Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

If it's good enough to be useful, it's good enough to be a supernatural ability.
It doesn't, but the things you are looking for aren't skill, they're supernatural abilities.

Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

Batman is a ninja with TBAM. He can use Rapid Strike with Throwing Art.

Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

You literally used the word guarantee. I responded accordingly.

Which is completely unrealistic. It's fine for a game, but not for real life. You asked if it was realistic. It's not. Once you get past that, you can have whatever you want and it's no problem.

Harking back to another comment you made about a boomerang bouncing and saying the rotation would bounce back. At that point the boomerang falls to the ground. I don't know if you've ever thrown a boomerang? If they aren't rotating, they are utterly useless when thrown. Worse than a straight stick in many ways. Even a proper hunting one (not one designed to return).

Skill 30 isn't realistic. Regardless of maintaining it, to even get there. It's perfectly fine in a game if you want that. But if you want realism, it's just not.

Anyway, this is dragging on. You want it to be realistic. Everyone has offered an opinion saying it isn't. GURPS isn't reality. It's not a simulator.
It has a defined granularity and uses abstractions to enable its core mechanics. It can be reasonably realistic if that's what you want, to a certain scale. It can be completely unrealistic if that's what you want, to a certain scale. It's your game, and calling it realistic is 100% OK if that's what you want to do :-).

Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

MA120 seems like the thing he'd do throwing multiple batarangs but I don't know if either of them cover "single batarang hits secondary target"

I was thinking that something along the lines of MA136's Extreme Dismemberment would be closer.

Like instead of the 1st limb providing cover DR for the 2nd limb, you subtract the damage you do to a 1st target (force loss) from the damage done to the 2nd target.

That damage can't be enough to destroy the limb (otherwise it wouldn't bounce off) but instead whatever force is lost by hard DR (like metal) subtracting from it.

Like if basic damage isn't resulting in actual destruction of matter (reducing HP) then that force (negated by the DR) has to go somewhere... like in flinging the attacking object in another direction.

IE the whole "bullets bouncing off of Superman and hitting bystanders" type situation, instead of the whole "they flatten out, losing all their force, dropping slugs at his feet with no risk to anyone"

Whether you get dangerous deflections or non-dangerous drops I think could depend on whether it's a head-on hit (all force goes into Superman's DR and reflects into flattening the bullet itself) or an angled one (bullet retains some of it's force as it angles off a curved part of Superman).

Excerpt in the Batman scenario, the gun with steel DR 3 or whatev is Superman, and the Batarang is the bullet.

Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

They don't fly if they spin backwards. So even a boomerang that is made out of superball and so counter-rotates after a collision (which would have to be at precisely the right angle, but that's not my objection) would tumble to the ground close to the collision.

Why did you bother to ask this question, given that you won't accept our answers and don't care what we reply? If you think we don't know and are making it up as we go, why ask? Why argue?

Farmer and I, and I expect DanHoward too, have made and thrown boomerangs. We aren't answering without knowledge, and we don't find groundless suppositions and speculations informative. You asked "is it realistic?". My answer is "no, it is unrealistic". Believe me or don't believe. Either way I'm done with arguing.

Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

I care about the replies, that's why I'm responding to them.

Basically I think the ricochet is possible but I'm asking how much harder the cinematic ricochet rules should be made in non-cinematic applications, since the Powers rules for ricochets didn't seem realistic enough.

It's a matter of increasing the penalty and establishing impossibility via soft-cap instead of hard-cap.

Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

The basic problem you'll have is that, if you start applying 'reasonable' penalties, there are much easier solutions that are within Batman's skill set, such as 'throw two batarangs at once'.

Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

True but maybe he only had one left or was conserving ammo. Basically we try to fulfill the 'Batman always has his reasons' premise to justify why he used a single rang vs 2 guns.

One thing I thought of was how you can use a Dual Weapon Attack with both sides of a long reach-2 weapon like a staff, you could probably hit 2 guns that way.

A thrown weapon isn't reach 2 so it doesn't work that way but maybe you could emulate it via techniqe adaptation?

Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

Because it looked cool on screen. There's nothing wrong with stupid batarang tricks in a cinematic game, just don't pretend they're realistic.

Re: should a "Ricochet" attack using boomerang be possible in realistic games? how ha
 

The difference between realistic and cinematic in GURPS terms isn't "you can't have high skills, they're cinematic" but rather the degree to which you apply requirement for doing things.

MA127 is a good example where cinematic allows more than 2 attacks via rapid strike. This doesn't mean you can't do multiple attacks w/o this rule though, since you can do that by taking Extra Attack advantage.

MA128 even moreso w/ Chambara's special rules like ignoring the halving for Jumping During Combat. Doesn't actually mean long jumps would be impossible w/o cinematic, just that they'd cost more.

MA125 also defines sort of a middle ground too:

most or all of the optional rules in this chapter that aren’t
strictly unrealistic but that are possibly optimistic

If we're moving from cinematic > optimistic > realistic rules things become progressively harder and costlier to achieve.