Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

What all the advantages and disadvantages of SM different from 0? What is better, negative SM (small creatures) or positive SM (large creatures)?

My question is mainly in combat, but I'm curious in general situations too

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

I generally think that, unless you have weapon scaling rules to work with, lower SM is generally more useful.
Low SM:
- +1 to hit enemies bigger than you in melee, to a max of +4 (not RAW, but commonly accepted and probably intended)
- -1 to be hit by ranged attacks from anyone(RAW) or melee attacks from larger opponents(commonly accepted, probably intended)
- Reduced food requirements (stated in Space)
High SM:
- -1 to hit enemies smaller than you (again, RAW only states this for ranged attacks but it's quite common to accept it for all attacks)
- +1 to be hit by enemies
- Increased food requirements (Space again; not having that book, I don't know the details)
- Poisons still have full effect, but take it more slowly
- Increased reach for melee attacks
- More money needed for clothes and armor
- ST can be purchased more easily
- Bonus to Intimidation because, well, you're bigger and therefore more intimidating


With the weapon and armor scaling rules I know of, they almost even out (if the big characters focus on getting big weapons for doing lots of damage while largely ignoring super-expensive and heavy armor, which it is even compared to normal armor) while the small guys take advantage of the low weights for their equipment.

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

Um? Shouldn't this be -1 to hit enemies in melee? Your SM has no effect on your ranged attacks. And melee attacks are modified by relative SM, so the same change applies whether the target is larger or smaller than you.

Also, you've left out the effects on grappling and biting.

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

One thing that people seem to miss with this is the overall effectiveness of ST due to leverage. Imagine two characters both strong enough to lift a car. One is SM -6 and the other is SM 5. The SM 5 character can simply pick up the car like any object and lift it entirely above his head, chuck it, or move it like a crane. The SM-6 character can't really grip the car, and even though he can technically lift it, he's not going to be able to do much more than lift a corner of it a few inches off the ground by one wheel or flip it over.

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

I think positive SM is bad sometimes because this melee combat rule. I know is not RAW, but friends insist to use this rule and I see some monster with relative Skill Levels very bad because it..

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

It is absolutely RAW.
Additionally Powers has a box that adds an optional rule so that two ants can possibly hit each other.

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

Another benefit not easily enumerated is that many parts of a high-SM body may be beyond the reach of a low-SM melee fighter. If you find your human-sized self attacked by swordsmice, they probably can't even reach up to your leg arteries with their little swords.
Not RAW is a stretch, I think. Check Powers.

But yes, it is hard to hit relatively tiny things.

Some countermeasures:

Grapple first. Big grapplers get a bonus to hit. Once your tiny foe is grappled, you can pin them, destroy them outright with certain wrestling techniques, or just splat them with a direct attack while they can't retreat and have penalized defenses.

Not RAW: Flyswatter Effect. Effective target size should be the greater of actual target size, and size of your striking surface.

Also Not RAW, or maybe just unclear: In principle huge creatures can stomp or body-slam one or more entire hexes. Logically, this would make it harder to defend. How is a bit of a puzzler.

It's also helpful to fix the unreasonably low effective weapon weights for high-ST unarmed attacks. That's been discussed in other threads.

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

What page is this rule?

I think is not RAW because GURPS Power pag 76 have a optional rule about SM in melee

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

B402.

But also please note Kromm's summation of the positives of positive SM.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-3.html#SS3.4.2.23

Also, I'll just say this, in the arena games I've played in, the positive SM characters were often quite powerfully dangerous.

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

Firstly the optional rule is to use relative SMs. Using absolute SMs isn't "optional" on B19. Secondly is the rule in Powers not a Rule? Is it not Written? It's certainly not a House Rule.

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

Here's my list (+ = Pro, – = Con, / = Situational):

