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Old 08-26-2017, 07:18 PM   #1
Jaware
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
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Default Technical grappling question. { Harpoon }

Collective! I come to thee asking a humble question.

does anyone know how harpoon work in technical grappling?

It is probably just me, but I didn't see anything about them in the booklet.
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Old 08-27-2017, 10:39 AM   #2
chandley
 
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Default Re: Technical grappling question.

P. 15, Impaling weapons. Harpoons have barbs that do extra damage when the thing is pulled out, so increasing CP to 1.5x basic damage wouldn't be unreasonable.

In TG, yanking on the string to pull it out would basically be you making an attack to reduce CP. I'd allow Harpoon skill (it is a basic function of Harpoons!) and rolling harpoon damage again, rather than a grappling skill and just grappling damage. The victim doesn't have that option however, even if they have Harpoon skill!
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Old 08-27-2017, 12:00 PM   #3
Jaware
 
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Default Re: Technical grappling question.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chandley View Post
P. 15, Impaling weapons. Harpoons have barbs that do extra damage when the thing is pulled out, so increasing CP to 1.5x basic damage wouldn't be unreasonable.

In TG, yanking on the string to pull it out would basically be you making an attack to reduce CP. I'd allow Harpoon skill (it is a basic function of Harpoons!) and rolling harpoon damage again, rather than a grappling skill and just grappling damage. The victim doesn't have that option however, even if they have Harpoon skill!
What I'm trying to do is make an enemy that throws a harpoon at the pcs. It is either aimed atthem, or their shields. Upon hit it in flicks cp. Just as Impaling picks.

What i want to know is how it would effect shields, or the people it's stuck in.

Eg, how does it effect the shield? How does it effect the pc? How does one pull them out of formation? Etc.
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Old 08-27-2017, 12:20 PM   #4
chandley
 
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Default Re: Technical grappling question.

Err... it is explained right there on p.15 of TG. Literally, everything you asked except maybe the shields.

You can use the rules on p.15 for shields just fine, remember that you have to beat the shields DR before you get any CP for basic damage. Shield straps are explained on the box on p.13. Grip ST and yanking shields away starts on p.12.

Basically, start at p.12 and read through p.15. It is laid out for you.
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Old 08-27-2017, 02:20 PM   #5
Jaware
 
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Default Re: Technical grappling question.

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Originally Posted by chandley View Post
Err... it is explained right there on p.15 of TG. Literally, everything you asked except maybe the shields.

You can use the rules on p.15 for shields just fine, remember that you have to beat the shields DR before you get any CP for basic damage. Shield straps are explained on the box on p.13. Grip ST and yanking shields away starts on p.12.

Basically, start at p.12 and read through p.15. It is laid out for you.
It does cover most of it.

but that's not what I'm looking for.

I'm trying to find the rules, or the steps on how to use the harpoon once it's lodged into whom/whatever.

Like how to drag people out of formation or drag the shield into the unread state, etc.

I don't even know if it works that way. Since you can pull one of them out.
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Old 08-27-2017, 07:01 PM   #6
chandley
 
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Default Re: Technical grappling question.

Okay, basically pulling em out of formation is Shoving People Around, which is on p. 25. Making the shield unready (or even pulling it completely off) is on p.12. Unreadying it is the second paragraph under Grip CP, as is taking it away. The impaling CP can't be spent for that (think of them as the harpoons grip ST on the target), but you can attack through the harpoon to build up CP. Note, your opponent can attack the harpoons grip CP to get it out, so there is definitely a time limit on things!
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Old 08-27-2017, 07:22 PM   #7
DouglasCole
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Default Re: Technical grappling question.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chandley View Post
Okay, basically pulling em out of formation is Shoving People Around, which is on p. 25. Making the shield unready (or even pulling it completely off) is on p.12. Unreadying it is the second paragraph under Grip CP, as is taking it away. The impaling CP can't be spent for that (think of them as the harpoons grip ST on the target), but you can attack through the harpoon to build up CP. Note, your opponent can attack the harpoons grip CP to get it out, so there is definitely a time limit on things!
All of this sounds about right. The harpoon wasn't considered explicitly, but it falls under a bunch of relatively straightforward categories.

It is an impaling weapon so that counts. It can grapple at a distance, so the comment about being able to do anything that defaults to ST (which includes shoving people around and takedowns, to name two) applies. You might need a rule-on-the-fly about how many control points you can spend without risking ripping it out. But TG - as a GURPS book - is as much about tools as it is worked examples.
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Old 08-28-2017, 10:09 AM   #8
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Default Re: Technical grappling question.

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Originally Posted by DouglasCole View Post
All of this sounds about right. The harpoon wasn't considered explicitly, but it falls under a bunch of relatively straightforward categories.

It is an impaling weapon so that counts. It can grapple at a distance, so the comment about being able to do anything that defaults to ST (which includes shoving people around and takedowns, to name two) applies. You might need a rule-on-the-fly about how many control points you can spend without risking ripping it out. But TG - as a GURPS book - is as much about tools as it is worked examples.
That pretty much answers my question. I wasn't worried on modeling it. I knew I could do that. But I wasn't sure if i should model it.

i appreciate it to all who helped.
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Old 08-28-2017, 01:17 PM   #9
DouglasCole
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Default Re: Technical grappling question.

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Originally Posted by Jaware View Post
That pretty much answers my question. I wasn't worried on modeling it. I knew I could do that. But I wasn't sure if i should model it.
I'm going to take a cop-out here, but an important and honest one:

If modeling the potential things a harpoon can do makes your game more awesome, and your players more likely to tell post-mortem stories about how ridiculously cool that one move was, you should model it.

If using these things slows the game down as players or the GM looks up rules and ponders the fiddle, kill it with fire.

As I noted when asked about GURPS during a recent podcast I was on, GURPS is a subtractive toolkit (remove everything that's not your campaign) as well as something where many, many more things CAN be done than SHOULD be done.

Peter's Rule of Awesome (quoted above) is really, in my mind, the core principle. Will a spear on a string make your game more awesome? Do that, then. Does awesome hit diminishing returns? Stop doing more of that and do something else.
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