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Old 10-18-2018, 06:38 AM   #1
Erling
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Default Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

Say, Joe has HP 16 and Vitality Reserve* 10. Joe was hit in the arm with two rifle rounds (in a rapid fire attack), for 17 basic damage points each. Since it's a limb shot, injury is reduced to 9 HP cap (more than 1/2 of basic HP). First hit reduces Joe's current VR to 1. Second hit reduces his current VR to 0 and also causes 8 HP loss. In neither case Joe's arm is crippled, since he didn't lose more than 1/2 of his basic HP.

Is this example correct?

* a concept of "cinematic HP" first introduced by Kromm as a possible house rule and then described in Pyramid 3/75.
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Old 10-18-2018, 08:57 AM   #2
Plane
 
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Default Re: Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-5.html#SS5.1.5 says "HP that you can lose without shock, knockdown, knockout, or death" which does not address crippling, but with "not be subject to the ill effects of HP loss" would crippling fall under ill effects? The "soaks all injury" sounds like it would intercede before HP in all cases. It does lead to strange situations. Using your example, if those rifle rounds hit Joe in different arms, the first hit wouldn't penalize that arm at all, but the second hit could seriously injure the other arm, even though both attacks do the same damage to previously uninjured arms.
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Old 10-18-2018, 09:58 AM   #3
Erling
 
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Default Re: Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

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It does lead to strange situations. Using your example, if those rifle rounds hit Joe in different arms, the first hit wouldn't penalize that arm at all, but the second hit could seriously injure the other arm, even though both attacks do the same damage to previously uninjured arms.
Nothing strange, actually. It's just the way VR works: a cinematic ability to soak some damage.
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Old 10-18-2018, 02:56 PM   #4
Bruno
 
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Default Re: Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

Taking the injury out of Vitality Reserve prevents crippling, just like taking the injury out of Ablative DR prevents crippling.

This is also like Energy Reserve's ability to be spent without triggering the low FP threshold.
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Old 10-18-2018, 03:48 PM   #5
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

Ablative DR, with Force Field and Flexible, is probably a better idea mechanically than Vitality Points, though it is a matter of taste. At 1 CP per level, characters are capable of purchasing a lot of Ablative DR, especially when they are 250+ CP.
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Old 10-18-2018, 08:24 PM   #6
Bruno
 
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Default Re: Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Ablative DR, with Force Field and Flexible, is probably a better idea mechanically than Vitality Points, though it is a matter of taste. At 1 CP per level, characters are capable of purchasing a lot of Ablative DR, especially when they are 250+ CP.
Ablative DR + Flexible (-20%) + forcefield (+20%) still costs 2/per. Did you mean Tough Skin (-40%)?
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Old 10-18-2018, 11:18 PM   #7
Erling
 
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Default Re: Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

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Ablative DR, with Force Field and Flexible, is probably a better idea mechanically than Vitality Points
I prefer VR because most of my games are TL8 and it's a real pain to take into consideration Armor Divisors and layered DR (body armor counts first) to calculate ADR reduction. Also pi-/pi/pi+ are irrelevant for ADR.

VR lets me keep all the calculations same and just subtract injury from another pool.
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Old 10-19-2018, 01:07 AM   #8
scc
 
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Default Re: Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

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Originally Posted by Erling View Post
I prefer VR because most of my games are TL8 and it's a real pain to take into consideration Armor Divisors and layered DR (body armor counts first) to calculate ADR reduction. Also pi-/pi/pi+ are irrelevant for ADR.

VR lets me keep all the calculations same and just subtract injury from another pool.
Um, Force Field DR ALWAYS counts before other forms of DR.

And Bruno, I'm pretty sure that Force Field and Tough Skin are incompatible, and I'd be iffy on Force Field and flexible, it's a not exactly a common combination.
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Old 10-19-2018, 02:11 AM   #9
Erling
 
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Default Re: Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

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Originally Posted by scc View Post
Um, Force Field DR ALWAYS counts before other forms of DR.
One way or another, it makes things a bit more complicated. After every hit I have to subtract basic damage from ADR, taking into calculation any applicable Armord Divisor, and I shall note the ADR reduction for the subsequent hits (including multiple hits from rapid fire). It gets even worse since with Armord Divisor (2) current ADR will be always divided by 2, not just merely devastated with two penetrating shots.

With VR I just have to calculate damage as usual and substract injury from VR and HP, without changes in intermediate calculations.
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Old 10-19-2018, 03:03 AM   #10
Erling
 
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Default Re: Vitality Reserve and crippling injury

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Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
Taking the injury out of Vitality Reserve prevents crippling, just like taking the injury out of Ablative DR prevents crippling.

This is also like Energy Reserve's ability to be spent without triggering the low FP threshold.
The trick is in the arithmetics.

Say, Joe has ADR 1 and was hit for 10 points of basic piercing damage. After substracting 1 point of DR he still suffers 9 points of injury, which is more than 1/2 HP, so his arm is crippled.

But if he has VR 1 he takes 10 points of basic damage and is going to take 9 (capped because of limb hit) points of injury, but 1 point of HP loss is substituted with 1 point of VR loss. Effectively he loses 8 HP, whish is not more than 1/2 HP, so his arm is NOT crippled.

That's what made me double-check my understanding.
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