Barriers & Catasrophic Failure, How Much Damage is Needed? Options

[stevebugge]

I am well aware that the RAW have no function for this, breaking through a barrier is based entirely on it's structure rating. However it seems that in some cases if a large amount of damage is done to a structure in a short period of time then the entire structure should simply fail rather than continue to grow One Square Meter holes. I'm thinking about introducing a houserule for my game that a barrier that takes 4 times it's structure value (or more) in damage from a single attack completely fails, rather than simply developing a 4 square meter hole.

What I'm hoping is to get some wholesale destruction of unarmored windows and internal office framing while still making it difficult to destroy any sort of reinforced structure. I'm also trying to establish a guideline as for just how much explosives would be required to collapse or partially collapse a building, say to cause a catastrophic failure of a load bearing wall. Using this rule it would require 216kg of Commercial Explosives, or 301 KG to hit Heavy Structural Material. (yes this is a serious problem. Every now and then my players decide that the best way to solve a problem is by pancaking a building. This is usually shortly followed by the death or incarceration of the involved characters shortly afterward)