[LT] Blunt trauma

[DouglasCole]

In addition to the problems Anthony and others have pointed out with scaling and resolution, one issue is that while the firearms scale is explicitly one of penetration, with injury taken care of with wound channel modifiers, I think that the origins of the ST table were meant as an injury scale. Granted, they ALSO have wound modifiers, etc, but I don't think anyone's brain breaks to think that a really strong guy with a sledgehammer (a fighting maul) or an axe can do more INJURY than a single 9mm bullet. At the low end, though, that 1d-1 or 1d thrust damage for an unarmed punch gets silly quick, and when trying to get THROUGH armor, the lack of concussion rules that exist alongside the penetration rules are problematic.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

One of the places that could use a re-work would be 1/2D ranges, which used to be a weird combo of effective range and actual loss in velocity in 3e and previous, and when the Acc stopped dropping at 1/2D range in 4e (good rule change!) the 1/2D should have been recalibrated to represent an actual 1/2D range. I've got a formula for it that works well for supersonic projectiles, not so well for subsonic.

Most of the drag coefficient vs. velocity curves I've seen have the drag at subsonic speeds close enough to half the drag at supersonic speeds as to not need any further tweaking for a game. The complexities come at transsonic speeds, where the subsonic drag abruptly shoots up as you approach the speed of sound, then rapidly drops to the supersonic value just afterward. Unfortunately, the transsonic range is where you have a lot of important guns (a lot of muskets and black powder rifles, for example).

Luke

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Anthony

A significant part of the problem is the ST damage tables, which are informed by two contradictory desires: a desire to have ST 10 = 1d, and a desire to make every +1 ST significant. That simply doesn't work, because to make every point of ST matter you need 1d per 4 ST, and thus ST 10 should be 2d+2...

You can do it, but you get things like ST 10 = 1d, ST 11 = 1d but add 1 if you roll a 5 or a 6, ST 12 = 1d but add 1 if you roll a 3 or more, ST 13 = 1d+1, and so on.

Luke

[Gudiomen]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

There seem to be more than enough GURPS players who don't agree. Low-Tech is already in the top 20 on e23...

You'll note it's also the highest rated, and the only one in the top 20 to fill up 5 stars.

[DanHoward]

Originally Posted by Ultraviolet

That could work. Because it seems that the somewhat moderate damage of 2d+2 for a 9mmP is easily matched or exceeded by a beefy fighter with an axe. Sure, that fighter is well above average in many fantasy games. But ST13 is not unrealistic for a dedicated fighting man, that's 2d-1. Give him an Axe for sw+2 and have him make a Commítted, Strong attack - and there you have 2d+2.

I think it would be better in a lot of ways. Bleeding would be less granular. Human skin could have DR 1. There could be more variation between the damage of various weapons.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Gudiomen

You'll note it's also the highest rated, and the only one in the top 20 to fill up 5 stars.

You seem to be overlooking GURPS Mysteries, which also fills up five stars.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Anders Gabrielsson

If you wanted to have sw = thr + 2 (approximately) and still have every point of ST matter you could offset the tables one step. This would make sw = thr + 2 half the time and thr + 1 or thr + 3 half the time, depending on in which direction you do the offset.

Or have weapon stats give an add to ST for calculating damage, instead of a straight add to damage. Some weapons giving odd adds and others even adds would make each ST point at least potentially meaningful. However, that means picking up a new weapon requires looking up the damage table, rather than just grabbing the damage scores on the character sheet.

If radically redesigning the system (to an extent that won't happen until Hasbro owns SJG*), you could double all damage and HP scores. That would make it simple to have +1 ST = +1 Damage.

* There you go. Try to sleep tonight.

[Crakkerjakk]

At least on the "1 pt of ST gets you 1 pt of damage" front you could always just take the suggestion that Striking ST is overpriced, leave it at [5/lvl], and tweak it so that each point of ST gives you +1 thrust and cap all realistic stats at 15. Leaving +/- 30% as the variation, that gives a max Lifting ST of 19.5, which seems about right. Simply note that Striking ST in excess of 15 is generally not realistic.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Or have weapon stats give an add to ST for calculating damage, instead of a straight add to damage. Some weapons giving odd adds and others even adds would make each ST point at least potentially meaningful. However, that means picking up a new weapon requires looking up the damage table, rather than just grabbing the damage scores on the character sheet.

One easier way to do this is if there was only a single damage chart, and weapons with leverage got a multiplier proportional to the amount of leverage instead.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by RyanW

If radically redesigning the system (to an extent that won't happen until Hasbro owns SJG*), you could double all damage and HP scores.

Or you could do away with linear damage and make damage be a Damage check vs a Toughness check, where ST-based weapons have a damage check of ST+X.