In Arcanum, all a player had to do was 'use' dynamite on a door or object, and a timer interface would show, and would blow open said door or object after the set time. In Fallout, apparently all I can do is set the timer and drop the dynamite bundle or plastic explosive in front of a door (which does nothing), or use the 'steal' interface to plant it on someone. How exactly am I meant to use this stuff? Is it basically sell-fodder?

You set the timer and drop the dynamite. Then you wait and wait and wait. And it explodes. And yeah, usually that does nothing.

There's barely any use for it in the first Fallout (you can destroy the entrance to the radscropion cave), plus it's a heavy item. So, as you mentioned, better sell it.

You can use it on the force fields as far as I remember, and as I mentioned in your other thread. ;)

No, you can't.

Try dropping it near the force fields.

If you drop armed dynamite next to the emitters, it will destroy them. That sets off the alarm, though, and it only works on the yellow ones. (You can't do ANYTHING to the red forcefields except walk through them, unfortunately.)

You can also blow up locked doors with them, but I consider that to be a waste of dynamite.

And of course you can plant it onto people to kill them, though that's not sneaky in the slightest (unlike the Super Stimpack trick).