SM, Is it relative?

[Ji ji]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Put another way, the pixie is not punching a SM+6 target. He's hitting a SM+0 target at a pixie's arm length (+6).

Realistically, there should probably be a cap on relative SM bonus (after hit location) in melee, because eventually most of the target is going to simply be out of reach and not relevant to the odds of hitting.

Often it's a good idea merge general mechanic with common sense. To a pixie, it's easy to target a man's vitals. Yet I could allow it if he wield a long spear, not a pixie-size knife. Moreover, even a long pixie spear would have a hard day to penetrate through all that flesh. I can simulate great resiliency for a big creature by DR when we are managing men-size attacker, but interactions among minute creature and men-size need more subtley.

Simply, GURPS granularity is fine until SM -1 or -2. With smaller creaures, I think players' common sense and elasticity became fundamental.

[Flyndaran]

Common sense is like tradition, it has only a loose connection to accuracy. Never trust it implicitly

[Ji ji]

It's not accurate and not suitable for general rules. If there are many pixies in game, or if a PC is a pixie, common sense is not a satisfatory solution. It's a good solution in situation that rarely comes in play.