. The bone survives; the muscle wrapped around it does not.+20H-5 | CThe round expands in the thigh and takes the vein beside the bone with it. There is no clean edge anywhere in the wound.+43H, 4 | DThe round opens against the shin and shatters it outward. Bone and bullet leave through the same wide hole.+38H, 4-10 | EThe round mushrooms in the back of the knee and hollows the joint out. There is nothing left in there to bend.+30H, 31[-50], -10 |
| Arm46 - 55 | AThe round opens in the forearm and takes the muscle off the bone. Foe’s fingers move, and he cannot say why.+13H, 2-5 | BThe round expands along the inside of the arm and unroofs it from elbow to wrist.+31H, 3-5 | CThe round mushrooms against the upper arm bone and breaks it into a handful of pieces. The arm changes shape while he watches.+25H, 1-10 | DThe round opens in the elbow and takes the joint apart from the inside out. What remains is two bones and an opinion.+33H, 3-10 | EThe round expands in the wrist and hollows it. The hand is still attached, and that is the most that can be said for it.+30H, 3-10 |
| Arm56 - 65 | AThe round mushrooms against the shoulder blade and spreads across it. The bone holds, and the muscle over it is pulped.+28H-5 | BThe round opens in the shoulder meat and takes a cone of it out the back. Foe’s reach on that side ends here.+25H, 3-5 | CThe round expands against the upper arm and takes bone and muscle away together. The exit is the size of a fist.+38H, 4-10 | DThe round opens inside the shoulder joint and empties it. The arm hangs from skin and intention.+43H, 4-15 | EThe round mushrooms in the armpit and takes everything crowded in there at once. Foe clamps down on it and finds nothing left to clamp.+53H, 41[-50], -20 |
| Abdomen66 | AThe round opens low through the hip and takes the socket of the joint with it. The leg bears weight for exactly as long as foe insists it will.+30H, 3-15 | BThe round expands squarely in the groin. There is no describing this one at the table; there is only the number.+48H, 41[-75], -20 | CThe round mushrooms against the pelvis and blows it apart from the middle outward. Foe stops being a standing creature.+53H, 51[-75], -30 | DThe round opens in a kidney and takes it out of the world. The bleeding is entirely internal, entirely enormous, and foe has perhaps a minute of clear thought left to spend. Foe is dying. +59H, 62[-75], -80 | EThe round expands against the spine from the front and takes the great vessel lying beside it. Foe folds over the wound and empties into himself. Foe is dying. +57H, 6-80 |
| Leg67 - 75 | AThe round opens in the calf and takes the back of it away. There is a scoop missing where the muscle used to push off.+20H, 2-10 | BThe round mushrooms against the smaller bone of the lower leg and takes it out in pieces, along with everything packed around it.+20H, 3-10 | CThe round expands entering the knee and hollows the joint. Foe can still stand on it, in the sense that a chair with three legs still stands.+30H, 3-15 | DThe round opens against the thigh bone and breaks it into a spray of fragments that finish the journey on its behalf.+38H, 3-15 | EThe round mushrooms deep in the thigh and takes the artery along with everything else. Foe is down before he has decided to be, and the pool arrives faster than help can.+43H, 5-25 |
| Chest76 - 80 | AThe round opens on a rib and takes a palm’s width of chest wall with it. Every breath now moves things that should not move.+20H, 3-10 | BThe round expands under the collarbone and comes to rest against the shoulder blade. Everything between the two has been rearranged.+43H, 3-15 | CThe round mushrooms inside a lung and tears it along its whole length. Foe’s breathing turns to a wet rattle and stays there.+48H, 31[-50], -15 | DThe round opens crossing the chest and takes both lungs with it. Foe drowns standing, in open air, and knows it.+53H, 61[-50], -30 | EThe round expands among the great vessels above the heart. The chest fills from the inside faster than anyone could open it.+56H, 51[-75], -30 |
| Head81 - 85 | AThe round mushrooms in the hinge of foe’s jaw and takes it apart. He will not speak again tonight, and possibly not clearly ever.+25H, 1-10 | BThe round opens crossing the throat and takes the wall of the windpipe with it. Air goes in and out through the wound as readily as through his mouth.+30H, 11[-50], -25 | CThe round expands against the skull and unroofs the scalp over a hand’s span. The bone beneath is bare, scored, and holding.+48H, 3-20 | DThe round mushrooms entering below the ear and stops against the inside of the far temple. Foe is standing, and something behind his eyes has already gone out.+56H, 31[-75], -25 | EThe round opens in the side of the neck and takes the whole of what runs there. Foe has one thought left, and it is not a useful one.+43H, 31[-50], -40 |
