How long can someone hold an object in Gurps

[cupbearer]

Hi

Ive made a gadget that grants the advantage decreased food consumption (or whatever it is called

While you hold it you only need one meal per week. The problem is in reality its really hard to hold onto something 24 hours a day, which seems to make it impractical, so my question is how long can you hold something, is there a rule in GURPS that answers this question?

[talonthehand]

Originally Posted by cupbearer

Hi

Ive made a gadget that grants the advantage decreased food consumption (or whatever it is called

While you hold it you only need one meal per week. The problem is in reality its really hard to hold onto something 24 hours a day, which seems to make it impractical, so my question is how long can you hold something, is there a rule in GURPS that answers this question?

I don't know for certain, but I'm willing to bet it's a case of being beneath the resolution of GURPS. If you count wearing as holding though, it's doable to wear something 24 hours a day - rings often are.

[Donny Brook]

Can you pass it from hand to hand? Can you hold it in your armpit, the crook of your elbow, or under your chin or ear?

[cupbearer]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Can you pass it from hand to hand? Can you hold it in your armpit, the crook of your elbow, or under your chin or ear?

Yes sure, you can do that

[cupbearer]

Originally Posted by talonthehand

I don't know for certain, but I'm willing to bet it's a case of being beneath the resolution of GURPS. If you count wearing as holding though, it's doable to wear something 24 hours a day - rings often are.

You have to hold it , its a book

[Racer]

Loosely strap it to forearm with duct/electrical/medical tape or local equivalent ? So long as it doesn't interfere with circulation , it should be fine .

Had a medical 'port' device strapped to my arm for 5 days+ , while in hospital over this summer .

[Varyon]

Carrying something around in hand is pretty easy, the problem is that you end up losing the ability to use that hand rather readily. Unless it's a decent fraction of Basic Lift, you can likely keep hold of it indefinitely. With the ability to switch it between hands, so long as it weighs less than BL you can probably keep hold of it indefinitely. If the character needs to keep hold of it during combat or other strenuous activities, expect it to be strapped to the hand - sure, this essentially means the character has One Hand while it's strapped on, but only needing to eat one meal a week is likely to be worth that.

Most people would end up dropping the item while sleeping, however, so at such times you should most certainly expect it to be strapped to the hand. Otherwise, the character loses the benefit for part of each night, and will need to eat much more than once a week.

[DanHoward]

For me it is until I get distracted by something and put it down without thinking about it. Then I spend the rest of the day retracing my steps trying to find it.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by cupbearer

You have to hold it , its a book

Is there anything preventing you attaching a chain to the book and wearing it around your neck like jewelry?

I would say that B117's -30% versions cover two ideas:
*worn stuff is a DX contest
*held stuff is a ST contest

Given the "wand" example, I would say that "Arm ST" would help, for example.

Also since that seems like grappling, I would say "Lifting ST" counts but "Striking ST" doesn't.

I haven't seen GURPS cover a gradual passive degredation in grip/grappling ability. But if you were going to develope something like that, Cole's "Technical Grappling" (Control Points) and "Last Gasp" (Action Points) would probably be the key.

I was thinking something along the line of maintaining a grapple should usually be consuming energy...

With active defences costing AP and needing those to stop reduction of your Control Points, that's pretty much covered by someone who's struggling to use Break Free against the grapple.

Where it isn't covered though, is the idea of Grip CP gradually going down by continually using a weapon. You'd only have to "attack" the weapon to add Control Points if an enemy was using Break Free against your grip on the weapon.

Another place where it isn't covered is some guy moving around and dragging you around, who doesn't care whether you hang on or not.

Idea for weapons: apply the 1 per 5 damage "hurting yourself" in terms of 0.2 "damage" per 1 basic damage the weapon rolls. Whenever that amounts to 1 damage, subtract 1 control point from your Grip CP on the weapon.

Allow a person to roll a "grabbing parry" at any time they make an attack, to re-establish CP on that weapon they attacked with.

Also allow low-ST parries to be done consuming less AP, so if a ST 10 guy uses a ST 5 parry, he only spends ½ AP. This will make it less exhausting to constantly improve the grip on the weapon as it degrades.

As for clinging to a guy who's moving around, every step/attack they make should maybe reduce small amounts of control points (sort of like how they're spent to inflict damage, but less) requiring grapples to constantly be topped up against someone who's moving, and only be 0-energy against an immobile guy.

[cupbearer]

hi

how long can you concentrate for? is there a rule on this?