DR too effective against collision damage?

[Calvin]

I'm running a TL9 sci-fi game, where one of my players is rather fond of memory baton rounds. It's a fairly regular occurrence for her CAW armed drones to throw someone 10 or more yards in a single attack. They then usually smack into a wall at high speed.

But even the 4DR vs crushing that the reflex suit conveys is usually enough to negate this entirely. This seems a little odd to me. One attack threw an enemy 14 yards, which works out to a collision speed of 28 miles an hour.

Maybe I'm interpreting this incorrectly, but the only concession that GURPS seems to make for DR vs collisions is that it makes all armour count as flexible.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like armour should protect a whole lot less against this sort of thing.

[Anthony]

Well, you're sort of balancing out the lack of realism. Yes, DR is a bit too good against collisions, but on the other hand, memory baton rounds shouldn't knock people ten yards.

[Icelander]

As I recall the collision rules, it takes special armour design, usually only made as part of vehicles or pilot armour, to give DR against whiplash.

[Calvin]

Originally Posted by Icelander

As I recall the collision rules, it takes special armour design, usually only made as part of vehicles or pilot armour, to give DR against whiplash.

I'll need to read that passage again, but that makes much more sense.

[trooper6]

Sounds like you might not be doubling HR for hitting a hard immovable object.

Let me do the math.

Say we have a HP 12 Thug wearing DR4 armor flung 14yds, into a brick wall.

Since the person is colliding with a hard, immovable object, double the HP for this calculation (B431).

So damage is (12*2)*14/100. So...3d6 crushing damage.

That will be a range of damage from 3-18cr damage. I think rolling the Hit Location from a Fall on B431 seems like it works.

Let's go with three damage values: 3 (least), 10 (average), 18 (max)

3--DR soaks up all damage...super lucky for our Thug.
10--DR soaks up 4, doing 6cr damage. 6 damage is a major wound no matter where that damage lands...and if the random Hit Loc comes up with limbs or hands/feet, then we also have some crippling.
18--DR soaks up 4, doing 12cr damage. 12 damage? That is a real problem for the Thug. We are rolling for unconsciousness, we are looking at crippling limbs/extremities...no good for the Thug.

Not too bad.

[Calvin]

Originally Posted by trooper6

Sounds like you might not be doubling HR for hitting a hard immovable object.

Let me do the math.

Say we have a HP 12 Thug wearing DR4 armor flung 14yds, into a brick wall.

Since the person is colliding with a hard, immovable object, double the HP for this calculation (B431).

So damage is (12*2)*14/100. So...3d6 crushing damage.

That will be a range of damage from 3-18cr damage. I think rolling the Hit Location from a Fall on B431 seems like it works.

Let's go with three damage values: 3 (least), 10 (average), 18 (max)

3--DR soaks up all damage...super lucky for our Thug.
10--DR soaks up 4, doing 6cr damage. 6 damage is a major wound no matter where that damage lands...and if the random Hit Loc comes up with limbs or hands/feet, then we also have some crippling.
18--DR soaks up 4, doing 12cr damage. 12 damage? That is a real problem for the Thug. We are rolling for unconsciousness, we are looking at crippling limbs/extremities...no good for the Thug.

Not too bad.

Just double checked the macro I was using to calculate the damage. It was dividing by 1000 instead of 100, which explains the problem.

[Nereidalbel]

I'm curious how you're throwing people 10+ yards with a memory baton. What kind of weapon is doing that without just blowing through people, even with the (.25) AD?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

I'm curious how you're throwing people 10+ yards with a memory baton. What kind of weapon is doing that without just blowing through people, even with the (.25) AD?

Memory baton doubles knockback, so for a ST 10 target it requires 4 points per yard, meaning 40 points of damage to knock someone ten yards. With the (0.25) armor divisor, that will be stopped by DR 10, which isn't hard to get at TL 9.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Memory baton doubles knockback, so for a ST 10 target it requires 4 points per yard, meaning 40 points of damage to knock someone ten yards. With the (0.25) armor divisor, that will be stopped by DR 10, which isn't hard to get at TL 9.

OP specifies drones are armed with CAW and memory baton rounds. At TL9, it would take a critical hit to even be possible to hit for 40 damage. So, again, what weapon is hitting that hard?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

Is it possible to Shove with a memory baton for a total 4x knockback requiring only 20 damage?

It's a bullet, that doesn't even begin to make sense.