Damage and wounding readjustment

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

GURPS firearms use energy. Other weapons use the very scientific scale of "one extra point of ST gives one extra point of swing damage."

Square root of energy, it seems:
Projectile damage scales proportionally to their velocity, whether an emag spaceship gun (base damage × velocity), or a human missile slamming a human brick (HP×move). The highly scientific +1 ST gives +1 Swing seems to implicitly go with square root of power, since a person's lifting capacity scales with the square of ST.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Square root of energy, it seems

My point is that while firearms use energy somewhat explicitly, in that the formula is roughly penetration = sqrt(KE)/(Cross-section)^N, where N is some small number, what the ST scale is based off of is somewhat unclear. Note that 3ed with lift linear in ST and 4th with lift quadratic in ST used the same damage table. So the only thing we can say for certain is that the basis directly responsible for the ST scale in human-level calculations and a bit beyond is +1 ST = +1 extra swing damage.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

My point is that while firearms use energy somewhat explicitly, in that the formula is roughly penetration = sqrt(KE)/(Cross-section)^N, where N is some small number, what the ST scale is based off of is somewhat unclear. Note that 3ed with lift linear in ST and 4th with lift quadratic in ST used the same damage table. So the only thing we can say for certain is that the basis directly responsible for the ST scale in human-level calculations and a bit beyond is +1 ST = +1 extra swing damage.

I wonder if the first 20 lines of the swing/thrust table even changed since Man to Man.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I wonder if the first 20 lines of the swing/thrust table even changed since Man to Man.

Hm. It does differ from TFT, but based on the character sheets in Orcslayer (MtM supplement...) it's identical for ST 9-15 and 18 (no characters in there have ST <9, 16-17, or 19+).

[sjard]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

The "armour" that Mythbusters tested had nothing in common with historical paper armour. What was used was barkcloth, not reconstituted wood pulp, and it was layered and quilted just like other textile armours. Didn't Low-Tech cover this?

The article I'd read years ago was about a type made of 20-30 layers of rice paper glued together with rice paste between the layers. But most of it looked decorative rather than functional. The end result was perhaps 1/8 inch thick.

[DanHoward]

Never heard of it. The armour that was issued to Chinese and Korean soldiers was made from quilted barkcloth. The Korean term is jigap but I don't know the Chinese term. Apparently the best barkcloth came from Korea and they exported it all over Asia. It was used for clothing for centuries before they started making armour from it. Barkcloth functions and handles a lot like thick woven textiles. It doesn't really have much in common with paper.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

The "armour" that Mythbusters tested had nothing in common with historical paper armour. What was used was barkcloth, not reconstituted wood pulp, and it was layered and quilted just like other textile armours. Didn't Low-Tech cover this?

I don't know where you got that factoid but it disagrees with my memory of actually watching the episode.

What the Mythbusters used was identified as Mulberry bark (or at least "Mulberry paper" made from bark). It was layered more than an inch thick and quilted. It weighed a total of c. 30 lbs.

It also stopped bullets from a muzzleloading pistol though not a .45 Colt. At least DR5 (1D+1) in Gurps is likely from that test.

Dan, if you actually watched the episode and heard "reconstituted wood pulp" when I heard "Mulberry paper" that's one thing but if you are going by a second hand report from a source you consider reliable, re-evaluate that source.

[Anthony]

Of course, if it works it demonstrates the point (cutting sucks at penetration) even if it doesn't correspond to any real-world armor.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Of course, if it works it demonstrates the point (cutting sucks at penetration) even if it doesn't correspond to any real-world armor.

Piercing in moderate quntities was stopped by the Mythbuste's paper armor too. Not really about cutting.

[DanHoward]

Mythbusters used a paper made from reconstituted tree bark. If they tried to find geniune barkcloth they would have blown their budget for the show. It is exceedingly labour intensive to make and the only place I know where you can buy it is on some Pacific islands and in Africa. There are a lot of modern substitutes that are called "barkcloth" but they aren't the same thing.