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Old 02-14-2017, 04:51 PM   #1
Otaku
 
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Default [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

Last Week: Cultural Adaptability, Cultural Familiarity, Xeno-Adaptability
Next Week: Danger Sense, Precognition, Psychometry

This week we’ll be covering Damage Resistance, Limited Defenses, and Nictitating Membrane. Damage Resistance is a pretty deep topic in its own right, which is part of why I fell behind my posting schedule. It has many, many Enhancements and Limitations that cause it to act almost as an entirely different Advantage, so we’ll be covering those in some detail as well. Limited Defenses aren’t a trait at all, but a ruleset that seems too detailed not to discuss, and will come up again later with other traits. Nictitating Membrane seems too closely related to Damage Resistance to be worth discussing on its own, even if we already have a full plate. I would have liked to include Injury Tolerance, but that is also a robust topic like Damage Resistance.

Basic

Damage Resistance (p. B46-47) is an Exotic, Physical trait that represents one’s body being capable of absorbing damage without ill effect. The baseline version of this trait costs 5 CP per level and absorbs one point of damage (from physical or energy based attacks). This takes place after applying any other source of DR you might be wearing, but before applying damage modifiers. It does not apply to eyes, windows, or (presumably) similar bits, nor does it reduce damage taken from sources like mental attacks, starvation damage, etc.

While labeled “Exotic”, some mundane possibilities do allow (or require) purchasing DR; various creatures can have natural DR 1 through DR 5 with the lower end representing tough skin or a pelt and the upper end representing things like the shell of the giant tortoise. Many objects can and will have DR as well, and if you’re a robot, super-powered being, supernatural entity, or other unnatural creature then you may be able to purchase DR as well. There are many Modifiers listed just for Damage Resistance, with all but Absorption being found on p. B47 (Absorption is on p. B46).

Ablative is a Limitation that causes DR to stop damage just once. It is not lost permanently, but it does take time to heal, at the same rate as your HP, including effects like Regeneration. This trait can represent a variety of things, from natural armors to force fields, and can also be used to fake high HP for characters that defy usual HP guidelines, like Supers. -80%

Each level of your DR enhanced by Absorption still stops one point of damage, but also generates one temporary Character Point that initially goes into a reserve pool just for them. If your reserve is full, your DR still protects you from damage but will not generate more temporary CP. This temporary CP may be spent on certain things, but whether you spend it or not it drains away at a rate of 1 CP/second. Unspent points drain away first. Once spent, you may not reallocate this temporary CP, and traits purchased are lost as the CP drains away; I am uncertain if you lose a purchased trait the instant the first of its CP is lost or when the very last point drains away. What you may purchase depends on how much you paid for this Enhancement. For +80% you may spend this CP to recover lost HP and FP at 2 CP/point or 3 CP/point, respectively, or you may increase one of your traits (determined at character creation). For +100% you may spend it on any of your traits or healing. CP spent on healing is permanent, draining your reserve of those points immediately. Finally, you are not able to absorb damage directly from your own ST or attack abilities. This cannot be combined with Reflection (see below). +80% or +100%

If you purchase your DR with the Can’t Wear Armor Limitation, you either can’t or won’t wear anything over it. -40%

The Directional Limitation means that instead of protecting from all sides, your DR is only good versus damage coming from a specific direction. The cost varies according to direction and humanoids may only take it for the front or back. Front is -20%, Back, Right, Left, Top, or Underside are -40%.

The Flexible Limitation represents non-rigid DR and thus leaves you vulnerable to blunt trauma. -20%

The Force Field Enhancement causes your DR to project a short distance from your body, enough so that it also protects your eyes and anything you are carrying. Your Force Field DR will apply before worn armors and will protect against things like touch attacks. +20%

The Hardened is a leveled Enhancement that counteracts armor divisors. Each level of this trait shifts the armor divisor down by a step until it reaches 1 (which means no Armor Divisor). The steps are as follows: Ignores DR, 100, 10, 5, 3, 2 and 1.

Limited only applies to a particular kind of damage, which is where Limited Defenses kicks in. The categories for Limited Defenses are Very Common at -20%, Common at -40%, Occasional at -60%, and Rare at -80%.

