Strict Realism - Ribs providing situational DR?

[oneofmanynameless]

So in the process of writing various stories, some professional and some private, I've ended up having many conversations with a cousin of mine who is a Doctor about the effects of various types of attacks on the body and one thing I've noticed repeatedly is that most strikes to the upper torso have to contend with the rib-cage before inflicting anything more than superficial damage.

Mostly I've learned that:
- Primarily superficial attacks like being splashed with acid or burned with fire don't really care that much about the rib cage one way or the other.
- Crushing attacks are unlikely to inflict very meaningful damage unless they're hard enough to break the ribs. When they break the ribs they tend to inflict a lot of damage and continue to do so. However, the resistance is enough that the martial arts classes I've taken (Wado Ryu in case this is a style quirk) have strongly stressed not striking the ribs (except for the lower floating ribs or solar plexus), on account of it being very difficult to meaningfully hurt someone with a strike that impacts the ribs. (Other sources that I wouldn't necessarily call reliable that I've encountered when reading up on Martial Arts have implied that striking the ribs with repeated blows can eventually crack and then break the ribs, allowing more effective strikes to the upper torso.)
- Penetrating attacks such as bullets, stabs, arrows, etc (and maybe lazers?) will sometimes strike a rib instead of going between the ribs. For low velocity projectiles and thrusts this can actually stop the attack from doing meaningful damage. However, mostly the attacks will penetrate between the ribs, or bounce off the ribs, without meaningfully reducing their damage.
- Slashes and cutting attacks will sometimes, albiet rarely, go between a rib, ignoring it's protective qualities but likely getting stuck. However, most of the time these attacks will have to contend with the rib cage and likely inflict very little real damage if they haven't gotten through it. Heavier cuts might break the ribs, or cut through them, while lighter slashes could prove entirely ineffective.

So, I know that in GURPS, normally you ignore the ribcage's protective effects for simplicities sake. However, if you were to stat it out, how would you model it? (And am I wrong about any of the above?)

[Icelander]

Unless you are going to be adding a whole lot of houserules, complete with complex medical determinations for every hit location, which you'd have to subdivide several times, the best game-mechanical way to account for the ribs is probably to assume that the inherent randomness of damage in GURPS covers such things.

Actual use of the knife does teach the best angles to use for stabbing or slashing to avoid hitting bones or masses of muscles and increase the odds of hitting organs or big blood vessels. So a successful attack roll with any weapon probably already assumes that you're attacking from a viable angle given the type of weapon you have. If you aren't, that's a good explanation for a low damage roll.

Scraping a rib is a roll of 1 on a 1d6, while slipping neatly through into the large blood vessels around the heart can be a roll of 6 (and if the target fails a HT check, maybe you hit the heart).

The only houserule that you might need to add is to allow lining up a muscle-powered attack carefully to target the most vulnerable locations (or to avoid doing too much damage, conversely). You might require Physiology checks and impose a -2 or -3 to attack rolls for every +/- 1 to damage, but not allow the damage to exceed the maximum possible for your ST (or go below the minimum).

[Ulzgoroth]

For a first draft, I'd say DR 2 (subdermal*, not vs piercing or impaling, chest only) to suit your description with minimal complexity.

*Subdermal is a commonly-discussed factor for DR. Normally the noted features are that it basically acts like Tough Skin except without being flexible. I'd suggest that you might also want non-penetrating hits to still bleed as normal torso wounding.

You could add die rolls to determine whether or not a rib interferes if you wanted. EDIT: I'm surprised by the assertion that impaling attacks and bullets seldom are impeded by ribs, but I'm not medical folk...

[Anthony]

Something I've considered, though it's hard to implement, is that the more you describe what is happening, the less random it is -- some of the dice in a skill check or damage roll become fixed values, say.

[tanksoldier]

the best game-mechanical way to account for the ribs is probably to assume that the inherent randomness of damage in GURPS covers such things.

Yep. A 1 point sword hit to the torso? Bounced off a rib.

[Flyndaran]

Ribs are flexible. Cutting and crushing shouldn't do less damage at all in my opinion. Impaling at best would still cut.
I agree with saying it's just the specifics of a lower damage roll.

At most, I'd say it changes impaling bonus damage to "only" cutting.

[Humabout]

Frankly, I kind of class an attack hitting the ribs as a successful Torso hit and one slipping between the ribs into the vitals as a vitals hit. Someone trained to aim between the ribs has just bought up TA (Thrust/Vitals) (H) above its default -3.

[AlexanderHowl]

Ribs are not that much tougher than any other bone. The ribs are designed to break, absorbing the force of the attack while they do, so that the organism can potentially survive. The problem occurs when they break the wrong way, with the edges cutting into organs rather than less vulnerable muscle and skin.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Ribs are not that much tougher than any other bone.

They are, however, bone, which makes the rib cage considerably tougher than, say, the abdomen.

[Flyndaran]

The abdomen is just absurd with how sensitive and poorly defended it is anatomically.
It's only not a major target, because injuries there rarely incapacitate or kill quickly.