(Basic) Charging 'tank' beast

[jacobmuller]

This beast kills by simply charging headfirst into you. Stop-thrust seems right, eg bull or hog.
Problem is, it's heavily armoured, but it does have a Chink, on its head.
Targeting Chinks is -10 for non torso but should it still be -10 if the Chink is the weapon you're about to be hit by?
Does its Spd matter if it's heading right at you, or at supernatural Spd?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

This beast kills by simply charging headfirst into you. Stop-thrust seems right, eg bull or hog.
Problem is, it's heavily armoured, but it does have a Chink, on its head.
Targeting Chinks is -10 for non torso but should it still be -10 if the Chink is the weapon you're about to be hit by?
Does its Spd matter if it's heading right at you, or at supernatural Spd?

-10 is still appropriate, although as GM you could certainly give it a bonus to be hit for being highly-presented (unlikely to be more than +1), or even a penalty for being much smaller than anticipated. I'm assuming the beast is either eyeless or holds its head down enough during the charge that the eyes aren't accessible, as otherwise you're likely better off targeting those.

Typically, only a target's lateral velocity matters. If you're actually just thrusting at the target, an extreme velocity might make it difficult to act in time, but the target has to be moving awfully quick for that. A stop thrust typically involves setting the weapon to intercept the charge, so you'd need an even higher velocity for it to come into play. At worst, I could maybe see using 1/4th of the target's speed as a Range penalty, although melee attacks don't start suffering those until after at least 5 yards (I think Reach 4 or maybe 5 is the longest human-scale melee weapon in the books). That's appropriate if the reacting character has Basic Speed 5.00 (average human reaction time to visual stimuli is 0.25 seconds); higher Basic Speed should probably give a higher divisor*. Assuming +0 to hit from Range is at 5 yards for melee attacks, and the penalty accrues normally thereafter, even for a character with average reaction time the target has to be charging above Move 20 before Range penalties come into play, and they come into play slowly - Move 28 is -1, Move 40 is -2, Move 60 is -3, Move 80 is -4, Move 120 is -5, Move 200 is -6, Move 280 is -7, and so forth. Even if we make 2 yards the +0 (meaning many spears and polearms would be used at a penalty), you're looking at Move 8 for +0, Move 12 for -1, Move 20 for -2, Move 28 for -3, and so forth.

*A brief bit of internet research indicates most people cap out around 0.2 seconds with a good deal of training, and the theoretical human peak may be somewhere around 0.1 seconds. -0.03 seconds per +1.00 Basic Speed could work, putting those who have trained up their reaction speed at around 6.50 Basic Speed (0.205 seconds), and having the human maximum of 0.1 seconds be at 10.00 Basic Speed. Of course, I think Theoretical GURPS Peak Human actually has 12.00 Basic Speed (DX 20, HT 20, +2 BS), in which case something like -0.02 seconds per +1.00 Basic Speed would work, putting those who have trained up their reaction speed at around 7.50 Basic Speed. This is almost certainly needlessly complicated, however.

[AlexanderHowl]

The problem is that a stop thrust does not stop the charge unless you stun, knock out, or kill the creature or unless you have a specially designed weapon. You might skewer the creature fine, but it might kill you in the process.