Damage from Removing Impaling Weapons

[Hanuman47]

Are there rules for the damage dealt by removing arrows and similar projectiles? I've been scanning through Characters, Campaigns, and Low Tech and all I can find is a reference in Low Tech to barbed arrows doing half the damage the inflicted going in when they come out. Are there more general rules somewhere that I'm missing?

By the way, what's at stake here is that the one long-time hold-out on GURPS in my game group may be finally coming round because of the realistic injury that GURPS supports. We generally play more cinematic games and haven't used a lot of the more detailed rules, but I'm trying to convince him that this is what he's looking for for a more realistic campaign.

Thanks for any help the GURPS community can provide!

[ed_209a]

I would rule that unless the impaling weapon is barbed, it wouldn't do extra damage coming out,

If bleeding rules were in use, I would give much friendlier bleeding rolls while the weapon was still in. Perhaps even ignoring the penalty from the amount of damage done.

[Wraithe]

Originally Posted by Hanuman47

Are there rules for the damage dealt by removing arrows and similar projectiles? I've been scanning through Characters, Campaigns, and Low Tech and all I can find is a reference in Low Tech to barbed arrows doing half the damage the inflicted going in when they come out. Are there more general rules somewhere that I'm missing?

By the way, what's at stake here is that the one long-time hold-out on GURPS in my game group may be finally coming round because of the realistic injury that GURPS supports. We generally play more cinematic games and haven't used a lot of the more detailed rules, but I'm trying to convince him that this is what he's looking for for a more realistic campaign.

Thanks for any help the GURPS community can provide!

There's nothing in Rules As Written (RAW), but it's come up in a few threads.

I recommend this post as the way to handle it.

There's also a good thread on "Leave it in, or take it out?" Dependant on HOW gritty you want to get, it can get pretty hairy - I recommend hal's post for taking it all the way. :)

[Dunadin777]

I'd say that pulling out an impaling weapon would require a DX roll by whoever's doing the pulling. If the wounded person is pulling it out of himself, then a penalty should be applied for sure. On a failure, the removal does another 1 HP damage or 2 HP on a critical failure. Or something like that.

The bigger issue, as I see it, would be bleeding complications. The results of the DX roll should probably add some penalty to bleeding rules, too, depending on your preferred level of detail and realism.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by ed_209a

I would rule that unless the impaling weapon is barbed, it wouldn't do extra damage coming out,

If bleeding rules were in use, I would give much friendlier bleeding rolls while the weapon was still in. Perhaps even ignoring the penalty from the amount of damage done.

I don't disagree with what Ed_209a is saying here.

However, the rules you're looking for, which you can use or not, are for swung impaling weapons: Check out Picks, pp. B405-406. This is where you'd start, if you decided that not just swung/impaling weapons, but all impaling weapons, should do damage on removal.

Still, he's right: unless the weapon is barbed, you probably won't be doing more structural damage here. You MIGHT rule that if you're using the optional rules for Bleeding (Optional Rules for Injury, p. 420), that removing such a weapon triggers another bleeding check, or a bleeding check at a penalty.

[Gigermann]

Something that occurred to me recently, FREX with a typical spear: Do the melee rules assume a thrust and retraction, or just the thrust? I'm presuming it does include the retraction, but then what happens if you don't retract? "Grappled?" What about "pushing/pulling through?" (Or have I missed that somewhere?)

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Gigermann

Something that occurred to me recently, FREX with a typical spear: Do the melee rules assume a thrust and retraction, or just the thrust? I'm presuming it does include the retraction, but then what happens if you don't retract? "Grappled?" What about "pushing/pulling through?" (Or have I missed that somewhere?)

It's not explicit. Yet. :-)

dhc

[Gigermann]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

It's not explicit. Yet. :-)

That is gonna be a fun book :P

[Bruno]

My players are looking forward to it.

It happened one session that a mounted knight (PC) did a ride-by attack a bandit (NPC) and used the thrust/impaling mode on his Longsword (from MA). And play stopped, while we all wondered if he'd lost his sword from that stunt or not. The Player voted his PC would hold onto it for grim death even if that resulted in being yanked right off his mount and/or dislocating his shoulder (family heirloom and relevant mental disads) but we couldn't figure in a reasonable time how to even wing it, and I politely asked him to just drop the damn sword and we'll worry about it later.

So if you can handle things like that, it would be greatly appreciated :)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Bruno

And play stopped, while we all wondered if he'd lost his sword from that stunt or not.

Well, he could always break it instead. Any impaling wound that goes through the target (HP? HP*2?) should be highly prone to the weapon getting stuck, lesser wounds I'd expect it to be an uncommon occurrence.