Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

By giving the monsters and AFVs appropriate stats?

Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

I think you mean "invitation to be disarmed". Unless it's a John Wick film, guns are for taking out extras.

Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

Could you elucidate what you think should happen instead when a character takes four assault rifle bullets to the head?

Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

Unless I misrember, if an action is GURPS-impossible, they are not allowed a roll.

Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

Or a whole lot of films from before hand-to-hand choreography became obligatory. Which I want to attribute to The Matrix, though that could be wrong.

Also, I don't understand what's wrong with taking out extras.

Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

If you're looking for alternatives to Luck ("dice roll fudging") that would have saved the life of your test character, I'll call out four:

1.) Having 20ish HP (so it takes 120 points of damage to kill you) and good HT or Hard To Kill means that even a rifle shot to the head probably won't kill you. Say you've got a middle-of-the-road DR 5 helmet. That plus skull DR 2 will reduce a typical 7d headshot (24 damage) to only 68 injury (17 x 4). You'll be at -48 HP and will have to pass two death checks, but you probably won't die. 20 HP means you're beefier than Arnold Schwarzenegger but for a cyberpunk game it's pretty reasonable, and of course a tanky cyberdude or vampire can have much more than a basic DR 5 helmet.

2.) Unkillable 2 seems thematic for vampires, which means no amount of damage will kill you.

3.) If you allow magic, spells like Deflect Missiles can make you temporarily immune to missiles, or Invisibility can make you approximately impossible to hit with a headshot. (See below.)

4.) Finally, there's tactics. If Farmer Joe is shooting at you with Guns-11, and he's shooting at the head, then he needs a 4 or better to hit. If he takes even a -2 penalty, his target number will drop so low that even a 3 doesn't hit, which means that even if he rolls a 3 it's not a crit, it's a failure. So if Farmer Joe is at least 5 yards away from the character, that's a -2 penalty so the PC doesn't die. Or if it's twilight (-2 or -3 to vision and attacks) or moonlight (-4 to -6) or moonless night (-7), the PC doesn't die. Or if the PC is a very tiny creature like a pixie (SM -6, six inches to a foot tall IIRC), attackers always have -6 to hit and the PC doesn't die. If you're invisible due to powers, technology, or magic, that's -6 to hit and the PC doesn't die.

If Farmer Joe's skill is higher than Guns-11 you may need to stack more multipliers, but the point here is that you really did get very unlucky with rolling a 3 and might also have made a rules mistake in e.g. not applying ranged penalties and darkness penalties. (Or maybe this practice fight took place in broad daylight and the shooter aimed long enough to get an Accuracy bonus big enough to cancel out any ranged penalties--I wasn't there, so you tell me.) Darkness is pretty thematic for vampires anyway and if your players fight like Batman, in the dark most of the time and often using surprise, that doesn't seem like a bad thing unless you really do insist on zero PC deaths instead of 0.00001%.

People recommend Luck not because it's mandatory (it's not) but because it's cheap and pretty good and good for almost any character concept. But the game doesn't break if the GM bans Luck.

For the record, I don't think I'm doing this, and if you want to decrease the damage of guns that seems okay to me although you should make sure your players don't mind if they need to shoot regular mooks a lot of times before they fall down. I'm just trying to make sure you are aware of the various magic and/or vampire options your players have for staying alive and unwounded even if they are getting shot at with rifles doing 7d of damage or more, which you'll probably have somewhere in the game even if you do reduce the damage of most guns. Like, you're still going to have sniper rifles and anti-tank missiles and tanks somewhere, right?

P.S. I agree that it's weird when people refuse to use the words "Dungeons and Dragons", although who knows? They might be talking about Classic Traveller or Bunnies and Burrows instead. :-P

Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

The Matrix cemented the use of wire-fu for western cinema fight choreography, but there's a reason the scene in Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark where he shoots the sword-wielding enemy (after punching and whipping his way through a half dozen other foes) was so memorable: it's because it defied the conventions (and was originally planned as a much longer sword vs whip fight).
Nothing, but guns don't need high damage for that.

Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

I really feel sorry for some of you that have never played in a game where you were allowed to gonzo in some way.

I really feel sorry for some of you that can't just roll 84 dice. Or my wallet that I've purchased more than 84 d6s...


Highest consistent non-magic based damage I've seen in a fantasy game was the Ogre Wrestler who had 3d+3 punches, 5d+9 mace swings, and did 12d+33 vs a door once (Power Blow does amazing things). I'm not even going to discuss highest damage in a non-fantasy game, as we're talking munitions and supers, and that gets ugly fast.




It isn't broken, it's just not doing what you want.

You've got a fix. Why are you still arguing with people trying to convince you not use your fix?

But that's what's going to happen when you nerf all the weapons.

I mean unless all the PCs ever face are firearms in the campaign where swords and axes are king. Which if that's what you want, the PCs going for high ST and carry ancient weapons... well then, go for it!

Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

On the contrary, the book says you cannot succeed unless your skill is at least 3.

Basic Set, Campaigns pg 345: You may not attempt a success roll if your effective skill is less than 3, unless you are attempting a defense roll (p. 374).

Attack rolls are a form of success roll, so this applies. It's too bad it's not re-stated on page 381 though.

Therefore these mooks, who had skill 10 and a total of -10 to hit, could not have hit the PC's head even on a 3.

Re: Help a noobie understand critical hits
 

That is highly unlikely. That being said, when I design superheroes I design them with Luck, HT 15+, hard to kill or unkillable.