GURPS: Getting Run Over by a Tank

[UncleDan]

How should I calculate the damage for being run over by a tank. I was thinking I could the trampling rules but that may be too simplistic and even result in less damage.

[Andrew Hackard]

"You are dead."

[UncleDan]

... I was thinking about doing that, but I've got robots and people in power armor so I'll need to get crunchy.

[khorboth]

tank (HP+DR) - 2x(your HP) in crushing damage every second.

Just off the cuff. mech HP but not DR count.

[ericthered]

Trampling damage sounds fine to me. Tanks have very high ST/HP, and even the light tank in high tech will do 10d+2 without getting a damage bonus for "sharp hooves", and there is a strong case for tanks having nice hard surfaces for doing damage with.

[Kromm]

GURPS Action 5: Dictionary of Danger, p. 36 has you covered:

A tank has two sets of tracks, so the multiplier for just one is 0.7. Apply this to the tank's ST/HP score, which GURPS High-Tech gives as 95 for a WWI light tank, 148 or 158 for a WWII medium tank, or 176 for a modern MBT. The result is an effective ST between 66 and 123 for a range of typical tanks. The tracks inflict thrust damage for this ST; that ranges from around 7d+1 to 13d, and tracks are crushing. Average damage from those rolls is in the ballpark of 25 to 46 crushing, so the average human is making between one and three HT rolls not to die.

That's the action-movie-optimistic version, of course . . . if you think there's anything optimistic about possibly surviving if you make a bunch of HT rolls. If you're just smashed into by the tank and chewed up in its wake, use ramming damage, which those rules give as around 18d for tanks. Then you eat 63 crushing, which just kills the average human outright, no saving throw.

[The Colonel]

...of course there are also the ground conditions. If you're on concrete, you're taking everything the tank can give, whereas on soft mud, a suitably resilient character might be pressed down into it.

I suppose, this being GURPS that we have to allow for everything from Superman and Starship Troopers that can soak the damage, to toons and regenerators that need to know how much damage they took so that they know how long it will be before they get up again.

But for baseline humans ... yeah, without some very special conditions anything you put under the running gear of a tank, you lose.

[Anthony]

Realistically, it depends a bit on how the suspension handles obstacles, which I'm not entirely sure about for tracks (for wheels, best case you're looking at supporting a quarter the weight of the vehicle, or 15-20 tons in the case of a tank). In any case, supporting temporary static pressure doesn't really translate in any terribly coherent way to damage, it's more like a constriction attack; assuming you're strong enough to hold up the weight, DR 1 would probably handle the incidental problems.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Realistically, it depends a bit on how the suspension handles obstacles, which I'm not entirely sure about for tracks (for wheels, best case you're looking at supporting a quarter the weight of the vehicle, or 15-20 tons in the case of a tank). In any case, supporting temporary static pressure doesn't really translate in any terribly coherent way to damage, it's more like a constriction attack; assuming you're strong enough to hold up the weight, DR 1 would probably handle the incidental problems.

That is a good point. It seems odd that you take crushing from an that you can lift and carry around. Perhaps you should subtract your ST/BL in some way before calculating crush damage?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by naloth

That is a good point. It seems odd that you take crushing from an that you can lift and carry around. Perhaps you should subtract your ST/BL in some way before calculating crush damage?

Treating it as a quick contest between the ST of the vehicle (~200 for an MBT) and the ST of the person being run over might work. Possibly something weight-based instead, as it really shouldn't be much different for living, unliving, or homogeneous.