View Single Post
Old 07-21-2011, 07:44 AM   #24
Kraydak
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Glass Bottle vs. 9 mm Parabellum

There sort of is a Murphy, but it isn't quite the one you think. GURPS hp are based on the cube-root of mass, i.e. they are based on linear dimensions. Imagine punching a monolithic sheet of glass 2 odd inches thick. Ouch! 4 points of damage to get through that might be an overestimate, but then again, it might not. I fortunately haven't had to make it a policy not to test such things.

The problem comes with the wound multiplier. GURPS implicitly assumes that the cross-sectional radius of the impactor is much smaller (but not much, much smaller) than the cross-sectional radius of the target. In the case of bullets vs. small targets, the effective cross-sectional radius of the bullet/temporary wound cavity/whatever is often larger than the target, and the wound multiplier should rise way above the GURPS maximum of 2, even for non-living targets.
Kraydak is offline   Reply With Quote