Quote:
Originally Posted by draxdeveloper
My main concept is to give a reason to damage.
|
Damage is a bit... abstract. Consider a 9mm pistol, which does (IIRC) 2d+2 pi. That's anywhere between 4 and 14 damage, when in reality the penetrating power of one 9mm cartridge and another of the same make, being shot from the same weapon, are
very similar. Against an unarmored target, a low damage roll may represent hitting somewhere relatively non-vital (an example is hitting the "love handles" on the side of the waist) while a high damage roll represents a more serious hit, probably closer to the core (but not quite the Vitals) of the Torso, or a bone hit on a limb (crippling it). Against a target with armor roughly on the same scale as the weapon (~DR 8 or 9 here), these may well be reversed - a low damage roll means hitting somewhere well-armored, which may well be somewhere that would be a serious hit on an unarmored target, while a high damage roll could represent hitting somewhere that's lightly or even unarmored, which is probably a relatively non-vital area.
Then, there's what "penetrating" armor means for a crushing attack. Particularly against rigid DR (where Blunt Trauma rules don't come into play), this may well represent some degree of the damage to the armor, but you're unlikely to be literally breaking through it - rather, what you're doing is overwhelming the armor's ability to absorb and spread out (over area and time) the impact to avoid wounding, such that enough force gets through quickly enough to still injure the target. In other words, you're hitting hard enough that the
armor is bludgeoning the target.
For a cutting attack, realistically a "penetrating hit" is one that works like above, with the impact force being enough to make the armor bludgeon the target. This would actually convert damage from cutting to crushing - note
GURPS Low Tech has some optional rules for this. Part of those rules is that if you manage to deal more than twice the DR in damage (so more than 8 cut against DR 4), you've cut through and your damage is considered cutting again. This isn't all that realistic, but realistically modeling a cutting weapon going through armor would be a nightmare, particularly if you're dealing with a large cutting surface (like a sword) - you start with a relatively small part of the cutting surface impacting the armor, then if there's sufficient pressure to make it through it starts a tear/break, and then as more of the blade comes into contact with more of the armor, the remaining pressure gets spread out, but now (IIRC, it's been a while since I tried to make my abandoned Armor and Wounding Overhaul) instead of dealing with the armor material's yield strength you're dealing with the (lower) shear strength.
Trust me, trying to equate pressure with armor penetration is a rabbit hole you don't want to fall down. It's
probably OK for piercing attacks (for determining the penetration of firearms), but rapidly becomes a nightmare for other attack types.