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Old 09-16-2011, 06:50 PM   #1
DemiBenson
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Boston, Hub of the Universe!
Default Crippling and HP of Arms and Legs

Anyone else bothered by the fact that arms and legs supposedly have the same HP and crippling thresholds (B420)?

Every single adult I know has legs between 3x and 4x the size of their arms. Human legs come to roughly 20% of the body's weight each. So for the mythical 150-pound, average person, that makes each leg around 30 pounds, and each arm 8-10 pounds. Using the formula relating HP and weight of living tissue (in BioTech), that gives us a person with 10 HP overall, 4 HP crippling threshold for each arm, and 6 HP crippling threshold of each leg.

Hands and feet aren't quite so different (at least mine aren't). From what I've seen, a foot looks to be about 2x to 3x the volume of a hand. As a WAG, a foot weighs 1% to 2% of body weight. So that 150-pound average person has feet that weigh 1.5-3 pounds, and hands that weigh 0.5-1.5 pounds. That same average person would have hands with 1-2 HP, and feet with 2-3 HP.

So, instead of the same crippling threshold for arms/legs and hands/feet, how about a more graduated approach?
Arms: HP * 0.4
Legs: HP * 0.6
Hands: HP/5
Feet: HP/3

If you think that hands have a higher proportion of bone than muscle (and therefore higher HP), you could use
Hands: HP/4

So, what does everyone think?
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Old 09-16-2011, 06:52 PM   #2
Bruno
 
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Default Re: Crippling and HP of Arms and Legs

I think it takes surprisingly little structural damage to make a leg useless to walk on, and for all the thickness of a mans thigh, a leg is really only as structurally sound as its weakest points (the ankle and the knee).

Of course, I also have knee and ankle problems so I might be projecting.
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Old 09-16-2011, 07:00 PM   #3
DemiBenson
 
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Default Re: Crippling and HP of Arms and Legs

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Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
I think it takes surprisingly little structural damage to make a leg useless to walk on, and for all the thickness of a mans thigh, a leg is really only as structurally sound as its weakest points (the ankle and the knee).

Of course, I also have knee and ankle problems so I might be projecting.
But knees and ankles are joints, which have lower crippling thresholds (see MA p137).

I was thinking more along the lines of broken bones, cuts, gunshots, impaled by a spear, and so on. IMO, legs will have higher resistance to those types of injuries than arms will. Maybe not a lot more, but at least a little bit. Certainly, a leg would have greater resistance to being crushed by a fallen bookshelf than an arm would.
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Old 09-17-2011, 07:28 AM   #4
Blind Mapmaker
 
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Default Re: Crippling and HP of Arms and Legs

I think the thresholds are supposed to be like this, because the legs may be bigger, but have to support the weight of the rest of the body while the arms usually hold less than Basic Lift. Crippling just means the limb is unusable for its purpose. This breaks down for weird body types and huge loads lifted by arm strength, but for normal adventuring it seems sound.

Upping the threshold a little probably wouldn't unbalance things too much, though. Legs should be harder to amputate at least.
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Old 09-17-2011, 12:52 PM   #5
Wraithe
 
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Default Re: Crippling and HP of Arms and Legs

Quote:
Originally Posted by ectropy View Post
Anyone else bothered by the fact that arms and legs supposedly have the same HP and crippling thresholds (B420)?
...
So, what does everyone think?
No, it doesn't bother me particularly. Mostly because it's good enough, IMO, since legs are easier to disable in some ways, due to flexibility and load on legs, etc.

Technically, you're right, since HP is based on mass, but to model it accurately, you'd end up with a lot of text to pretty much just end up back at the same spot.

(Is it just me, or am I seeing more Boston-area folks? :))
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