The Partial Limitation allows you to represent DR that only protects one Hit Location. The value is -10% for Torso Only, or -10% per -1 of penalty to hit that location. When dealing with something that comes in multiples, like arms, and only one is protected, all limbs of that type are protected; the value of the limitation doubles if only one is protected.

DR purchased with the Reflection Enhancement doesn’t just stop damage, but reflects it back at the source, one point of damage per point of DR with Reflection. The attacker gets no defense roll unless it knows such a thing is likely, namely if this is not the first attack being reflected back. Reflection only works against direct hits, not area effects, and cannot be combined with Absorption (see above). +100%

The Semi-Ablative Limitation is a less severe form of Ablative (see above) and cannot be combined with it. Semi-Ablative DR is lost at one point of DR per 10 points of damage it stops. Damage penetration doesn’t matter, and it heals at the same rate as your HP (as with Ablative). -20%

The Tough Skin Limitation is just what it sounds like; your Damage Resistance score comes from having tougher skin than normal, which means all the drawbacks of Flexible (see above) apply, plus a few more. Even without breaching your Tough Skin DR, scratches can deliver poison, and touches can deliver spells, mess with pressure points, carry electric shocks, etc. You cannot combine this with Flexible because it includes it, and you cannot combine it with Force Field (see above) because they are opposites.

Nictitating Membrane (p. B71) is an Exotic, Physical trait usually represented by a transparent lens that you may open and close like an eyelid, which protects your eyes from various irritants. This grants +1 DR/level for your eyes and +1 to HT rolls concerning eye damage.

Other Supplements

GURPS Powers Seems to mostly explain the above in greater detail, giving examples of where it makes sense to add DR or Nictitating Membrane to a Power, or Abilities built using either trait. GURPS Power-Ups 2: Perks lists some of the Perks that include having DR (Iron Body Parts) and some that can serve as an Unusual Background justifying DR (Fur, Scales, Special Exercises). Other Perks may require DR before they can be taken (Striking Surface).

Useful Links

Pending. I regret to inform you that I simply ran out of time, so feel free to suggest even obvious ones.
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Last edited by Otaku; 02-21-2017 at 04:27 PM.
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Old 02-14-2017, 04:52 PM   #2
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

Third Edition

I have not been worrying about this lately, but as I still haven’t gotten around to disposing of my remaining 3e books, and it shows why Damage Resistance is such a long, complicated entry, it seems worthwhile to address 3e even though I ran out of time to look up links because of it. I only have Basic Set: Third Edition, Revised, and Compendium I to reference.

Damage Resistance (p. CI 52) was 3 CP/level, and determining whether it was a force field, thick skin, etc. was treated as fluff that the GM and player merely had to work out. It was/is a bit confusing because it was actually based on the Toughness Advantage (p. B23); which was up to two points of DR available even to regular humans under the 3e rules and behaved like DR with the Tough Skin Limitation in 4e. It cost 10 CP for just one level or 25 CP for two! The Damage Resistance Entry includes a few 3e Modifiers as well. Ablative is here but provides a -15% discount, actually functioning like 4e Semi-Ablative DR. Hardened was also still available, but at 30% per level. Multiple levels were only for dealing with the 3e attack powers with Armor Piercing (the 3e version of the Armor Divisor Modifier); both were capped at two levels. When it came to armor divisors from weaponry, either level of Hardened canceled it out.

Absorption (p. CI 49) and Reflection (p. CI 64) were their own separate traits, instead of being an Enhancement for Damage Resistance. Instead of absorbing or reflecting one point of damage per level of DR, each level provided 1d worth of protection. I believe this meant dividing the dice before rolling, so too bad for you if the ones you were absorbing/reflecting rolled low while what went through rolled high. A character still couldn’t absorb or reflect damage from its own attacks. Once your Absorption was full, it provided 2 DR per level (instead of one). You still used Absorption to fuel other traits, but recovering lost HP or FP isn’t mentioned. Being restricted to generated CP only going to one power or Attribute was a -20% Limitation. Absorption costs 12 CP/level while Reflection would run you 8 CP/level.

