Quick Question: Decreased single arm ST:

[Talonos]

I would like a character whose strength is greatly reduced in a single arm. His arm suffered nerve damage in an attack, and though it is not completely useless, it is weak and feeble. What disadvantage do I give him? Do I buy "Arm Str" in reverse for -3 points per reduced st?

[ericbsmith]

Officially, see Extra Arms, Weak, No Physical Attack, and Modifying Beings With One or Two Arms, all on p. B53. Basically you'd take the limitations as a disadvantage, as outlined in the last section I mention.

[thedot]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Officially, see Extra Arms, Weak, No Physical Attack, and Modifying Beings With One or Two Arms, all on p. B53. Basically you'd take the limitations as a disadvantage, as outlined in the last section I mention.

I never have characters with extra arms, so I had never really read the text for that advantage. That's great! Thanks for pointing it out, ericbsmith!

Having read the text, I agree. I think Weak at either -3 CP (50% of body ST) or -5 CP (25% of body ST) would do the trick for you, Talonos. Just kind of depends on how weak you want the arm to be.

[DouglasCole]

Last August, I suffered a three-level disc herniation at C4/5, C5/6, and C6/7. The upshot of all that was a 30% reduction in the strength of my left arm. If I'm normally ST10 or 11, my left arm was 8 or 9, respectively.

It manifested in weird ways. Most stuff...even my martial arts, including korean kumdo, didn't seem much impacted. That's because most of the time, you do core stuff, and the more you train, the less you use "arm only" moves.

I got tired more easily.

And when I was doing single-hand stuff, like pouring out noodles from a pot...I would always nearly drop them, since my "what can I do?" calibration was 30% higher than what I was able to actually lift.

It's definitely less limiting than it seems, but crops up in odd ways and at odd times.

For cost, I'd probably do something like this (and I like complicated formula):

(1-Sqrt(percent of ST remaining in that arm)) percent discount off Arm ST (5/level)

So my case for 70% ST in one arm would be:

sqrt(.7)= 0.82

1-x = 0.18

Round up for the fun of it, and that's 20%. So 20% of Arm ST is 1 CP.

That's probably about right...70% ST in one arm and 100% in my dominant arm is a quirk level impediment.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by thedot

Having read the text, I agree. I think Weak at either -3 CP (50% of body ST) or -5 CP (25% of body ST) would do the trick for you, Talonos. Just kind of depends on how weak you want the arm to be.

NOTE: Almost without exception, all point costs in GURPS are rounded up[1], and up from -2.5CP is -2CP. So it would be Weak (One Arm, 1/2 ST) [-2] or Weak (One Arm, 1/4 ST) [-5]


[1]Also known as "rounding in the direction that screws the players."

[thedot]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

NOTE: Almost without exception, all point costs in GURPS are rounded up[1], and up from -2.5CP is -2CP. So it would be Weak (One Arm, 1/2 ST) [-2] or Weak (One Arm, 1/4 ST) [-5]


[1]Also known as "rounding in the direction that screws the players."

Oops! Thanks for catching that. I intended to round up that first value and...math...bad. :)