Revisiting LogST throwing, now with Fixes!

[Mark Skarr]

After sleep, I decided to examine some of these ideas again.

If LogPink, with her LogST 48 (735 normal ST) throws some things:

1 lb: 10d-20 = 10d – 5d – 2 = 5d-2. Okay, that doesn’t quite seem right, but, as Hand of Bobb stated, “if she tried to throw something that light, it would probably vaporize if she used anything approaching her full strength.” Her range would be, as we saw earlier 50,000,048 yards. Because those extra 48 yards would be relevant.

2 lbs: 10d. That’s the baseline. LogPink’s range would be 20,000,048 yards (10,000 miles).

5 lbs: 10d + 20 = 10d + 5d + 2 = 15d+2. Range would be 10,000,048 yards (5,000 miles).

10 lbs: 10d + 40 = 10d + 11d + 1 = 21d+1. Range would be 5,000,048 yards (2,500 miles).

50 lbs: 10d + 80 = 10d + 22d + 3 = 32d+3. Range would be 1,000,048 yards (500 miles).

3,000 lbs (a car): 10d + 190 = 10d + 54d +1 = 64d+1. Range would be 15,048 yards (7.5 miles).

5,000 lbs (a truck): 10d + 200 = 10d + 57d = 67d. Range would be 10,048 yards (5 miles).

10,000 lbs: 10d + 220 = 10d + 62d +3 = 72d+3. Range would be 5,048 yards (2.5 miles).

100,000 lbs: 10d + 280 = 10d + 80d = 90d. Range would be a whopping 548 yards.

1,000,000 lbs (a 747): 10d + 340 = 10d + 97d = 107d. Range would be 98 yards. Not quite a foot-ball field.

As a point of comparison, until the weight hits 13,506 lbs, the damage for normal strength would be 32d-1, and the range would be 2,572.5 yards for anything up to that weight.

Hrm . . . the damage from a 747 (using a loaded weight of about 800,000 lbs) for a slam . . . 747 would have about 371 HP. Moving 98 (196 mph) would be . . . 363.5d.

Let’s look at that for 1 lb . . .. Wait, that would be broken. A 1 lb unliving object would have 4 HP, and do just more than two million dice of damage. That’s not right either.

Hrm . . ..

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Well using the table for both does add simplicity which is good at the table.

I agree, but it's still wonky.

Originally Posted by Refplace

I wish Supers had not been abandoned for GURPS. I think GURPS handles them really well, it just needs a few things changed such as ST and Log ST worked better than Super ST IMO. Mostly it needs some tactical explanations which was the thrust of my article.

I don't think it's been abandoned per se, but it's just that Supers isn't as popular among GURPS players. Medieval fantasy and contemporary (or sci-fi) action seem to be the focus of most games, where, the majority of my group's games revolve around supers (or, at least, people with powers). After all, we got Powers: The Weird and Enhanced Senses which I use for supers. But, I would like to see more (Power Ups: LogST!).

Additionally, I think that Super ST works fine for characters who can exert themselves to do amazing things (I've used super-effort on attacks as well), but not for characters who just are strong. Super ST missed that. LogST did not.

LogST, as a Pyramid article, has its own limitations (like throwing and knockback). But, we can work through them.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

I don't think it's been abandoned per se, but it's just that Supers isn't as popular among GURPS players.

Though you can debate cause and effect there; is supers inherently unpopular among GURPS players, or is GURPS support for supers causing people with interest in supers to choose other game systems.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Though you can debate cause and effect there; is supers inherently unpopular among GURPS players, or is GURPS support for supers causing people with interest in supers to choose other game systems.

My personal belief is that it's not really billed as a supers system. More people think of it as a game based on hard reality (no matter how inaccurate that may be), and therefore, a poor fit for supers.

Having played a lot of supers RPGs over the years, GURPS is my favorite (which should be obvious). Hero is good, and I recommend every GURPS player to get in a Hero game to learn some different ideas about how to do things. I think the Doctor Who game, if you pulled all of the Doctor Who stuff out of it would be an amazing, rules-light, generic RPG. I've made supers in it by simply crossing out the word "alien" and writing "super!" over it in crayon.

But, I can usually make what I want in GURPS. Unlike many other games.

But, this is neither here nor there on the subject of LogST.

I came up with another issue: the Throwing Skill. For LogST, a +1 or +2 to ST can be an incredible boost to distance. LogPink has Throwing at DX+1, so she gets a +1 to ST to determine distance . . . which means she can actually throw the 1lb object 100,000,049 yards (50,000 miles).