Limited Defenses weren’t a unified rule or handled as a Limitation; there was a chart on p. CI 49 that listed the specific costs for each of Absorption, DR, and Reflection based on whether they applied versus everything, Common, Occasional, Rare, or Very Rare threats.

Nictitating Membrane (p. CI 62) was still its own trait in 3e. It cost 10 CP/level but provided different benefits. You still received eye DR of +1/level, but also +2 PD. “PD” is Passive Defense and added to your Active Defenses. It was 25 CP/level and was capped at PD 6 (even if you bought more than six levels of Nictitating Membrane). Finally, instead of the +1 HT bonus it was +3 per level.
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Old 02-14-2017, 05:08 PM   #3
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

It should also be noted that Monster Hunters specifically calls out the No Signature enhancement as applicable to natural DR that doesn't obviously look like it's an armored hide. This is usually applied to supers and supernaturals that are "bullet-proof" without looking like they are. (Supers, which was published first, treats it as a genre assumption, not charging extra for it, but Monster Hunters does not.)
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Old 02-14-2017, 05:24 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

GURPS Supers provides a perk that allows you to wear clothing over DR despite taking the "Can't Wear Armor" limitation. This is to allow things like Ben Grimm's blue boxer shorts. The clothing is understood not to have any defensive utility; it's there for the sake of genre conventions, decency, and possibly having pockets.
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Old 02-14-2017, 08:03 PM   #5
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

Quote:
Originally Posted by Otaku View Post
It cost 10 CP for just one level or 25 CP for two!
Yup, baked-in Unusual Background charge. Fantasy Folk said not to use Toughness for racial templates because it was too expensive.
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Old 02-15-2017, 02:38 AM   #6
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

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Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
It should also be noted that Monster Hunters specifically calls out the No Signature enhancement as applicable to natural DR that doesn't obviously look like it's an armored hide. This is usually applied to supers and supernaturals that are "bullet-proof" without looking like they are. (Supers, which was published first, treats it as a genre assumption, not charging extra for it, but Monster Hunters does not.)
How would No Signature on DR work with layered types?
Say my robot has human like fleshy "tough skin" over a more robust leathery flexible armor.
Would both need it? It seems like logically only the top presenting layer would, but that also seems to open to abuse.
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Old 02-15-2017, 06:39 AM   #7
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

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How would No Signature on DR work with layered types?
Say my robot has human like fleshy "tough skin" over a more robust leathery flexible armor.
Would both need it? It seems like logically only the top presenting layer would, but that also seems to open to abuse.
Depends on the campaign premise. For Supers, no. For Monster Hunters, yes.

And that "fleshy tough skin" is the No Signature Enhancement as it's literally hiding the armor.
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Old 02-15-2017, 12:47 PM   #8
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

But any damage breaking through the single DR flesh would reveal the obvious inhuman armor beneath. If all the armor had No Signature, it seems like it would take damage penetrating all of it to reveal inhuman nature. Aside from someone witnessing the non-injurious event that would've done horrible things to a natural human.
My idea would lead to a character that has to be careful to avoid damage that wouldn't come close to actual injury just to avoid revealing an inhuman facet until repaired.
I hope what I'm trying to do makes sense.
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Old 02-15-2017, 01:19 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

Terminators are probably a good example of that. Aren't there terminator clones in Reign of Steel? Does Will to Live do anything with this?
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Old 02-15-2017, 01:47 PM   #10
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#32): Damage Resistance, Nictitating Membrane

I love DR as a game concept, but there are a few beefs I have with it as is:

Its one price, regardless of tech level. I know that was done for simplicity's sake, among other things, but I always get frustrated when trying to build someone bullet proof using a pricing scheme that feels fair in iron age settings.

I also don't like the way to does partial DR, if only because it encourages you do not use partial DR. -10% for only torso? -20% to only protect that one arm? It doesn't take a munchkin to shy away from that. Also, it doesn't handle an exposed spot well. I've got a variant (houseruled) pricing where DR is torso only by default, and you pay +10%*(highest covered hit penalty). So armoring the arms and legs is +20%, and the arms, legs, hands, and feet is +40%. Still haven't figured out how to do helmets correctly that way though. I usually use a lower base cost for DR if I do this though. full coverage is 100%.
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