Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-30-2021, 03:48 PM   #11
the-red-scare
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
In the end, 4e is dependent on DR to keep things balanced, so if you're not going to do something more radical like Conditional Injury, the easiest way to make sure large objects are appropriately tough is to give things a special type of DR that works against all attacks (even ones that normally reduce or bypass DR) of around HP/20.
This is indeed one of the best of the house-rule mitigators, but I don’t think I would design the system from scratch that way.

Last edited by the-red-scare; 11-30-2021 at 03:55 PM.
the-red-scare is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2021, 04:04 PM   #12
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

The other option is some variant on expanded wound side modifiers (my version, other people have come up with similar systems).
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2021, 04:56 PM   #13
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

There's a workable rule for this in issue 2 of The Path of Cunning, on p. 42 in the article on aircraft combat.
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2021, 05:29 PM   #14
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
Some vehicles have a central portion of their structure whose loss leaves all the rest severed, but others don't particularly. A (seagoing) ship, for instance, can continue to be at least one ship if you up and chop it into two pieces somewhere along its length. Provided it's compartmentalized successfully so at least one piece doesn't sink. (Probably at most one piece will have functional propulsion in that case.)
I mean, a car tire can still serve as a wheel if the car's frame is completely wrecked, but that doesn't change that the car is completely wrecked. From what I understand about ships, they typically have keels that essentially serve as the Frame ("structural backbone" is what I often see it referred to as). Some ships don't (and I think a lot of boats don't), but for gaming purposes I think giving everything a Frame would work out better than only applying that to some vehicles.

Of course, I'm also not certain exactly how such a game system would work. It's more something I'd like to see than something I'd like to come up with myself, if you take my meaning.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
In the end, 4e is dependent on DR to keep things balanced, so if you're not going to do something more radical like Conditional Injury, the easiest way to make sure large objects are appropriately tough is to give things a special type of DR that works against all attacks (even ones that normally reduce or bypass DR) of around HP/20.
Somewhere between the two (in terms of ease of use, at least) is what I think of as Slow-Accumulating Injury, which I've seen suggested on the boards before (albeit not by any name). Basically, assess things like Shock, Major Wounds, etc normally, but divide Injury by 3 to see how much accumulates. So, if an HP 10 character gets hit for 20 HP of Injury, he/she has to make a Death Check (dropped to -1xHP), make a Consciousness Check (dropped to/below 0 HP), check for Knockdown/Stunning (suffered a Major Wound), and is at -4 for Shock (took 40% or more of HP in Injury) next round. However, provided the character survives, he/she only loses 6 HP from the attack, and still has 4 HP left before getting stuck at/below 0. This essentially triples HP for purposes of accumulation, but you're just as susceptible to being knocked out, crippled, or even outright killed by single attacks. When I saw it suggested, it was more for living characters, but it would certainly help with issues like archers sinking oceangoing ships.
__________________
GURPS Overhaul
Varyon is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2021, 06:32 PM   #15
the-red-scare
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
There's a workable rule for this in issue 2 of The Path of Cunning, on p. 42 in the article on aircraft combat.
That’s really a neat idea. I’ve read those and somehow forgot or missed that. A more radical version of the idea is in Pulver’s post here.
the-red-scare is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2021, 07:06 PM   #16
Rolando
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Panama
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
For the original question, I don't think you can really make one number solve the overall problem. 200 HP and 60 HP are both wrong if you're destroying a car by shooting small arms through its passenger compartment...

'destroyed'.
3ed vehicles used to model/simulate this by making damage to structure only 1/10th of damage and the components of the vehicle where normally damaged, so you may shoot a lot of bullets to a car but unless you hit the engine, fuel tank or other important parts the car will still be mostly fine.

I like that, and many other details of 3ed Vehicles, but it is a lot more complicated and I can understand why most people don't want that to return.
Rolando is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2021, 09:26 PM   #17
Rupert
 
Rupert's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

I'm tending towards the rule from The Path of Cunning, combined with the reduction in damage for attacks vs very large targets from Keeping Large Vehicles Alive (Pyramid 3-34, Eidetic Memory) which I would also consider applying to Tight-Beam Burning attacks, treating them as if they are impaling.

Also, Spaceships gives ships about 50% more dHP than you'd expect from their mass (i.e. it moves them one step larger on the Range/Speed table, which is the progression it uses for dHP). I take that as being a reflection of compartmentalisation, etc. and am considering a similar bonus to any vehicle that has features such as good compartmentalisation, trained damage control crews, vehicle-wide automatic fire suppression, and so on.

It's possible all three of these measures together swings too far the other way, and the second measure won't stop giant mecha with swords carving each other up very quickly.
__________________
Rupert Boleyn

"A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history."
Rupert is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2021, 12:00 AM   #18
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

You should avoid things that boost vehicle hit points that don't similarly boost the damage output of large weapons. The problem isn't that vehicles are too easy to kill in general, it's that they're too easy to kill with small weapons.
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2021, 01:40 AM   #19
Balor Patch
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
*On that topic, revamping of how HP interacts with collisions would be in order. As it stands, a catapulted cow does half as much damage as it would if you killed it first (Unliving objects have twice as much HP as living ones), or only 1/4th as much damage as if you butchered the cow and wrapped up the remains in a burlap sac (Homogenous objects have 4x as much HP as living ones).
Rather than having more HP, a Homogeneous thing should have Unkillable. None of the pieces are important so death checks don't make sense while completely destroying it (and collision damage) would be sensibly consistent.
Balor Patch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2021, 09:16 AM   #20
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Vehicle hit points

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
. The problem isn't that vehicles are too easy to kill in general, it's that they're too easy to kill with small weapons.
That's a matter of TL and game style. For TL4 wooden ships and blackpowder cannons vehicles are too easily destroyed and the same is true for anyone doing futuristic ship combat that they want to emulate that.
__________________
Fred Brackin
Fred Brackin is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
the path of cunning, vehicles

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:52 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.