| Arm86 - 90 | AThe round expands in the forearm and takes the tendons out along with the muscle. The hand closes and will not be persuaded to open.+25H, 3-15 | BThe round opens in foe’s hand and removes most of it. He drops what he held, because there is nothing left to hold it with.+53H, 51[-50], -20 | CThe round mushrooms at the wrist and travels to the elbow, hollowing the forearm the whole way.+57H, 51[-50], -25 | DThe round expands in the elbow and takes the joint out of existence. The forearm below it is luggage.+48H, 4-35 | EThe round opens against the collarbone and takes it, the artery beneath it, and the top of the lung below that. The arm is the least of foe’s problems. Foe is dying. +56H, 42[-75], -55 |
| Leg91 - 95 | AThe round mushrooms in the ankle and takes the joint apart into gravel. The foot is attached, and pointing its own way.+43H, 3-20 | BThe round opens in the knee and empties it. Foe comes down on a leg with nothing in the middle of it.+53H, 31[-50], -30 | CThe round expands against the thigh bone and blows it and the muscle out through the front together. Foe goes down and does not get up.+56H, 51[-50], -40 | DThe round opens deep in the thigh and takes the artery out over a hand’s length. There is no pressure point for this and no tourniquet high enough. Foe is unconscious in the pool before he understands he is in it. Foe is dying. +57H, 6-75 | EThe round mushrooms at the hip and takes the joint, the vessels and a fistful of everything else. Foe bleeds out from a wound nobody can reach into. Foe is dying. +58H, 62[-75], -75 |
| Abdomen96 - 97 | AThe round expands crossing the gut and takes a span of bowel out entirely rather than merely opening it.+53H, 31[-50], -30 | BThe round opens against the hip and blows the socket apart. The leg turns under foe and takes him sideways into whatever is standing there.+57H, 41[-50], -40 | CThe round mushrooms in the liver and takes half of it. Foe goes cold from the middle outward, and is quiet long before he is still. Foe is dying. +56H, 42[-75], -60 | DThe round expands against the great artery at the back of the abdomen and takes a hand’s length of it away. Foe has seconds, and he spends them on the floor. Foe is dying. +58H, 7-85 | EThe round opens low and travels upward, hollowing out everything between hip and ribs. Foe folds around a space where his middle used to be. Foe is dying. +57H, 6-90 |
| Chest98 - 99 | AThe round expands on the ribs and takes three of them through the lung behind. Foe is upright, and every part of that is temporary.+56H, 41[-50], -35 | BThe round opens inside the chest and tears heart, lung and liver in one wide pass. Foe looks down, then at you, then at nothing. Foe is dying. +57H, 52[-75], -55 | CThe round mushrooms in a lung and takes the vessels beside it out along with the tissue. Foe drowns inside himself in under a minute. Foe is dying. +59H, 8-80 | DThe round expands in the heart and unmakes it. Foe is dead where he stands, and stands a moment longer out of habit. Foe is dead. +61H, 4-95 | EThe round opens at the root of the aorta and takes it away entirely. Foe empties into his own chest between one beat and the beat that never comes. Foe is dead. +59H, 11-135 |
| Head100 | AThe round mushrooms entering under the jaw and stops inside the skull, having done everything on the way in. Foe is breathing, and no longer present. Foe is dying. +53H, 52[-75], -55 | BThe round opens at the temple and crosses the width of foe’s head without leaving it. He drops straight down and goes on breathing a while out of stubbornness. Foe is dying. +58H, 42[-75], -80 | CThe round expands inside the skull, which is a sealed box and behaves the way sealed boxes do. Whatever foe was ends instantly. Foe is dead. +59H, 7-115 | DThe round opens at the base of the skull and takes the top of the spine with it. Foe drops like a marionette with the strings cut. Foe is dead. +61H, 7-125 | EThe round enters above the bridge of the nose, opens, and does not come out anywhere at all. There is nothing to describe, and nothing left to describe it with. Your next action this round takes +25. Foe is dead. +60H, 9-140 |
+XH: additional hits · ♦X: bleeding, X hits per round until healed · X✹[-Y]: stunned X rounds at penalty -Y · N×✳: staggered, loses N AP (1 if unnumbered) · -X: injury penalty until healed · ⇘: knocked prone · ☠: dying or dead — stated in the cell. Attacker bonuses are given in the text.