Follow-up attack question when carrier attack does not penetrate DR

[phayman53]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

HEAT does not have a follow-up explosive. HEAT has a linked explosion, which actually represents the exact same explosion that produces the primary effect. HEAT rounds use a shaped explosive charge to produce a very fast jet of metal which punches into the target.

A shell that punches into the target and then explodes would usually be APEX (armor piercing explosive) or SAPHE (semi-armor piercing high explosive) in GURPS terms, and might simply be called 'armor piercing' sometimes in the larger world.

Oops, my mistake, I was working from memory and forgot they were linked. I was really actually thinking of "bunker busting" and other type munitions which are designed to penetrate, then explode. I mistakenly thought HEAT rounds worked that way.

If I used linked, however, DR would apply equally to both damage sources whether or not one or the other penetrated, correct? The damage is not added together?

Sorry for all of the questions, so far my GURPS experience has just dealt with simple, single source damage attacks and so I never really paid much attention to linked and follow-up damage.

[kirbwarrior]

Sadly, as far as I can see, there isn't a rule for a 'cumulative damage' attack of different damage types (same damage types would be fluff). I've just allowed people to buy multiple Innate Attacks as one attack (says 1d crushing + 1d burning) and state the 'order' the attack goes in. It's incredibly complicated for the gm (me) but it's only really an issue if the damage types have different targeting abilities (namely, pi and imp can't combine with the others except tight beam burning).

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by phayman53

If I used linked, however, DR would apply equally to both damage sources whether or not one or the other penetrated, correct? The damage is not added together?

Correct. Linked means that you deliver multiple attack effects in a single attack, but the effects are completely independent.

[phayman53]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Follow-Up Damage, Campaigns.

Oh, now I feel sheepish...all my questions are answered in the Follow-up and Linked subsections of Damage in Campaigns. I did not think to look at Campaigns for some reason, I expected the rules to be with the modifier write-ups in Characters.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

Sadly, as far as I can see, there isn't a rule for a 'cumulative damage' attack of different damage types (same damage types would be fluff). I've just allowed people to buy multiple Innate Attacks as one attack (says 1d crushing + 1d burning) and state the 'order' the attack goes in. It's incredibly complicated for the gm (me) but it's only really an issue if the damage types have different targeting abilities (namely, pi and imp can't combine with the others except tight beam burning).

The real problem is when the target had different DR against different damage types.

Mismatched targeting abilities seems easy to resolve. If damage is delivered to a location that isn't meaningful for that type, just demote it to the legal location that contains the illegal one. (Vitals -> Torso, Eye -> Face)

[dfinlay]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

Sadly, as far as I can see, there isn't a rule for a 'cumulative damage' attack of different damage types (same damage types would be fluff). I've just allowed people to buy multiple Innate Attacks as one attack (says 1d crushing + 1d burning) and state the 'order' the attack goes in. It's incredibly complicated for the gm (me) but it's only really an issue if the damage types have different targeting abilities (namely, pi and imp can't combine with the others except tight beam burning).

It also is something that could be somewhat abusable. A pi- then pi++ ability is a lot better than the other way around and in many cases gives the strengths of pi- (cheaply priced raw damage and thus armour penatration) with the strengths of pi++ (awesome damage multiplier meaning you don't need to get that much damage past DR). It's definitely not a game-breaking combination, but if allowed without any additional charge might wind up pretty dominant over pure damage types.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by dfinlay

It also is something that could be somewhat abusable. A pi- then pi++ ability is a lot better than the other way around and in many cases gives the strengths of pi- (cheaply priced raw damage and thus armour penatration) with the strengths of pi++ (awesome damage multiplier meaning you don't need to get that much damage past DR). It's definitely not a game-breaking combination, but if allowed without any additional charge might wind up pretty dominant over pure damage types.

I wouldn't allow it with the 'same' damage type that is piercing. It's more for when there isn't another possible way to determine the attack. Like any attack, the GM needs to keep a close eye already.

As for different DRs, lets take a complicated example. If the front half is crushing and the back half cutting (so crushing damage is first), and they have DR2 and DR5 (Cutting Only), the normal DR affects the crushing (since it is first), but the DR5 affects only the second part of the attack.