Fat as DR - Page 2

Refplace · 02-18-2019, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruno

Side Note: Whale blubber is quite helpful, but it's not "fat". It's quite hard for a "soft" tissue, sort of like an eraser; it's full of collagen, the bodies structural material, unlike human fat. It's also got fat cells, but it's not "fat" at all. It's part of a whales pressure-resisting armor for deep diving, as well as thermal insulation, and armor against predators, prey (for hunting species), parasites, and fighting in-species.

I never knew that makeup of blubber, though blubber is given a DR in some GURPS materiel. I thought it was a bit odd, but that collegen make up makes more sense,

~~evileeyore~~ · 02-18-2019, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plane

How do you measure an injury?

Depth of penetration. Width of wound channel. Depth where tumble begins. Etc.

Though I suspect for this particular test they probably stayed with the first of the things I listed.

Tomsdad · 02-20-2019, 06:57 AM

I dont think fat on the GURPS human scale should be worth DR. Larger animals and or those with more specialised morphologies maybe.

But there are other ways you give a benefit without giving DR.

I run a house rule that means you have a layer of SM+1 HP an attack has to get through before getting to your vitals. My theory is most vital organs are not actually directly under the skin but instead tend to be protected by other structures.

The HP still counts as damage it just means you don't get all the special effects of vitals hit unless there enough damage to get past that layer.

What this means is you don't get very low sources of injury (especially stuff that does min 1 damage), like thr-2 spikes or really small bird shot automatically getting through to vital organs. And larger sources of damage don't really suffer much.

Anyway the point being that if I wanted to have being fat or very fat to give some kind of benefit here I'd likely allow being fat or v.fat to increase this layer/threshold. I.e it would still count as basic HP for non vital's hits but attacks would need to be that little bit stronger to reach the vitals.

(if nothing else I have no issue with fat or v.fat buying more HP as part of their increased mass meaning that can withstand more injury)

One other thing I might consider. I have read a theory that gladiators use to pack on a layer of fat before a fight fight to reduce the chance of vein and arteries being cut and minimise serious hard to stop bleeding. Obviously such a layer of subcutaneous fact does not provide actual DR for close to surface blood vessels at the scale GURPS operates at! But it might give some effect in terms of making them harder to be hit. Now I'm not sure of the validity of that theory as being something gladiators used to actively do in order to get that effect. But I might rule that targets that are fat or v.fat give attackers an additional -1 to target veins and arteries.

Plane · 02-20-2019, 08:51 AM

That sounds like a cool idea, so that basically just applies to torso hits that target vitals? Wouldn't apply to groin or veins/arteries or eye? It would work well on the skull so that you can say by the time you start benefitting from DR, you've already inflicted a wound that can bleed.

02-20-2019, 06:57 AM	#13
Tomsdad Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Brighton	Re: Fat as DR I dont think fat on the GURPS human scale should be worth DR. Larger animals and or those with more specialised morphologies maybe. But there are other ways you give a benefit without giving DR. I run a house rule that means you have a layer of SM+1 HP an attack has to get through before getting to your vitals. My theory is most vital organs are not actually directly under the skin but instead tend to be protected by other structures. The HP still counts as damage it just means you don't get all the special effects of vitals hit unless there enough damage to get past that layer. What this means is you don't get very low sources of injury (especially stuff that does min 1 damage), like thr-2 spikes or really small bird shot automatically getting through to vital organs. And larger sources of damage don't really suffer much. Anyway the point being that if I wanted to have being fat or very fat to give some kind of benefit here I'd likely allow being fat or v.fat to increase this layer/threshold. I.e it would still count as basic HP for non vital's hits but attacks would need to be that little bit stronger to reach the vitals. (if nothing else I have no issue with fat or v.fat buying more HP as part of their increased mass meaning that can withstand more injury) One other thing I might consider. I have read a theory that gladiators use to pack on a layer of fat before a fight fight to reduce the chance of vein and arteries being cut and minimise serious hard to stop bleeding. Obviously such a layer of subcutaneous fact does not provide actual DR for close to surface blood vessels at the scale GURPS operates at! But it might give some effect in terms of making them harder to be hit. Now I'm not sure of the validity of that theory as being something gladiators used to actively do in order to get that effect. But I might rule that targets that are fat or v.fat give attackers an additional -1 to target veins and arteries. __________________ Grand High* Poobah of the Cult of Stat Normalisation. not too* high of course Last edited by Tomsdad; 02-21-2019 at 12:52 AM.

02-20-2019, 08:51 AM	#14
Plane Join Date: Aug 2018	Re: Fat as DR That sounds like a cool idea, so that basically just applies to torso hits that target vitals? Wouldn't apply to groin or veins/arteries or eye? It would work well on the skull so that you can say by the time you start benefitting from DR, you've already inflicted a wound that can bleed.