11-19-2015, 11:51 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
A well-executed slam often seems to involve putting a hard, low-vulnerability part of the attacker (the shoulder, say) into a soft, vulnerable part of the victim (like the face or gut). I do feel that the GURPS slam rules make the process more hazardous for the attacker than it should be. It's a problem I've run into in demo games; players who are new to GURPS want to run into a fleeing opponent just to stop them or get them into combat, and discover that the game suddenly brings in a bunch of moderately fiddly rules to handle this commonplace situation, and inflicts damage on the PC as a reward for their efforts.
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11-19-2015, 11:56 AM | #12 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
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This however, doesnt help our Jungle Cat. I have also ruled that pouncing predators dont use a basic Slam, they use a Flying Jump Kick (with Claws). I even give them Kicking and Flying Jump Kick techniques. It removes the risk of damage on a hit, keeps the ability to knock people around, and is generally more satisfying to me. This is RAW but cinematic, but suits me for pouncing cats just fine.
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11-19-2015, 12:24 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brighton
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
I guess it kind of is already, 1 point of slam damage to a 30 hp animal is relatively different compared to 1 point of damage to a 10 HP animal. There's also the point that large animals and DR tend to go hand in hand and a point or two of DR at this kind of damage level can make quite a difference (it also means head on butting dominance displays don't end in x4 injury mod wounds and death quite so often)
Last edited by Tomsdad; 11-19-2015 at 11:35 PM. |
11-19-2015, 12:33 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
IMO tiger/lion/leopard/cheetah-style pounce shouldn't be modeled with as a slam. This is more like jumping attack with grapple/takedown. Slam is rather for ramming buffalos, bulls, rhinoceros etc...
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11-19-2015, 12:33 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
Another reasonable approach for animals is to give them a few points of limited DR against their own slam damage. Things that slam with their horns very often do have cushioning structures, and I'd expect anything that does this regularly to have evolved something to make the damage less symmetric.
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11-19-2015, 01:48 PM | #16 |
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
Quite. Slams are strikes, like punches or kicks, in GURPS. Pounce to grapple or pounce to takedown should probably invoke grappling rules. All-Out Attack (Double) for Grapple and Takedown, or Move (jump) and Attack are both appropriate here, I'd say.
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11-19-2015, 11:38 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brighton
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
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11-20-2015, 03:39 AM | #18 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
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11-20-2015, 07:34 AM | #19 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
Every official Minotaur build for 4e has included skull DR. I think it's all at 3 pts of DR because that comes out at a nice even and efficient point cost, but that could vary. It certainly seems a good number for bovines and whatever the name of the group sheep and goats are in - it's not cervids, that's deer, and they don't bonk heads quite the same way.
Most (verging on all) actual horns are going to involve a reinforced skull to mount the horns on. Antlers are a different thing, but deer don't exactly have thin skulls - if you're going to go to all the effort of growing antlers to fight with, you don't let the other guy take you out by just whacking you between the antlers. It's probably a good investment too for those situations where rutting stags mistake things like trees for other stags :P Actually out of all the animals in our weight category, I'm pretty sure humans win the no-prize for "least protective skull". I'm happy with giving deer a +1 skull DR just for being "not humans".
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11-20-2015, 07:43 AM | #20 |
Join Date: Feb 2013
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Re: [Basic] Why do Slams hurt so much?
Know what's weird? They've found some human skulls in French mass tombs that are thick enough to classify as diseased by today's standards, but are common enough perhaps to have been normal even a thousand years ago. It's not inconceivable that casual braining of passers-by might have put selective pressure on our species from the time of the ice age to the Middle Ages. Rousseau was right: agriculture and cities make us soft.
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