Increasing Survivability in High-Powered Games

[Gorgoo]

A few days ago, I ran the first session of a 700-point GURPS campaign, where the players are basically playing supers in a fantasy world (The setting is Exalted, but the question I'm asking is more about mechanics than setting).

The characters are obviously fairly powerful, and handily outclass "normal" humans, which is great. But the points spent on offensive powers vastly outweighs the points that people spent on things like HP or DR. And while none of the PCs died in the first session, we realized that, if things continue as-is, most "superpowered" combats will end as quickly as one person lands an attack.

So I'm trying to fix this before the next session. :) Ideally, it'll be a fix that I can apply across the board, to each PC (so nobody has to rewrite their character sheet).

I think I have a solution, but I'm still working out a few details, and I'm wondering what people think about it.

Basically, I intend to give PCs and superhuman NPCs a large number of extra HP, but HP which only applies to supernatural attacks. Against natural or otherwise mundane weapons, the characters have their normal HP value. I'm hoping that it will allow battles against gods and other Exalted to be epic affairs, with attacks which could destroy any normal mortals, but without completely invalidating the danger of, say, an angry mob.

Also, it means that the player who focused more on being a cinematic martial artist instead of having high-damage superpowers doesn't find himself useless in fights. And, at least as far as I can tell, it fits the "mythic heroes" genre pretty well. With some exceptions, it seems like a lot of stories have characters who survive fights with gods or monsters, but are still afraid of ordinary men with swords or arrows. Achilles is probably the prime example, but there are plenty of others.

As for the details I'm still working out:

Should I model the extra durability as HP or ablative DR? I'm leaning toward HP, since that means that damage types still matter. But "sometimes-on" HP might interact oddly with things like -1xHP values (do you use the higher value, even when enemies are fighting with mundane weapons?).

What would the point cost be for this? I plan on applying it equally to each PC, but it's nice to know the point cost in case anyone wants to add to it later. I'm thinking of calling it HP (Doesn't affect negative HP thresholds, -50%; Limited, Supernatural Attack, -20%). But I'm not sure if that's the way that makes the most sense.

And finally, how much "supernatural" HP/DR should I add to the characters? I realize this is a subjective question, but I figure it's best to get multiple people's input. For reference, the "average" supernatural attack seems to do about 3d damage, but one character can regularly do 5d, and one can occasionally deal 9d damage (albeit only by expending a large amount of fatigue). I'm thinking that something like 50 "supernatural" HP is probably a good number, making one-hit KOs possible for powerful characters or with critical hits, but not a thing that happens all the time. But I'm interested in hearing other opinions, too.

And, of course, if there's a problem with this concept which I haven't considered, please let me know. :) I'm fine with using a different solution for the issue of PC survivability, but thought it best to mention one that might work, first.

Thanks!

[Nosforontu]

Personally I would probably go with a combination of Luck as a required feature for the campaign letting players avoid nasty crit hits against themselves, and Damage Reduction rather than Damage Resistance, the amount of Damage Reduction would depend on just how big the damage dice you want to throw around would be.

[Anthony]

Assuming you're dealing with Innate Attacks, balance with ST-based damage requires either capping innate attacks based on ST, allowing ST-based attacks a lot of free advantages (ST is cost effective compared to innate attack if you're using a hyperdense vibroblade...), or reducing innate attack damage. I'd do any of those before giving special resistance to innate attacks.

[Langy]

Damage Reduction really sounds like it'd be best. Just give then IT:DR/10 and have it only apply to supernatural attacks.

[The Benj]

Injury Resistance I talked about something that could work quite well for this.
But the "supernatural only" part just seems like what you should really do is lower the damage on supernatural effects globally.

[Gorgoo]

Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction is a good idea. Thanks, everyone. I hadn't considered it, but it's a lot simpler than my original plan, and seems like it'd have a pretty similar effect on gameplay (that is, keeping supers from one-shotting each other). I'll still have to go over it with the players before implementing it, but that's true of anything.

Originally Posted by The Benj

Injury ResistanceBut the "supernatural only" part just seems like what you should really do is lower the damage on supernatural effects globally.

I'm reluctant to do that, for two major reasons. First, the players already made their characters, and seem, for the most part, to be happy with them. Forcing them to rewrite their attacks across the board with be a bit annoying, I think, even if they could re-spend those points elsewhere.

But also, I like the idea of the heroes being terrifying and godlike to normal people, but without making it safe to utterly ignore "mortals". Letting them have attacks which are extremely dangerous to mortals, but leaving them vulnerable to mortal attack, seems like a good way to do that.

That said, if a player wanted his character's schtick to be nigh-invulnerability, I'd be okay with them buying off the limitation, or to get enough DR to negate most non-supernatural damage anyway. It's certainly in-genre for a hulking warrior to stand motionless while swords break over his head. But nobody seemed too terribly interested in that sort of power, and everyone just seems to want a way to survive more than one hit when the ghostly swords and lightning bolts start flying.

Maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way, though.

[Refplace]

Glad you got your answers and like IT:DR I find it is the best survival option in most cases.
IT:DR means you ignore a lot but whatever can get through it is a significant threat and you have to watch powerful attacks very closely.
Reducing the damage to half would make a huge difference at your power levels and reduce one shot one kills while still making attacks something to be worried about.

[vierasmarius]

I definitely agree with IT:DR as being a great way to handle this. One other option that hasn't been mentioned though is the Flesh Wounds cinematic rule. Basically, after a character is struck the player may choose to negate all but 1 point of damage by sacrificing a character point. I'd limit how often it can be used per character (so death can still occur, and players don't just burn all their spare cp), and maybe provide a "freebie" pool which can only be used in certain situations (such as against supernatural attacks).

[the_matrix_walker]

Personally, I would just let the chips fall where they may.

If they wanted all the fancy offense and didn't save points for defense, that was their choice. Dropping in free damage reduction or a pile of free HP does a disservice to anyone who did spend their points on DR, enhanced defenses, or weapon techniques geared to defense.

That said, if you would rather just raise the point level and/or hand out a ubiquitous defensive advantage, that should be just fine.

[whswhs]

I very strongly favor Damage Reduction for this. It's a good idea to have a little Damage Resistance, so that the characters don't get taken out by a long series of minor blows (with Damage Reduction 4, a 1-point hit divided by 4 still rounds up to 1 point; with DR 5 they can just ignore the small stuff). But Damage Reduction is the key to a good superheroic standup fight.

For a different effect, buy HT up to 16. That way there's only one chance in 54 that the character will either lose consciousness or die from damage. Likely enough they can go on fighting until they're literally hacked to pieces. That's a really great heroic spectacle.

Bill Stoddard