Storytime: Why I am no longer allowed to use explosives

I've gotten caught up in schoolwork again. Luckily, I have something on a related topic I wrote in order to share with a friend about a year ago. This is my first experience with an RPG and took place when I was in junior high. Both my brother (the GM in this story) and the other player in this game are in the current Star Wars campaign I am writing about in this blog.

We were playing the old West End Games Star Wars RPG. My brother was GMing for the first time and making most of it up on the spot. My friend and I were playing bounty hunters. We met our contact, got the assignment, and decided we needed more firepower. So, we of course went shopping.

The shop had pretty much everything we could ever want... except they were selling something the Imperials deemed illegal... and someone tipped the local authorities off. A group of 6 stormtroopers burst in and the shopkeeper opens fire. The attackers were little too strong. The shopkeeper and my friend were hit early and lay on the ground dying. My character jumped through the door way into the storage room and used the doorway for cover. As to what happened next...

me: "Do they look injured at all?"

GM: "You can't tell. They've got armor."


me: "Is there any kind of grenade back here? Like a thermal detonator? Or maybe a whole crate of them?"

GM (happy to have an out): "Yes! There's a box right next to you!"

me: "Cool! I pick up the box and throw it at them!"

GM (after a brief pause): "You what?"

me: "I throw it at them. Did I kill the stormtroopers?"

GM: "The box?"

me: "Yes, the box! Did I kill the stormtroopers?"

GM: "Did you arm any of them?"

me: "No."

GM: "No, you did not kill the stormtroopers."

GM (on my next turn): "Well, the box didn't work. What do you do now?"

me: "I shoot the box!"

GM (pauses and blinks a couple of times): "You... shoot... the box?"

me: "Yeah! I shoot the box! That should make the grenades go off! Did I kill the stormtroopers?"

GM: "You need to roll to hit."

me (after I roll): "Did I hit it? Did it kill the stormtroopers?"

GM: "Yes, you hit it."

me: "Woohoo! Did I kill the stormtroopers?"

GM: "Yes, you killed the stormtroopers..." (I start celebrating) "... and the shopkeeper..."

me: "Huh?"

GM: "... and Ryan and yourself."

me: "What? How?"

GM: "That was a box. A box of THERMAL DETONATORS! You leveled the whole building!"
me: "Is there any chance I survive?"

GM: "YOU TOOK OUT SEVERAL BLOCKS!"

"Oh... oops."

Since then, the only destruction I've caused in a city is accidentally lighting a building on fire with a flaming arrow in my first D&D campaign. I doubt that character would be warmly received should he revisit that city.