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Old 09-23-2018, 09:28 AM   #29
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default Re: Fast forward cyberpunk action game

Sig Sauer P226 or any of the other 9mm pistols, tend to deliver 2d6+2 damage. This gives a range of damage between 2 to 12 points AFTER skull DR is taken into account. 8 points to 48 points after quadrupling for damage to the skull case will result in some major results inclusive of stunning and the like.

The problem is, a brain case target area is -7 to hit. Shots that do not take the benefit of "aiming" properly do not gain the inherent accuracy of the pistol, so a straight skill roll (unless you're using GURPS TACTICAL SHOOTER rules) is not going to be all too well placed. A skill 14 individual with a -7 due to hit location, plus the penalty for speed/range (at minimum, -2 for a move 5 target) is going to be at -9 firing at a target only 2 yards away.

So, now comes the issue of the participants. If we're talking about average run of the mill "criminals" versus say, a professional (skill 12) shooter (let's call him a police officer for now) - the situation gets to be very dicey (pun intended).

Let's use average stats for our criminal and slightly higher stats for our Police officer. Speeds are 5 for the Criminal, 6 for the Police Officer (ie, DX and HT combined = 24). Police officer has his hand on his pistol butt warning the perp "come any closer and I'll shoot". The perp is 21 feet away exactly for this exercise.

So, the police officer has yet to draw his pistol, and we're going to assume DX 12, fast draw with 1 point, or skill 11. Pistol skill is at 12. Perp (played by the GM) decides to rush the cop. The player running the cop, tells the GM "I was using the wait with the premise I'll shoot if he comes closer" to which the GM agrees makes sense. So Perp starts to move his full 5 yards, and the Police officer has to decide WHEN to interrupt the perp. GM tells him "Make an IQ based pistol roll." The player manages to succeed with that roll, so the GM continues with... "perp is moving 5 this turn. If you fast draw and shoot while the perp is at 6 yards, full range/speed is 11. 6 for the actual range, 5 for the move, which puts you at -5 to hit. If you wait until the Perp is at 5 yards, your penalty becomes -4. If you wait until the perp reaches 2 yards, your penalty is -3. When do you fire?

Our Police officer opts for the -3 penalty to hit. He's NOT shooting for the Cranium, as that's an additional -7 to hit. So, he opts to play it safe and shoot for center of mass.

Statistically speaking? The odds of the police officer both getting his pistol ready and shooting with a successful hit to center of mass is:

.625 (skill roll of 11 for fast draw) x .375 (odds of rolling a 9 or less) or .23.4%.

Now you can maybe see why the 21 foot rule is there. In addition, some drugs permit an individual to not feel pain and become relatively immune to stunning. One individual on PCP took 11 hits before he went down (real life situation). That's 11 nine millimeter rounds that impacted on his body before he went down. 11 x 9 pts (average damage of 2d6+2) is 99 points of damage to a single individual!

In the end? How the "Scene" plays out is up to the GM, and how "gritty" they want to play it. In a Cyberpunk scenario, the guns might be more along the lines of 10mm rounds instead of 9mm rounds. Maybe we're talking about Caseless Ammunition instead. If a police officer with normal training levels has to tackle a perp - he gets ONE, maybe two instances to pump the perp full of lead (per GURPS rules) assuming that the fast draw is successful. If not, he gets only ONE chance. Even if the range is 1 yd, movement of 5 plus 1 makes it a 6 on the speed/range distance table, for a -3 to hit.

<shrug>

It all depends on the NPCs and their builds, versus perhaps a player character and his build. Otherwise, normal people facing off against normal people, the 21 foot rule isn't TOO far off the mark even for the game mechanics.
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