Higher SM
+ Buy ST, HP, Arm ST, Lifting ST, Striking ST at reduced cost (SM +1 or more, p. B15, 16, 40, 66, 89)
+ Immune to Constriction Attack (relative SM +1 or more, p. B43)
+ Easier to intimidate, harder to be intimidated (p. B202)
+ Easier to pin, harder to be pinned (p. B370)
+ Can squeeze torso (relative SM +1 or more, p. B371)
+ Increased reach (SM +1 or more, p. B402)
+ Easier to hit when you grapple (p. B402)
+ Can trample/overrun (relative SM +2 or more, p. B404, 432)
+ Longer poison delay (p. B438)
+ Eat less frequently (p. BIO63)
+ Larger weapons do more damage (p. DF1:27)
+ "Realistic" larger creatures eat proportionately less amounts of food† (p. S149)
– Easier to be hit (p. B19)
– Easier to be noticed (p. B19) by Vision (p. B358) or Vibration Sense (p. B96)
– Vulnerable to Parasitic Possession (relative SM +1 or more, p. B76)
– Harder to be camouflaged (SM +1 or more, p. B183)
– More damage from extreme pressure (SM +2 or more, p. B435)
– Eat more food† (pp. BIO62-63)
– Require more space and life support (p. BIO63)
– Larger equipment costs more and weighs more (p. BIO63, p. DF1:28, p. HT10, p. P50, p. UT16)
/ Increases the size of a Jumper Tunnel (p. B64) or Permeation Tunnel (p. B75)
/ Costlier to be affected with Regular spells (SM +1 or more, p. B239)
/ More likely to block line of sight (p. B389)
/ Attack counts as Large-Area Injury* (relative SM +7 or more, p. B400)

In addition, higher SM can be justification for some traits, but you'd have to actually pay for the traits themselves:

+ "Realistic" larger creatures have higher ST (p. BIO64)
+ "Realistic" larger creatures have longer lifespans (p. S159)
+ "Realistic" larger creatures might more easily see low wavelengths (p. S162)
– "Realistic" larger creatures might have a penalty to their sense of touch (p. S162)
/ "Realistic" larger creatures have higher weight (FEATURE, p. BIO64)

Lower SM
+ Harder to be hit (p. B19)
+ Harder to be noticed (p. B19) by Vision (p. B358) or Vibration Sense (p. B96)
+ Immune to Parasitic Possession (relative SM +0 or less, p. B76)
+ Undetectable by Radar (SM -1 or less, p. B81)
+ Simpler to grapple a prone, kneeling, or sitting opponent (relative SM -2 or less, p. B370)
+ Eat less food† (pp. BIO62-63)
+ Require less space and life support (p. BIO62)
+ Smaller equipment costs less and weighs less (p. DF3:8, p. HT10, p. UT16)
+ Attacks require Vision roll to notice (OPTIONAL, relative SM -10 or less, p. P76)
+ Easier to target armor chinks (OPTIONAL, p. P76)
+ Easier to get inside armor/body (OPTIONAL, relative SM -13/19 or less, p. P76)
– Vulnerable to Constriction Attack (relative SM +0 or less, p. B43)
– Harder to intimidate, easier to be intimidated (p. B202)
– Harder to pin, easier to be pinned (p. B370)
– Shorter poison delay (p. B438)
– Eat more frequently (p. BIO63)
– Smaller armor provides less DR, smaller weapons do less damage (p. DF3:8)
– Impossible to target out-of-reach hit locations (OPTIONAL, p. P76)
– "Realistic" smaller creatures eat proportionately greater amounts of food† (p. S149)
/ Reduces the size of a Jumper Tunnel (p. B64) or Permeation Tunnel (p. B75)
/ Less likely to block line of sight (p. B389)

In addition, lower SM can be justification for some traits, but you'd have to actually pay for the traits themselves:

+ "Realistic" smaller creatures can carry heavier proportional loads (p. F51)
+ "Realistic" smaller creatures might have a bonus to their sense of touch (p. S162)
– "Realistic" smaller creatures have lower ST (p. BIO63)
– "Realistic" smaller creatures have lower IQ (p. BIO63)
– "Realistic" smaller creatures have shorter lifespans (p. S159)
/ "Realistic" smaller creatures have lower weight (FEATURE, p. BIO63)

* So a human punching a mouse would be inflicting Large-Area Injury (STBY, mouse). I think all that means is that you average the mouse's DR (which is likely zero anyway).
† The notes about food consumption might be confusing. Larger creatures eat more food, but the amount of food is smaller proportionate to their weight. Smaller creatures eat less food, but the amount of food is larger proportionate to their weight. However, if you follow the rules from Bio-Tech (pp. 63-64), which provides detailed numbers, you'll find that the weight of food consumed is roughly proportionate to BL at most sizes.

Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of SM
 

There's still the logical effects of size reach and leverage. FREX a 3 in. mouse that can lift a car vs. the 50 foot giant that can do the same.

You should probably reference the rules in LTC2 here instead of or in addition to DF3.